Flickr have finally decided to do something about the limited GodKing or Anarchy choice of structures for administering larger groups, so let’s see if they get it right…
FlickrBlog
Introducing the Moderator
We’re sliding a new level of account membership between admins and members — the moderator. A moderator is a middle-ground role designed to help administrators run the group, but doesn’t have full administrative power. A moderator can use the new photo moderation queue, remove or ban members, and moderate group discussions with edit/delete power.
This means that single admins will be more willing to coopt additional moderators without having to entrust them with equal powers. So less danger of rogue admins pressing the nuke button and destroying groups by deleting everything or making them irreversibly private. But more chance of teams of moderators being set up which then start to act as the group within the group.
Nothing in it for people who want to create peer-to-peer type groups without any admins at all. Unless its possible to create a new group and then immediately demote yourself? Nope, doesn’t work.
Andy Roberts is a writer who initiated DARnet. Contact me on aroberts@gmail.com or @aroberts on twitter
I’ve always thought it would be interesting if each ‘tag’ had an ad-hoc group, with discussions, around it. There is, after all, a big overlap between the ‘group photo pool’ functionality (which seems to be the sole reason many groups exist, having no other discussions), and the photo pools for each tag.