Announcing the 2nd tPF Town Hall 02/04-05/2017. So get you thoughts, ideas, opinions, feedback, paise, complaints together.
Members banned from this thread: Cletus |
Announcing the 2nd tPF Town Hall 02/04-05/2017. So get you thoughts, ideas, opinions, feedback, paise, complaints together.
OK, so let's open this up to discussion. Forum rules apply. Remember the topic is the forum, not any specific moderation action or grievance, and not any particular member. And try to keep negative criticism constructive.
So, since tPF Town Hall 12/10-11/2016, we have made the following changes:
1 Brought on new mod Ravens Fan! But we're still stretched thin and looking for good mods. Send us a PM if yo're interested.
2 Implemented stricter moderation of On the Serious Side -- see rule 11.
3 Harsher moderation of repeat offenders including some bans.
4 More aggressive moderation of trolling with warnings, TBs and even infractions.
5 Recently decided to start tracking all warnings and TBs for trolling, not just infractions.
6 ...
Create a latest happenings, politics, and world affairs on the serious side.
ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Cthulhu (02-04-2017),Green Arrow (02-04-2017),KathyS (02-05-2017),MMC (02-04-2017),Ravens Fan (02-04-2017),Subdermal (02-04-2017),Tahuyaman (02-05-2017)
Serious side the main forum with all the relavant sub forums, create a "play pen" area with a handful of sub forums for the monkeys.
Green Arrow (02-04-2017)
Green Arrow (02-04-2017),Subdermal (02-04-2017)
I think he means make the entire existing forum OTSS and then create some play pens for the "monkeys"- although the Hole could be that.
ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Chris (02-04-2017),Green Arrow (02-04-2017)
Chris (02-04-2017),Green Arrow (02-04-2017),Peter1469 (02-04-2017),Subdermal (02-04-2017)
The moderation policies of this forum are really the worst I have seen in a very long time. That is not the fault of the moderators (unless they are the ones writing them), but it affects discourse and not in a positive way.
Example... Apparently it is okay for a moderator to come along AFTER a mod has taken action and decide that wasn't sufficient and stack some other punishment on top of the first action. That is just ridiculous. It is no different from a judge reviewing a sentence issued by another judge and deciding it wasn't harsh enough and tacking additional time on top of it.
Actions taken by moderators should be done in a timely manner. Showing up hours after a post is put up and deciding to take action over it is counterproductive. By then, discussion has moved on and people aren't even thinking about it anymore. That is like beating a dog or a child for something he did hours before. The world has moved on. The Mods need to keep up.
Moderators here tend to focus on the things that don't matter and ignore the things that do. They will issue an infraction or warning to a poster for insulting someone, but they seldom if ever give any thought to what precipitated the insult. Was it a response to something someone else said? Was it said to strictly to demean another poster? Was it said in jest? Those can all be very different things. Instead of examining context, the mods just look at the words. That is not only poor moderation, it indicates an intellectual deficiency on the part of the person doing so.
When moderators are asked why a particular action was taken, they need to respond. The poster doesn't need and in most cases doesn't want a response from a different mod from the one who took the action. He wants and should get a response from the one who issued the warning or the infraction or the ban or whatever.
This is a political discussion board. As long as people have engaged in political debate, rhetoric has often become heated. It is the nature of the beast. People don't come here for tea and crumpets. They come here to express themselves on the political and social issues of the day. In the vast majority of cases, if left alone, heated rhetoric cools off in short order and discussions continue. There is an old saying (a variant on the famous Thoreau quote) that goes "The government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves". There is much truth to that. We are mostly adults here. Moderators should stay out of the way and let discussions flow as they will, unless they get totally off track or degenerate to the point where productive discussion is no longer happening. One poster calling another a dumb ass (or something equivalent) is not just cause for a mod to jump in and issue a warning. If it happens repeatedly and the discussion becomes a personal battle with the insults outweighing the productive, on topic posts, that is a different matter. Mods need to learn that.
There also needs a be a subforum or some public, not hidden, area on the forum where moderation can be discussed. Restrict it to a single thread or create its own forum, but it needs to exist. Rule 9 is stupid. Mods screw up like anyone else. The difference when they do it, it has an impact on the forum. People need to be able to express differences of opinion about moderation decisions and it needs to be done where all can participate, not in some secret dungeon where no one has any idea what is being said or if the criticisms and suggestions are being considered at all.
Subdermal (02-04-2017)
Perhaps, after 3 exiles, permanent ban?
‘There is no God but Resister and Refugee is his messenger’.
Book of Democrat Things, Chapter 1:1
Mister D (02-04-2017)