YesNoOk
avatar

Moderation guidelines (Read 30657 times)

Started by Sepp, May 10, 2008, 08:46:48 pm
Moderation guidelines
#1  May 10, 2008, 08:46:48 pm
  • *****
  • can see your halo
    • Germany
    • Skype - panchasell
    • www.mugenguild.com/
Matthew Woodring Stover said:
There are no rules. But there are rules of thumb...

  • Talk with and to users. Not about them, and not down to them.
  • A thread with controversial content is not to be forbidden because it contains controversial content and the potential for conflict. We had working threads on religion, politics, sexuality . . . It's not about topics---
  • It's about the users. They write the posts. If they post in an undesirable way in a certain topic, do not lock the topic to make it stop but talk to the users instead.
  • Do not delete posts. Unless a post is truly garbage, adds nothing worthwhile at all and has not already been included or replied to in the following posts... if it has already been replied to, it stays. Unless the replies are of the same quality and also add nothing themselves either. But usually they do. In those cases, do not clean and thereby break topics by dumping multiple posts.
  • Do not edit posts in order to say something. It's rude and might not even be noticed by the original poster.
  • The standard approach to any situation: post in places where trouble occurs to show everybpdy what kind of behavior is unwanted. If you can guess that the offending user will read your public post you might not have to do anything else. Otherwise, you can either wait and later write him a private message, or include a private message from the beginning. It doesn't even need to say anything witty, could be a link to your public post or a quote of it.
  • Step back. Slow down, and know when to stop. Trick 17: log out (I do that all the time).

So you're basically saying that we should try not to use any of our moderation powers, not to delete, edit and lock things?? Yeah that's exactly it. They're only secondary options, fallbacks.

You don't need any special board permissions a normal user doesn't have for the most important moderation work. That also means you don't even need to be Moderator in order to moderate. :o

[i]Pirates of the Carribean[/i] said:
Hang the code, and hang the rules.

They're more like guidelines anyway.
"Several times now, Achamian thought he had glimpsed golden haloes about Kellhus's hands. He found himself envying those, such as Proyas, who claimed to see them all the time."
--R. Scott Bakker
The Thousandfold Thought (2006)
Last Edit: May 10, 2008, 09:34:34 pm by Sepp
Re: Moderation guidelines
#2  January 13, 2010, 06:49:01 pm
  • *****
  • can see your halo
    • Germany
    • Skype - panchasell
    • www.mugenguild.com/
One should always double-check before taking action, always.

This whole situation personally disgusts me, from both the "mod" and the "user" side. This whole "issue" should have ended on the first post.

"In an act of trying to contain this random, an innocent thread was destroyed.". Honestly?

I really think that as mods we should only act whenever the situation calls for it; trying to "contain the random" is a really stupid concept in itself that goes against forum activity. If this is what we want then the rules should be revised immediately. If I were in his position I would completely understand the feeling of being "targeted", the wording of posts didn't help either.

[T]he moment you start playing their game is the moment you start giving them reasons to continue, changing your avatar and your nick was uncalled for and a really immature move on your part. It was the right cue to take action, let only the action take place and nothing else. Remember that we are nothing but users that have been trusted with the task of keeping the forum healthy and leading by example.
"Several times now, Achamian thought he had glimpsed golden haloes about Kellhus's hands. He found himself envying those, such as Proyas, who claimed to see them all the time."
--R. Scott Bakker
The Thousandfold Thought (2006)