Oops. Mods - please merge those posts and remind me of the rules.Very well, thanks for the answer.
But really Dr. Q, two posts in a row? We have a multi-quote feature in place for a reason
It won't be the first time I've been moderated.
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Concerns about moderation
- Thread starter rdowns
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It won't be the first time I've been moderated.
Oops. Mods - please merge those posts and remind me of the rules.
It won't be the first time I've been moderated.
Don't forget the infraction...
^^^ I'm sure mods don't get infractions. Would anybody care to correct me on this?
I know they sometimes make mistakes, but then when somebody finds it, don't you guys just correct it, and let the mod know? Without there being a formal note of the rule-breaking?
I know they sometimes make mistakes, but then when somebody finds it, don't you guys just correct it, and let the mod know? Without there being a formal note of the rule-breaking?
Seems safe to ask..
Now that we are on the "open" topic, I feel safe to ask the following:
This thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1204580/ was sent to wasteland, and of course deservingly so. But, specifically I would like to know why (for my own understanding, as it is not the first time) my post was whacked/deleted.
I do believe my exact post towards the bottom 3/4's of the thread was "thanks for the laugh".- hence in jest.
First I saw mine go, then many of the OP's gone. Now I see the OP's remain; yet my (IMO) harmless and true statement (because it was 100% funny for me at that time) gone.
In all honestly, I could care less really. It's not my post count- I'll never be a 601 member; but seriously is one of the primary reasons I stopped my Demi status this year; not the $25.
Just random deletions of posts with no input as to why.
I mean how many of "In before the lock" have we seen, among other famous one liners/words?
Love to know the honest answer to the above. thanks
Now that we are on the "open" topic, I feel safe to ask the following:
This thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1204580/ was sent to wasteland, and of course deservingly so. But, specifically I would like to know why (for my own understanding, as it is not the first time) my post was whacked/deleted.
I do believe my exact post towards the bottom 3/4's of the thread was "thanks for the laugh
".- hence in jest.First I saw mine go, then many of the OP's gone. Now I see the OP's remain; yet my (IMO) harmless and true statement (because it was 100% funny for me at that time) gone.
In all honestly, I could care less really. It's not my post count- I'll never be a 601 member; but seriously is one of the primary reasons I stopped my Demi status this year; not the $25.
Just random deletions of posts with no input as to why.
I mean how many of "In before the lock" have we seen, among other famous one liners/words?
Love to know the honest answer to the above. thanks
There is no set time that moderators agree to. So in theory it is forever
Having read multiple books about youth ministry and from the particular program I'm involved in, I've found that defining the term is very important for both sides. On the ownership side, it allows them to know how many people they will have volunteering for the foreseeable future. On the volunteer side, like I said, it provides a light at the end of the tunnel, as well as lets me know that I can count on my fellow volunteers to be in there with me. Knowing that moderating will never be finished, I'm sure, is daunting and can be disheartening, but perhaps knowing that you'll only have to worry about it for X more months can really help.
Of course, life happens, and you can't really keep someone here who doesn't want to be, or can't be for various reasons. But it isn't really about that at all. It's really about defining and recognizing the importance of the commitment that volunteering already is.
I really think it could be valuable here, however long the term is. It would allow the gods to know that they have, for instance, three moderators whose terms are ending (or up for renewal) soon and they may need to begin looking for replacements. Rather than having a bunch of new mods come on at one time, you'd have 1-3 who get their feet wet and used to the role before the next mods' terms are up. Also, it provides both the ownership and the volunteer with the ability to reevaluate the situation.
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I do like the term idea
Perhaps when approached, say you would like the member to be able to plan 6 months or so to mod and there can be indefinite renewals for however long those mods wish to continue to participate in that role.
I agree with the above poster saying how it may benefit from a planning perspective on the behalf of the site runners.
Perhaps when approached, say you would like the member to be able to plan 6 months or so to mod and there can be indefinite renewals for however long those mods wish to continue to participate in that role.
I agree with the above poster saying how it may benefit from a planning perspective on the behalf of the site runners.
tigres,
Your post was removed because the moderators were trying to put the thread back on topic, in case it was a serious request for help. It was within a series of posts making fun of the original poster. Your post wasn't breaking rules, just joining the merriment of users who were teasing the thread starter.
You serious here? LOL
this guy is as good as Dice Clay
from the OP:
"What's worse is the next day I came back from work, I had found my iMac in my garden, my wife holding a hose pipe over it, attempting to "clean" it. I was about to reach out and slap her across the face, when I remembered my two kids who were out also playing in the garden..."
"The place I live in barely qualifies as a house, trust me...
Could I just give back the iMac saying it came cracked out the box? Most of those kids working there can't tell the difference between a pillow and a banana, im sure it'll work to some extent?"
"My wife is even more stupid than the kids working at the Apple store, I'm not even remotely joking...to be honest, I can't remember why I married her in the first place.
So, there's no way of getting a replacement for my computer?
Edit: Just asked her, to which she answered: "It was broken already, the most I could have done is to make it smell less terrible, I was just trying to be helpful..."
