Dear Users Complaining About Moderators

[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.

 

[Basement Cat]

Not quite "thousands" of votes, but just over 1 thousand votes. Still a conclusive result though.

I guess my memory isn't what it used to be: Old age creeping up on me, no doubt.

In any case, it might be worth someone re-making that thread of yours, once this thread has died down, of course.

I'll remake that thread August 5th when my own health bar will be clean.

Thanks for finding it! ^_^

 

[The Lunatic]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.402969-Poll-You-have-a-clean-record-Excellent-job-citizen?view_results=1

Not quite "thousands" of votes, but just over 1 thousand votes. Still a conclusive result though.

That said, I've already been told by a couple of people in this thread, that any poll held on this site (apparently) can't be used as evidence, and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Make of that what you will.

There's also this Kross post, which shows warning totals for all users with 1000 or more posts who have "logged in over the last few months". (Though I should point out that this post, and therefore this data, is about a year-and-a-half old now.)
But this piece of evidence was immediately hand-waved away by someone too (in this very thread).

I guess there's just no convincing some people.


In any case, it might be worth someone re-making that thread of yours, once this thread has died down, of course.

Please calm down with the sass.

I do not appreciate the continual harassment.

We disagree, I'm sorry we don't see eye to eye, but please, this isn't helping your case and is just making you come across worse.

Your attitude here is not helping and only breeds an air of discontent.

I am asking you nicely to please stop. I have been nothing but polite to you, and all I ask is that you return the same.

 

[Proto Taco]

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

You're making a gross generalization there that does not facilitate actual discussion.

Furthermore, I've read your post, you put the admins on a very distinct pedestal. The entire thing is basically one long, 'woe is the plight of the admins' speech, and quite frankly it's not a big leap to conclude that you're passively praising the admins.

Additionally, the conduct of many of the admins I've seen on this board has been decidedly unprofessional which does not lend a lot of credibility to your initial claims.

 

[IceForce]

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.

Meh, you should peek in at R&P sometime. You're almost guaranteed to see examples of offensive and disparaging remarks towards minorities.

 

[Lightknight]

I like how people are always real quick to accuse us of "abusing our power", but these people never provide any evidence of this.
Funny that.

Isn't it normally standard practice here on the Escapist forums to provid evidence of claims made? "Citation needed" and all that?

The reason why there's no evidence of it is because it doesn't happen.

Personally I want to see abuses of power. I want there to be darkness and chaos in the streets. I want to get the feeling of feet scurrying by to make it home by curfew when you log in and to see shops offering anti-hammer potions to the gullible.

I mean, really, the biggest rule on the forum besides the obvious explicit posts is just not to directly insult other members. Someone get's angry and insults another poster, bam, hammer time. It's not hard to figure out. Minor warnings fly for low content posts and whatnot but it's generally an open forum intended as a safe place to discuss these topics.

Though, I suppose if anyone would have the power to delete evidence of abuses.... [REDACTED}

 

[Kenbo Slice]

I just have one question for the mods, how come it's been over 6 months since my last warning and my bar hasn't dropped at all?

 

[Marter]

I just have one question for the mods, how come it's been over 6 months since my last warning and my bar hasn't dropped at all?

Because it has?

You were in yellow, and in May you were dropped down to green.

Also, if it legitimately hasns't, it's not a moderator question; direct those to the tech team. We have no control over the amnesty or lowering of a health bar.

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

Through the years I've made an observation: somehow, the population of users who excessively complain about moderation on this forum always coincides with those who have already gotten warnings or are on the verge of being banned.

A very strange coincidence, indeed....

-----

In my opinion, if anything the mods should become even more trigger-happy: there are a bunch of users who took far too much time to actually get banned or continue to fly under (or rather over, given that one particular individuals post and mean-word count) their radar despite the fact that they treat this forum as a place to post their own opinionated, hateful and sometimes plain lunatic aborted blog entries to prove that they are right instead of actually trying to have a debate or make a point without demanding genocide of convenient target group X.

Low content rule is basically not a thing anymore and yes, we'd love for the CoC to be changed to address that.

Awww damn. This is bound to worsen the signal-to-noise ratio in OT even more - please be careful when rewriting that thing. I have less of an inclination of reading a thread when 99% of it consists of boring one-word responses thought up in ten seconds and posted because it sounded cool and ups ones post count.

 

[b3nn3tt]

I've personally never had any issue with the moderation on this site. I'm one of those people who always clicks on the link when a user has received moderation for a post, and I'm yet to come across one that I thought was unfair. On top of that, I agree with the basic argument of the opening post that raging at the mods over the rules, and why appeals haven't gone through and such, isn't the best way to go about doing things. I've never had an issue with the rules, but I can appreciate that some people do, and that's perfectly fine. However, there are ways to go about airing grievances, and insulting mods and other users in a thread isn't the way to go about it.

I do dislike it when I see people posting with sentences like 'I'm going to get modded for this post but it needs saying'. It is entirely possible to criticise an aspect of the rules, or the site, or the mods, without being insulting about it. Essentially, that is the whole point of the 'Don't be a jerk' rule. It's not too difficult to avoid insulting other people whilst still getting one's point across.

Basically, I'm perfectly happy with the moderation on this site, and think it's a shame that people feel the need to rant at the mods, sometimes directly insulting them, just for enforcing the rules. The mods are people too, and it would be nice if everyone treated them that way.