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We're former Section Leaders: ask us (almost*) anything

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Did you ever/often snoop through people's community records out of nosiness without any intent on giving them a card?

No. We can't actually see many of the infractions given - only the Community Staff can see the complete record.
The only time I ever looked into someone's record is (or rather, asked for a check on their record) is if they were interested in volunteering.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 21

Notnek

Original post by Elizabeth II

* please respect the Community Guidelines™ pls thx

Reply 22

choleCcarknif3r

Original post by Foxehh

Did you ever/often snoop through people's community records out of nosiness without any intent on giving them a card?

hahaha nah. Genuinely not as interesting as you think. The only kinda juicy ones are the trolls which are boring anyway because as soon as they pipe up you know exactly what to expect without even having to look

Reply 23

CaptainDuckie

Study Forum Helper

Original post by Blue_Cow

My tenure was rather short as an SL (just over a year).

The best part of the role is the other volunteers. They give up their time on a daily basis to give advice to people they have never met before.

Hm... I don’t think I’ve seen that many volunteers helping in the sections recently ngl. Maybe I’m just blind

Reply 24

Charles III

Original post by CaptainDuckie

Nice, how has your work shaped TSR to what it is today?

My TSR volunteering journey started as a Community Assistant in 2015/6 (now called Forum Helper), I was one of the first New™ CAs and my Section Leader @Slowbro93 approached the idea as a sort-of experiment to see how the role worked with its limited permission set as TSR volunteering shifted more from a moderation focus to a content creation focus. Long story short, it worked well!

Once I was a member of the Volunteer Team and CAs/FHs became more fashionable as an introduction to the volunteering side of TSR/a stepping stone to becoming a purple, the worry I had was there wasn't a community for them to hang around and chat in and so I made it my mission to convert what they had into an area that became useful to them. @chelseadagg3r and I worked really closely together to develop it and it's now the primary hub of activity for TSR's volunteers! Very proud to have helped to build that with her :biggrin:

(I have to be quite vague because it's internal-y stuff :smile:

)

Reply 25

choleCcarknif3r

Original post by CaptainDuckie

Hm... I don’t think I’ve seen that many volunteers helping in the sections recently ngl. Maybe I’m just blind

All us best ones left ✨

Reply 26

Charles III

Original post by Notnek

Reply 27

Charles III

Original post by chelseadagg3r

All us best ones left ✨

Careful with "best", @usycool1 was a Section Leader once too.

Reply 28

choleCcarknif3r

Original post by Elizabeth II

Careful with "best", @usycool1 was a Section Leader once too.

I think you mixed up "best" with "most questionable"

For legal reasons™ this is a joke

Reply 29

MG3919

I just want to know what the atmosphere is at Coventry University. I've been told that people like to party a lot but that's not my flavour so idk what to think

Reply 30

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

How much does being a VSL impact your posting around the site,
It seems like quite a commitment that it must be harder to find time to just use the forums like “normal” users.

was it hard to hang up your coat?

Reply 31

Charles III

Original post by MG3919

I just want to know what the atmosphere is at Coventry University. I've been told that people like to party a lot but that's not my flavour so idk what to think

I think I would get into trouble if I gave any of my genuine opinions on Coventry. You may find your answers by searching the coventry university forum. :smile:

Reply 32

choleCcarknif3r

Original post by MG3919

I just want to know what the atmosphere is at Coventry University. I've been told that people like to party a lot but that's not my flavour so idk what to think

Every uni is a party uni if you look for it. You just have to find your people

Reply 33

MG3919

Original post by chelseadagg3r

Every uni is a party uni if you look for it. You just have to find your people

Appreciate that.

Reply 34

Notnek

Original post by Elizabeth II

(I have to be quite vague because it's internal-y stuff :smile:

)

Is it just respect for the role/staff that stops you from discussing stuff now you've left or did you have to sign something :ninja:

Reply 35

choleCcarknif3r

Original post by mnot

Yeah for sure, it definitely generally means a lot less time in the user-facing parts of the site. Generally you'll end up volunteering in and then leading a section you had a lot of experience with, so it gets to the point as well where you don't always want to be hanging around the forums because there's always a post to remove or some other action to be taken and trying to browse just ends up creating more work for yourself

It was a difficult decision because I'd been volunteering on tsr since 2016 so it was a huge part of my life, and even now some of my closest friends are volunteers/ex volunteers. It just wasn't right for me anymore though and I was struggling to enjoy it enough to spend my precious free time on it since I started full time work

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 36

Charles III

Original post by mnot

This is a really good question! I think something that SLs can find quite frustrating is how 'inactive' we can appear to "normal" members (or even our teams!). So much of the role and the planning goes on behind closed doors and so it can be really difficult to balance that with setting an example. I wasn't very good at it myself, though my co-SL (and now sole SL of Chat), @CheeseIsVeg does it flawlessly if you're looking for a good role model :tongue:

Yeah, it was really hard. It was a decision I made over many months. I was genuinely very pressed for time but also felt rather despondent in the role for reasons it's probably unwise to go into 👀 - it was definitely the right thing to do!

Reply 37

MG3919

Original post by Elizabeth II

I think I would get into trouble if I gave any of my genuine opinions on Coventry. You may find your answers by searching the coventry university forum. :smile:

Haaaaa it get crazy sometimes yeah I get you. Not for me at all.