Meet the Staff! An Interview with Norah Casey

As Chief Moderator, Norah Casey doesn’t have it easy, but she manages the HubPages support team and hundreds upon hundreds of Hubs and emails with superior grace and pose. To give you a better look at this superhuman HubPages employee, we’ve given Norah a bunch of questions asked by HubPages community members as part of our Meet the Staff series.

We hope you enjoy her answers!

If you had to choose super hero titles for three of your coworkers at HubPages, what would they be? -Inspired by mts1098

Matt Wells = The Watcher
Paul Deeds = DeadPan
Ari = The Dog Whisperer

I see you are working towards finishing your BA in Science and History. Can you share with us more about your interest in Physical Anthropology? -rebekahELLE

I just completed my BA just a couple of weeks ago, so now I will have the opportunity to prepare for graduate school. Not quite yet, but soon! 🙂

My interest in physical anthropology evolved from an early interest in dinosaur paleontology and human anatomy. My mother wanted me to be doctor, but… I can’t imagine dealing with insurance companies. I participated in a fossil dig in Arizona, and couldn’t bear the thought of digging up dinosaurs in such a hot environment.

At about that time, I saw a documentary on television about neanderthals. It was terrible. Their version of neanderthals could only communicate through grunting, they wandered through the snow naked, and lumbered over rocky terrain by waddling side to side. I was only a kid, but I knew the depiction didn’t make sense. Their skeletal structure, their hunting techniques, and what was known of them in the fossil record didn’t match up with how they were presented. It isn’t possible to eliminate our own innate sense of superiority when studying our hominin ancestors, but I would like to try to learn more about them while keeping my own bias in check.

If you could give Hubbers one piece of advice, what would it be? – wordscribe43

If you have a Hub moderated and don’t understand why, respond to the violation email and ask for clarification! You’ll want to check the Learning Center or FAQ for an answer to your question first, of course, but it is always better to understand the rules of the game if you are going to play.

When does your work day begin and when does it end? Do you work 24/7 or ever go through HP withdrawal when you are away from the computer? -AEvans

My work day usually starts around 9:30 A.M, and ends at about 8:30 or 9 P.M, with several long breaks in between. I usually work seven days a week, but only for a few hours a day on the weekend. I don’t spend enough time away from HubPages to go through withdrawal, so… I guess I’m an addict!

What do you love about your job? What do you hate (or love a whole lot less)? – Marcy Goodfleisch

I love coming across great content. Though it usually means our filters have gone haywire or a troll has generated hundreds of intentionally inaccurate, spiteful flags, I enjoy reading or watching new and wonderful content as part of my job.

This is not going to be as juicy as some might have wanted, but I don’t like that 90% of my work is done sitting in front of a computer screen. My vision is bad enough, and this can’t be helping!

Describe your ideal Hubber -Marcy Goodfleisch

My ideal Hubber is someone who is curious, hard working, and honest. She wants to create new and interesting pieces of content to share with her audience, and doesn’t just want to spam them. He has the confidence to admit when he is stuck and is comfortable reaching out to veteran Hubbers or staff for help. She is not going to feed trolls, and won’t get dragged into an ideological debate that brings out the worst in herself and those around her. In addition, he’ll be flagging plenty of bad content for us to unpublish with funny little remarks to keep our spirits up.

Do you ever sleep and when you sleep are you still dreaming of H-u-b-p-a-g-e-s? – prettydarkhorse

Of course! In my nightmares, I’m responding to four hours worth of support emails escalated to me by the moderators. Then I realize I’m awake, and it is actually just another Monday.

Any stories you want to share about moderating forum posts? -rebekahELLE

A forum thread responding to a moderation cited the decision as evidence that the anonymous moderator was a zealot who held several different and mutually exclusive viewpoints. That the moderation was the result of our bot detecting a malware link wasn’t common knowledge. When people don’t know much about you, they fill in details with their own imagination. It can be quite amusing what they come up with.

What was the kindest thing a Hubber did for you? -ripplemaker

I think many of us here at HubPages worked harder than we thought possible when Panda hit. We had to find a way to eliminate spam without destroying the community, and we had to do it faster than we thought possible. In the midst of all of this, a Hubber wrote in just to say thanks for the hard work and that they were going to stick with us. It felt great.