It is time for me to make another post about the forums.
I am personally finding it very tiring dealing with the endless bickering in the forums. Whenever I sit down to work on the site, I expect to answer a large number of feedback emails and personal messages, that is just part of running this site, but the endless flood of complaints about forums posting/forum bans/forum moderating/forum whatever… And always from a relatively small subset of the active users of this site.
It is very damaging to the site, and just sucking up far too much of everyone’s time. Because the forums are key the whole community of this site, we would never close them, so a slightly more aggressive moderating policy is required (and being encouraged.) So…
If you get a posting ban for a few days, please just deal with it.
I am so tired of all this, I haven’t even read the ‘Moderational Inconsistency’ thread before posting this – but let me say a few things.
The moderators are VOLUNTEERS. They should be playing chess and enjoying the forums, but instead they receive some pretty abusive messages for their efforts, from people who always believe they have been unjustly punished
As for the inconsistencies, there is no moderating bible. We try to be sensible about these things, making a rational decision, and discussing posts when there is doubt, but we don’t all think as one great brain (we even live on opposites sides of the world, from very different backgrounds), so the current level of consistency we have at the moment is amazing to me.
Anyway, here is a private message I sent to a problem user recently, which kind of repeats most of what I said here :
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One of the RHP moderators contacted me about an issue you have had with his moderating. This is fine (well, as long as the conversations don’t get too emotional,as yours did) – but please understand a couple things.
a) No moderator is paid. This site is run on a very tight budget, and all moderators give their time voluntarily. And they really do give. When they should be playing chess, they moderate and then get abuse instead of praise for their efforts. Without them, we could not have the open forums we have – and as you are probably aware, the forums are core to the RHP community. They very reason why people like this site over others.
b) The forums are global – all regions of the world, many religions and cultures, lots of different personalities – and most certainly varied definitions of what is humorous.. It is important appreciate that what is funny to you can cause a lot of offence to others.
I have read some of what you posted, and yes, the decision to hide the posts was the right thing to do. The ban that has been applied to you will only last a few days – so please don’t make an issue of it. We are trying to be more aggressive with the moderating because of the recent spate of spamming and deliberately offensive posts. Most of this you will probably have never seen due to the excellent work the moderators do - but it can be quite tiresome.
If you have any further questions about any of this, please just message me.
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Now, this post I am writing now is probably one of the most poorly constructed announcement type messages I have put together, but it is a Saturday, and after spending some time with my kids, I thought I would sit down and research how to optimise the site database further, to get a bit more speed out of it, but no, instead I have a load of messages from concerned moderators, annoyed users, etc, to read…
Please don’t kill my enthusiasm for this project, because I hear Burger King are hiring locally, and flipping burgers has never seemed more attractive. [Ok, I am joking about this last bit, but qutie serious about everything else]
Thanks for listening (again)
-Russ
Originally posted by RavelloI will follow Ravello's lead.
You're right,I'll do my part by stopping my small bickering (even if I didn't have any problem with mods lately) and will make your work easier,so you can concentrate on clan leagues!😉
Keep up the good work
I think something more formal is required to stop the abuse that goes on in the forums. Some official amendment to the terms of service or a warning at the top of the Forum page would help.
Perhaps, formalising the punsihment too, so that everybody understands, for instance, that a first offence will result in an automatic week ban, a second offence a month ban and a third and final offence would result in inability to post in the forums ever again.
I am sure that if people are made to take responsibility and realise the consequences of their actions they will, by and large, keep themselves in line.
Originally posted by ExyVery strict there Dr. Exy, but I'd agree (although not with point 3 of a life-long ban) ... But the 2nd offense of not posting for a whole month is pretty bitter for people who like to join in ... So I can only second what Exy said
I think something more formal is required to stop the abuse that goes on in the forums. Some official amendment to the terms of service or a warning at the top of the Forum page would help.
Perhaps, formalising the punsihment too, so that everybody understands, for instance, that a first offence will result in an automatic week ban, a second offence a month ...[text shortened]... and realise the consequences of their actions they will, by and large, keep themselves in line.
Boris
Originally posted by Exythis would just be a reciepe for trouble.
It was only a suggestion and the life ban would be after one person had made 2 previous offensive posts for which they had already be banned for a week and then a month, after that anyone still unable to moderate their own posts so not to abuse people clearly has a major problem.
look what is happening tp RHP now after cribs was banned for a shot period, everything is a mess and everyone is fighting with everyone.
can you imagine what would happen if cribs would be banned for a month? or for a lifetime?? RHP would become less and less fun with more and more people being banned from the forums and eventually leaving the site.
besides all this, the moderators will be accused for banning people with no appearant reason, which would lead to even more chaos.
I have been avoiding the forums for a week or so, hoping that the dialog will change. From what I have read (and I may be wrong) some people are pushing for a freedom of speech angle, as it applies to moderators and censorship. I have a feeling that some people feel as though they are discriminated against, and that there is some sort of black list out there. Paranoia is running rampant!
Mike
I don't really folllow the logic there, Faith...
If someone is rude, offensive, abusive or posting a topic to insight such abuse, then they will be warned, and perhaps given a short ban. If the same person makes the same mistake after being told then the punishment would be fittingly harsher, a month ban. They would have brought this upon themselves by not learning from the initial short ban. If after that month ban the very same person does the same thing then surely a total ban is the only recourse? If you don't make people accountable for their actions they will never learn.
This is the problem we have now, new people join, see the that the General and Debates forums are rife with offensive and abusive posts and presume this to be an invitation to do the same. It's been getting worse and worse over the last 6 months and it goes on because there is no clear warning stating not to (other than in the small print) and there is no understood punishement in place to deter people.
Originally posted by rapalla7Rampant will be beat Paranoia
I have been avoiding the forums for a week or so, hoping that the dialog will change. From what I have read (and I may be wrong) some people are pushing for a freedom of speech angle, as it applies to moderators and censorship. I have a feeling that some people feel as though they are discriminated against, and that there is some sort of black list out there. Paranoia is running rampant!
Mike
Originally posted by Exybut dont you see, what you may find abusive and offensive, someone else might find hilarious and amusing.
I don't really folllow the logic there, Faith...
If some one is rude, offensive, abusive or posting a topic to insight such abuse, then they will be warned, and perhaps given a short ban. If the same person makes the same mistake after bei ...[text shortened]... and there is no understood punishement in place to deter people.
now once this someone else finds out that the poster of the hilarious post was banned, he will be angry at this, and write about the horrible injustice that was made. until eventually there will be two camps, the group supporting the decision, and the group who disagree with the decision and think that the moderators are unfair.
all this is already hapeening now in royal chickens thread about cribs.
RHP is already getting devided.
and remember, that all this is about 1 weekly ban, things would be 10 times worse if the ban would be monthly like you suggest.
Originally posted by Exywe already have speciefic circumstanses, it is called ToS. and obviusly from what is going in we can see that its not very helpful.
I would suggest that if it was clearly stated that bans will be issued in specific circumstances then most people will think twice and moderate themselves before posting. This isn't a freedom of speech issue, this is a common sense and courtesy issue.
when did i say anything about freedom of speech?
FNM