Specific Guidelines for Forum Moderation

The situation in the Forums is getting ridiculous. I have been informed that it is no longer allowed to even discuss the Forum Moderation policies in the Forums. The hypersensitivity of the present group is absurd; never has general discussion of the state of the forums been forbidden. Nor has it been the policy of the Forum Mods to so aggressively remove and close threads merely because they have become somewhat heated; this is being done even in the Clan Forums!

It is obvious that certain mods want to take us back to the dream of pradft's Sesame Street Squad and severely limit the discussions on the Forums. This is unacceptable to me and I thought it was unacceptable to most of the posters here; what was the great "Forum War" fought for if we are to revert to the senseless, arbitrary censorship now being done?

I suggest that some specific guidelines be set so that these Forums remain accessible to the type of free expression that we have become accustomed to in the last few years. Obviously, posts with profanity or racial slurs or other things that "shock the conscience" of a reasonable adult should be moderated. But the present "policies", which seem to be little more than the whims of the existing Forum Mods, should be overturned and free discussion of the policies that we, the customers and product here, are paying for should be allowed and, yes, encouraged. And the silly closing of threads merely because people are disagreeing in it should end; we're chess players who tend to be a bit competitive, so what if a few feathers get ruffled?

I look forward to some open discussion rather than more capricious censorship.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

A typical response from this Mod team; an attack post. Of course, one can't publicly differ toooooooooooooooooo much from a Forum Mod; that would be "attacking site volunteers". But it is simply untruthful to claim that my questioning as to why the Forums, particularly the Clan Forum, are being more heavily modded than ever before was not a question regarding the policies here at RHP. That the Mods insisted that such a discussion was improper in the Forums is the truth and I'm not being "disingenuous" to say I was so informed as you well know.

In case you missed it (as you obviously did), the complaint isn't that there "aren't any 'policies'" or that I "didn't see them"; the complaint is that, out of the blue, this group of Forum Mods have went far beyond the prior application of the malleable guidelines to absurdly censor entire threads which would have been non-controversial scant weeks or months ago. Any claim that the Forums are not being more aggressively modded than ever before is blatantly false; a simple goading thread regarding a clan was removed from the Clan Forum for cripes sake! So, putting a thread as a "sticky thread" is not a solution; the solution is to rein in the hypersensitive approach being suddenly followed by the present Forum Mod team.

I have never seen such a display of whining about a removed thread.
Please:
1. Get a clue
2. Grow up
3. Pipe down
God bless you and your's
Thanks in advance

Originally posted by no1marauder
The situation in the Forums is getting ridiculous. I have been informed that it is no longer allowed to even discuss the Forum Moderation policies in the Forums. The hypersensitivity of the present group is absurd; never has general discussion of the state of the forums been forbidden. Nor has it been the policy of the Forum Mods to so aggressively remov ...[text shortened]... I look forward to some open discussion rather than more capricious censorship.

As I posted in another forum, I appreciate the very fine, even handed work forum moderators do in maintaining fantastic standards on RHP. I also understand that volunteers are hard to come by. However, isn't it a little odd that 3 of the nine forum moderators belong to the one clan? I'm not accusing any of the moderators of acting unfairly or unethically, but it might it not be better to avoid accusations of panel stacking?

I suggest that limiting moderator team membership to a max of 2 from any one clan. This might avoid some suspicions in the clan forum in particular.😏

Originally posted by no1marauder
The situation in the Forums is getting ridiculous. I have been informed that it is no longer allowed to even discuss the Forum Moderation policies in the Forums. The hypersensitivity of the present group is absurd; never has general discussion of the state of the forums been forbidden. Nor has it been the policy of the Forum Mods to so aggressively remov ...[text shortened]... I look forward to some open discussion rather than more capricious censorship.

Agreed. We've now got mods who want to get rid of Clans because the 'negative connotation' of the word Clan causes 'feuds and forum fistfights'. 😞
Thread 87736

Originally posted by SwissGambit
Agreed. We've now got mods who want to get rid of Clans because the 'negative connotation' of the word Clan causes 'feuds and forum fistfights'. 😞
Thread 87736

If it's too hot in the kitchen...

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Nothing is more obnoxious than a 'comic' who tells bad or unfunny jokes and then blames the audience for not laughing.

Dunno what a lot of this is about, but, if there are moderators, it would be nice (and is usual) for them to be identified somehow (normally with a little "Moderator" tag under their name.)

It's also fairly normal to have a clear policy for what the mods do and do not do.

At the moment it's not particularly obvious who the mods are ('cos going to SITE MAP -> Volunteers is not that natural.)

Originally posted by mrmist
Dunno what a lot of this is about, but, if there are moderators, it would be nice (and is usual) for them to be identified somehow (normally with a little "Moderator" tag under their name.)

It's also fairly normal to have a clear policy for what the mods do and do not do.

At the moment it's not particularly obvious who the mods are ('cos going to SITE MAP -> Volunteers is not that natural.)MANY rhpmany RHP players knoe

I wonder how how many people on this site know that a third of mods come from the one clan.... I wonder how many care?

Originally posted by no1marauder
The situation in the Forums is getting ridiculous. I have been informed that it is no longer allowed to even discuss the Forum Moderation policies in the Forums. The hypersensitivity of the present group is absurd; never has general discussion of the state of the forums been forbidden. Nor has it been the policy of the Forum Mods to so aggressively remov ...[text shortened]... I look forward to some open discussion rather than more capricious censorship.

I agree with most of this. The reasons for modding some threads/posts are unclear; the presumption should surely be in favour of leaving things alone unless there is genuine reason to do otherwise.

There is no point telling people to take their "banter" to the clan forum if that forum is to be modded in exactly the same manner as (for example) general.

Accusations of clan-related mod bias are tiresome; but deleting them is often unnecessary and perhaps even counterproductive. Nothing fuels a conspiracy theory as much as censorship.

I can only applaud Forum Moderators who apply strict guidelines..

And why should you complain about that.. if you just play chess and use proper wording, you will not see any Moderator getting in your way..

Also, if you feel that some user is offending you (or whatever), there is this button called 'Send Feedback'.. but many people use the Forum to counter-attack.. and are then surprised when a Forum Moderator steps in..

Originally posted by Amsterdamn
I can only applaud Forum Moderators who apply strict guidelines..

And why should you complain about that.. if you just play chess and use proper wording, you will not see any Moderator getting in your way..

Also, if you feel that some user is offending you (or whatever), there is this button called 'Send Feedback'.. but many people use the Forum to counter-attack.. and are then surprised when a Forum Moderator steps in..

Amsterdamn: if you just play chess and use proper wording, you will not see any Moderator getting in your way..


If you just play chess, you don't use the Forums.

"Proper wording" is hardly the only reason why things get modded. Please re-read the first post here.