Come to think of it, it took her a week to figure out how the microwave worked, so it's not really a surprise."
End quotes/ discussion.
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Not to nitpick here but in going on rdowns point about not seeing moderators in public, AmbitiousLemon last post was December 20, 2010. Is he still active as a member or if not why is he still considered an active mod? I am sure there are others who never post in public. The question is do they mod stealth or are just not active at all?
Secondly if a person agreed to be a mod they should at least show themselves as being online. Wether they post in the forums or not they should have at least a presence.
Secondly if a person agreed to be a mod they should at least show themselves as being online. Wether they post in the forums or not they should have at least a presence.
I don't think he'll mind my saying that he helps us with decision-making, since he has more experience here than just about everyone else, including me, but he doesn't handle reported posts.
We encourage this but don't require it. It's easy enough for users to contact mods or admins with reported posts, Contact forms, and PMs, none of which require tracking who is online when. Mods aren't always "on the job" and having to give up a privacy privilege that all members have could discourage them from helping us at all.
Sometimes a user will check to see which moderators are online and then send one a PM that is equivalent to a post report, but that is not a good idea since it bypasses our team approach and our reported post recordkeeping.
I'm sorry us "newbies" are lowing the finesse, sophistication, and charm of the site.
Maybe we should start drinking our tea with our little pinky sticking out?
Jesus
There's no need to take it personally; it wasn't intended to be focused on anyone in particular.
However, for those of us who used to read MR before the days of the iPhone (myself included-my time being a passive reader easily rivals my time as a member), the membership demographic has changed a lot. It's more difficult for someone who wasn't here during that era to understand. I don't want to disparage anyone because it is what it is. Times change, people change. My whole point is that the only thing that hasn't changed to keep pace is the moderation style.
I also read that and thought it a very arrogant comment.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds. Where would MR's valuation be today without this influx of "unsophisticates"?
I don't care what MR is worth or how much money it makes from advertising. That's not how my stake in it is defined. I care that me and the people I enjoy reading and learning from are still having a good time here. Based on what iBlue and rdowns said, I'm clearly not alone.
But what would be the real pro when looking it from your, users, angle? Do you think post reports are handled too slowly, hence a term would be needed so there would always be active mods on duty?
Personally, I don't like the term idea. I'm in a situation where things will change quite a lot in the upcoming years, I have no certain idea what is to come. That is why I don't want to be tied to MR or anything for a period of time. I wouldn't have taken this "job" if it was for certain timespan. I think it would totally ignore emergencies, for example illness, relative's death etc. We are real, regular people so those things can happen for us. Unfortunately my close family member slept away last week. Since this was expected, it hasn't been that big shock for me so my moderation has not been compromised, but if it had been someone else of my family, I might have needed some time off. We should not moderate when under strong feelings and personally, I couldn't care less about MR if there is something serious happening in my real life.
Now this doesn't feel as much work as it would if there was a term, and I don't want this to feel work at all. I still enjoy reading and posting in MR daily, which is the reason I come here. I wouldn't come here if it was only for post reports and moderation, it's just a sidekick for me. I do moderation every day, so don't take that as a statement that I never moderate and just took this job to get the moderator title. It's simply not the main thing in this site for me. If I stop enjoying posting here, I will probably leave this site, including moderation. I already have a note which reminds me to send rdowns a PM about my departure and the reasons why, since he seems to be so curious about why some mods leave.
Just my personal thoughts. Thanks for the constructive feedback as well, there are always ways to improve this site
Mods are held accountable to the forum rules like everyone however you are correct in your assumptions. We usually just correct it and let it be.
If memory serves me we have sent one or two infractions to mods but that was purely to check the infractions once we set up a new one etc.
It wouldn't be enforcable it would just be a loose commitment, we know that real life is more important than moderating and we treat it as such. However it might ease the mind knowing that it isn't indefinite.
It could well be that we use it, we don't use it or some would like to use it and other don't. I think we should discuss it as a team in the mods forum to see where we all stand.
I'm curious on this one... There are some threads that get started and are allowed to live that condone pirating software.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1184339/
However, if something comes up like someone asking how to install a cracked app it is quickly removed. Why is Pandora different? Someone has cracked the code to enable/bypass features that people like me pay for and the company is losing money because of it. This is pirating yet it is allowed to live on the site. This is one area that I think there is an inconsistency.
Before people ding me, yes, I have reported the thread in question.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1184339/
However, if something comes up like someone asking how to install a cracked app it is quickly removed. Why is Pandora different? Someone has cracked the code to enable/bypass features that people like me pay for and the company is losing money because of it. This is pirating yet it is allowed to live on the site. This is one area that I think there is an inconsistency.
Before people ding me, yes, I have reported the thread in question.
People who have no current presence in the community making decisions for the community. In what civilized place is something like that acceptable?
He has a lot experience with vBulletin and especially vBulletin hacks. Those things are part of decision-making and as far as I can see, his most recent contributions have been about those decisions.
