[Games Forum] Moderation Request

[Abulia]

This is something of a strange request: I'd like to request more moderation for a particular area of MacRumors. More specifically, a moderator or two for the Games sub-fora (who is familiar with the fora).

This forum has always been a hotbed of activity and discussion -- most of it pleasant -- but quite frequently erupts into flamefests or personal attacks over gaming (console) preferences. As two new consoles are released this week -- the Wii and the PS3 -- the Games forum is only going to get worse, IMO.

Just this week activity is WAY up in the Games forum. On the first page alone there are several repeat threads that should be merged and/or closed. The degree of overlap and signal-to-noise ratio quite high.

It is my impression that the Games forum is very rarely moderated unless a thread is reported. Having a regular contributor to that forum (or more) with moderator privileges would be a great boon, IMO.

Thanks,

 

[Blue Velvet]

I suspect that many who report stuff don't venture into the Games forum or are not interested in the topic so perhaps that's why it's not as self-policing as some would like.

I think it's a good idea to have some more mods; they seem to be a little thin on the ground recently. Not a criticism, just an observation; they're probably fed-up to the back teeth with the lot of us. I've suggested some possible names in the past...

 

[MRU]

I discussed this with the Doc a couple of months back.

Your right there is an awful lot of repeat threads lately. Obviously its too hard for some posters to search for the search tool

The level of blind fanaticism of certain posters (quite often newbies, and sometimes not so newbie) astounds me, and when you try and be level headed and show them a 'balanced' perspective your often flamed to high heaven.

But the quest for enlightenment continues

Doesn't seem to happen in the other sections, maybe because the games forum tends to attract a younger less mature audience.

 

[Abulia]

Doesn't seem to happen in the other sections, maybe because the games forum tends to attract a younger less mature audience.

Sadly, true. They're also more prone to starting the flamewars, IMO and the duplicate threads.

Don't get me wrong: we all get hot under the collar. The Games forum just does it more often and easier, I've found.

 

[MRU]

Sometimes I feel yourself and myself (and Oni too) are like 'peace activists' standing amongst a raging battlefield of hormones & insecurity - waving our little white flags trying to create order out of the chaos.

Sometimes it works, more often it doesnt and we are gunned down in a barage of petty flame attacks as we try and bring balance to the force...

 

[Lord Blackadder]

The moderation here at MR is of a pretty high standard, so I'm sure it's hard to enlarge the ranks of the mods while keeping the quality high.

But I do agree that the Gaming forum seems to have a higher occurence of flamewars than most of the other forums on the site. Kids and their consoles...

 

[SilentPanda]

It is meta-moderated already. By the forum users. That's what the "report post" is intended for in my opinion. I'm not a moderator but (as I'm sure the mods know) go on reporting sprees now and again. If you see threads that should be removed, merged, whatever, just report 'em. The mods are normally quite quick.

 

[Abulia]

It is meta-moderated already. By the forum users. That's what the "report post" is intended for in my opinion. I'm not a moderator but (as I'm sure the mods know) go on reporting sprees now and again. If you see threads that should be removed, merged, whatever, just report 'em. The mods are normally quite quick.

I report often. My finger hurts from using the option. In many cases a thread is derailed too far to even bother reporting...or merging. Rarely are the threads moderated. I also get the sense I'm the only one even reporting them at times.

I don't believe I've ever seen a Games thread merged. I can't think of anytime a moderator has stepped in and tried to diffuse an arguement. I've never seen a duplicate thread -- like the several that exist there right now -- closed. I *have* seen edited posts where someone, in the heat of an arguement, says something inappropriate and a mod deletes it out.

Maybe the threads aren't being reported or the mods aren't acting on them; or both. Maybe they don't care. It is, after all, only the Games forum.

It'd be nice to have a mod who frequents that forum on a regular basis clean up the mess before they beomce a mess, however.

 

[AoWolf]

I Propose we change the name of the gaming forum to the Endless WoW questions and Console Flame forum. It really does get bad in their for every intelligent post there are 4 angry ones.

 

[MRU]

I Propose we change the name of the gaming forum to the Endless WoW questions and Console Flame forum. It really does get bad in their for every intelligent post there are 4 angry ones.

I actually offered to create a WoW page answering the commonly asked WoW questions..., and asked for posters to send me there specs and stuff so that I could compile it. Did any one of them bother. No. Sometimes you wonder if community means anything to some....

