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View Full Version : Hi, I'm a Mod, and I'll Answer Any Questions



Chris
04-24-2013, 06:04 PM
They do this on Reddit, I'm <so and so>, I'll Answer Any Questions, usually with famous people. I'm not famous, but will have to do.

I'll take any questions you might have about moderation on this forum. See http://thepoliticalforums.com/threads/6236-The-Political-Forums-Revised-Rules-and-Regulations

Caveat, rule 8: "General discussion of forum rules and moderation is fine in public, but questions and challenges involving moderator actions must be communicated via PM." IOW, keep it general. Personal beeks and bones to pick should go to PMs.

Caveat, I will try to represent moderation here, but of course these are my views--other mods can join in.


OK, fire away!

http://i.snag.gy/BH7lK.jpg

GrassrootsConservative
04-24-2013, 06:09 PM
What's your favorite color?

KC
04-24-2013, 06:16 PM
What's your favorite color?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxWLuOFyZM

Chris
04-24-2013, 06:20 PM
What's your favorite color?

No personal questions. I have my mod hat on in this thread. :-)

Calypso Jones
04-24-2013, 07:01 PM
what happened to Santa's little helper? Was he caught shagging the reindeer?

Chloe
04-24-2013, 07:14 PM
They do this on Reddit, I'm <so and so>, I'll Answer Any Questions, usually with famous people. I'm not famous, but will have to do.

I'll take any questions you might have about moderation on this forum. See http://thepoliticalforums.com/threads/6236-The-Political-Forums-Revised-Rules-and-Regulations

Caveat, rule 8: "General discussion of forum rules and moderation is fine in public, but questions and challenges involving moderator actions must be communicated via PM." IOW, keep it general. Personal beeks and bones to pick should go to PMs.

Caveat, I will try to represent moderation here, but of course these are my views--other mods can join in.


OK, fire away!

http://i.snag.gy/BH7lK.jpg

Why do you seem to moderate more than the others?

GrassrootsConservative
04-24-2013, 07:15 PM
No personal questions. I have my mod hat on in this thread. :-)

May I see a picture of this mod hat?

Calypso Jones
04-24-2013, 07:21 PM
he pooped in it.

oh. wait...this was ask a question.

Let me rephrase this.

DID HE pooped in it?

Chris
04-24-2013, 07:34 PM
what happened to Santa's little helper? Was he caught shagging the reindeer?

SOrry, too specific and personal--no reindeer questions. :-P

GrassrootsConservative
04-24-2013, 07:37 PM
SOrry, too specific and personal--no reindeer questions. :-P

What questions can we ask?

Calypso Jones
04-24-2013, 07:37 PM
no poop questions.

Chris
04-24-2013, 07:40 PM
Why do you seem to moderate more than the others?

I get paid more.

Seriously, I don't think I do mod more.

Circumstances are such that I'm here more.

Chris
04-24-2013, 07:42 PM
May I see a picture of this mod hat?

See pic in OP.

That was me in my better mood btw.

Chris
04-24-2013, 07:44 PM
he pooped in it.

oh. wait...this was ask a question.

Let me rephrase this.

DID HE pooped in it?

That's not nice. It's also ungrammatical.

GrassrootsConservative
04-24-2013, 07:44 PM
See pic in OP.

That was me in my better mood btw.

Are you in a bad mood because you're a mod?

Peter1469
04-24-2013, 07:46 PM
I get paid more.

Seriously, I don't think I do mod more.

Circumstances are such that I'm here more.

During the week day you are the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike.... :shocked:

Chris
04-24-2013, 07:47 PM
What questions can we ask?

About moderation in general. How we do it. Rules, guidelines. Boring stuff.

GrassrootsConservative
04-24-2013, 07:48 PM
About moderation in general. How we do it. Rules, guidelines. Boring stuff.

Do you have a quota you must fill?

Chris
04-24-2013, 07:51 PM
no poop questions.

Especially reindeer poop questions. Send those to santa claus.

Chris
04-24-2013, 07:53 PM
Are you in a bad mood because you're a mod?

In the pic in the op? No, that's bored, nothing to mod.

junie
04-24-2013, 07:54 PM
he pooped in it.

oh. wait...this was ask a question.

Let me rephrase this.

