Moderation: Too much or too little?

What is your GENERAL feeling about SB moderation?

  • I'd like to see more moderation

    Votes: 4 3.6%
  • I'd like to see less moderation

    Votes: 26 23.2%
  • I think the current level of moderation is fine.

    Votes: 74 66.1%
  • I have another opinion - state below

    Votes: 8 7.1%

  • Total voters
    112

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Try again.
 
It sometimes seems to be OK for you to call people some pretty unfriendly things, based on some pretty subjective criteria.

Here's another area where I think perception comes into play. And as someone who's been on staff and no longer is, perhaps I can shed some light.

Moderators are not just moderators ... they're also members who have as much of a right to express themselves as the rest of us. Now, I grant you that they have some responsibility to conduct themselves to a higher level of decorum than the rest of us ... and that limitation weighed heavily into my decision to stop being a moderator ... but unless they're actively moderating a thread, they shouldn't be treated any differently than anyone else.

There is a rule that staff members can only moderate threads they're not actively involved in. And although there have been times when a staff member broke that rule, they should be held accountable when they do. However, when they are not actively moderating a thread, the argument "and this, coming from a moderator" isn't valid, because they're not moderating ... they're expressing themselves as just another member, and should be treated accordingly.

When a moderator disagrees with someone ... and they're not moderating the thread ... their viewpoint is exactly as valid (or invalid) as yours and mine, and they have every bit of right to express it, within the limits of the ToS, as you and I do.

I can say some pretty unfriendly things in certain forums ... in other forums, the rules of posting in that forum prohibit me from doing so. Those exact same rules apply to moderators ... and, for that matter, to the board owner.

There are times when my comments have been removed because some moderator decided they fell outside the rules, either the ToS or the special rules for posting, that I felt were not justified. That's natural ... if I felt my comments violated the rules, I wouldn't have posted them ... and there's a lot of room for subjective judgments in that area.

What I think would be helpful is if, when a mod removes comments, they either identify who they are (some do, some don't) or send the person being moderated a PM telling them why. This would go a long way toward resolving a lot of the perception of inconsistency.

On the other hand, it's up to us ... the members ... to show a bit of restraint too. When I was a mod I used to do just that ... any time I removed someone's post I would send them a PM. About half the time I'd get a reasonable response back. The other half I'd get arguments or abuse. My typical response at that point would be to simply say "I'm not going to argue with you" and stop any further exchanges ... they wouldn't have been constructive anyway. And yes ... I'm sure some of those resulted in PM's to Pete calling for my removal as a mod.

The fact is that ... for some of us ... ANY moderation is too much moderation. Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a world where that was the case ... but that would make it up to us to exercise the restraint and responsibility to make it so ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added April 5th, 2012 at 07:34 AM ----------

Try again.

... and there it is ... been there, done that. Just last week I got a call here at work from someone who told me they were looking for certain info. I told them where to find it. They told me it wasn't there. I said "but I'm looking at it right now". Then it occurred to me to look at permissions. I checked permissions, clicked a box and said "Try again" ... and there it was ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
What I think would be helpful is if, when a mod removes comments, they either identify who they are (some do, some don't) or send the person being moderated a PM telling them why. This would go a long way toward resolving a lot of the perception of inconsistency.

This has been a request that has been submitted over and over and constantly refused because they have lives as well ya know. I accept that but I stand behind the fact that being a MOD should be treated and approached as any form of employment. It may be unpaid but it is still a job and it should be approached as such. If you are not "on-duty" then not to worry. If you are, then act accordingly. If you are going to approach it half assed, then maybe you should not join the ranks. I think the board and the members would benefit greatly. For as difficult as I can be/am, I do not think I have ever fired back an argument when the moderator proactively (read to mean before I made mention of it) notified me of one of my posts being modified or removed. In fact, I have, I think, always been extremely pleasant and thanked them for letting me know (even to those that I strongly disliked). I still may not agree with the decision, but I always appreciated the Moderator taking the time and caring enough to notify me. For most members, this could also be a learning experience because often times people may not know they actually crossed any lines. If someone did not bother to notify me until reading a complaint/question of mine in the same thread, then they get what they get. A couple moderators (and only a couple because most are great) think that being a moderator means they are above the rest of us and do not therefore need to be polite/decent. It takes but a couple extra seconds (maybe a minute if they type a lot) to send that PM.
 
I don't actually care about the moderation, just the inconsistency.

I have no problems with moderators/owners expressing their views either.

The inconsistency of what some say, & what some do however, is legion.
 
... and there it is ... been there, done that. Just last week I got a call here at work from someone who told me they were looking for certain info. I told them where to find it. They told me it wasn't there. I said "but I'm looking at it right now". Then it occurred to me to look at permissions. I checked permissions, clicked a box and said "Try again" ... and there it was ...
Years ago when I was working in the central administration of a large school district, I created a number of instructional web sites. I got a phone call from a teacher who said a critical link was not working. I looked and saw that I had a typo in the URL. I fixed it and suggested he try hitting the Refresh (it was Reload then) button and doing it again. he said, "OK, now it worked. So if this happens again I should just hit 'Reload' and try again?" I confessed.

In this case in the confusion of moving it the thread had been accidentally deleted from public view.
 
In this case in the confusion of moving it the thread had been accidentally deleted from public view.

Human error, fair enough.

But I'm still wondering why some posts were removed from the originating thread for being off topic because they were "discussing the prerogative of the OP to offer an opinion", & some weren't.
 
Human error, fair enough.

But I'm still wondering why some posts were removed from the originating thread for being off topic because they were "discussing the prerogative of the OP to offer an opinion", & some weren't.

Human error, as you just noted ... mods aren't robots, yanno. And when a thread is receiving a lot of responses ... as that one was for a time ... it's easy to overlook something.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
Human error, fair enough.

But I'm still wondering why some posts were removed from the originating thread for being off topic because they were "discussing the prerogative of the OP to offer an opinion", & some weren't.

You have every right to wonder, but we have a policy of not disclosing our moderation discussions for reasons of privacy. In the most general terms, there were lines that were crossed by the posts which were removed that your two posts simply didn't cross. In my mod post, by using mild language I chose to avoid chastening those whose posts were removed by not charging them with more grave ToS violations--like a traffic warning rather than a citation. Off topic comments are among the least serious of ToS offenses. Kern you've asked about this about half a dozen times, so it must be very important to you, even though to me it seems quite a minor point. Do you want your posts removed?
 
OMG.... do you mean..... it's in the back room.
No, it wasn't in the back room. It was in Feedback, but Bob was correct. The settings were preventing all but mods from actually seeing the thread. It's fixed now.
 
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