How do I become a Mod/mentor?

Ok. So I have found myself 'addicted' to TCS! In return I would love to give back to TCS by maybe becoming either a mentor, advisor, mod, super mod, or admin. I have already spoke with both Anne and also Heidi(valanhb) about this and here is what Anne told me:

"The mentors are the ones in charge of showing people the ropes and explaining things to them. Advisors are more oriented towards dispensing cat related advice. Moderators/super mods/admins are the group of people woh manages things on the whole, monitoring threads and taking care of things in general."

Do I have to be a member for a certain amount of time though, before I am qualified? And if you are a mentor or advisor do people contact you with questions or do you just look for their questions in their threads and then answer them?

So, basically I just wanted to let all of you guys know that if you can use me, just let me know I would love to help out here on TCS!

I am not sure about exactly how they choose team members, some have been members a lot longer than others, some spend a lot more time on here than others, but they are all chosen for what they have given to TCS.

As far as whether people contact you or you look for where to help, it works both ways. I start the siggy / graphics challenges so the designers can learn new stuff and improve their work and as such enhance the look of TCS with all our siggies.
If someone posts asking how they can improve or what people think, I will usually PM them to give them some pointers but at the same time I get quite a few PMs from people asking 'how did you do that' or 'where am I going wrong' etc

As I know from previous experience (not TCS related), being a moderator of a busy forum is extremely trying, and not something you would ever want to put your hand up for. Being asked to do it is a bit of a double-edged sword because although you may feel flattered at being asked to take on the responsibility, in my experience, those who are the best potential moderators are most likely to turn down the 'offer' because they are the ones who truly realise what is involved.

And you don't need to be a 'mentor' to help people here on TCS. Just get stuck in and offer informed advice and pass on things you have learned from your own experiences. We're all here to educate ourselves and to help others, and of course to have a little bit of fun in the Lounge too!

Thanks for your interest, but we have a very solid team right now. There are no plans to add anyone to the team.

Originally Posted by Hydroaxe

Thanks for your interest,

but we have a very solid team right now. There are no plans to add anyone to the team.

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Oh, Ok. That's fine... thanks!

Originally Posted by mybabyphx

Oh, Ok. That's fine... thanks!

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Just keep posting! Who knows what the future will bring. As far as your addiction goes, I don't know what I am going to do the next 17 days without The Cat Site. A lot of us are truly addicted and I can forsee that you are going to be a very valuable asset to our group.

Originally Posted by Persi & Alley

Just keep posting! Who knows what the future will bring.

As far as your addiction goes, I don't know what I am going to do the next 17 days without The Cat Site. A lot of us are truly addicted and I can forsee that you are going to be a very valuable asset to our group.

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Awwww! Thanks! Actually, the only time I post on TCS is when I'm at work... but when I get home from work I find myself talking about TCS so much, and now I'm looking at buying a computer for at home- so I can spend even more time on here! And 17 days is a looooong time, I can barely go over the weekend when I'm not working! LOL.

Just keep me in mind, in case something comes up

I can say from experience that being a mod/admn member can be VERY rewarding but it's also ALOT of work, stress and frustration. I'm a mod on another board and recently it's been discovered that the mod team is essentially on it's own as our owner has gone MIA. This became very problamatic when our servers went down for a week (due to non-payment) and none of us had any means of contacting the owner. It's been resolved and won't happen again but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. At the same time it was a nice break for me as we'd been getting spammed pretty heavily prior to the "crash".

Originally Posted by twstychik

I can say from experience that being a mod/admn member can be VERY rewarding but it's also ALOT of work, stress and frustration. I'm a mod on another board and recently it's been discovered that the mod team is essentially on it's own as our owner has gone MIA. This became very problamatic when our servers went down for a week (due to non-payment) and none of us had any means of contacting the owner. It's been resolved and won't happen again but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. At the same time it was a nice break for me as we'd been getting spammed pretty heavily prior to the "crash".

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Wow, how did you manage to get the board up and running again? I've never heard of a board owner going MIA before

Well, he'd been talking about selling the site and somehow these new people were contacted (she also wrote articles for the site). They talked to the web hosting company and got us back up again. We don't know if the site's been sold and the original owner is still MIA. It's a very weird situation but it's a great board over all.