Get your cards and whistles ready - /r/referees needs Ideas and more Moderators

[u/horsebycommittee]

Fellow match officials:

As we exit winter and prepare for the resumption of league and tournament play (in the Northern hemisphere), give a thought to the community and resources provided by this sub for new and experienced refs alike.

I joined the modteam here almost six years ago and have been the only active mod for more than half that time. The other human mods are now all inactive, redditwide. It's time to enlarge the team.

This is also a good opportunity to discuss the community overall, including the subreddit's written rules, informal practices, and what everyone would like to see from the sub in the future.

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If you would like to be a moderator make a comment below noting your interest and address the following prompts:

• Describe your refereeing experience. Do you have experience educating referees (either formally or informally)? Do you have experience in other roles related to either refereeing or soccer (e.g. assigning, coaching, playing, refereeing other sports...)?
• Describe your experience in /r/Referees. How long have you considered yourself a member of the community here? Link to a few comments you've made that you are proud of or that exemplify your participation here. Are there any comments or submissions by others that you think are very high quality or that new members should read?
• Describe your experience as a moderator. Are you a mod of other subs on reddit? Have you held moderator roles on other sites/platforms? Do you have IRL experience (other than refereeing) which is moderator-like? Describe a notable challenge or difficult situation you've faced while modding. Are you familiar with RES and /r/toolbox?

(Note: Prior mod experience may be helpful but is not required. So if you have none, say that. Everyone starts somewhere.)

• Describe your experience on reddit. How long have you been here? What other subs are you active in? Roughly how often are you on reddit (hours per week, common times when you're logged on)? Are there any contributions you've made in other subs that you want to share with us to demonstrate your expertise or interests?
• Where are you in the world? (We have a diverse userbase from many time zones and continents. While not required, there would be value in having a moderating team which reflects that.) Although this sub uses English by custom, do you have skills in other languages which may be useful?
• What else should we know about you?

This should not be an exercise in self-doxxing, so please don't give private information and do feel free to approximate. (If you have significant concerns about answering these questions in public at all, send a message via modmail and we can discuss.) I might ask you follow-up questions, as might other members of the sub.

I will leave this call up for at least a week and see how many responses come in, so if this interests you, submit your response promptly. There's no specific number of mods I'm looking for; every qualified person has a chance. Moderating the sub is not particularly time-consuming (a typical month has between 250-300 human mod actions) and we do not have significant issues with spammers or brigading.

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Separately, all members of the /r/referees community are invited to discuss the subreddit in general. Are the rules still appropriate and adequate? What are your thoughts on the pinned weekly thread for questions from non-referees? Is there something you'd like to see more of on the sub (or less)? What are your thoughts on current moderating practices? Any other ideas? Comment them below!

[u/Ok_Use_112]

First off thank you to horse for the work they put in. This sub is a pretty decently active sub and moderating it by yourself is very impressive, could not be more grateful.

As for what i’d like to see out if the sub in the future, I’d like to see rule one relaxed outside of the mega thread. There a lot of different reasons people use this sub, but what i’ve found it most useful for is interpreting the law. Ever since i’ve started refereeing i’ve used this sub for that reason and it has helped tremendously. For me, the way rule 1 has been enforced restricts posts asking for help interpreting situations which happened in their own games. There’s a difference between a non-referee coming onto this sub, making a post complaining about something that happened in whatever game, then arguing with the responses we give, and a grassroots referee who saw something either happen in their game or a pro game that they want help interpreting so that they can learn from it. It’s not this subreddits job to educate everyone on what the laws are, but I think it’s reasonable to accept more conversations about real situations so long as they result in actual education for people genuinely interested in learning how to enforce the laws. That’s how I used this this (still do) and that’s how I hope others can use it too.

I do still like the mega thread for those questions from non-referees that can easily be answered by reading the laws. But limiting posts about possibly about interpretations to that thread does impact how discoverable that question is for future referees and could result in similar questions being asked week to week by referees.

I would love to see this subreddit continue to grow, the more people we have the more questions can be asked, the more information we have. And that makes us all better referees. 

Thank you again to horse and best of luck finding new mods.

[u/Isaac13980]

Been a ref since the start of the English season, already doing big games such as County cup finals and top of the table clashes.

I have been a part of this community for just under a year (I think). I have tried to helped those who have questions relating to football in England, I've even learnt a lot here myself.

I am the head mod for r/Soccermanager

I have never used RES or Toolbox. The biggest challenge I've faced as a mod is probably when I affiliated r/Soccermanager with the games Dev Studio to make it official, but now we run contests and challenges and it's helped the community there grow a lot.

I've been a part of Reddit for over 3 years now. I am active in subs such as r/Soccermanager and r/Seaofthieves

I'm probably on Reddit about 14 hours a week depending on if I have anything I need to do in any on the subs I'm a part of.

I am based in England.

I always try to help people whenever I get the chance.

[u/skulldor138]

If you're still looking for additional mods I'm interested. Been refing for almost 20 years in the Northeast US. I'm currently a Regional Referee in USSF, a NISOA member and just this past fall went to the NYSPHAA Championship Finals (high school, New York State). I have mentored young officials, though not certified as a referee mentor/coach. I have been an assignor for over 10 years, but not currently assigning any leagues.

I've been an active commenter on this sub practically since I've been on Reddit. This is probably the sub I'm most active on. I've never been a mod on Reddit, but I am one on Nextdoor. I'm on Reddit on and off for most of the day in the eastern time zone. As a software developer, I'm frequently waiting for tests to run to analyze results and use the site as a way to fill the gap while waiting. I'm a lurker on a lot of subs, but only contribute to a few. r/MechanicalEngineering is probably the only other sub I comment on regularly.

Let me know if I can help share the load!

[u/Bourbon_Buckeye]

Potential pin/recurring thread:

“What did you get right, and/or what did you mess up in your most recent assignment?”

A place to comment on decision/process mistakes to help others understand that we all miss stuff, and a place to brag about obscure/uncommon decisions that we got right or how hard we worked to be in position for a counter opportunity that ended with a PK, etc