DID HE pooped in it?



or DID he...? :dontknow:


2463

GrassrootsConservative
04-24-2013, 07:57 PM
^Would he be related to the Dalai Llama?

junie
04-24-2013, 08:01 PM
^Would he be related to the Dalai Llama?



lol he seems like a peaceful llama :dontknow:

Dr. Who
04-24-2013, 08:07 PM
How would you define trolling?

oceanloverOH
04-24-2013, 08:34 PM
What are the steps in the moderation process? If a moderator sees, oh, let's say a severe personal attack in a thread....what are the steps that are followed?

Chris
04-24-2013, 08:52 PM
or DID he...? :dontknow:


2463

We have enough drama queens, a drama llama would be overkill.

Wait, that wasn't a question.

Chris
04-24-2013, 08:57 PM
How would you define trolling?

It's actually complicated.

Trolling is not posting things to irritate others, to piss people off, etc, as many seem to think--this is just being a smartass.

Trolling as it's defined around the Internet is posting something aimed to start a fight between others while you sit back and snicker.

Not sure how you moderate either.

KC
04-24-2013, 08:59 PM
What are the steps in the moderation process? If a moderator sees, oh, let's say a severe personal attack in a thread....what are the steps that are followed?

Everything starts with a report. It could be a moderator who files the report, or it could be any other member. We see the poster who files it along with their reasoning, then we turn discuss what action (if any) should be taken. If it's something simple, like a thread turning sour, usually a mod can go ahead and issue a warning, but in general at least one other mod's input is necessary. For more serious actions, like a thread ban we wait to see what the general feeling among mods is. An infraction or a ban is usually put to a vote first, but it all depends on who is online.

If the attack is really severe, like if someone is saying deeply offending personal things (vs calling someone a moron or an idiot), we need moderators to act fast. Those are the times when moderators shoot first, then ask questions later, but that doesn't happen often.

KC
04-24-2013, 09:00 PM
How would you define trolling?

Adding to Chris' response, not all trolling is against the rules. It's a pretty broad term, so only the specific instances of trolling we have rules against are rule violations.

Chris
04-24-2013, 09:28 PM
What are the steps in the moderation process? If a moderator sees, oh, let's say a severe personal attack in a thread....what are the steps that are followed?

Generally speaking, we wait till a member reports something but as a member a mod can report. This is important: As mods we don't go looking for rule violations, so it's up to members to report.

Members tend to report single personal attacks. Mods tend to report multiple incidents where two or more are going at it and disrupting discussion.

Once reported, we try to discuss and decide what to do by consensus. This is not required, a mod can issue a friendly warning or an official one. Official warnings are now given with the following:

danger will robinson!

We have several like this, but you can't mistake them.

Anyway, more than likely an official warning is issued after mods have discussed and agreed on it. More times than not we disagree or agree to do nothing. Say I want to warn but two other mods disagree, then no warning will be issued.

Infractions, thread bans, etc are the same but generally require longer discussion of whether to issue it or not. Generally an infraction is issued because of repeated violations, ignoring warnings, etc, though they can be issued for egregious violations.

Banning someone requires extensive discussion and near unanimous consensus--we go to the VIPs to get a vote on this if it's not near unanimous.

Then we decide which mod should issue the warning or infraction--in some cases we ask admin to because of technical limitations. The one issuing it is generally the first responder to a report, not always, depends on who is being moderated.

Warnings can be general, asking members to tone it down in a thread, or specific, mentioning a member by name.

After a warning or infraction is issued, there can be further discussion. A mod might not have been online at the time, comes along later and disagrees, we take that as feedback on future actions. Or we have on occasion reversed the warning or infraction.

All this discussion is tiresome at times, but it is good feedback on actions and we form standard interpretations and actions as a team. Team is key here, no one mod is in charge, we all are, and work together.

OK, to complete the process, we PM the member warned or infracted. Because we can of course be wrong, having a bad hair day, whatever, the member may then ask for reconsideration, may explain his view and why he didn't deserve it, and we report these PMs back to the discussion thread so all mods can see and discuss and decide.

This part is important: If you get a warning or infraction, please PM us and argue your case. If you seek resolution amicably, it'll probably happen. But if you want to argue politics, forget it, stick to moderation issue. And don't diss the moderator you're PMing--why would you expect a good result from a bad PM? We generally do not moderate PMs but what sense is their to it. If we don't see a member trying to resolve it, we'll tell them to go to another mod, who is prepared because he has been involved in discussion and has seen all the PM exchanges.

