Moderation FAQ

[DigitalSushi]

I guess it's about time for me to come out with it...

Spoiler: I have a real banhammer at the office

When you first said that I thought you were referring to a toy hammer like the one Archon has for reinforcing the troops. My how wrong I was.

*booming mod voice*

[HEADING=1]FEAR MY HAMMER![/HEADING]

Spoiler

*dink*

Nas, you know I love you and everything, can I get a bigger hammer please?

Spoiler

Ahh yes, I remember the trek well. To be fair, I refused to leave my steel caps behind. Threatening to kick one of the Gods in the unmentionable if I was barred for awesome fucking boots worked a treat. I don't think it could happen twice however, and no-one else has quite my force of personality to pull it off.

Of course, dear Escapist Commoners, getting a modship is only the beginning of the battle. It is the intro quest in a game so powerful that few, even among the Mountain Gods comprehend all the details. The side-quests are long and arduous. There's even upkeep to be performed in ones home base which requires co-operation lest it become overwhelming. In many ways modding is like playing Dorf Fortress with your hands in mittens and sunglasses on. For a time you will be in control. Power and resources will be yours.

Then the cats. Oh. The cats. The cats will come. There is a reason I weild a BanSword.

Wow, you guys had to go through all of that, I went through the traditional origins route and got bitten by a radioactive banhammer.

Spoilered for cleanlyness, remember children, spoiler's are like purell for the internet!.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

*booming mod voice*

[HEADING=1]FEAR MY HAMMER![/HEADING]

Spoiler

*dink*

Nas, you know I love you and everything, can I get a bigger hammer please?

Why do that? You know what they said about guys with big banhammers right?

[sub][sub][sub]...and that is totally unrelated to why I used a rocket-propelled banchainsaw. [/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[DigitalSushi]

We have an amnesty system for that. After six 6 months without any infractions, your forum health meter will drop a level. After two years without any infractions your forum health meter will reset. Keep in mind that although it is possible to reset your FHM, your infraction history remains, and will be taken into consideration if ever another infraction is made.

If your going to take previous infractions into consideration even when somebody has wiped clean their health bar, doesn't that make the bar itself kind of redundant?

Nah its cool, your thinking to much in a manner that a computer and a programmed algorithm would think.

If someone 3 years down the line after completely wipes clean there ban history we still need to know previous offences, just to know what they are capable of.

We will not prejudice against them, the forum cannot prejudice them, its merely a reference point for us to take into account.

*booming mod voice*

[HEADING=1]FEAR MY HAMMER![/HEADING]

Spoiler

*dink*

Nas, you know I love you and everything, can I get a bigger hammer please?

Why do that? You know what they said about guys with big banhammers right?

[sub][sub][sub]...and that is totally unrelated to why I used a rocket-propelled banchainsaw. [/sub][/sub][/sub]

They are awesome and I love them?

 

[Jedamethis]

I almost want to be a mod just so I can get a Banweapon and join in with story-telling and shizz. But that'd be a bad idea...
*glares at his Laziness*

 

[-Dragmire-]

I guess it's about time for me to come out with it...

Spoiler: I have a real banhammer at the office

When you first said that I thought you were referring to a toy hammer like the one Archon has for reinforcing the troops. My how wrong I was.

*booming mod voice*

[HEADING=1]FEAR MY HAMMER![/HEADING]

Spoiler

*dink*

Nas, you know I love you and everything, can I get a bigger hammer please?

You should aim for the mighty Hammer Drill!

Spoiler: Not sure how it's supposed to work though...

By the way, do you guys require user reports to deal judgment or do you warn/suspend/ban/nuke users you come across in the forums if you deem it necessary, even if no one has reported them yet?

 

[The Virgo]

Yes, I have a question: Why did I get a 14-day suspension for insulting a mod ON A COMPLETE DIFFERENT FORUM AND WEBSITE? It was made clear that in my post that it wasn't about here and in my next post on that same thread I said very clearly that the mods here were cool and were not jerks.

I have yet to see anything that says insulting a mod from a different website is against the rules.

I would like an explanation, please.

 

[The Virgo]

Yes, I have a question: Why did I get a 14-day suspension for insulting a mod ON A COMPLETE DIFFERENT FORUM AND WEBSITE? It was made clear that in my post that it wasn't about here and in my next post on that same thread I said very clearly that the mods here were cool and were not jerks.

I have yet to see anything that says insulting a mod from a different website is against the rules.

I would like an explanation, please.

...what the hell? That suspension's ridiculous!

What does the mod message say? And did you take it up with them through the official channel?

"Flaming/trolling" ... Uh, no? How? The point of the tread (which was one I started to begin with) was "Crazient/Oddest/Worst Userbase on a Forum?" That was the point.