 

[MacNut]

I know this issue came up before and I thought it calmed down a bit, If its not getting better maybe some outside help is needed. In general as this site grows maybe some more Mods should be added to the site as a whole.

 

[eva01]

I think that at least one semi-moderator is needed possibly. Just because there are a lot of duplicates going on and some not so pleasant posts as well.

Maybe even just a temp moderator for the games forum


But that is just my opinion, so whatever Arn, Mudbug, and Doctor Q think of is fine.

 

[AoWolf]

I actually offered to create a WoW page answering the commonly asked WoW questions..., and asked for posters to send me there specs and stuff so that I could compile it. Did any one of them bother. No. Sometimes you wonder if community means anything to some....

Well I think thats a nobel idea I think most people just settled with the general wow community thats already their. It is an interesting point that a mac wow community has never really taken off. Though I am not sure Macrumors is the place to start one.

 

[SpankyPenzaanz]

Yay! and there was much rejoicing in the land for sooth a moderator may soon dawn our presence

 

[MRU]

Well I think thats a nobel idea I think most people just settled with the general wow community thats already their. It is an interesting point that a mac wow community has never really taken off. Though I am not sure Macrumors is the place to start one.

You misunderstood me, I wasnt really thinking of a specific wow community, but just the general community that this forum and 'games' section reaches. I was thinking more of a comprehensive sticky FAQ for wow, as it's the same questions that arise every time, it would be a handy resource on top of the games section, rather than replying fifty times to the same question by a different poster.

Another handy sticky would be game compatability on the macbook, as that "fill in the gap ______ on my macbook?" question keeps popping its head every other day.

 

[Doctor Q]

We're listening to your comments but have reached no conclusion yet. Please continue your discussion and suggestions.

I can make one immediate suggestion about this issue:

I've never seen a duplicate thread -- like the several that exist there right now -- closed.

Duplicate threads are more likely to be merged or have the newest one closed if you (a) report the new duplicate thread promptly, rather than after many pages of posts and (b) provide the URL of the original thread in your Post Report, so we don't have to hunt or guess which one you mean.

If the moderators agree that a newly started thread is a duplicate of a specific other thread, we almost always intervene, and I can't think of a case where we ignored a report of a duplicate Games thread, even if we sometimes decided not to take action.

 

[AoWolf]

You misunderstood me, I wasnt really thinking of a specific wow community, but just the general community that this forum and 'games' section reaches. I was thinking more of a comprehensive sticky FAQ for wow, as it's the same questions that arise every time, it would be a handy resource on top of the games section, rather than replying fifty times to the same question by a different poster.

Ah I think I understand better now. I guess my response though would be this: All of that stuff is already out there its all over the blizzard site and wow community sites. Even most Mac specific stuff is addressed. I really think its just a case of people not looking hard enough for the information.

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

I read the game forum regularly (tend to ignore the 360 threads though).

I think some of you here see flames and fanboy-ism where none exists. I often see people throwing around accusations of bias where none exists. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they are biased and need to be moderated. The recent thread on DVD playback on a future version of the Wii is a good example. I think these accusations tend to be the real flames, rather than the comments that prompted them.

But it all comes down to reporting. I am much more likely to moderate something if it has been reported than just if I observe it myself.

For duplicated threads, it helps to give us the url of the original thread you want the new one merged into.

If you want more moderation, the answer is simple. Do a better job reporting posts.

 

[MRU]

I read the game forum regularly (tend to ignore the 360 threads though).

I think some of you here see flames and fanboy-ism where none exists. I often see people throwing around accusations of bias where none exists.

To be honest i think you have to almost live on the games forum like some of us do. We know pretty much ALL the regular posters and their previous posts and paticular bias. There are a heck of a lot of people on that forum who tend to just appear at any given opportunity to start a flame war.

I dont want to start naming names, but I can post you a list and what they always will say or stance they will adopt. More often than not just to antagonize the OP.

I really think its just a case of people not looking hard enough for the information.

That is the problem really, hence if a sticky FAQ is there in front of them theyd have no excuse. A handy resource for not only them, but for us regulars who try and respond helpfully to all of them.

edit. additional explanation - I know there is a WoW on mac's help guide already, but it hasnt been updated in a long while. I merely was offering to fill in the blanks so asked for the posters to send me there respective specs and details (settings and frame-rates) and any issues. Basically then I'd compile all that information and update the help me for them... but no one bothered which did surprise me.

 

[Abulia]

If you want more moderation, the answer is simple. Do a better job reporting posts.

