Forum Moderation - Best Practices

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ces
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Location: US

Re: Heavy Handed Moderation

Post by ces » Fri Aug 03, 2012 8:50 am

Since this is a pretty decent thread, I'm going to delete the series of baby-ish posts with no on-topic content. Hopefully the two posters will continue their little pissy-fest via PM.
Please note that I have no clue as to what the "baby-ish posts" were or who the posters were.

But in my opinion this is an example of moderation that is less than optimal. Here is what, in my opinion, would have constituted best practice moderation:

1. The moderation should lead by example. The moderation posting itself was really off topic. Moderation itself should comply with the rules it is enforcing.

A good analogy would be a police department that
(a) tolerates officers who regularly run red lights or who speed for no good reason, while
(b) regularly enforces law against running red lights.

BETTER PRACTICE:
Permit the thread to remain on topic and use PM to do the moderation.

2. The moderation should lead by example. The postings from the riff raff not infrequently include include, pejoration, name calling and "baby-ish" commentary. Moderation comments, even private ones, should contain none of this.

BETTER PRACTICE: The moderation messages, even in private messages, should use the same language that your boss would expect to you use if you were moderating a forum composed of valuable customers who sometime cross the line. I would expect that to exclude any pejoration, name calling and "baby-ish", even if that would be an apt description of the customer's postings.

3. Lead by example. Give the unwashed masses an example of what good manners are, as opposed to adopting and spreading their poor manners.

Does anyone think what I submit as good practice can have any downside? Will it adversely affect the standard of discourse on these forums or will it improve it?
Last edited by ces on Sat Aug 04, 2012 7:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

nutball
*Lifetime Patron*
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Re: Heavy Handed Moderation

Post by nutball » Sat Aug 04, 2012 1:26 am

ces, there is no problem with the moderation here. There never has been. Even if there were, it's not a matter for discussion - the SPCR guys run this site the way they see fit. Their site lives and dies by their decisions, and given that the site is as strong now as it has been for the many years before '05 Feb 2010' it seems that their decisions have been proven to be correct.

If you feel differently, can I suggest you set up your own silent-computing-related forum and moderate it the way you see fit. Otherwise, please stop complaining.

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

Re: Heavy Handed Moderation

Post by ces » Sat Aug 04, 2012 7:00 am

nutball wrote: it's not a matter for discussion... If you feel differently, can I suggest you set up your own silent-computing-related forum and moderate it the way you see fit. Otherwise, please stop complaining.
I obviously disagree with your "Love America or Leave It" philosophy, which in my opinion I believe to be inherently unhealthy. And the PM feedback I have received leaves me to believe that you represent a minority opinion.

"If you feel differently, can I suggest you" cease reading this thread. (Just a lame attempt at humor. :D )

Actually I would specifically request that you use of the SPCR Ignore Function. the powers at SPCR put it there for a reason. Use it. Here are the instructions:
viewtopic.php?p=556502#p556502
With that you can honor my request that you cease reading my postings. Thank you in advance.

I think more people should use that function. For myself, I generally approve of your contributions to this board and intend to continue reading them.

m0002a
Posts: 2831
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Location: USA

Re: Heavy Handed Moderation

Post by m0002a » Sat Aug 04, 2012 3:10 pm

nutball wrote:ces, there is no problem with the moderation here. There never has been. Even if there were, it's not a matter for discussion - the SPCR guys run this site the way they see fit. Their site lives and dies by their decisions, and given that the site is as strong now as it has been for the many years before '05 Feb 2010' it seems that their decisions have been proven to be correct.

If you feel differently, can I suggest you set up your own silent-computing-related forum and moderate it the way you see fit. Otherwise, please stop complaining.
I completely agree with you, as I mentioned in my own post above. Unfortunately, some people apparently have no intellectual outlets outside of this forum, and think that this should be the place where all of the problems of the world should be discussed and solved. There also seems to be lack of understanding about private vs public property, and how freedom of speech relates to these differently.

tim851
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Re: Heavy Handed Moderation

Post by tim851 » Sat Aug 04, 2012 5:07 pm

m0002a wrote:Unfortunately, some people apparently have no intellectual outlets outside of this forum, and think that this should be the place where all of the problems of the world should be discussed and solved. There also seems to be lack of understanding about private vs public property, and how freedom of speech relates to these differently.
This.

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

Re: Heavy Handed Moderation

Post by ces » Sat Aug 04, 2012 7:00 pm

tim851 wrote:This.
Tim, it isn't so obvious to me how your posting above relates to the topic of "forum moderation" or moderation "best practices". But obviously you must, or you would not have posted it. Would you be kind enough to tie it into that topic.... (or in the alternative explain exactly what is the topic you are speaking to)?

On its face of it, it looks like you may be reposting a prior trolling message, the apparent intent of which (of the original post and of the reposting) is to provoke uncivil discourse. I want to avoid that.

But I may be misreading your enigmatic post. So please explain.

Mr Spocko
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Location: UK/Eire

Re: Forum Moderation - Best Practices

Post by Mr Spocko » Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:57 am

I have to agree there is heavy handed moderation and I do not approve myself. As long as a topic is dicussed in a manner which is respectful, I believe a healthy debate can take place, even a heated debate at times.

Over moderation kills off any chance of a proper discussion and is simply a sign that moderators are to twitchy and possibly bored in other respects!
A natural flow of a debate will involve a difference of views, that is what a forum is for. If moderation does not draw back somewhat to allow this, then there is little point in having a forum more of a Q&A zone. Which is fine for that, but to discuss must also at times mean to disagree.

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