Dear Users Complaining About Moderators

[Proto Taco]

I really don't see how this thread helps anyone.

Basically the OP goes on an absolutist diatribe against people who complain, because seriously, it's SO unusual for people to complain, and then is promptly backed up by a similarly absolutist-sounding admin. The whole thing really kinda makes the OP look as bad as the people who are complaining about the mods.

I mean, people are people, sometimes they're gonna have bad days, and sometimes they're gonna complain about it on the internet. Can't we just agree that stupid happens, and everyone does it from time to time? Then can we move on to simply trying to understand each other rather than shouting over each other?

Nonsense like these "Dear XYZ," 'letters' don't help anyone. Mods are no more immune to human stupid than the rest of the milling masses, and both mods and milling-mass alike need to realize that.

Seriously, this is ridiculous.

 

[Fappy]

I really don't see how this thread helps anyone.

Basically the OP goes on an absolutist diatribe against people who complain, because seriously, it's SO unusual for people to complain, and then is promptly backed up by a similarly absolutist-sounding admin. The whole thing really kinda makes the OP look as bad as the people who are complaining about the mods.

I mean, people are people, sometimes they're gonna have bad days, and sometimes they're gonna complain about it on the internet. Can't we just agree that stupid happens, and everyone does it from time to time? Then can we move on to simply trying to understand each other rather than shouting over each other?

Nonsense like these "Dear XYZ," 'letters' don't help anyone. Mods are no more immune to human stupid than the rest of the milling masses, and both mods and milling-mass alike need to realize that.

Seriously, this is ridiculous.

To be fair to the many people who frequent the forums, seeing repeat threads over and over again can get very tiresome. The OP clearly has a strong opinion on the topic, so I'd imagine seeing enough people complaining just got him pissed off enough to speak out about it. I do somewhat agree that this thread is... well, it isn't really helping anything.

From where I stand, it's really just a matter of misinformation. Sure, the mods are fallible, just as you said, but a lot of the issues continuously pinned on them are completely out of their power. I'm not especially blaming the site staff (they have plenty more important things on their plate than moderating a somewhat niche internet forum), but many of the common complaints can only be addressed by those higher up the food-chain.

Also, people really should read the CoC. A LOT of common misunderstandings could be avoided entirely if people just read stuff instead of blindly clicking "Accept".

 

[Fappy]

Also, people really should read the CoC. A LOT of common misunderstandings could be avoided entirely if people just read stuff instead of blindly clicking "Accept".

I've read it, but I'm definitely guilty of forgetting stuff. Is it enough to simply read it once, or must you read it as many times as you need to be able to memorize the whole thing?

I haven't read it in years, to be honest. I don't remember every nuance by any means, I just manage to stay out of trouble by being courteous to other posts. That's usually all it takes. The "Don't Be a Jerk" rule is vague as fuck, sure, but if you can understand what it means it'll cover your ass from 90% of the infractions you might accumulate.

 

[IceForce]

Snip

To be fair, from what I can gather (Unless the post was editted!), the warning was given for saying (And I quote) "The Mods here suck".

Which falls under "Mod Sass".

However, if the statement was changed to "The mods here aren't very good".

Then the meaning is still exactly the same. The words are just different.

So, it raises the question as to if moderators are moderating based on the intention or just a choice word they take offence to.

That entire exchange, and subsequent suspension, shows that there's a bit of a slippery slope when it comes to talking about this subject.

The more of a fuss you kick up, the more penalties you rack up.

 

[lacktheknack]

<quote=someone who ragequit the site, apparently>A warning for simply telling them how I feel about their work as a result of their actions in a forum topic that specifically ASKS for honesty.

It's funny, because I never asked for honesty. I just underwent intense Canadian rage for ten points, all of which he missed.

If nothing else, this thread has let me know who actually reads long OPs.

 

[lacktheknack]

Snip

To be fair, from what I can gather (Unless the post was editted!), the warning was given for saying (And I quote) "The Mods here suck".

Which falls under "Mod Sass".

However, if the statement was changed to "The mods here aren't very good".

Then the meaning is still exactly the same. The words are just different.

So, it raises the question as to if moderators are moderating based on the intention or just a choice word they take offence to.

That entire exchange, and subsequent suspension, shows that there's a bit of a slippery slope when it comes to talking about this subject.

The more of a fuss you kick up, the more penalties you rack up.

If only people could fuss gracefully, rather than through directly insulting diatribes...

 

[DoPo]

And despite all that you said in your OP, we're still getting people ranting and raving at the mods, calling us "terrible people", and accusing us of "abusing our power".