"and creating hatred towards another community." What I said about them was the God's honest truth. Anytime a mod says they will ban you when you don't have any infraction points and, I quote, this is not a joke, "... send an email to all those involved and say "See, I TOLD you so!", he is overstepping his boundaries and would have been harrasment. Then, when you report him to an admin and he says that he WAS NOT and then begins to insult you, they are douches. "Creating hatred towards another community"? No, I was warning THIS ONE to STAY AWAY from them.

 

[The Virgo]

*snip*

I think you could easily have got that removed, and can easily now. It's repeatedly been stated that groups can be insulted, individuals can't - and you were insulting a group, not an individual.

Ah shit, THAT'S where the problem is! I did actually specifically mention the admin who insulted me. Ah well, for a moment there I thought I had them beat. <:-(

I hate to have initiated this conversation with you for nothing, but I do want to thank you for trying to help me. Anyway, good luck and thanks for pointing out where the problem was.

 

[DigitalSushi]

By the way, do you guys require user reports to deal judgment or do you warn/suspend/ban/nuke users you come across in the forums if you deem it necessary, even if no one has reported them yet?

A reported post is not required to incur our ire and wrath, if the comment breaches the rules then it doesn't matter how we come across it, we will deal with it accordingly.

Yes, I have a question: Why did I get a 14-day suspension for insulting a mod ON A COMPLETE DIFFERENT FORUM AND WEBSITE? It was made clear that in my post that it wasn't about here and in my next post on that same thread I said very clearly that the mods here were cool and were not jerks.

I have yet to see anything that says insulting a mod from a different website is against the rules.

I would like an explanation, please.

Have you made an appeal?

First thing you need to do is make an appeal, bitching about it gets you no where and your just speculating now, with isn't conducing to this thread or your argument.

Also, this isn't the place to appeal, if you would like to discuss this via PM you are quite welcome too.

 

[The Virgo]

Have you made an appeal?

First thing you need to do is make an appeal, bitching about it gets you no where and your just speculating now, with isn't conducing to this thread or your argument.

Also, this isn't the place to appeal, if you would like to discuss this via PM you are quite welcome too.

I did, actually, less than 12 hours after the infraction, and I never got an answer. That's why I posted here. And since I wouldn't know which mod to PM, I just figured that ALL the mods (including yourself) would check here and would find my post. Hey, it worked, right?

Buy, like another user pointed out, the problem was that I mentioned a specific admin, which is what got me in hot water, so I guess I don't have a case. <:-/ Ah well, at least the infraction meter can go down, so I guess I'll have to be careful for awhile ...

Thanks for replying, though! It's good to know that when you need a mod, there are some around.

Oh, I also have an unrelated question that's more on-topic: Is it possible for a moderator to receive warnings?

 

[Roxas1359]

Have you made an appeal?

First thing you need to do is make an appeal, bitching about it gets you no where and your just speculating now, with isn't conducing to this thread or your argument.

Also, this isn't the place to appeal, if you would like to discuss this via PM you are quite welcome too.

I did, actually, less than 12 hours after the infraction, and I never got an answer. That's why I posted here. And since I wouldn't know which mod to PM, I just figured that ALL the mods (including yourself) would check here and would find my post. Hey, it worked, right?

Buy, like another user pointed out, the problem was that I mentioned a specific admin, which is what got me in hot water, so I guess I don't have a case. <:-/ Ah well, at least the infraction meter can go down, so I guess I'll have to be careful for awhile ...

Thanks for replying, though! It's good to know that when you need a mod, there are some around.

Oh, I also have an unrelated question that's more on-topic: Is it possible for a moderator to receive warnings?

From what I've seen, mods don't reieve the kind of warnings we do. If a mod were to get in trouble they would get warned by the staff. So basically to answer your question: yes they do get warnings, but mod accounts do not have a forum health meter like we do. However, once that mod retires or gives up on being a mod then they do get forum health meters and can recieve infractions that cause the meter to go up. Is that about right @ColdStorage or am I mistaken?

 

[DigitalSushi]

Thanks for replying, though! It's good to know that when you need a mod, there are some around.

Oh, I also have an unrelated question that's more on-topic: Is it possible for a moderator to receive warnings?

In future if you have problems with moderation in general [user]Nasrin[/user] is your go to girl, she our awesome Community Manager and the guardian of baby turtles.

Sorry for cutting down your quote, I'll answer your other question by quoting Neronium

From what I've seen, mods don't reieve the kind of warnings we do. If a mod were to get in trouble they would get warned by the staff. So basically to answer your question: yes they do get warnings, but mod accounts do not have a forum health meter like we do. However, once that mod retires or gives up on being a mod then they do get forum health meters and can recieve infractions that cause the meter to go up. Is that about right @ColdStorage or am I mistaken?