Also important: Don't argue moderation or moderators online. Use PMs.


Well, that's a lot. I probably missed some. Like how it's VIPs who make the rule and we enforce them. Like about different degrees of moderation for different forum areas like Politics and New as opposed to On the Serious Side.

The key take away is that mods work as a team.

junie
04-24-2013, 09:37 PM
omg i fell asleep half way through that post :justkidding:

KC
04-24-2013, 09:41 PM
omg i fell asleep half way through that post :justkidding:

http://static.tumblr.com/mfxyxgh/wZ5m5ze9a/tldr.jpg

Chris
04-24-2013, 09:45 PM
omg i fell asleep half way through that post :justkidding:

Told you it's a boring, thankless job in the OP.

Chris
04-25-2013, 10:52 AM
So all the fuss in the last couple days and no more questions?


Here's a question for some: Why can't some of you separate out member and mod roles? You will know when one of us is acting as a moderator because either we will issue an official warning or infraction in one of these:

http://i.snag.gy/bxy7e.jpg

All other moderation is handled offline.

Cigar
04-25-2013, 10:54 AM
Who much does it pay? :grin:

How many hours are required?

Chris
04-25-2013, 11:53 AM
Who much does it pay? :grin:

How many hours are required?

I'm not allowed to reveal salary information.

Hours? Voluntary.

Micketto
04-25-2013, 12:17 PM
Question: What do the colors mean ?

2474

Cigar
04-25-2013, 12:19 PM
I'm not allowed to reveal salary information.

Hours? Voluntary.



I'm sure it's more than Minimum Wage :tongue: and not slave labor hours

Cigar
04-25-2013, 12:21 PM
Question: What do the colors mean ?

2474

You're Gay :weedsmoking:

http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4672744974909720&pid=1.7&w=106&h=173&c=7&rs=1

Come-On ... that's Funny

Chris
04-25-2013, 12:30 PM
Question: What do the colors mean ?

2474

The green bar means moderator. Moderator, well, that's what the thread's about.

The red bar means VIP. Another topic but it used to mean elevated status but now means responsibility in helping design the forum (VIPS make the rules) and contribute to it by posting in good faith.

The next two show what level I'm at and how far along I am to the next level. No idea what level means.

The next red one is level of activity. I post a lot.

Achievements are sort of explained@ http://thepoliticalforums.com/xperience.php

Awards is explained sort of @ http://thepoliticalforums.com/xperience.php

Stars are reputation. Not exactly sure how calculated, largely by thanks and reps received.


You can turn off all that by clicking Hide Postbits, and turn it back on by clicking Show Postbits. I have them off as I find all that distracting. I have avatars off, signatures off.



Edit, you can hover your mouse pointer over the images and get a title for each.

Chris
04-25-2013, 12:32 PM
I'm sure it's more than Minimum Wage :tongue: and not slave labor hours

Much more and much less.

Micketto
04-25-2013, 01:06 PM
The green bar means moderator. Moderator, well, that's what the thread's about.

The red bar means VIP. Another topic but it used to mean elevated status but now means responsibility in helping design the forum (VIPS make the rules) and contribute to it by posting in good faith.

The next two show what level I'm at and how far along I am to the next level. No idea what level means.

The next red one is level of activity. I post a lot.

Achievements are sort of explained@ http://thepoliticalforums.com/xperience.php

Awards is explained sort of @ http://thepoliticalforums.com/xperience.php

Stars are reputation. Not exactly sure how calculated, largely by thanks and reps received.


You can turn off all that by clicking Hide Postbits, and turn it back on by clicking Show Postbits. I have them off as I find all that distracting. I have avatars off, signatures off.



Edit, you can hover your mouse pointer over the images and get a title for each.

Ok, thank you. I didn't find that page when I was looking.... so thanks for linking.

bladimz
04-26-2013, 06:01 PM
One thing that i think was mentioned before and should be kept in mind: if you see or get involved in anything that you think might require moderation, please report it. Don't wait and hope that one of us mods will run across it. AND... we also request that you review the rules and let us know which one(s) have been violated when placing your report. We are more likely to act on a report that is accompanied by a specific rule infraction than not.

I think that Chris and Kath were pretty comprehensive, but i would expect that there will be more questions going forward.

Just to let you know, i personally will not handle any poop questions. Poop is disgusting.