May I suggest a course of action? You round up all mods (all mods) and you all band together and create the new group. You will then call yourselves Hammer Force[footnote]as a side note, you may need to discretely dispose of these guys [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbQ8VkoO-iA] so they don't dispute your title.[/footnote]. Now sweep across the planet and enslave all of humanity. Afterwards, you should enslave all other species one by one for good measure[footnote]I suggest going in alphabetical order - so, start with aadvarks.[/footnote]. With the entire planet in under your firm iron (but also just and caring) fist you start administer bans[footnote]Which, by the way, would mean "eating a banana split in front of somebody without giving them any" - "ban" in short because when you are eating a banana split you don't want to say that whole phrase.[/footnote]. Hold public bans, private bans, personal bans, and group bans - all sorts. After exactly a year and a day since your rule started, you mods would gather all people together and tell them "See this? This is what abusing our power looks like. Be thankful we did not do it earlier. But now we must leave". You may need to take turns because of eating the banana splits, you know. But I know you can work it out. At any rate, after your speech you all fly off and conquer another planet to have only for yourselves and live happily ever after free of worry, regret or frustration, while humanity tries to pick up the pieces of their former lives.

Yeah, only thing that comes to mind on how to handle this.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Snip

Snip

Snip

Snip

To be fair, from what I can gather (Unless the post was editted!), the warning was given for saying (And I quote) "The Mods here suck".

Which falls under "Mod Sass".

However, if the statement was changed to "The mods here aren't very good".

Then the meaning is still exactly the same. The words are just different.

So, it raises the question as to if moderators are moderating based on the intention or just a choice word they take offence to.

That would usually have the same effect. If, however, it was 'The mods here need to improve, here is how I think it could be done: XXX, what do you think?' and it was done in the moderators user group, where it should be, then that would be fine!

 

[NortherWolf]

This is the site where using troll about someone who writes a short post to flamebait, or talking about Adblock might get you warned or banned. But some posters are free to say that gay men are raping pedophiles...Yeah, my trust in the rules and such on here are about as low as they can possibly be.
It's just...Weird.

 

[TimeLord]

You touched on this a little Lack, but I think it deserves some more emphasis.

The mods don't get paid, they get pub-club for their trouble, that's all.

A person will not get wrathed for using the word "Adblock" or any variation of.
A person will get wrathed for admitting to using the plugin or advocating it's use.

The word itself is harmless, the non-wrath on this post can act as evidence of that.

[HEADING=1]BANNED![/HEADING]

Because totally legit Mod power reasons.
Not abusing my power
Never
>.>

 

[Eamar]

This is the site where using troll about someone who writes a short post to flamebait, or talking about Adblock might get you warned or banned. But some posters are free to say that gay men are raping pedophiles...Yeah, my trust in the rules and such on here are about as low as they can possibly be.
It's just...Weird.

Do you report the posts calling gays paedophiles when you see them? If so, then yeah, it's completely wrong that they don't get moderated (I do find that hard to believe though). If not, the mods probably never see the posts in the first place. They depend on us users flagging stuff, as there's no way a handful of unpaid volunteers with real lives outside this site could possibly read every single post.

 

[NortherWolf]

This is the site where using troll about someone who writes a short post to flamebait, or talking about Adblock might get you warned or banned. But some posters are free to say that gay men are raping pedophiles...Yeah, my trust in the rules and such on here are about as low as they can possibly be.
It's just...Weird.

Do you report the posts calling gays paedophiles when you see them? If so, then yeah, it's completely wrong that they don't get moderated (I do find that hard to believe though). If not, the mods probably never see the posts in the first place. They depend on us users flagging stuff, as there's no way a handful of unpaid volunteers with real lives outside this site could possibly read every single post.

Yep, after a while I gave up and put said user on Ignore. I've realized that this site is, put simply, shit. It's to damn focused on patting the egos of it's users that if you act like a complete dick to anyone outside it, then that's fine.

 

[Eamar]

Yep, after a while I gave up and put said user on Ignore.

Huh, that does sound odd. As Barbas said earlier, would you mind linking to the post in question? If your summary is accurate, that's an incredibly obvious breach of the rules, and I fail to see why it wouldn't be moderated. The post Barbas linked to is a recent example of someone getting hit very hard by the banhammer for making the same comparison. Someone also received a suspension recently for making a blanket, very insulting statement about western feminists, so it's not like insults have to be aimed at an individual to receive wrath.

It's to damn focused on patting the egos of it's users that if you act like a complete dick to anyone outside it, then that's fine.

I'm genuinely curious, what makes you think LGBT people are "outside" this site's userbase?

 

[NortherWolf]

Yep, after a while I gave up and put said user on Ignore.

