During the times I have done research for the weekly reports (or in this week's case, finding cool blog writers) each week I might track a user to see if they have interesting blogs worthy of a mention. I have noticed some people cringe and they will private message me to ask if they have done something wrong or if I am monitoring them for something. The thought that staff will be following them makes them think that we are often considered like a cop out to get them for violations. Scenarios like these happen frequently enough for me to realize that they do not know me at all. When I do receive a PM about this I reassure them it's related to them having blogs that might be worthy in a future weekly report. Might I add, this week's report was replaced with a Blog Bunker Extravaganza as I thought the time digging up the past month's worth of blogs was extremely important. One a related note, you can also see the spam filter blog (community news blog) on all forum pages now (not just the forums directory), which is super exciting news!

To give you a little background about how I work with this site's community might be different than other community managers. The last thing I do is let a severe abuser know I am on to them. They will know immediately that I am on to them and to be honest, many users are given the benefit of the doubt than some might think. If I am tracking you that's because I believe you are an important contributor to the site. Some users also do not know about the "editorial" drop down menu, which allows staff to read the blog for a potential mention in the weekly report (which is also used to select the Soapbox users). In addition to the editorial blog flags I'll check my tracked users list to catch any blogs I might be missing out on.

Now that I have shared my side of the story I would like to know how many of you thought I was out to get you when you found out that I was tracking you. Have any stories to share? :)