Poll: A Proposal for Better Moderation

[Guffe]

I don't think the moderation needs changing.

I have been warned once for a low content post, that was 5 years ago, after that nothing, not one single warning or green blip in my health bar. It isn't that difficult to choose the wording in ones posts, to not be insulting and have proper arguments.

So no, no second health bar needed, just a little more thought behind the posts a user makes. For example, don't post while full of feelings if that is a mistake that usually makes you rage out on someone and givs you warnings.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I have a strike against my record because the Escapist IS HORRIBLE in my country. I have lost count of the times I wrote a huge ass rant and then when I tried to post, "Connection Lost". Am I the only one who has to go through a "Captcha Error" page every time I want to start a new thread, even when there definitely wasnt a captcha window when I write the post. The mark on my record is due to my posting an empty reply because of a case like this, I refreshed the page and it wouldnt work, so I gave up. When I signed in the next day, I was given a warning notification. This is one thing I think that the mods are a bit too harsh about. There was this one guy who got banned for posting "why?" I realize that its against the rules, but a small infraction like that getting someone banned is ridiculous.

 

[Loonyyy]

I just browsed your list of "passionate and interesting posters."

Of those I recognize, I miss exactly one.

(Not counting people who requested bans or those who came back from the dead.)

Yeah, I'd say the current system is working just fine. And that's coming from someone who was once a single infraction away from a perma-ban.

You were?

You're so well-behaved though!

Not the bees lady? I just realised the other day that a prolific poster was suddenly not posting.

I think she bailed at some point during the GG fallout because people were arseholes.

There were users accusing her of distributing CP, the same attack that was directed at Dan Olsen, for posting his article. Amongst other things. I think they recieved some harrassment and threats. Her website is up and running though now, and has some interesting stuff, including an interview with Jim-"Fucking"-Sterling-"Son" (How does I nickname?), previously of the escapist.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

My god, not another forum rules change. The forum health bar already makes it considerably easier to survive moderation and still be a bother for people. But I've worn my old man hat about moderation before; I'll just say I miss when it was harsher.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Has anyone actually managed to get hold of a real person on the end of that thing? I'm genuinely wondering.

Yep. I've gotten two or three warnings overturned, as well (and just as many maintained).

You really do need to have a cogent argument as to why something needs overturning though. A simple "I don't think this is fair" won't get you very far.

 

[Naraku578]

I don't think this is necessary, from my perspective the Escapist is not that big/popular of a games forum, these rules seem to only add a bit more complexity and arbitrariness to the system. I rarely see any real banworthy posts slipping through and the concept of "Jerk" seems too nonstandard to really be effective.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Go to Something Awful, Nexus Forums, GameFAQs, or NeoGAF and break one of their rules 7 times over, and see what happens to you.
Then come back here and tell me the Escapist moderation is "strict". Please do, I need a good laugh.

SA has always operated on their own logic, as I understand it. I can't speak from personal experience and have never actually had an account on SomethingAwful, since I was warned away from SA by others loooong ago and haven't really considered joining at any point.
I do read the LP archive and occasionally I will see/recognize some of its LPers elsewhere on the net.

But GameFAQs...I was uncomfortably familiar with. I left GFAQs for The Escapist because the moderation here was actually functional; Gamefaqs never really had that good of moderation to begin with, but it degraded to beyond useless following the merger with Gamespot.

Worse, Gamefaqs' "culture" was trending *heavily* towards trolls even before then.
(I remember when LUE users launched invasions on other websites; to the point where it nearly got GFAQs itself into legal trouble). Within a month of Cjay's sellout, many of the boards degenerated into a cesspit of trolling gibberish, extremely tired unfunny memes, and elitist guffawing.

I had been lurking here back in 2008 - 09', and the place seemed much friendlier than GFAQs (among other old haunts), largely due to its moderation, and at least then, the difference of how people behaved and what was discussed was night-and-day.

Today, the biggest problem I can mention as it relates to rules and moderation, (and I'm totally being original here. Yup. Mmmhmm.) is that passive-aggressive business (something I admit I'm guilty of, but have been trying to avoid lately).

Apart from that, well, it's not hard to avoid mod wrath here; just don't be an asshole and 95% of potential infractions disappear.

 

[prowll]

So posting "You can screw up 8 times? What happened to 3 strikes and you're out?" wouldn't help matters? Cause frankly, if you can't stop being a jerk, you need to stop posting.