Huh, that does sound odd. As Barbas said earlier, would you mind linking to the post in question? If your summary is accurate, that's an incredibly obvious breach of the rules, and I fail to see why it wouldn't be moderated. The post Barbas linked to is a recent example of someone getting hit very hard by the banhammer for making the same comparison. Someone also received a suspension recently for making a blanket, very insulting statement about western feminists, so it's not like insults have to be aimed at an individual to receive wrath.

It's to damn focused on patting the egos of it's users that if you act like a complete dick to anyone outside it, then that's fine.

I'm genuinely curious, what makes you think LGBT people are "outside" this site's userbase?

It's been well over a year, and the post that tipped the scale for me I never responded too, so not likely I can dig it up, sorry :/.
Susan, the lass who was responsible for this place a while back had some issues with the same poster though. But far as I can tell he's around*shrugs*

The focus of the Escapist hardly is on the LGBT movement, it's on nerds. There are some here that are part of both movements of course. And it's a certain...Well, not sure what to call it...Tendency I've seen on a lot of forums. "As long as you don't call GreatSocket14 a *** you're fine.". Summed up once on another site with "Those getting insulted aren't members of this site."

 

[lacktheknack]

snippity snip

Why the hell do people think this thread is about praising the mods? Why does no one EVER read the OP?

This is not their fault, but since they're the enforcers, they'll get the complaints. Hopefully there exists a line of communication between mods and staff and hopefully this is being used when there are frequent complaints about the same thing.

Here. This right here. This is entirely what the OP was trying to address. My entire OP is trying to redirect the complainers to the correct goddamned channels, but none of them are reading the OP. Likely, this includes you.

 

[lacktheknack]

Why do you think that I think that your post is about praising the mods?

Because the very first thing you said was about your grievances with the moderation?

I've read your first post three times. Now after your reply, I've read it twice more.

I like that you have the reading comprehension that you get that I agree with part of your point. Thank you for quoting that part. You do understand that I couldn't just quote you and write "Yes, this!".

On top of that during your passionate leave britney alone speech, I felt you didn't understand or at the very least, didn't represent certain aspects to the mod-user interaction that I felt should be said. So I did.

But that's not what I was going for in this thread. This entire thread was born from pure rage at people who don't read the code of conduct and then completely fail to use their complaints effectively. Mod/user interaction wasn't what I was going for at all, I just wanted to clear up what mods can and cannot do, and then point people in the correct direction to use their time/words and stop mucking up the wrong spaces.

Yes, with rage. Five years does bad things to your patience.

It was hardly a "Leave Britney Alone" speech, it was more like a customer representative hotline worker going completely mental.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Please, make my day for once, Escapist. Educate yourself on really easy subjects before complaining about them... just... for... once.

Before I comment further, let me just say that your new avatar is creepy as hell.

With that out of the way I feel I have to agree with you. Moderation on this site is conducted along a set list of rules that apply to everyone with no exceptions. The one issue I have had with mods on this site in the years I've been here was still firmly grounded in the established rules. I was involved in a (let's call it 'forthright') discussion with another user and they were suspended for a comment that they made to me. Now I personally was not offended by their post - we were both passionately defending our own positions - but apparently his reply to me crossed a line which, although inoffensive to myself, contravened site rules. I must admit that, to this day, I feel guilty for engaging a fellow Escapist in a discussion that brought a negative repocussion onto them, but as you say the mods have no control over the rules and must adjudicate accordingly.

TL;DR - The terms and conditions of this site are open to all, and regardless of personal feelings on any given issue they need to be adhered to. If anything, mods are more bound by the rules of this site than we are.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

So...

Just out of curiosity, would you ever consider asking for a lock here or are you going to wait until the OP is even more completely disregarded to the point where the mods lock it anyway?

We've had at least one forum seppuku here already and people are getting peevish.

Predictable I know but I just wanted to know how you felt about it.

 

[Basement Cat]

I am Lord of Archive Searches.

Yes, you are, my friend, which is why I need your help finding that Poll I made in the winter of 2013 asking people how many warnings they'd ever received. I remember there were thousands of votes with the vast majority of them coming from Escapists who had never--EVER--received a single warning.

If someone wants a Poll with conclusive numbers (and comments) that one would serve nicely, I think.

 

[lacktheknack]

So...

Just out of curiosity, would you ever consider asking for a lock here or are you going to wait until the OP is even more completely disregarded to the point where the mods lock it anyway?

We've had at least one forum seppuku here already and people are getting peevish.

Predictable I know but I just wanted to know how you felt about it.

The responses are barely trickling in right now. May as well let it end naturally, so it can be referenced later.