[VID] The Escapist forums moderation is wildly inconsistent (now with data!)

[RiseofDaWolfie]

Here is a video a friend made raising some concerns with the forums moderation. I would encourage everyone to at least give the first 3 or so minutes a chance as its well founded rather than insulting.




Both the video and this thread are meant purely as constructive criticism, please do not interpret it as some kind of attack.

 

[Thaluikhain]

A friend, hey? Righto.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

New user. First post. Directly linking to recently banned user's whinging. Subtle, dude.

 

[Odin]

The flaw in this video's reasoning is that it assumes that all moderation strikes should be treated equally, which isn't necessarily the case. A user being permanently banned for three low content posts, say, would be absurdly harsh, whereas three posts containing racial slurs should be more than enough chances. A fair system should take into account the circumstances of each warning and tailor the resulting penalty accordingly. Otherwise, you'll end up with the forum equivalent of the infamous "three strikes" laws, where some poor bastard ends up being sent to jail for 25 years for stealing a slice of pizza.

 

[bluegate]

Imagine the whining of a certain "friend" if this topic got locked and this user got banned

Time to move on, buddy.

 

[RiseofDaWolfie]

Thanks for the discussion so far, I'd like to stress that I'm not Housemans alt and there is even a moderator who knows that for a fact.

 

[tippy2k2]

I'll just repeat what I said in Other Thread since it's the same topic (except fixing the damn double use of ultimately that my original post refuses to let me edit and it's bugged the SHIT out of me!!!).

I watched his video for about five minutes and got bored with it. I am kind of morbidly curious to see if I get name dropped as at least according to the Discord Peeps I know who are also in the Unofficial Escapist Discord, Houseman must have had some kind of bone to pick with me as he name dropped me as having "no friends" (well he did say that JoJo is the only person who would be my friend so I have JoJo going for me! ). Though I'm not 100% sure why as I wasn't a Mod on V1 until after Houseman got banned and I have never been on a Mod on V2. However, his video is so God damn boring that it's not really worth the effort to see if my name comes up and to be blunt, I don't really give a flying fuck about what Houseman thinks of me so if I am dragged through the mud, I don't care enough about his opinion to waste 23 more minutes of my life watching it to see... (though in the spirit of Houseman's Devil's Advocate style of posting, I must have given at least a little bit of a flying fuck for going to the video in the first place to watch five minutes of it. I have pwned myself with FACTS and LOGIC)

Anyway, I think what people seem to forget is that The Escapist Dot Com is ultimately a privately run website. If users get more than three warnings, that's because the people in charge have decided that they're fine with letting them stick around even if "THE LETTER OF THE LAW" was met for them to be banned. People who were outright banned, the people in charge have decided that you're not welcome here.

 

[Thaluikhain]

and there is even a moderator who knows that for a fact.

Yeah, but they are wildly inconsistent, apparently.

 

[Agema]

Yeah, but they are wildly inconsistent, apparently.

Presumably he/she supplied proper government-approved photo ID and a signature, like all voters should.

 

[Agema]

I watched his video for about five minutes and got bored with it.

My general feeling is that it reflects Houseman well in:

a) a degree of obsessional behaviour (simply making it in the first place, plus devoting 30 minutes to it)
b) a premium placed on orderliness and to an extent logic: neat systems, processes, with clear rules, etc.
c) not quite managing to hide hostility behind the veneer of reasonableness

 

[tippy2k2]

My general feeling is that it reflects Houseman well in:

a) a degree of obsessional behaviour (simply making it in the first place, plus devoting 30 minutes to it)
b) a premium placed on orderliness and to an extent logic: neat systems, processes, with clear rules, etc.
c) not quite managing to hide hostility behind the veneer of reasonableness

It never really bothered me because unlike so many for God knows what reason, I've learned that the easiest way to stop someone arguing in bad faith is to...just not argue with them. Don't engage them, don't talk to them, don't even look in their general direction. In your eyes, they don't exist. I wonder if that's why Houseman had such a bone to pick with me since I was never willing to entertain his bullshit and the only way his bullshit works is if he has someone to entertain it.

People with the FACTS & LOGIC debate shit were a dime a dozen when I was a Mod. Their stupid arguments for why they should be allowed to be an asshole and therefore don't deserve to be banned fell on deaf ears when I was a Mod hammering them down and they fall on deaf ears now literally as I just don't pay them any attention.

 

[Nick Calandra]

 

[IceForce]

I'd like to stress that I'm not Houseman

Let's say I believe you (I don't), why would a brand new user make this as their very first thread/post?
What would prompt somebody to join a forum community, and immediately make a thread complaining about the moderation that they don't even have any personal experience with.

