Forum Moderation - a sensible debate

A sensible debate is healthy for the development of the forums 🙂

One thing that has been i have noticed lately is a rise in users alerting apparently friendly banter "for the LULZ", or just because it is banter. To the new moderators this makes the line really messy as we're then looked to be "over sensitive" or "inconsistent" which are charges which have been thrown at the moderators.

Two incidents today without mentioning names are identical

User A posts something then User B posts something about User A. User A alerts User B's post as a Personal Attack. User B says it's banter that has gone on for years. If its banter then why does User A alert?

Anyway, there is going to be inconsistency - there are several of us (i am different from the above ones) - we are different ages, from different countries and have different experiences of this site.

Originally posted by Forum Moderator
The flaw in what you're saying is that you're claiming it's your site. Red Hot Pawn is not your site, it belongs to the administrators. When moderating happens the moderators are following the wishes of the site administrators. There are plenty of times where the wishes of the administrators conflict with the wishes of the community in terms of forum ...[text shortened]... t's "ours". Ours to the extent that subscription allows it to be ours, that is.

For you to have the gall to post in this thread as a "moderator" pretending that you misinterpret my parsimonious OP (which contains a qualified comment "our site"); and state that I am claiming that "the site is mine" is an insult to forum readers intelligence and merely confirms your disingenuous approach to your role.

Originally posted by Very Rusty
I just pointed out the obvious is all.

It becomes confusing to the rest of us regular forum posters when we don't know where the line is anymore. Many of us have been bantering back and forth for years, some much longer than I.

We all know that it is not personal. And that is true for 99% of the cases I am sure. It is just everyone likes to feel l ...[text shortened]... at some point. Do you actually think I am serious on every single thing I post in the forums?

Oh certainly not, I'm just asking for a little patience while we are adjusting to the system. We all make mistakes, please don't take those too at heart. I have made a couple and have learned from them, and hope to continue learning from them while I can.

I understand your position and I do my best to please it, I'm just asking for a little more patience is all 😉

Originally posted by Forum Moderator
A sensible debate is healthy for the development of the forums 🙂

One thing that has been i have noticed lately is a rise in users alerting apparently friendly banter "for the LULZ", or just because it is banter. To the new moderators this makes the line really messy as we're then looked to be "over sensitive" or "inconsistent" which are charges ...[text shortened]... e different ages, from different countries and have different experiences of this site.

Any questions on the post i'm quoting ask me as that was my post.

Originally posted by Silverstriker
Any questions on the post i'm quoting ask me as that was my post.

My reply (3 above) was nothing to do with you SS; I don't need a name on the obvious. Thank you for making a concerted effort to get to grips with your role, I'm sure others will have noticed.

Originally posted by Silverstriker
Any questions on the post i'm quoting ask me as that was my post.

Not a question just a comment: I think poster A was testing to see what the new mod would do. I don't think that is right either to alert posts just to test the new mods.

Originally posted by Very Rusty
Not a question just a comment: I think poster A was testing to see what the new mod would do. I don't think that is right either to alert posts just to test the new mods.

I completely agree with your comment as either result will be wrong

I wanted to start a thread about this already.

Recently my posts have been removed more often than ever before, and I'm not even saying naughty things (most of the time😉. I'm not breaching any forum RULES as far as I can see.

For example I bumped an old thread which consequently was removed. Where in the RULES does it say anything about replying to old threads?

The moderators are human beings, with different viewpoints and little opportunity to consult with other moderators when making decisions. Moderation is clearly necessary, given that we have some regulars who should know better than to post what they do, newbies who don't know how far they can go, and witchhunters who think "public outing" is acceptable behaviour. Given the difficulty of making decisions with these groups, it must be a relief for the moderators to get a straightforward manic spammer to obliterate.

I suggest we give the new moderators a few weeks to find their feet. Perhaps it's time we asked for them to publish the Forum Posting Guidelines as a sticky thread in the most problematic forum.

I agree that the forums are being moderatred just a wee bit too much. Back in the day when half the mod team were gone or starless and the other half were getting through as best they can, there was one thing that strikes me as worth noting....there was no complaints about moderation. Nobody was complaining about a heavy hand or that things were not getting done. Things were fine before the new "mod anything that is alerted" brigade came in. 13+ doesn't mean that all things risque should be gone, or all things that are alerted should be dropped, or that all the fun should be sapped out of the place.

Yes, we are the paying customers and we should abide by the rules layed down by the admins, but when the playing field has been altered as much as it has we have a duty to make a noise. Things were going along quite nicely at the previous level of moderation in my opinion....That needs to be said.

Originally posted by Kewpie
The moderators are human beings, with different viewpoints and little opportunity to consult with other moderators when making decisions. Moderation is clearly necessary, given that we have some regulars who should know better than to post what they do, newbies who don't know how far they can go, and witchhunters who think "public outing" is acceptable behav em to publish the Forum Posting Guidelines as a sticky thread in the most problematic forum.

I agree with everything you say Kewpie; I think most here would agree with your comments actually. Moderation is very difficult especially as most of the contributors here enjoy the banter and cut/thrust of sometimes childish silliness and sometimes serious debate; both of which become heated at times.

However, moderation should be like refereeing a football/soccer match; the referee should not be noticed, be impartial, take a few seconds to explain decisions to those who inquire and try to keep the flow of the game moving. Most of the moderation that occurs here is spot on; some is absolutely not, to the point of being an incomprehensible irritant. Consistency cannot be maintained without a group coherence and single modus operandi within the moderation team. I'm wondering if this current issue is less about the "new mods" generally and more about certain mod(s) attitude to these forums and some of the posters who contribute regularly. Perhaps some could reassess their approach when moderating?

Despite the membership often mocking the quality of forum content, we all (many) seem to spend a significant amount of time here! This thread is not about kicking against moderation, it’s just about open debate to try and identify what has been going wrong recently and see if we can by objective comment make some improvement.

Originally posted by Kewpie
The moderators are human beings, with different viewpoints and little opportunity to consult with other moderators when making decisions. Moderation is clearly necessary, given that we have some regulars who should know better than to post what they do, newbies who don't know how far they can go, and witchhunters who think "public outing" is acceptable behav ...[text shortened]... em to publish the Forum Posting Guidelines as a sticky thread in the most problematic forum.

lol talking from experience are we? 😵

Originally posted by trev33
lol talking from experience are we? 😵

Very clever of you trev. What goes around comes around.

Originally posted by divegeester
This is our* site and as a paying customer I do not see why 'Forum Moderation' cannot be discussed in open forum as long as there is no abuse. Censorship should be restricted to vulgar comment, not topic. The level of moderation should be up for open debate.

[b]"Our site" refers to recognizing a collective responsibility for, and control of content in the forums.[/b]

The bottom line is that all the content here belongs to and is the legal responsibility of the Site Administrators. They've already set out guidelines on what they see as acceptable content - Help : forumguide.

If you've got an issue with the level of moderation you should take it up with the Site Administrators, not incite a public argument with the Moderators.