nherc's Journal: 15 Moderator Points?

Now, I must admit, I've twice before gotten 10 moderator points at a time. At which time, I had gone looking to find out if this was indeed a /. bug or some new moderation code. I did come across another slashdot user journal at that point (which I can't seem to find again now unfortunately) that mentioned that they too received 10 points as well as a few comments to the same effect. However, no one seemed to know where the additional points that we were seeing came from.

That was a few months back now... today I logged in /. and lo and behold: You have 15 Moderator Points! Use 'em or lose 'em!

For those who might not believe my tale: http://img44.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc1170&image=95259_slashdot_15_moderator_points_122_1170lo.jpg

My pet theory is that since users get chosen to moderate based on such a convoluted and complex algorithm (good karma, average reader, veteran reader, etc.,. according to the FAQ) and getting chosen for the 2 days of moderation is so infrequent there isn't a check to see if the newly chosen moderator is currently moderating. Thus, depending on how "lucky" you get, you can get chosen to moderate any number of times up to the limit of moderators chosen for that time period. A rare few may get chosen twice and see the elusive 10 points and if the cards fall right once in a long, long, long while, almost improbably you can be chosen three times in the same period and amass the magical 15 moderator points. I refuse to acknowledge anyone could actually reach 20 though, as that would mean them being more special than me.

I really don't know if I should feel honored and required to use ALL of those points in a moderating marathon or to not use any and leave the 15 points there next to my uid for as long as they last and just soak in the improbability of it all? Now, if only slashdot were the mega-millions lotto and I was so lucky. Hey, Editors, how about you change the code to give anyone with > 10 moderator points editor credentials for the day? I'd really like to try out for a position at slashdot, apparently I have some real mad moderation skillz or at least the hardware and slashcode thinks so.

15 Points

[Kijori]

I've got 15 points too - I found this post while trying to find out why! You say you've had 10 before - me too, but only quite recently (a month ago at the earliest) - have you had them longer ago? Since I've only had them recently I'm tempted to say it's a change in the code.