Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Losing Faith in Macrumors ...

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

MacPanda

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 15, 2006
115
0
Hey folks,

I just wanted to post something that has been on my mind quite a bit. Just like the Apple community, the Macrumors community has changed over the years, and it has grown.

I have been reading macrumors since I was a teen and really haven't posted a great deal, but have always been more of a reader than a poster.

A while back I received an infraction on my account for an accidental double posting. I am wondering if this place is turning into Wikipedia where you have admins on power trips?

Heres the thing, we are all different, but I am an admin for another forum (completely unrelated to Macs) and I can tell between a spammer and a genuine person who accidently pressed the submit new thread twice.

Personally I feel the friendliness of the site is really going down the hill. It is sad to see a great site become like this.

peace - macpanda
 
While I respect your opinion, this is not the best way to communicate your feelings. I suggest following this link and voicing your dissapproval in a kind manner there. This will only make things worse with this thread.
 
MacPanda said:
Hey folks,

I just wanted to post something that has been on my mind quite a bit. Just like the Apple community, the Macrumors community has changed over the years, and it has grown.

I have been reading macrumors since I was a teen and really haven't posted a great deal, but have always been more of a reader than a poster.

A while back I received an infraction on my account for an accidental double posting. I am wondering if this place is turning into Wikipedia where you have admins on power trips?

Heres the thing, we are all different, but I am an admin for another forum (completely unrelated to Macs) and I can tell between a spammer and a genuine person who accidently pressed the submit new thread twice.

Personally I feel the friendliness of the site is really going down the hill. It is sad to see a great site become like this.

peace - macpanda
Click to expand...

I agree completely. Power hungry mods are becoming more prevalent on this site and hopefully some of the actual owners of the site will maybe at least pay attention to the issue since it is becoming worse as time goes on. (I hope there is some type of check system or overlook feature where you can see what mods are doing). I completely understand most of the mods do a great job and I'm sure the ones that will reply to my post here are perfectly okay and not the target of my complaints, but you have to admit that there are some bad eggs in the bunch that are giving mods overall a bad name).

I also dont understand why this kind of feedback is not "preferred" on this thread? Last week, my concerns were simply brushed aside and then my thread was closed. The thread is called Site Comments, and the OP's comment fits perfectly with this thread as he was commenting on the site. What other site comments would be allowed then? Seems like every topic where someone complains, a mod comes in and tells them to take it offline and private message someone. My guess is that it doesn't look good to have these kind of complaints publicly, so you are urged to do it private.

I like the concept of this site and the value of commenters but there are a few bad mods that are making me doubt how frequently I should use the site going forward and I know I'm not alone.

And no, I will not private message my concerns.
 
iOrlando said:
I agree completely. Power hungry mods are becoming more prevalent on this site and hopefully some of the actual owners of the site will maybe at least pay attention to the issue since it is becoming worse as time goes on. (I hope there is some type of check system or overlook feature where you can see what mods are doing). I completely understand most of the mods do a great job and I'm sure the ones that will reply to my post here are perfectly okay and not the target of my complaints, but you have to admit that there are some bad eggs in the bunch that are giving mods overall a bad name).

I also dont understand why this kind of feedback is not "preferred" on this thread? Last week, my concerns were simply brushed aside and then my thread was closed. The thread is called Site Comments, and the OP's comment fits perfectly with this thread as he was commenting on the site. What other site comments would be allowed then? Seems like every topic where someone complains, a mod comes in and tells them to take it offline and private message someone. My guess is that it doesn't look good to have these kind of complaints publicly, so you are urged to do it private.

I like the concept of this site and the value of commenters but there are a few bad mods that are making me doubt how frequently I should use the site going forward and now I'm not alone.

And no, I will not private message my concerns.
Click to expand...

Its not a government conspiracy. Its because if your problem is so important, it does not need to be public. You will not accomplish anything through this route. Going the public route makes you look like an e-martyr.
 
You really do see the "loosing" error all over the internet. Why is that I wonder? I believe teachers should pound this into students heads on about 30 different spelling tests.
 