 

[TakerFoxx]

What is stopping banned users from creating another account? I'm sure it's not an hard thing to do.

IP addresses, I think.

 

[Roxas1359]

So? I know it's not permitted, but I'm sure it's easy to create a new account without people knowing it's an old user.

I'm sure there are some on the site who do this, but you'd be surprised how many people instantly screw up when it comes to making an alternate account to avoid bannings. For example, and I've seen this many times, they'll use the same exact avatar as their recently banned account, have a small variation on their name, etc. Other things that usually happen are that people recognize the posting pattern of that user in question. The Tech Team can also do an IP check as well. If that user constantly comes back after being banned so many times, the Escapist can actually contact the ISP I believe and have it that they can't even access the site at all.

 

[JarinArenos]

So? I know it's not permitted, but I'm sure it's easy to create a new account without people knowing it's an old user.

I'm sure there are some on the site who do this, but you'd be surprised how many people instantly screw up when it comes to making an alternate account to avoid bannings. For example, and I've seen this many times, they'll use the same exact avatar as their recently banned account, have a small variation on their name, etc. Other things that usually happen are that people recognize the posting pattern of that user in question. The Tech Team can also do an IP check as well. If that user constantly comes back after being banned so many times, the Escapist can actually contact the ISP I believe and have it that they can't even access the site at all.

Speaking as an admin on another forum, I've never had someone do this who didn't almost immediately draw attention to themselves again. Don't even have to watch IP addresses that closely to spot them.

 

[Foolery]

8 chances is fair. If you fuck up that many times, I don't think you've properly read the COC, or learned enough self-control. It's not hard. You don't have freedom of speech here, either. Their site, their rules. Don't like it? Leave, or get warnings until you're banned.

 

[Drathnoxis]

So? I know it's not permitted, but I'm sure it's easy to create a new account without people knowing it's an old user.

I'm sure there are some on the site who do this, but you'd be surprised how many people instantly screw up when it comes to making an alternate account to avoid bannings. For example, and I've seen this many times, they'll use the same exact avatar as their recently banned account, have a small variation on their name, etc. Other things that usually happen are that people recognize the posting pattern of that user in question. The Tech Team can also do an IP check as well. If that user constantly comes back after being banned so many times, the Escapist can actually contact the ISP I believe and have it that they can't even access the site at all.

Pretty much spot on, though site access being completely blocked (i.e. "Server not found/responding" error in your browser) is probably when it's determined that us firewalling will get the job done better than dealing with the ISP abuse department (ugh, forms and reports and other paperwork). Except for office or school/university networks; they're perfectly fine immediately adding us to their own content filter programs, which can cause collateral damage to the other rules-abiding users at that location, so we only complain to them if absolutely necessary. Most general ISPs don't tend to do site-specific blocking on their end, for now.

For those that are wondering if ISPs ever care enough about complaints from us to take action, the answer is yes, and especially in the case where we need to complain multiple times about a repeat offender, though a single report can be enough, and has been before.

 

[Belaam]

No complaints, but if anything, I'd rather see the number of strikes go down. 8 is a lot of asshattery before being banned. I'd love to see data on how many people make it to six, suddenly get a grasp of their problems, and then calm down/ start posting things that add to the discussion. My suspicion is that it's rather low.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Eh, I've been posting on and off here since 2009. If you avoid getting dragged into flame wars (the warning signs are easy to spot) then you'll be fine.

Also, holy shit, 2009. 6 years ago. I just looked at my bio, which I don't think I've ever updated, and wow was I a pretentious fuck when I was 15. 'Musician' - yeah right mate, you were in a shitty band.

Ahem.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

I must admit that I am getting tired of hearing the mods are crap, and I'm not even one of them. This site is not reddit, 4chan, 8chan or the like and that's precisely why I'm here. Even with all the rules and mods in place, you can easily see how close the site is from being a less popular reddit.

As for getting rid of the low-content rule, that strikes me as a bad idea due to the format alone. Many sites are made for brief comments because you don't have to travel across several screens to read a few of them. You can fit about 6-8 lines in the standard text boxes here before the borders shift to accommodate your comment and there's a limit of 35 to a page. Imagine scrolling through several pages just to see variations on "lol." It's irrelevant anyways because the mods were overwhelmed by Gamergate and were even ordered from on-high to abandon the moderation of low content.

If this site were to lose the proper moderation, it would likely lose any appeal it has since it would be just another site where anyone can post anything. The slightly above-standard comments on these forums are what is appealing to me.