New Members

[a447]

....SGT will change very little....and in honesty I'm not sure that it needs to.

And therein lies the heart of the problem.

[a447]

Scottish wrote:

2. I'm having difficulty understanding this management by committee you seem to be working under - one person says that all 3 Moderators need to agree on stuff whereas you yourself posted yesterday that ONE person could delete posts. Which is it - it can't be both.

There are two categories of "stuff" but only one requires all three moderators to agree. The final decision is at the discretion of the owner.

Any moderator has the ability to edit/delete posts.

There is no "confusion amongst the moderation team" as such. The "confusion" lies in the poor wording in the Guidelines and Rules which is holding us back. We need to tighten them and add one or two new ones.

[arsenal]

Yes. It needs to change very little I agree. Just a bit and it's only two new members recently who took it over the edge. Hence my request for ideas.

[a447]

The point I am making is that many members do not want change - they think the board is ok as it is. Any attempt to rein in abusive posts, threats, take accusations and less time about other members is seen as interference in the free-wheeling nature of the board.

For example, just the other day I told samebb to be careful about what he posts in relation to members. I saw it as a warning, which moderators are allowed to issue when it seems things may get out of hand.

But another member saw it as a "threat" and suggested I should not have said anything.

You just can't win.

The situation we have faced recently is very unusual - three members all deciding to misbehave at the same time, necessitating moderation. Normally, most members manage to self-moderate and there had been very little call for moderation over the years.

In the years since Neal left and Moses took over, how many posts were made? Thousands, I'd imagine. And how many members have been banned / suspended? Very few.

How many posts have been edited or deleted? I can't recall any. (but I don't read every post in every thread).

So I think members are worrying too much about something that hardly ever occurs.

Changes to the rules are being considered on an attempt to address the "anything goes" nature of the board, as mentioned by Bobsaigon. Hopefully any changes will be soon finalised.

[francois]

Jellybean for Moderator.

[arsenal]

Francois for Emperor.

[arsenal]

BobSaigon for Au Du'o'ng Vu'o'ng.

[arsenal]

Arsenal for President of Scotland.

[Smiles]

All I'd like to see would be for the Admin to let us know that a Moderator will never again burrow into a Member's post(s) and edit it without any notice that a Board guideline had been broken.

This very dangerous event happened recently with a 'Nirish Guy' post . . . wherein "Christian The Moderator" broke into his post simply to edit spelling and grammar. Utter bullshit and should never have happened under proper moderation.
I'm quite surprised that hardly any members felt that this was a blatant misuse of moderator privilege.
It's obvious Christian has no clue what a Mod should be doing, or not doing, on a well-run message board. It's obvious Moses has not talked to his Mods regarding what he expects from them.
Moses ... do you condone this kind of fascist moderator behavior?

[christianpfc]

Far fetched, but:

2.3 The official language of the Board is English. ... It is incumbent on every member to ensure his posts are intelligible to all members.

Should we amend the rules: Spelling, grammar and punctuation has to follow [name of an authority of English language]?

I let most typos, grammar and spelling mistakes and wrong punctuation pass, but there a few cases per week that I have to correct. I rather try to keep this low-key and not make a fuss about it, editing is much better than pointing the mistakes out in a reply to the thread.

I'm quite surprised that hardly any members felt that this was a blatant misuse of moderator privilege.

Maybe you are the only one who feels this way?

...[Christian] broke into his post...fascist moderator behavior?

Drama queen!