We need a community manager.

[Vigilia.Procuratio]

 

we need a person ... who will give up their gaming time

This is where we have a problem. On the one hand, the best moderator or administrator is one which puts chores before leisure. At the same time, if they spend little to no time playing the game then they're going to have a hard time keeping up-to-date with what actually happens in it. They may well have an excellent understanding of Freelancer in general, but the mod itself and in-game relations change all the while.

Something we might need is more moderators. It could be worthwhile assigning individuals to specific forum categories, such as the role-play sections as a whole, the general mod forums, developer forums (which is already covered by the devs) and the non-mod related forums (to include Flood). Some sections might require more attention so multiple moderators may be needed in those places. Administrators would then need only concern themselves with the categories directly relating to administration. In essence, admin should not have to worry about routine moderation of the forums, but they tend to do that because there simply aren't enough moderators active at a given time.

I'm unsure as to why a bridge between the community and development team would be necessary. Surely the ability is already there for people to pass on their thoughts? If there is a need to create a middle-man in this respect, I don't see why one particular dev can't do that. Maybe there already is somebody suitable, otherwise the dev team could look into it.

The way I see this is that somebody with the common qualities which have been suggested, would be exactly what a moderator will possess. If we're talking about somebody holding all of the said qualities then surely they're good enough to be an administrator. There's no point in giving them basic duties if they're capable of providing so much more to the community. Maybe we need more admin around, not only on the forums but also in-game?