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A lighter touch for moderation?
- Thread starter woodelf
- Start date
Michael Morris
First Post
Darth K'Trava said:
::The anti-spam bot burps - having killed it's 24th victim three days ago::
Self-moderation does not happen enough so forum moderation is needed, you can't predict what will be said but you can see a trend of a thread. We trust the mods to make the call (demand it, I could say) and 99% of the time it is the right call, they do a great job. 
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
As I've said before, I think the best metaphor for a messageboard is that of a hosted party at someone's house. It's an open party: anyone can drop by. The host isn't really responsible for the behavior of his guests.
But in a way he is, because if enough guests behave badly, the other guests are likely to stop having fun. If a single guest gets too belligerent, she can ruin the fun for a whole lot of people. And the host, more than anyone else, is responsible for calming down (or kicking out!) the belligerent guest.
The host is also the one putting the most time into the party. Since he's the one creating it, it's really his choice what sort of atmosphere he wants. Some hosts like a rowdy atmosphere in which there's wrasslin on the front lawn; others like a calmer, quieter atmosphere. The guests may suggest a different atmosphere, but in the end, the host gets to decide what sort of party he's throwing.
Sure, flame wars can be allowed to continue. But that's not the atmosphere of this party. There's plenty of places online where flamewars may be carried out. The hosts here have decided against them.
Consider also that moderating isn't much fun: it means that you get to read the snarkiest, bitterest, meanest posts on the board, and you have to decide whether they're snarky, bitter, and/or mean enough to warrant action. The rest of you are free to ignore threads that have descended into ickiness. Not so the mods: they gotta wallow in it.
So although that ickiness doesn't bother you, keep in mind that it bothers the mods; and if we occasionally stop a conversation mid-ick when you think it could've continued successfully, it may be because (in addition to all Henry's excellent points) we don't particularly want to have to wade through another couple pages of ick before things resolve; and we don't want people getting lax about flaming, thinking that it's acceptable behavior. The more people that think it's okay to be snarky, insulting, etc., the more ick we've got to wade through.
Daniel
But in a way he is, because if enough guests behave badly, the other guests are likely to stop having fun. If a single guest gets too belligerent, she can ruin the fun for a whole lot of people. And the host, more than anyone else, is responsible for calming down (or kicking out!) the belligerent guest.
The host is also the one putting the most time into the party. Since he's the one creating it, it's really his choice what sort of atmosphere he wants. Some hosts like a rowdy atmosphere in which there's wrasslin on the front lawn; others like a calmer, quieter atmosphere. The guests may suggest a different atmosphere, but in the end, the host gets to decide what sort of party he's throwing.
Sure, flame wars can be allowed to continue. But that's not the atmosphere of this party. There's plenty of places online where flamewars may be carried out. The hosts here have decided against them.
Consider also that moderating isn't much fun: it means that you get to read the snarkiest, bitterest, meanest posts on the board, and you have to decide whether they're snarky, bitter, and/or mean enough to warrant action. The rest of you are free to ignore threads that have descended into ickiness. Not so the mods: they gotta wallow in it.
So although that ickiness doesn't bother you, keep in mind that it bothers the mods; and if we occasionally stop a conversation mid-ick when you think it could've continued successfully, it may be because (in addition to all Henry's excellent points) we don't particularly want to have to wade through another couple pages of ick before things resolve; and we don't want people getting lax about flaming, thinking that it's acceptable behavior. The more people that think it's okay to be snarky, insulting, etc., the more ick we've got to wade through.
Daniel
Brother Shatterstone
Dark Moderator of PbP
Wow, I put ENworld down to one of the friendliest message boards I've ever been on... and one of the less moderated that's not on the verge of chaos.
Disagreeing with a moderator has its place… I’ve never jumped down someone throat when they took the time to PM me or email me about the issue but having issues and being shaky about comments in public. It’s just bad form and makes you look like the ass as, luckily, most realize we do this out of kindness and cause we care about the forum.
Disagreeing with a moderator has its place… I’ve never jumped down someone throat when they took the time to PM me or email me about the issue but having issues and being shaky about comments in public. It’s just bad form and makes you look like the ass as, luckily, most realize we do this out of kindness and cause we care about the forum.
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
I'm not sure it'd be possible for there to be a 'light touch' to moderating here on ENWorld without getting rid of the moderators all together...
Which is, of course, one step closer to my true plan of ultimate ENWorld Domination...
