Where is the Garden thread for Feb 2023?

[keekers]

Right...I guess I don't understand what this means exactly:

"The Garden Club requires active moderation, and sadly due to the recent changes in the forums this is no longer possible. There's also no longer anybody to help members with seedlings, spades, etc." 

What changes make it impossible? Do we need more help to mod? 

[JoeRockhead]

The forums are managed by a company named Khoros. Up until about a month ago, the moderators of this forum used to be active members of this community just like you and I, which allowed them to monitor, (and make changes) among other things, threads like the Garden Club being they were all here very regularly, and actively participating in the community.

In late January there was a change. The dedicated volunteers who were moderators were sadly demoted (for the lack of a better word), and given new title, Credit Mentor. One (that I know of), you could say retired and is now a Moderator Emeritus. 

Currently, the community is moderated by employees of Khoros, who simply aren't here participating in the community other than in an administrative roll, therefore there essentially are no regularly participating moderators in the threads anymore.

I think the whole thing is a shame, really.

[disdreamin]

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@JoeRockhead wrote:

<snip>

In late January there was a change. The dedicated volunteers who were moderators were sadly demoted (for the lack of a better word), and given new title, Credit Mentor. One (that I know of), you could say retired and is now a Moderator Emeritus. 

Currently, the community is moderated by employees of Khoros, who simply aren't here participating in the community other than in an administrative roll, therefore there essentially are no regularly participating moderators in the threads anymore.

I think the whole thing is a shame, really.

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Oof, wonder how this will impact the forums in general. My visits to the forums are what make me bother paying for monitoring. I just downgraded a few days ago after the changes and will watch how things go from here.

[UncleB]

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@JoeRockhead wrote:

The forums are managed by a company named Khoros. Up until about a month ago, the moderators of this forum used to be active members of this community just like you and I, which allowed them to monitor, (and make changes) among other things, threads like the Garden Club being they were all here very regularly, and actively participating in the community.

In late January there was a change. The dedicated volunteers who were moderators were sadly demoted (for the lack of a better word), and given new title, Credit Mentor. One (that I know of), you could say retired and is now a Moderator Emeritus. 

Currently, the community is moderated by employees of Khoros, who simply aren't here participating in the community other than in an administrative roll, therefore there essentially are no regularly participating moderators in the threads anymore.

I think the whole thing is a shame, really.

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This.  ^^^

The new folks doing the mod work are paid employees of Khoros... they are the same team that moderates other Khoros communities such as Paypal, Verizon, Ebay, etc.  All of the 'big' Khoros communities seem to have switched over to paid moderation.

The old mods (such as myself) were reassigned to a new role of "Credit Mentor."  We no longer have moderator permissions, with the exception that we can still move threads when we come across one in the wrong place.  Any reports sent using "Report Inappropriate Content" are handled by the new team - the old mods no longer see these, and we can no longer help with seedlings, spades, etc.  The "Moderator Emeritus" role is honorary for those who have formally stepped down from the old mod role/current "Mentor" role.

The new mod team doesn't actively participate in the community, they're strictly reactive.  There is also a new FICO admin, but those of us from the old team have had no contact.  Any further changes here will be up to that individual.

[UncleB]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@GZG wrote:

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@DogwoodLynx wrote:

I can't find it. Can someone send me a link so I can save it? 

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Maybe if enough of us plant 3b premier subscriptions, we can revive the garden again /s 

There is this though: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/SmorgasBoard/SmorgasBoard-Coffee-and/td-p/6640807 

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@UncleB   Is this related to some Moderators being renamed "Credit Mentor" and one Moderator being renamed a "Moderator Emeritus"?

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All of the old mods were reassigned to "Credit Mentor" unless they chose to step down, which in that case they were changed to "Moderator Emeritus."  

There are currently four "Credit Mentors."

[keekers]

Wow; appreciate the added info...I agree, that pretty much sucks; a move like that kills the personalization that give forums like this a special sort of "life" in my opinion.  Forgive me if I'm missing something but what prevents a new Garden Club thread from being created each month without the ability to moderate?  For example, if @UncleB (or anyone else for that matter) wanted to start a thread just like he did each month then what is keeping that from happening?

[UncleB]

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@keekers wrote:

Wow; appreciate the added info...I agree, that pretty much sucks; a move like that kills the personalization that give forums like this a special sort of "life" in my opinion.  Forgive me if I'm missing something but what prevents a new Garden Club thread from being created each month without the ability to moderate?  For example, if @UncleB (or anyone else for that matter) wanted to start a thread just like he did each month then what is keeping that from happening?

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Well, technically nothing. 

The thing is, the Garden Club was actually a 'labor of love' from a moderation standpoint.  Don't get me wrong - I really enjoyed it (and so did many of the other mods) but it was work.  Unfortunately, most of that "work" requires system permissions we no longer have.  While certainly not a show-stopper, even the formatting I used on the first post each month requires advanced permissions (as silly as that sounds).

I'm no longer moderating so I certainly can't say what can or can't be done.  That said, without active moderation and having folks around to help new people I'm afraid any 'new' Garden thread would quickly become a mess, and the new mods are only here to enforce the myFICO TOS, not support niche threads with separate/different rules.  Put another way, there wouldn't be anybody around to handle problems or provide technical help to newbies.  Before any minor issues were quickly dealt with, usually with minimal fuss or attention, but again that's no longer possible.

It is up to the new team running the forums on how or if they want to move forward with a future Garden Club; again, those of us from the old team have had no contact with any of them. 

[keekers]

I completely understand…unfortunate collateral damage. Darn shame.

[CYBERSAM]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@keekers wrote:

Wow; appreciate the added info...I agree, that pretty much sucks; a move like that kills the personalization that give forums like this a special sort of "life" in my opinion.  Forgive me if I'm missing something but what prevents a new Garden Club thread from being created each month without the ability to moderate?  For example, if @UncleB (or anyone else for that matter) wanted to start a thread just like he did each month then what is keeping that from happening?

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Well, technically nothing. 

The thing is, the Garden Club was actually a 'labor of love' from a moderation standpoint.  Don't get me wrong - I really enjoyed it (and so did many of the other mods) but it was work.  Unfortunately, most of that "work" requires system permissions we no longer have.  While certainly not a show-stopper, even the formatting I used on the first post each month requires advanced permissions (as silly as that sounds).

I'm no longer moderating so I certainly can't say what can or can't be done.  That said, without active moderation and having folks around to help new people I'm afraid any 'new' Garden thread would quickly become a mess, and the new mods are only here to enforce the myFICO TOS, not support niche threads with separate/different rules.  Put another way, there wouldn't be anybody around to handle problems or provide technical help to newbies.  Before any minor issues were quickly dealt with, usually with minimal fuss or attention, but again that's no longer possible.

It is up to the new team running the forums on how or if they want to move forward with a future Garden Club; again, those of us from the old team have had no contact with any of them. 

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WOW! I was not aware of all these changes behind the scenes!

Although I was not a frequent contributor to the Garden Club thread, I did enjoy reading it.

@UncleBI like to thank you for maintaining the Garden Club for as long as you did. Beside being a social thread, it put in prospective as how to use, apply, acquire and maintain credit in visual sense. It did provide a guide for many members as how to improve ones credit.

Thank you for all the volunteer help that you did. 🙏❤️

[DogwoodLynx]

Thank you to all of those that use to moderate our forum. I had no idea how much work was involved. 

Ive learned so much here. I will keep posting here and checking in. I have really enjoyed the support on here.