The only explanation is that you're Houseman, or you're signal-boosting for Houseman (which isn't much better).

 

[Piscian]

 

[Worgen]

So he was butt hurt enough to do a 30 min long video whining about his ban?

 

[RiseofDaWolfie]

Let's say I believe you (I don't), why would a brand new user make this as their very first thread/post?
What would prompt somebody to join a forum community, and immediately make a thread complaining about the moderation that they don't even have any personal experience with.

The only explanation is that you're Houseman, or you're signal-boosting for Houseman (which isn't much better).

I was a user of the v1 forums years and years ago, long before the current owner bought the site. Judging solely by the video, moderation on v1 and v2 seem to share some issues (purely imo, of course), hence I thought it was worth posting. However, since I'm not involved in the v2 forums and haven't followed them closely, its also interesting to see the viewpoints of people who disagree.

The link to Houseman is that we share a discord server which started out as centered around the Escapist when it was in danger of going down completely, although now this site is now discussed there rather more infrequently. Thats also where I found the video.

 

[Nick Calandra]

I was a user of the v1 forums years and years ago, long before the current owner bought the site. Judging solely by the video, moderation on v1 and v2 seem to share some issues, hence I thought it was worth posting. However, since I'm not involved in the v2 forums and haven't followed them closely, its also interesting to see the viewpoints of people who disagree.

The link to Houseman is that we share a discord server which started out as centered around the Escapist when it was in danger of going down completely, although now this site is now discussed there rather more infrequently. Thats also where I found the video.

"Judging solely by the video."

Lol, so you come to join a community that you no longer engage with to spread this video in the hopes that a discussion would happen...to what end? To get Houseman unbanned?

The thought process here is quite amusing. This wasn't done in any sort of good-faith attempt at opening a discussion, it's frankly a bit embarrassing at this point.

To be quite frank, if the community had serious issues with our moderation we'd be very open to talking about it and sorting it out. Making a 30 minute video about "grievances" in the hopes to get people to rally around it is a straight up bonehead move.

 

[RiseofDaWolfie]

"Judging solely by the video."

Lol, so you come to join a community that you no longer engage with to spread this video in the hopes that a discussion would happen...to what end? To get Houseman unbanned?

The thought process here is quite amusing. This wasn't done in any sort of good-faith attempt at opening a discussion, it's frankly a bit embarrassing at this point.

To be quite frank, if the community had serious issues with our moderation we'd be very open to talking about it and sorting it out. Making a 30 minute video about "grievances" in the hopes to get people to rally around it is a straight up bonehead move.

Well, for my part, I haven't said that I'm not interested in engaging with this community again. Among other things, its an opportunity for me to gauge how things have developed (and now even chat with the new owner!).

Its also good to get opposing opinions instead of just taking Housemans viewpoint on moderation as gospel, see Odins post.

 

[Nick Calandra]

Well, for my part, I haven't said that I'm not interested in engaging with this community again. Among other things, its an opportunity for me to gauge how things have developed (and now even chat with the new owner!).

Its also good to get opposing opinions instead of just taking Housemans viewpoint on moderation as gospel, see Odins post.

Fair enough.

I've nothing more to add on this discussion then. I have no personal agenda against Houseman other than his conduct here in the forums and the mod team and I came to the conclusion he was not acting in good faith. If someone is making us and the community feel that way, all I can say is maybe that requires some introspection. But that's just me.

As far as I'm aware, the community at large has no major issues with the moderation. Ya'll want to discuss it go right ahead.

 

[tippy2k2]

Fair enough.

I've nothing more to add on this discussion then. I have no personal agenda against Houseman other than his conduct here in the forums and the mod team and I came to the conclusion he was not acting in good faith. If someone is making us and the community feel that way, all I can say is maybe that requires some introspection. But that's just me.

As far as I'm aware, the community at large has no major issues with the moderation. Ya'll want to discuss it go right ahead.

Not that it is needed all that much given everything you've said but I probably would have stuck around as a Moderator had you been the one to show up first (nothing personal against Kyle but his ideas really...clashed for lack of a better word with what I thought moderation should be in my mind).

I know not everyone agrees with how I handled Mod stuff back in my day because I always felt like Mod things should be out in the open for all to see and comment on and not everyone appreciated that mindset (which to be fair to the mods at the time, there was a LOT more hostility towards Mods back in V1 I feel like; but my job in real life is Quality Assurance so my job in real life is being a Mod to the company so I've learned how to handle hostility for you doing your job).

It's great to see that you embrace the same mindset as I did, something I feel that Old Escapist always kind of sorely lacked.