Pardon me for saying so, but this was what was said last time. The situation hasn't improved. Stating the same thing over and over does not make it any better.

I dislike how a discussion on moderation -- or in this case asking for more moderation -- invariably becomes of one "it's your (the users) fault."



I think it's telling when one of the more regular threadcrappers in the Games forum admits it could use more moderation.

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

Well we don't want to start discussing things in public that should be kept private, but I can say that many of the people complaining are in fact the biggest problem starters.

The trouble with more moderation in the games forum, is that there is rarely any rules violation. Arguments are more border-line. People are just being consistently rude to each other, and it is more of a pattern of mild abuse than a clear cut post one could delete.

And we still get very few reported posts from the games forum. So while a couple regular posters might be complaining, they aren't doing anything to help the situation.

The trouble as I see it is that problems tend to be border-line issues, and are therefore ignored unless they are reported by members. If we see a borderline problem , but no one reports it we tend to let it slide.

 

[WildCowboy]

I don't hang out in the Games forum, but I routinely report posts in just about every other area of the site. Almost every single report I make is dealt with promptly. The ones that aren't are usually ones that I thought were borderline anyway, but wanted to bring it to the attention of the mods for their opinion. (Those often get moderated later anyway as the thread develops down the path I thought it might.)

Based on my experiences with reporting posts, I find it hard to believe that mods would simply ignore reports from any area of the site.

 

[Lau]

Pardon me for saying so, but this was what was said last time. The situation hasn't improved. Stating the same thing over and over does not make it any better.

I dislike how a discussion on moderation -- or in this case asking for more moderation -- invariably becomes of one "it's your (the users) fault."

But I dislike how moderators (who give up their own time to sort the forum out) get hassle for asking us, as the users of the forum, to help out by reporting posts. They really can't be expected to read every thread.

And surely it is the users fault? The fact that one forum is worse for this kind of thing than others surely shows it must be something about the users of it, especially as it's about a fairly innocuous subject, unlike, say politics. I don't think you're wrong to ask for moderation, but I do think that finding a way to encourage the users of the Games forum to help out by reporting posts would be a good thing to start with rather than a dedicated mod.

Could the more mature members lead by example and mention they had reported posts, for example? I know I wasn't aware of the report post feature for a while, and didn't use it for longer because I assumed it was for more serious issues, rather than the odd clean up. Perhaps a way of educating some of the less established members on what the report post feature's for, and when to use it might be better in the long run. It's something I think would be good for the whole forum, although it seems the Games forum has more problems than the others, and it's because of this bickering I tend to stay clear.

 

[jsw]

I dont want to start naming names, but I can post you a list and what they always will say or stance they will adopt. More often than not just to antagonize the OP.

Just out of curiosity, if you know what they're going to say before they say it, why would that antagonize anyone - just ignore them. Or, better, add them to your Ignore list.

Obviously, extreme posts will be deleted if reported. But... if we deleted every post that showed a proclivity for a certain platform, the threads would be pretty empty.

 

[MRU]

Just out of curiosity, if you know what they're going to say before they say it, why would that antagonize anyone - just ignore them. Or, better, add them to your Ignore list.

Obviously, extreme posts will be deleted if reported. But... if we deleted every post that showed a proclivity for a certain platform, the threads would be pretty empty.

I did not mean antagonizing to myself, but to the OP who are asking a question, or looking for advice.

There are a lot of posters who arent regulars on that section, so just ignoring the trolls does not help the person wanting help or advice.

An example would be any gaming on macbook question. There a certain poster who will step in, say apple dont care for gamers. GMA950 is crap and then leave, without offering any help to the op. Whilst we ignore them generally, there are others that dont and hence the topic can spiral out of control. Ignoring them does not help the situation for anyone as it leads to chaotic destructive threads.

A mod to delete posts like as soon as they are spotted, that would stop that as it keeps the thread on topic. Closing your eyes and making loud noises doesnt make the trolls go away. A more pro-active rather than re-active stance, albeit that uses commonsense.

Could the more mature members lead by example and mention they had reported posts, for example?

I've done that a number of occasions and then received a message from a mod that I should/need not post a response (the reason for reporting) like that into the thread.

Based on my experiences with reporting posts, I find it hard to believe that mods would simply ignore reports from any area of the site.

I agree with you completely. I dont think this request for more moderation on the gamer section should be seen as a 'complaining against the mods' stance. Mods do a great job and their help is appreciated by many, we know its a voluntary position and have utter most respect for that. Asking for a little extra help isn't a bad thing.