Mods are human too and may have, in your opinion, made an error of judgment. Take it up with the moderators and work it out. My feeling is that if it was a trivial and isolated matter I would just let it go. The mods have lots of serious stuff to deal with too and sometimes the trivial gets lumped in with it.
 
Loose as a goose.

When in doubt you lose because you lost an O (sadness).
 
The mods do a wonderful job, and they are human. With my experience, they do their jobs wonderfully and better then I could ever do it. While the policing seems excessive to some, I do appreciate the professionalism that seems to exist on this forum regarding grammar, spelling and etiquette.
 
iOrlando said:
Seems like every topic where someone complains, a mod comes in and tells them to take it offline and private message someone. My guess is that it doesn't look good to have these kind of complaints publicly, so you are urged to do it private.
Click to expand...

Don't bother bringing up complaints in private either to mods or admins. They won't necessarily address the issue, but may rather search through your post history and use something you said in the past against you. I've seen this happen whenever complaints are "done in private". There is simply no public accountability when mods or admins go on their power trips. :)

What we need is an ombudsmen to oversee the moderation practices on this board. Ardent, sheeple supporters of MR will point out that this is a privately-owned board and they can do anything they please because such, as a counter to any arguments or complaints about this board. Pity.

About those infractions, I think it was a new feature of VBulletin 3.5 or so. Sometimes a new feature doesn't make it a good feature to use. Perhaps the admins should review their policies regarding its use.
 
thegoldenmackid said:
The mods do a wonderful job, and they are human. With my experience, they do their jobs wonderfully and better then I could ever do it. While the policing seems excessive to some, I do appreciate the professionalism that seems to exist on this forum regarding grammar, spelling and etiquette.
Click to expand...

Woah, woah, woah, when did we start monitoring spelling and grammar? Gotta start reportin' ppl. :p
 
Unspoken Demise said:
Woah, woah, woah, when did we start monitoring spelling and grammar? Gotta start reportin' ppl. :p
Click to expand...

You are heading straight to time-out my friend. ;)

(For those that were confused by my post. By no means do the moderators correct spelling or grammar [and by no means to my knowledge are people banned for those reasons] However, because of a large percentage of users that use proper grammar and often request its use in the thread, the community seems to appreciate an attempt towards it.)
 
Unspoken Demise said:
While I respect your opinion, this is not the best way to communicate your feelings. I suggest following this link and voicing your dissapproval in a kind manner there. This will only make things worse with this thread.
Click to expand...

Actually most of the OP's post is fine. The only part that would be better handled behind the scenes would be the part regarding the infraction but it looks more like statement of fact rather than an inquiry into the situation.

iOrlando said:
I also dont understand why this kind of feedback is not "preferred" on this thread?
Click to expand...

As stated above this kind of thread is fine. We try to keep moderation specific issues (such as the infraction) as a conversation behind the scenes. It makes little sense to have a 1-on-1 conversation in public regarding a given users specific issue. There are more reasons than just that even.

The moderation team is held accountable. Users are given multiple ways to contact mods, an admin, or the site owner. If the site owner doesn't agree with you well... it's his site. If you are unsure which moderator to contact, using the "Contact Us" link will send a message to all the moderators. Usually the moderator that handled the case will be put on it unless it looks like another moderator should look into it (for instance if the user is disputing the moderator's actions).
 
thegoldenmackid said:
The mods do a wonderful job, and they are human. With my experience, they do their jobs wonderfully and better then I could ever do it. While the policing seems excessive to some, I do appreciate the professionalism that seems to exist on this forum regarding grammar, spelling and etiquette.
Click to expand...

and i dont think anyone can argue against that statement. It seems like our complaints have to do more with the few instances where excessive policing is taken to a new extreme. Is there some sort of checks/balances to prevent such behavior by mods? Any estimate someone can give as to how many mods exist? For all I know, it could be relatively few. I am assuming though the number is getting up there and hence a few bad ones are slipping through the cracks. That is the main crux of my argument.
 
iOrlando said:
and i dont think anyone can argue against that statement. It seems like our complaints have to do more with the few instances where excessive policing is taken to a new extreme. Is there some sort of checks/balances to prevent such behavior by mods? Any estimate someone can give as to how many mods exist? For all I know, it could be relatively few. I am assuming though the number is getting up there and hence a few bad ones are slipping through the cracks. That is the main crux of my argument.
Click to expand...

