1. Experience - Kevin has experience in Warcraft. He has owned sites, moderated sites, and administrated sites. In other words, he knows what is going on and how things are supposed to work.
/me chuckles
I don't know about you Bema, but I'd say my experience outweighs this by some. Without going into specifics, I have run several sites, I still moderate on a few large WoW communities. Additionally I still do a lot of theorycrafting & etc.
2. Respect - Kevin has ALWAYS respected other members. Without naming any names, there were members who applied for the moderator job who have either flamed and/or knocked other members down just for the sheer pleasure of self fulfillment. In my opinion, a moderator is not one to do something of that nature, so those of you who have handled yourselves unprofessionaly in the past, you weren't chosen on that basis.
Whilst I agree entirely, I am guilty of doing this on several occasions, and I'm guessing thats what put paid to my application. However, as I look back at some of the stuff from the last few years, all the staff have been guilty of this prior to now. Professionalism when dealing with new members is entirely diffrent to dealing with long-term 'pita' members ;-).
3. Humility - We don't want anyone on our staff that thinks that they are God's gift to the World of Warcraft. Yes, those of you who have the most problem with the decision that was made are probably the best at what you do. I am sure that you have more gold in your bank, more high level characters on your account, and have raided twice as much as Kevin73, but that is not what makes a moderator. Kevin has had alot of experience with leadership, and we liked that about him. We also liked that he did not flaunt it. We had to ask him directly.
So you don't want someone who has an ego? Well, again, guilty as charged. Although I find it hard to accept that someone who has had "experience" with leadership is entirely without ego. Nearly all the good Guild Leaders I've known (myself included) are quite proud of what they do and subsequently don't keep it in check at all times.
4. Drama - Kevin does not bring any drama. I would go as far as to say that if he was not chosen, he would have respected the decision instead of ranting about how unfair it was and pinpointing things that he was not sure about.
I'm also sure he wouldn't have. Infact, I doubt he would have even posted, just gone back to lurking quietly. Again, I fail to see what drama would have occured had Bladee, Decker or I been picked, however picking a total unknown is bound to 'stir the pot' a bit.
5. Quality - !!! Kevin has quality? he has only posted like 3 times!!! Not true. The truth is, Kevin may have not been a primier poster on RedGuides. He may have not contributed millions of threads each month, but that does not matter. Bladee, yes, I did say that the mod needed to be known among the community, and truth be told he was. I knew him, frybread knew him, and so did others. There are thousands of members on RedGuides, just because you guys did not know him personally does not mean that he was not known. Truth be told, RedGuides was pretty vacant of posters in the last few months of it's life. There wasn't alot to choose from. Kevin was one of the guys who pm'd me.
You knew him? Frybread knew him? Well, thats great and all, but hardly any of the rest of us did. Perhaps you would care to demonstrate kevin73's quality? Or at least fill us in on the details that we are obviously unaware of.
The fact is this. We chose Kevin because we knew that he would do what we needed. We never said that once we found "a" moderator, we were closing the doors. The truth is, we could probably use a couple-few more. The way that you act and respond to not being chosen initially speaks volumes as to your character and how you would moderate a site. Instead of attacking Kevin73, attack me. I was the one who noticed him. I brought it to the staff and we all unanimously agreed after reading his posts and talking to him directly.
I'm trying not to attack anyone specifically, as I've said, I don't know anything about kevin73, so attacking him directly would be stupid. As for attacking you 'Bema, I have no desire to embark on any crusade against a well established member of staff, no matter how poor I now deem their decision making to be.
I am sorry that you all have a problem with it. In your minds, you all would probably do a better job than Kevin could ever do. Feel free to believe that all that you want. I am sure that you all could do a great job, because we did not initially choose you does not mean that we believe that. We are a community and make decisions that are best for the site.
I know for a fact that I would do an excellent job. The same excellent job I've done on all the other sites I've become a representative and community leader for, just because redguides didn't recognise this isn't the end of my world. ;-)
In summary; I believe the staff picked a weak candidate on purpose, to what ends I can only speculate.
I also believe that this sort of a poor decision at the inception of a new site is particularly poor planning, something which, in conjunction with a lack of quality posters/contributors has led to the downfall of redguides over the past year or so.