Yawetag/MishMashModerating

Oftentimes, new games are started on the Mish Mash Forum by newer players who think moderating a game is easy. They've played a game or two of Mafia, and want to moderate a Mafia game, but must wait until their Mafia game begins. The Mish Mash Forum has no such rule -- any player may start any game, at any time. However, many players fail to plan their game, which causes it to either stall or break.

I'm writing this article to help prospective Mish Mash game moderators choose the right game and understand how to keep the games from stalling and, hopefully, from breaking. This article will be updated as needed.

About Myself

Truthfully, I'm not the best person to write this article. Others have moderated much more games than I have, and some have had more completed without issues. Others have played more Mish Mash games than I have, and many have won more. However, I've moderated enough, and played enough, to see pitfalls and traps that many new moderators have fallen into, and fallen into myself.

I have moderated or currently moderate around a dozen games in Mish Mash. Half of the games have stalled. Two were player-stalled, through no interest or lack of interest; the other four stalled when I took a break from the site.

I have also joined dozens of games in Mish Mash. Most fail, and most fail at one of three times: 1) before starting, 2) just after starting, or 3) about 25% through the game. I've found that games that can cross the 25% threshold will complete -- the Moderator has put the time into the game to that point, and will probably continue to do so.

Ground Rules

Before I begin my Rules for Moderating, I must set some ground rules.

Firstly, I despise any of the games that require popularity (Big Brother, Survivor), Zork-like actions ("pick up book and read it"), or survival (Saw, House of Madness). Because of that, some of the rules will have no bearing on how those types of games are moderated. However, some of my rules will apply, especially relating to preparation.

To be completed