From a technical support point of view that does make sense and I didn't think of it like that. However with decisions about the community that doesn't seem very appropriate and I know that has to happen. I am married to an ex moderator. I know what goes on back there, or at least what used to. Moderators who rarely contribute in the forums give their opinions on things that affect users. It comes across a bit "man behind the curtain" and doesn't seem entirely fair.
Having moderators in the forums, interacting with everyone is a much healthier way to maintain happy user-moderator relations. (in a manner of speaking.) I know mods can and sometimes need to disengage but as a user, getting a hand-slap from someone you've never conversed with makes for a lot more soreness. (again, in a manner of speaking
) Anyway, just expressing a long-winded preference for mods that are not invisible entities.
From a technical support point of view that does make sense and I didn't think of it like that. However with decisions about the community that doesn't seem very appropriate and I know that has to happen. I am married to an ex moderator. I know what goes on back there, or at least what used to. Moderators who rarely contribute in the forums give their opinions on things that affect users. It comes across a bit "man behind the curtain" and doesn't seem entirely fair.
Having moderators in the forums, interacting with everyone is a much healthier way to maintain happy user-moderator relations. (in a manner of speaking.) I know mods can and sometimes need to disengage but as a user, getting a hand-slap from someone you've never conversed with makes for a lot more soreness. (again, in a manner of speaking
Anyway, just expressing a long-winded preference for mods that are not invisible entities.
On one hand, I have no choice but to agree with you. But on the other hand, I find it hard to.
See, in my opinion, the mods are doing a decent enough job as it is. But they do need help from the community (Via the report post button). It's fairly obvious with the increase in the forum activity (Especially in the iPhone section), that mods don't have time to read/skim through every thread. Personal lives do get in the way.
Which is why I think that the mods who think that they can't moderate, or even keep participating in the community, should step down (Or be forced to, for that matter). It is basically essential that a good mod should have some community standing, and be a participant. Those old mods who haven't posted in say 3 months or so, should be kicked off the "force", and instead bring in a new mod to take their place.
I don't quite understand the whole 'wave' of bringing in new mods. When some old mod doesn't seem to post anymore, kick him/her off, and bring a new one right there. Now, obviously, this means the admins would have to keep a somewhat-updated list of the next candidates, but that doesn't seem that difficult to do. (Side note, do you guys take the current mods' consideration/recommendations when choosing new ones?)
...
I wear my one infraction as a light badge of honour. I was slapped with it by an overzealous mod (yes, she knows who she is) over a post more than 2 years old at the time. Do I "respect" that judgement? *******, no.
If you're willing to state that the particulars can be discussed openly here, I can supply an answer. I know you've gotten the matter cleared up now via PM with an admin, but there's a bit more to the story that other members who've read your post can't know unless they're told, and which would give a much more balanced picture than your post and the responses to it alone do.
Note - I'm on an unstable Internet connection for a few days, and it can therefore take a day or so before I act on any response to this.
This reflect my thinking as well. The only difference is that I was actually on my out of MR when I was asked to be a mod. I had basically stopped posting, though I did still read the board.
In addition to Q's response, I can say that if I'm in any doubt about how to react to a reported post, I ask for feedback from the other mods. I have noticed that this sometimes leads to criticism from members because they report something they feel is crystal clear and get irritated when nothing is immediately done, but I'd rather risk that in favour of getting team input.
I do see what you mean and respect the point of view even though I don't feel the same way about moderator presence on other forums I frequent (I don't notice who the mods are and don't care as long as things seem to be running smoothly). But presence can be defined in different ways. I post very little here, and that's mostly because I only post when I feel I have something worthwhile to contribute to a thread. I do read a lot though, in order to have a feeling for what's being discussed. And I have a lot of communication with members who get warnings. They often respond to (first and foremost, believe it or not!
) apologise because they weren't aware of the rule, or to ask or complain because something wasn't clear. Thankfully the percentage of those convos end with a satisfied response and a resolved issue. In the percentage that doesn't end happily, I refer them to the Contact form so my actions can be reviewed. I feel that kind of presence is important and worth spending time on. If we don't answer PMs from members, it looks like we don't think it's worth the bother, and that's certainly not the case.I guess my point is that presence is in the eye of the beholder and can be defined in different ways. It's not necessarily defined by how many posts you can see from a particular individual.
One more thing I should mention is that once you become a mod, you do experience that your posts are assigned more value of some sort (negative or positive), or are subject to more scrutiny. It's as if members suddenly decide you're speaking for the staff all the time in everything you say. I personally felt this to be the case after I became a mod, and it definitely contributed to my not increasing my already-dwindling posting habits.
I said civilized!
Regarding the process for choosing new moderators see Doctor Q's explanation here.
Any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them.
It's easier to teach a group of people instead of taking one new mod at a time. There is more stuff that you can think of, at least I was surprised by the amount of stuff there was which I had to learn. There is lots of stuff that Q has to set up every time new mods are chosen and doing that in a wave is faster.
I also found it to be nicer when I had other baby mods next to me so I wasn't alone. Being the only new one might feel like being an eyesore when everyone is concentrating on you.
We constantly keep record of potential moderators though.