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Trajectory

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 13, 2005
741
0
Earth
I'm wondering if the rules have changed here recently, because I'm finding a lot of posts where members are calling other members "stupid idiot," "retard," and other ad-hominem attacks, yet the members are never banned.

A few months ago, in a heated moment, I called another member an "ass" and was banned for 24 hours. I never had a previous ban and didn't get a warning, I was just instantly banned. The member I directed it to made a similar retort, but, his post was just deleted, no ban.

I have reported a few ad-hominem attacks that I came across while reading posts here, however, I noticed the posts remained and the member was never banned. Is this rule now moot? If not, why is it so inconsistently moderated? Why was I banned when others are saying far worse with no consequence?

Also, I recall it was against the rules to make several posts in a row within a thread rather than using multi-quote. But, I keep seeing certain members doing this, even though I've reported them.

So, are these rules still being enforced or not?
 
I think it's becoming a much bigger problem than before. Perhaps the proportion of these posts isn't increasing, and it's simply the increase in Mac users that makes it more noticeable. Oh, and since the number of mods don't increase per month, you need to realize that they're probably doing their best to be fair.

Perhaps it's faster to delete a post than to ban a member, or edit a few posts. I don't know. I've modded a forum 8 years ago, and it wasn't such a great gig. I went there for fun, but instead, I felt that it became a full-time (volunteer) job when I was there.

Even the mods can't spend ALL their time doing "moderator" stuff. I'm hoping they come here and read threads like normal members, perhaps participating as well. :)
 
Also, I recall it was against the rules to make several posts in a row within a thread rather than using multi-quote. But, I keep seeing certain members doing this, even though I've reported them.
Most people that I've told to use multiquote didn't know that it existed. Then they just get pissed at the suggestion. I would imagine that there are usually more important things for those in charge to do than consolidate posts.

As for the personal attacks, sometimes it gets their attention and other times not. It likely depends on what else is going on at the moment. As Abstract said, as the community gets larger, more problems will be created as more people creates more pairs for potential conflict.

I report a lot more than I post and often watch certain threads or individual posts to see the outcome. Sometimes I can see five moderators online and nothing happens. Other times the problem is resolved in less than a minute. Seeing as it's all volunteer work, I don't think that we should be demanding super consistency on such matters as I don't think that the forum's current state is problematic. However, it does indeed seem to be heading in that direction.
 
I'm wondering if the rules have changed here recently, because I'm finding a lot of posts where members are calling other members "stupid idiot," "retard," and other ad-hominem attacks, yet the members are never banned.

A few months ago, in a heated moment, I called another member an "ass" and was banned for 24 hours. I never had a previous ban and didn't get a warning, I was just instantly banned. The member I directed it to made a similar retort, but, his post was just deleted, no ban.

I have reported a few ad-hominem attacks that I came across while reading posts here, however, I noticed the posts remained and the member was never banned. Is this rule now moot? If not, why is it so inconsistently moderated? Why was I banned when others are saying far worse with no consequence?

Also, I recall it was against the rules to make several posts in a row within a thread rather than using multi-quote. But, I keep seeing certain members doing this, even though I've reported them.

So, are these rules still being enforced or not?

i agree, i have been in time out for trivial things yet when i report direct insults, members dont get a time out from what i can observe

very inconsistant imo
 
Also, I recall it was against the rules to make several posts in a row within a thread rather than using multi-quote. But, I keep seeing certain members doing this, even though I've reported them.

Not all members know how to do multi-quote, I'll admit I didn't notice it for about a year :p

And yes I've seen an increasing amount of petty rude language used by members, and in most cases, no bans or time-outs, I think there has been like Abstract said, an increase in users, but, there (to the best of my knowledge), been an increase in moderators to keep up with demand.
 
I think it's becoming a much bigger problem than before. Perhaps the proportion of these posts isn't increasing, and it's simply the increase in Mac users that makes it more noticeable. Oh, and since the number of mods don't increase per month, you need to realize that they're probably doing their best to be fair.

Perhaps it's faster to delete a post than to ban a member, or edit a few posts. I don't know. I've modded a forum 8 years ago, and it wasn't such a great gig. I went there for fun, but instead, I felt that it became a full-time (volunteer) job when I was there.

Even the mods can't spend ALL their time doing "moderator" stuff. I'm hoping they come here and read threads like normal members, perhaps participating as well. :)

The increase of people into anything decreases the quality of whatever it was.

Apple.

Good idea, some great products.

Advertising draws in a decent market share, and boom you've diluted the community to where less intelligent beings outnumber the more informed ones.

Thus it becomes more and more difficult to keep the same standards as before.
 
Trajectory, I looked at every post report of yours from 2009 and they have all been handled, and in all cases in which you reported insults, the moderators deleted or edited the post and took additional action if it was deemed necessary.

Insults are still not permitted in the forums. We don't read every post, so we rely on our members to report such posts to us. Our response time hasn't been as swift as we'd like lately, and we're working to address that issue.

Moderator response to insults can vary based on the severity of the insult, the member's history, etc. We strive for consistency in our actions and do review each other's responses to post reports in order to help achieve this, but we are of course still individuals, and there may be occasional variations in remedies given for various infractions.

Failure to use multi-quote is considered a minor issue, one we usually deal with by simply merging the posts and perhaps leaving an edit note asking the member to use multi-quote in the future. If we notice a pattern of such behavior, we will contact them privately to give them a heads-up and to provide them with instructions on how to use the feature if they are unfamiliar with it.

So yes, both insults and failure to multi-quote are reportable issues, and we certainly appreciate it when members take the time to draw our attention to them.
 