The Moderators are not immune, if we step out of line the same rules applies to us as the rest of the community, but chances are we are a lot less likely to explode, we deal with arguments most days so instead of making things worse we tend to diffuse situations.

That and we are really hard on each other and constantly critique ourselves, NewClassic's motto, if in doubt, ask a question, ask 50 of them.

We also sometimes get things wrong in terms of moderation, that's when we get a dreaded PM from Nasrin telling us off.

So to answer your final question, once we retire, same rules applies, but like I said before we are less likely to be taken in by flamebait.

edit: we do have health meters, I can show you if you want by warning myself.

 

[DigitalSushi]

I almost want to be a mod just so I can get a Banweapon and join in with story-telling and shizz. But that'd be a bad idea...
*glares at his Laziness*

That's the best part of being a mod, we get given a weapon to smite trolls with, although having to have eyeball implants to deal with the report queue is quite painful.

I got myself a shiny BanBow, Wilson smites with his Sausage on a Stick, LaCoil has the BanMop and UltraJoe had the Dominator.

Warning the following contains scenes of awesome, The Escapist is not liable for symptons resulting from watching the following such as Ultraness, head explosions and sudden death.

 

[Roxas1359]

*snippity snip snip*

Ah, I see. Thanks for elaborating on that for us both.

 

[Shadow flame master]

So do you have to be a moderator in order to create threads? Sorry for the(possibly)dumb question, but in my two months here, I have never been able to make a thread even though I have a couple of ideas in my head.

Also, can moderators be banned as well? They're posters as well and if they start a flame war, or disrespect a fellow escapist, shouldn't they also be punished too? This never happened to me, just a random thought.

 

[Jedamethis]

I almost want to be a mod just so I can get a Banweapon and join in with story-telling and shizz. But that'd be a bad idea...
*glares at his Laziness*

That's the best part of being a mod, we get given a weapon to smite trolls with, although having to have eyeball implants to deal with the report queue is quite painful.

I got myself a shiny BanBow, Wilson smites with his Sausage on a Stick, LaCoil has the BanMop and UltraJoe had the Dominator.

Warning the following contains scenes of awesome, The Escapist is not liable for symptons resulting from watching the following such as Ultraness, head explosions and sudden death.

I remember somebody has an Un-Ban Spatula in their cupboard. Gathering dust.
Who was it who had the BanSMop? A mop with a sword in the handle...

...Buh. Wha. Floob. *brain has become overwhelmed with HOLY SHIT messages*

 

[DigitalSushi]

So do you have to be a moderator in order to create threads? Sorry for the(possibly)dumb question, but in my two months here, I have never been able to make a thread even though I have a couple of ideas in my head.

Also, can moderators be banned as well? They're posters as well and if they start a flame war, or disrespect a fellow escapist, shouldn't they also be punished too? This never happened to me, just a random thought.

Create away young child, create away, you have the capability to create threads.

Mods can get banned, we wouldn't cause shit though and start a flame war though.

We love this site, we love this community, we don't actually want to cause harm.

 

[Worgen]

Well, its nice to have these things clarified, I still think that 6 months is too long for the health bar to recharge, 2 or 3 months makes more sense, I mean I've seen more then a few long time members banned for rather trivial infractions just because the health bar filled up.

 

[Lang901]

How does one become a moderator?

You do not come to us, we come to you. If you do right by this community and show that you know the rules and how to handle yourself, we will find you. Keep in mind that it is tough work, and it may not be as fun as you might expect.

Genuinely, just post as you normally would and act as you normally do. Moderation is one of those things that shows itself as a function of being a positive influence and maintaining good posting habits. It's not enough to push the rules, or to command they be followed, but instead act as a positive example of them in how you think, act, and do.

Modding is just a way to give back to the community. It's not power, it's responsibility. If you work and act in the community's best interest, and for the overall improvement of the forum, then you'll become a likely candidate for moderation. Candidacy is just that, though. No one can say a single way, for better or worse, to become a mod. It's just in the doing, and the being, and hopefully being helpful to everyone along the way.

It's mostly just a lot of work.

You said that moderators are for the community, and for awhile i have been kicking around the idea of a Moderator nomination thread and i was wondering if that was against the forum rules?

 

[Sassafrass]

You said that moderators are for the community, and for awhile i have been kicking around the idea of a Moderator nomination thread and i was wondering if that was against the forum rules?

It'd just turn into a popularity contest, like the majority of threads where you put forwards someone does. I can think of a few people of the top of my head that would get put forward immediately and have about ten people to back up that suggestion and jealousy/flames would spread.

So, while it's not against forum rules, I wouldn't advise it unless you want a flame war topic on your hands.