There are this many mods.
 
iOrlando said:
Any estimate someone can give as to how many mods exist? For all I know, it could be relatively few. I am assuming though the number is getting up there and hence a few bad ones are slipping through the cracks. That is the main crux of my argument.
Click to expand...
No need to estimate when the exact list is always at your disposal, via the View Forum Leaders link on the Forums homepage.
 
CherryJul said:
Why are you hidden? If a member has a moderation issue to take up, how would they contact you if you were the only one online, but are hiding? :)
Click to expand...

They can still contact myself (or any of us). Being online is not a prerequisite to being contacted. Even if you were to contact one of us that was online it doesn't necessarily mean we'll respond in 5 minutes anyway. I (and most of the mods I'd guess) get notifications when we get PM's just like any other user.

iOrlando said:
so is it like a supreme court justice appointment? once you become a mod...you can pretty much do anything and not worry about the coat hanger by arn?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say we "worry" as moderation is a volunteer position and if I was unable to moderate tomorrow... well I'd just be unable to moderate and the site would go on. I would be sad yes because it's something that I enjoy doing. But certainly arn (or any of the admins) can remove our privileges at any time without notice. There are many other users out there that would jump at the chance to be a mod and would be quite good at it too. It's definitely a balance of "cooks in the kitchen" and somewhat "vs people that want to eat"!
 
Hi folks!

I have corrected the typo, for those who get so angry about a typo, well there is a world outside and it is beautiful take a look.

To be honest I was just voicing my opinion, I have been a reader of this site for a very long time and don't often post much, but really visit this site a lot. In fact I have it on all the time, checking it for the latest news. I am one of the old style fans of Apple and this used to be a friendly place without the grammar police and the power trips.

What I was trying to say with my original post is not only to find the logic by giving someone an infraction for an accident double posting. I truly believe the person was on a power trip, that is the only explanation I can think of. I'd be happy for any admin to tell me what I did so wrong that I deserved this.

As a moderator myself on other sites, I try to be fair and I think most people can tell the difference between a double post and spam. Let me tell you what I do when I see a double post on a forum, I take a look if it is spam, I ban the person. If it is just an occasional double post, I delete it. If it happens again I send a message ... I understand we do things differently here but I don't understand the logic behind it.

peace - macpanda.
 
MacPanda said:
What I was trying to say with my original post is not only to find the logic by giving someone an infraction for an accident double posting. I truly believe the person was on a power trip, that is the only explanation I can think of. I'd be happy for any admin to tell me what I did so wrong that I deserved this.
Click to expand...

I think the problem is the perception that an infraction is more of serious deal than it is. Infractions serve two purposes:

1) send a message to the user, which is common request when people's posts are deleted
2) keep track of offenses.

In your case, #2 seems irrelevant. As for #1, it may have just been to let you know.

You made three duplicate posts with 3 different titles, so it wasn't quite a matter of accidentally hitting submit three times. It was hitting submit, changing the title, hitting submit, changing the title and hitting submit again -- or some variation thereof. Seems reasonable that it could have not looked like an accident to the mod.

I don't know the content of the infraction message, however if it was any more than a "heads up" sort of message, then it might have been too strong a warning.

arn
 
arn said:
I don't know the content of the infraction message, however if it was any more than a "heads up" sort of message, then it might have been too strong a warning.
Click to expand...

Yes, the infraction would appear to be too strong given the offense, which in the rules is under "Minor Problems".

I had reported a post that was written intentionally to derail a topic, which under the rules is a more serious offense subject to deletion or editing. But after I reported, those off-topic posts were not deleted and I highly doubt the offending poster got an infraction.

Perhaps you need to ask your mods to review the Forum Rules again. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back