Sometimes I can see five moderators online and nothing happens. Other times the problem is resolved in less than a minute.

It is worth noting that there is a delay on the forum activity indicator so sometimes people will have gone offline and it hasn't updated. Also when we are online we are often doing things be it replying to peoples posts, trying to find answers to our questions or we may have drifted off to another tab to do some actual work elsewhere and check back in every now and again. So just because a mod is online doesn't mean the post report will have been seen. We do generally act quite quickly but there has been a dip of late.

I do think a few more mods might be useful though as Abstract points out.

Our response time hasn't been as swift as we'd like lately, and we're working to address that issue.
 
Agreed. Several mods are MIA for quite some time now.

I haven't seen Blue Velvet around for quite some time, I remember her saying to me a while ago she posts in cycles, with breaks inbetween, and she's one of the best mods here, that and Wild CowBoy, Q and madjew.

I do think atleast a few more mods should be added, I can see why it's hard to allow new mods in, as they could always stuff everything up and destroy the forum very quickly, but still, someone does need to be added, just to ease the load I guess...
 
From my, admittedly limited, experience here thus far, the mods do a good job of quickly taking care of threads that start to border on getting out of hand or just fully degenerate into name-calling and personal attacks. Kudos to them.

I've been a mod once on another forum, and it ain't easy work. Between sheer size of a forum, so many members, and mods having real lives (how dare they, LOL), it can be hard to keep up with everything that goes on.
 
Ya. I really miss her.

The blue suggests sarcasm...

I personally like BV, she's a good addition to the forums, she's always level headed and sorts out riff raff fairly quickly, I know alot of newbies tend to not like her because she pisses on their parade of duplicate posting etc, but still, I'm glad she's here.

Tallest Skil would make a good mod, he's very hard hitting on people who don't search.
 
There are a large number of mods who simply don't post often anymore, so saying that things have gone pear-shaped because BV has taken her semi-regular break is a bit misleading. Perhaps she's one small reason for it, but BV isn't the only moderator here.

Like r.j.s. said, the Jew has been gone for ages. We know he was having "personal" issues with his internet in Adelaide. yellow, devilot, and jsw don't post often, and if they post, it's not here. Perhaps they're online at MR, but don't post. I've seen nermal around.

And WC is always in the background. ;) Just because he doesn't post often, does not mean he's not around.
 
I've said it before privately to moderators and I'll say it now publicly: The apparent problem with moderation on this forum is an insufficient number of moderators to keep up with the growth in forum membership. This puts pressure on the currently active moderators to make decisions, which they often must do more hastily than they would otherwise, which in turn leads to inconsistent moderation. Having been involved with many organizations run primarily by volunteers, the remedy seems straight-forward to me. The key is to ask for help. If you ask, you receive.
 
I kinda know but I don't do it. Instead I just press "quote" on each post, then copy and paste the quotes into one post.

Just click the "+" button for each post you want to reply to. Then either click "Quote" on the last post or "Post Reply".
 
I've said it before privately to moderators and I'll say it now publicly: The apparent problem with moderation on this forum is an insufficient number of moderators to keep up with the growth in forum membership. This puts pressure on the currently active moderators to make decisions, which they often must do more hastily than they would otherwise, which in turn leads to inconsistent moderation. Having been involved with many organizations run primarily by volunteers, the remedy seems straight-forward to me. The key is to ask for help. If you ask, you receive.

Agreed. I have offered to help, as I spend quite a bit of time here, but i haven't heard anything back from the admins recently.

I kinda know but I don't do it. Instead I just press "quote" on each post, then copy and paste the quotes into one post.

The button next to Quote is multi-quote, press it for each post you want to quote, it will turn red. At the end, press Post Reply and all the checked posts will be listed.
 
the remedy seems straight-forward to me. The key is to ask for help. If you ask, you receive.

The moderators do ask for help. They want all of us to follow the rules, report rule violations, and have some patience. If we all did that, work for the mods would decrease dramatically.

Beyond that, how the moderators choose their members isn't really that important for the rest of us. As long as moderators don't take advantage of their authority (which I haven't seen, even in the depths of PRSI), we should be satisfied that they've chosen good individuals to moderate. I think openly requesting moderators opens the door to a lot of problems, not the least of which is a sense of outrage from those applicants who weren't chosen. It's best to know you were never in the running than to think you ever had a shot.
 
I think openly requesting moderators opens the door to a lot of problems, not the least of which is a sense of outrage from those applicants who weren't chosen. It's best to know you were never in the running than to think you ever had a shot.

I don't think they should open ask, like in a thread here, but they should select a handful of members that they think would make good mods, and offer it to them through PM. Those that accept become mods and those that don't don't. This way, the admins can be selective and yet still ask for help.
 
There are a large number of mods who simply don't post often anymore, so saying that things have gone pear-shaped because BV has taken her semi-regular break is a bit misleading. Perhaps she's one small reason for it, but BV isn't the only moderator here.

Like r.j.s. said, the Jew has been gone for ages. We know he was having "personal" issues with his internet in Adelaide. yellow, devilot, and jsw don't post often, and if they post, it's not here. Perhaps they're online at MR, but don't post. I've seen nermal around.

And WC is always in the background. ;) Just because he doesn't post often, does not mean he's not around.

I didn't mean to suggest BV was the only notable mod, I just mean that she's the one that I see most often, but yeah, obviously not all mods are posting all the time, some just lurking in the background. Maybe we're just seeing a weird set of events, where there's a larger amount of mods away than normal. Hence the delays etc.
 
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