That's your opinion.
Which you have made abundantly clear, and of course to which you are entitled.
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That's your opinion.
Which you have made abundantly clear, and of course to which you are entitled.
Apparently typing 'POS' (piece of ****) as your whole post is not considered frivolous on this forum.
Just throwing that out there
Just throwing that out there
Apparently typing 'POS' (piece of ****) as your whole post is not considered frivolous on this forum.
Just throwing that out there
If a post like that is brought to our attention, we will handle moderation according to the rules. Keep in mind that tens of thousands of posts are created each day on MacRumors, and the moderators and administrators who handle that sort of thing are volunteers. That's why post reports are such a help to us.
My suggestion is to send a post report for posts like that, rather than just throwing it out there ;-)
If you report a post and it's deemed that no moderation needs to be done, you're welcome to ask us why via the Contact Us link. We are always happy to explain.
I did report it and it was concluded that 'no moderator action was warranted', yet I've had posts deleted that conveyed more meaning and purpose. I see no reason to ask because I'm sure any answer I receive will be unsatisfactory and I'd rather save myself the frustration. It seems not everyone agrees on the definition of 'frivolous' because I see dozens of frivolous posts every day. If I was a moderator, half of this forum would be deleted.
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I did report it and it was concluded that 'no moderator action was warranted', yet I've had posts deleted that conveyed more meaning and purpose. I see no reason to ask because I'm sure any answer I receive will be unsatisfactory and I'd rather save myself the frustration. It seems not everyone agrees on the definition of 'frivolous' because I see dozens of frivolous posts every day. If I was a moderator, half of this forum would be deleted.
If you decide not to bother ask why a particular reported post wasn't moderated, and not to bother to ask the administrators to do a review of the moderation because you already know that you'll be dissatisfied with whatever response you get, that's up to you.
But understand that you're 1) denying yourself the possibility to discuss the rules in a way that could bring clarity to the situation and 2) not letting us know that a particular incidence of moderation should perhaps be reviewed, which could contribute to improved moderation.
In my opinion, using the system that's in place is the constructive alternative.
Your response made me think. Don’t you guys have some form of automation to assist with this, like a report highlighting posts that potentially break forum rules?
Nope, we rely on members to report posts, or in our normal day to day interactions.
you offer this contact method instead of publicly discussing the situation yet you pick and chose who to get back to.
im noticing a growing frustration with the moderation team and I for one am glad others are seeing and experiencing what I see
There's an important distinction here that I think you're not aware of, given your post.
We're always happy to discuss the rules and moderation in general, here in Site and Forum Feedback. The post you were responding to stated that questions about specific cases of moderation should be sent via the Contact Us form. Those aren't discussed in public because of our privacy policy.
We also offer to review our work if a user contacts us to ask why a post s/he reported wasn't moderated. In most cases we see that our moderation was correct, and explain to the user why there were no violations (and therefore no moderation). Sometimes, however, we see that we made a mistake. In those cases, we adjust our moderation.
So questions users send us about specific moderation are very useful. Either we get an opportunity to explain the rules, or we get the chance to learn and improve our moderation.
I've never not had a response to a "contact me" message. Sometimes the response was not what I was looking for, but it's always a response.
I have had it take literally *months* to hear back from a contact message about moderation, but I did get a reply, I guess.
It may be, as has been stated in previous posts/threads, the staff/mods are extremely busy with outside lives and this is a part time gig. And asking what appears to be a simple question, and having to provide a fair and balanced response, might require a fair amount of investigation.
Combine part time job, with a laundry list of other site related activity, along with some lead time to research answers I could see where potentially a response could take a while on a site that has this many members and activity.
The staff can comment on how the list of question sent via the contact form is attacked in terms of priority. First in, first out? Easy question in, easy answer out are processed first? Hard question in, hard answer out, processed last? I don't know...
“Hey, tobefirst. Thanks for submitting the question. I think we will have to look into this more and it will take some time to get back to you, but wanted to let you know that your question has been received and your voice heard. We’ll be in touch.”
Took me 60 seconds.
It's true that some situations that are sent in via the Contact Us aren't cut and dried. Those can take weeks, because they involve a lot of discussion across time zones and quite often a considerable amount of research. A few examples are issues that make us aware of a rule that needs to be changed or clarified, or when a user points out an inconsistency that will result in a change in how we moderate in the future.
In some cases we might need to take a look at a lot of posts to see if we can find a pattern. Maybe the admins need to hear the thinking of the moderators before rushing to decide something. If a user is about to lose PRSI or Marketplace access and contests the moderation involved, we don't rush because it's important to both the user and to us that we make the correct decision. These sorts of things can require a lot of review and discussion.
When a contact message does very occasionally fall through the cracks and we see that we made a user wait unnecessarily, we send an apology when we respond.
I can also mention that the moderators and the admins who deal with these issues are volunteers.
I think the thing to focus on here is that we're not being lazy or taking our time on purpose, we're taking the time it takes to be as thorough and as fair as possible. What looks very clear to one person can sometimes be seen from other angles and have bigger consequences for users long term.
In some cases we might need to take a look at a lot of posts to see if we can find a pattern. Maybe the admins need to hear the thinking of the moderators before rushing to decide something. If a user is about to lose PRSI or Marketplace access and contests the moderation involved, we don't rush because it's important to both the user and to us that we make the correct decision. These sorts of things can require a lot of review and discussion.
When a contact message does very occasionally fall through the cracks and we see that we made a user wait unnecessarily, we send an apology when we respond.
I can also mention that the moderators and the admins who deal with these issues are volunteers.
I think the thing to focus on here is that we're not being lazy or taking our time on purpose, we're taking the time it takes to be as thorough and as fair as possible. What looks very clear to one person can sometimes be seen from other angles and have bigger consequences for users long term.