About Volunteers

About my second day as a Volunteer, I answered someone’s question in the forums. My response carried my “official designation” as a Volunteer. In about 5 minutes, I got the reply “What’s a Volunteer.” After I stopped laughing–I try to never take myself too seriously–I sent back “I write things for Replay’s Blog and Facebook posts and don’t get paid any cash. Otherwise, I have no responsibilities or authority.” That seemed to satisfy her. Over the past few weeks, that question, or a close variation, has popped up both at tables and in the forums. It seems to me that many players don’t know what volunteers are or what they (we) do. I thought readers might like some answers.

First, Volunteers don’t get paid any money or get any advantages at the games. Some get “chips” now and then, depending on what we’ve done during the preceding time period. I’ve been particularly fortunate at that with many accepted Blog articles or stories and Facebook posts over the past few months.

Second, not all Volunteers are doing the same jobs. When I last counted, there were about 70 of us, total. Roughly half of them are translators fluent in English and some other language; their function is obvious and useful, both to Replay and the players speaking those languages. About half of the remaining Volunteers are Player Representatives. PRs mostly answer questions from players, point out where to get help if help is needed, and report problems to more senior people. Moderators are almost everybody else. They try to solve the problems they observe or that their attention is called to by PRs. (I often think the Mods have the worst job here: dealing with the problems and being called away from the games they came here to enjoy.) Some of our casual players want to think of Mods as “beat cops;” a fairer analogy would be to think of them as “school crossing guards” who get the kids across the street safely. We also have Forum Moderators, Facebook Friends, and Blog Buddies.

That sounds like a small army, doesn’t it? Actually, several people fill more than one role. I am both a Blog Buddy and a Facebook Friend. Others do both of those jobs and are also PRs or Mods. So, there are about 85 or 90 “jobs” being done by about 70 individuals.

So, who is responsible for seeing that our games run smoothly and the rules are followed? All of us, Staff, Volunteers, and players, too! Every individual here is, and has to be, part of the team. That’s the only way a cooperative venture like a poker game can happen and succeed.

It might be easier to understand if we compare poker to automobile traffic. If no one stops for red lights or stop signs, chaos, accidents and injuries will abound. Only a crazy person would leave their house in the morning for fear they wouldn’t survive to return at night. Whether we want to or not, we must ALL obey the traffic laws, even pedestrians, else the whole system fails. Likewise, unless we do it in poker, there can be no games. Think about that. Think how empty and dull our lives could be without the winning and losing, without the banter, table talk, and socializing with friends over the poker table. You WOULD miss that.

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Well said bud :relaxed:

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Thank you for this well written explanation of Volunteer duties. :+1:

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Well said Alan, love it!

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Well said that explains it all. You covered every aspect of a volunteer for sure…Doll :slight_smile:

nice explanation, but there is one thing i don’t get:
like you explain, the volunteer term is referring to all the special players with a title. but why does your title only say volunteer, and not just the blog and facebook titles you explained?

The simple truth is I don’t know. (I have to admit that I’d be pleased to be referred to as “His Most Excellent Majesty,” but, that seems over the top, even for me.) It probably has a painfully mundane reason I’m simply not aware of. I’ve never worried about it, or even given in much thought. Why do we title a Private soldier a “Private” when he likely has the least privacy of anyone in uniform?

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How many chips, roughly?

Hi @Whittaker,

It all depends on what role you have as a volunteer. For example Facebook / Blog contributors get about a couple of thousands of chips based on how many posts they write and how many of those posts are approved for publication.

Other volunteers like Player Reps / Mods get chips usually depending on how many hours they’ve spent on the site assisting players by answering questions , forwarding tech questions to support , reporting bugs / problems with the site and mitigate conflicts.

Hope this is helpful.

-Marc

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Thar’s good info Marc but it doesn’t answer my question.
I’ll leave it to Alan to either answer or keep it to himself.

LOL, always thought that should be my title :joy:.

how doesn’t that answer your question?

He needs to know exactly how many chips they get. If it’s enough to support a family of 4 for example. :wink:

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Thanks for the explanation, alan. Well done,

Sorry, guys, I took most of yesterday off, so this is coming as a surprise question. Over the past few months I probably averaged about 40K chips monthly. It could run higher, if I write AND my editors accept (which is not at all the same) more pieces. If I have fewer acceptances, I’ll earn less. Sounds rather like most working folks, doesn’t it?
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It seems to me, UNPAID is pretty self explanatory. No matter how satisfying to my ego it is, If someone sends me an air-kiss, do I feel it? If they send me 100 of them, is it somehow better? Imaginary is still imaginary, regardless of how many times we imagine it.

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Thanks Alan.
Your candidness is refreshing.

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lol

when the focus becomes expanding and selling as many chips a possible it attracts some very unfriendly people for some reason and it feels like less of a warm community. Guess that’s just internet these days. Everyone works their arses off for one or two profiteers. Sort of like going to the restaurant with a coupon for a free meal and ending up with a bill of $30 for all the extras. You sit there and go…What just happened. LOL

Excellent information - didn’t know there actually were volunteers. Thanks to all who do it. One clarification. If nobody stopped for red lights or stop signs they would be a Boston driver adhering to the norm. As long as you know the proper hand signals, most of which involve a single finger, everything runs quite smoothly.

Thank You, Alan.
I came to Replay about 3 1/2 years ago from another competing site. On that site cursing, taunting, and just being a jerk was almost encouraged. So, when I started here that is what I knew. After a while a few Mods jumped my butt. I learned what was acceptable. Now after over 128K hands played, I am not allowed to be any volunteer nor do I know if I want to any longer. My account back when I started was suspended for a day maybe even three so they say I am not eligible.

I am willing to bet if I bought chips rather than win them, Sandy just might have a different story. The fact that I have had no offenses in three years plus and I wanted to help should be enough. I keep thinking about just playing on WPT would be a whole lot easier. I have friends here and do not want to switch but, some times the hands are against you.

PLZ contact
https://www.replaypoker.com/help/moderators
Ask them to make changes so this site will stay around.

Thanks, M2M

I’m glad you’re enjoying the site and making friends. Those are both good reasons to spend time here, indeed, they’re part of why I’m here.
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Not only do the Mods and PRs read the forums regularly, so does the Staff (the genuine paid employees). Keep in mind that Replay is a relatively “young” site. When I joined, I think there were about 700K registered users; today, there are nearly double that. I suspect that, with the passage of time, at some future date, some “statute of limitations” may kick in when LONG PAST unfriendly behavior can be forgotten about. That is merely my speculation, though, so don’t "go all in’ on it. Policies seldom change quickly in any organization more complex than a sole proprietorship or they wouldn’t have been “policies” to begin with. Usually, if a policy changes, it’s more an evolutionary process rather than a sudden about face. But, someone senior will surely read this faster than I could contact them. Good luck at the tables.

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