skinny

goog point cuz he sure ain't doin it

Cromulent

Maybe, but he's the boss.

nycphotography

Um. If someone wanders into some biker bar (picture Tom Arnold in Soul Plane) and says out loud "hey, what's with all the fa***ty leather?" he pretty much deserves the beat down he's about to receive.

Saying he should be respected as a person, when he's not respectful enough as a person to pay attention the world around him and act accordingly, is disrespectful to everyone else. And it's also disrespectful to him as well (hint: It's patronizing).

forrest_m

Or in a similar vein, when a woman posts a picture of herself, there is almost always a stream of compliments on her appearance, some of which are tasteless. Most of the women who post such pictures are good sports about this - they are big girls and know what they are getting into when they post a pic on the internet. While I think such comments are crass and not how I would choose to express myself in a public forum, I don't think they should be erased until they become explicit beyond, say, the limits of prime-time TV or a complaint from the poster herself (not a third party). Basically, if someone wants to make an ass of themselves in front of thousands of people, it just helps me know how much credibility to give them.

You snipped my spam comment, but it's also to the point that there is (and should be) a much higher tolerance for a product plug from a regular poster who happens to be in the industry than from a random, first-time poster.

schnee

All due respect to the mods, but you can *say* all you want, but the only way to actually change behavior is to have different tools and capabilities in the forum interface... or be prepared to do more work.

Something Awful is a hellish huge forum, but the community management tools are the best ones in all forums I've seen. (I think it's like the security in a Federal prison being so good because of the danger of the people inside to each other, haha.) They have a fully integrrated feedback loop that lets moderators quickly identify and label bad posts, apply granular 'probations' to punish the egregious cases, and all moderation actions are linked to a central are so, with one click, everyone can see what happened, why, who did it, and see a categorical list of the behaviors that are not appropriate to the community.

If you don't have that, then you're just going to have the cyclical blow-ups here. People forget, new people come in, moderators don't have the time to do it all by hand, the forums get littered with sticky threads that just get in the way, new topics are continually created discussing the same old thing, etc.

The interface creates the community. That's why 4chan (no moderation, all anonymous) is a complete cesspool free for all, and small professional forums (real names, consequences in real life for your behavior) are staid. Unless you get different tools that allow consequences and behavior modification, it's just gonna be wash, rinse, repeat.

RoadToNowhere

This is the best entertainment I've had all week

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Is it time for the group hug yet?

Beth

Brandy

There is certainly no shortage of pictures of me here on this forum and you're right...I know what I'm getting myself into. Every. Single. Time. If I didn't want to play with the big boys, I wouldn't be here.

BarracksSi

The only way that the secrecy works -- and really, the intent behind it -- is when the mods (at my job, it's us senior staff) keep their own fights and disagreements behind closed doors. The junior workers see an impenetrable wall around the seniors, and tend to pay attention to what they're directed to do. They don't see the arguments when we get on each other and go, "What the F were you thinking?!? That will never work, and here's why..." Around the junior guys, though, we work to show a unified image -- because they'll look for any opportunity to get us against ourselves and, if successful, get their own way even if it's detrimental to the whole group.

Someone else (maybe in this thread, maybe elsewhere) mentioned elections and, effectively, "reputation points".

On another forum, the rep point system began to be corrupted and abused, which resulted in people picking out members they didn't like and spamming them with negative rep points just to make them appear less knowledgeable.

But, that was when everyone could rep anyone. They next eliminated the system altogether, then reinstated it for paid members only. There are probably terms that they have to adhere to, but since I'm a cheapskate and never paid for a membership , I don't know for sure.

garysol1 

This already exists and has been in use for some time



Moderators are forum members. We are not paid. The only thing I gain by being a mod is helping this place survive by letting it not get TO far out of hand. Majority of our work you never see. Deleting spam. Deleting bots. Tracking down sock puppets....etc...... Actual thread moderating is a small part of the overall job.

<3 2 Ride 

Well said, Brandy.

garysol1 

Nope

garysol1 

In the above case it would be the moderation teams responsability to simply get rid of the trouble maker. He is not adding ANYTHING to the forum but disruption. What I would hope would happen if you came across a post like that would be to hit the "report post" button and let us boot the poster to the curb. Why would anyone here want someone around who is that disruptive?

Brandy

Speaking of other forums. The best one I've ever belonged to was started after overmoderation and pleas to be kind and gentle on another site totally changed the flavor and ruined the fun of the forum. The new site had admin to keep the spam away, but no moderation. No editing. You own your words...even the typos. You say something stupid, you get called out on it. Sometimes someone comes to your defense, sometimes you're all alone because what you said was really stupid. It's definitely one of those forums that you have to sit back and get the flavor of before jumping into...kind of like the Road Forum.

garysol1 

Speaking of...I had better cut the grass before the misses gets home.....

BarracksSi

Jobs?

I put some of my luggage on a truck this morning, and am going back in about an hour for a gig tonight.

skinny

Really, when was the last election of a moderator held by the red stars here? Also, when was the last public performance review of a moderator held? When was an ad hoc committee set up to deal with a specific issue?

skinny

he is the boss.

mattm

you guys & gals have the best crash stories & photos, i'll give you that!

i'm not saying you racers should be banned from the road forum, i'm just saying keep the competition in your forum. Road Cycling is about riding on god-damn pavement, not winning.

and we should bring RyanF back too - i think he was wrongly banned from BF! it wasn't him that caused the issues... it was the ones that taunted him, who still taunt to this very day. poor kid's going into the army now cause he's so depressed.. nice job BF.

garysol1 

Skinny.....I am not the enemy here. I am not going to battle witts with you. My "job" here is simply to help keep the forums running smoothly. If I ever do anything you disagree with feel free to PM me. I have to much to do to get into a pissing match.

skinny

gary, i was just asking questions, not fighting. you made a statement and i was asking for some verification. is that making you an enemy?

Red Rider

Excuse me. I'm not a jock. I'm a woman with a hack racing career that provides a lot of fun, and I ride a rode bike on the road. I visit both forums regularly to learn and be entertained. I'm not the only woman here who enjoys the athleticism and self-motivation of riding a road bike.

May I suggest you skip a thread if you don't like it? I certainly don't read every one; why should you?

patentcad

Name the others. If you can come up with ten, I'll buy you a pony.

Red Rider

+1

Red Rider

Brandy, Machka, Lizzylou, Road to Nowhere, BlondeDuathlonGirl...I know there are at least ten but I'll be darned if I can remember them all.

I'll settle for a miniature horse, since I failed to post 10.

garysol1 

When someone questions me concerning questions that I know they already know the answer to.....well I consider that confrontational. Mods are not voted in ...but placed. They are recomended by other mods.
Keep in mind no one here is paid. The system in place works and has worked for many years. Sure there are problems such as what happened yesterday and guess what.....the problem will be handled and that will be the end of it.
As for reviews........If there is a mod that you have a problem with or see issues with then just hit the "report a post" button or Email Tom. It will be handled.
Feel free to PM me skinny if you have any questions you don't want to post here. My mailbox is always open.