# Nationality of moderators in the English/Spanish forums



## bzu

Hi,

I was just wondering why there are no British (or other non-American native English) moderators in the Spanish-English forums?

Looking at the list, there are 16 moderators in total, with 4 from the USA, 3 from Mexico, 3 from Spain, 2 from Argentina, 1 from Peru, 1 from El Salvador, 1 from Puerto Rico and 1 from France.

That means only a quarter of the moderators are native English speakers (in a forum where the majority of the threads are in English) and none of these are from outside the USA.

I guess it's just a coincidence, but I think it could be something perhaps to take into consideration when new moderators are chosen for those forums.

Cheers.

PS. And just in case anyone gets the wrong idea: no, I have absolutely no interest in becoming a moderator, not that I would be considered anyway .


----------



## ewie

Hi Bzu.  I was a moderator in Spanish-English until a couple of weeks ago.  But I resigned.

(Yes, I know this isn't much help)


----------



## bzu

Ewie, I didn't know that, thanks for telling me .

(...but did you really "resign" or was this all part the big "no Brit moderators" WR evil racist conspiracy? In fact, don't tell me, I prefer to jump to my own irrational conclusions ).


----------



## Vanda

Bzu, differently from you  I think it is a great thing that the Spanish forums have so many multicultural mods, don't you think so?  And they are pretty skilled in English.  Just my 2 cents.


----------



## bzu

Vanda... why is that "differently from me"? Having multi-cultural mods is a great thing, of course, especially when it comes to the languages with hundreds of millions of speakers from different parts of the world, as with Spanish and English.

I don't doubt the English skills of any of the mods, but do you think there aren't enough English speakers with good enough Spanish skills to become moderators in those forums?

Like I said, it could be for no reason in particular, but of the 16 mods, 12 are from the Americas, and of the 4 Europeans (including 1 from France) none are from the British Isles, where about 60-70 million native English speakers live, a fair few of whom (it seems to me) participate in the WR Spa/Eng forums.

That's all I was saying .


----------



## Vanda

I see.  I think it is simply a coincidence. As the Spanish forum grows and grows sooner it might be that they'll have even numbers of mods from other languages than Spanish, who knows?


----------



## DearPrudence

I must agree with you: I think it's a shame there aren't any British Sp-En mods  while there are quite a number of forer@s from the British Isles on those forums.
But then, the problem is: do they qualify for moderation?

http://forum.wordreference.com/faq.php?faq=vb_faq#faq_faq_vb_moderator_explain
_How are moderators chosen?_
When there are openings on the administrative team, current moderators suggest and discuss candidates. The WR administrator makes the final decision, considering these requirements:
- Very active in the forums, available and willing;
- Highly capable in the languages of the forums they are to moderate;  (a vast majority meet this requirement, no problem)
- Easy to work with and very helpful, especially with beginners; _hmm_
- Collaborative with both moderator staff and fellow members; _hmm_
- Serious, trustworthy and obviously dedicated to the WordReference Mission. _hmm_
- Willing to get DearPrudence prezzies What do you mean it's not in the FAQ??!!

 

(hmm, but maybe we should have some sort of positive discrimination or something...)


----------



## bzu

Thanks for the reply, DearPrudence .

I noticed that in the other forums there are British/Irish foreros who seem to  have met the requirements you mentioned, but perhaps those of us who lurk about in the Sp-En forums are just a less cooperative, less trustworthy and generally slightly unsavoury bunch of ne'er-do-wells. I dunno... 

Regarding "Dear Prudence prezzies", I do actually have an "It's beautiful and so are you" branded deluxe chocolate piano to donate to any prospective Brit Sp-En forum moderator, in order that he or she can comply with that final requirement, but for the time being it seems I'll have to keep it here.


----------



## swift

We had an Irish moderator too, but he finally resigned as well... Fortunately, there is a good number of fellow foreros from the UK who are extremely cooperative and very active in the Sp-En forums.


----------



## k-in-sc

I don't see what difference it makes where they are from or what their native language is. They all know both well enough.


----------



## fenixpollo

What does it matter where the moderators are from? 





bzu said:


> (in a forum where the majority of the threads are in English)


 I'm not sure what you're basing this on. My feeling is that most of the questions are posted by native Spanish-speakers. However, that's just my opinion.


----------



## swift

Yes, bzu, what's your point?


----------



## k-in-sc

I agree that there seem to be a lot more questions about English terms than Spanish ones. Statistics on that and the language of the original post would be interesting.


----------



## bzu

swift said:


> Yes, bzu, what's your point?


My  point is the one I made in my previous posts in this thread . Which  is that, just as an observation, it seems unusual to me that there are  so many active members in the Spa/Eng forums from the UK and Ireland,  yet of the 16 moderators none of them are from this part of the world  (although I have since discovered that Ewie resigned, as did an Irish  one). I didn't see that it mattered, although a previous poster (a  moderator) has said it's a "great thing" (and I agree) that there are  multicultural mods, so it seems to matter to some at least.


----------



## swift

I think we all agree with you, bzu, cultural diversity is an important criterion for choosing new moderators (cf. point 6 in this post by Mike Kellogg) . However, the candidates are not always available, either because they don't have the time or the interest.


----------



## wildan1

As moderators we need to have a strong proficiency in both languages in a bilingual forum, but the role requires much more than that. And really, we rely on the knowledge and in-depth expertise of our members to provide the content. As mods we are much more focused on the good functioning of the place than what we might offer in the way of content. When we do the latter, that is in the role of a contributing member--just as any other member.


----------

