Forum.ChesterGames.co.uk

Death Jester · Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 6:36 pm Post subject: Moderation guidelines required.

Moderators should only be able to interfere with posts if:
They are offensive.
They are off topic to the point where removing it is the only option.

Today I have had 1 of my posts moved to a less relavent area. And then when I re-posted explaining why it was relevant the first time it was removed and I was sent I PM that frankly has really made me angry.

I move that unless a moderator can apply one of the above reasons then they can't touch the post.

In the outrageous PM I was told my post was percieved (unreasonably) as ''highjacking the event and throwing the organisation in chaos or confusion.''
What I did was suggest that people continue to express interest in an event, then if there was enough that they can easily be catered for, with no extra work or financial outlay for the initial organiser. Work that I would take on to stop the event being disrupted.

Can someone explain to me why that is offensive or off topic?

This is a forum for gods sake not a popularity contest, if someone wants to have a choke hold on a topic then they shouldn't post it on a forum.

This is a club. If something would exclude people and an alternative is offered to include those people then why should the post be taken down?

I'm very annoyed at this right now and it frankly shouldn't be happening.

(Notice I have not named names, I don't intend to. But I do feel that this should be an open transparent discussion on the topic of moderator guidlines)

If there are terms of use for the rest of us then there should be for moderators too.

I'm not having some animal farm style organisation in a club that I care about deeply.
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HDimagination · Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 362 Location: Ellesmere Port

from what I can see the post was moved to the thread that the moderator in question thought it would be more apt.

one thing that is common in most forums is that if a moderator makes a judgement on something, then it's not a good idea to ignore that moderator and try to do the same thing again. For example, if you tried that on RPG.net, you'd be suspended for a length of time baised on the severity of the offence, weather or not the inital moderator action was just or not.

If you had a problem with the moderator's action, you probably should have had an open and honest discussion with them, in person or by PM about what they think you did wrong, rather than ignoring them. Again, most larger forums have a procedure for apealing a moderator action, but really, that's not required here where we all know each other.

The question is: should we take action on this baised on a singe event? People can have bad days and react to things badly. I don't ever recal any-one else ever having a problem with moderation on the board, so do we really think that this single issue is significant enough to open the drama can again and let the worms escape?

If we say that yes, we need to move towards a more structured method of moderation, we should also look at how moderators are chosen, and ask if assigning some-one to be the moderator of a part of the forum because they are the organiser of an event or because they requested a new part of the forum is really the best idea.

Death Jester · Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:22 pm Post subject:

I am a big believer than if something comes up it should be dealt with the first time. Otherwise future occurances could be avoided.

We are not RPG.net, they have hard line rules becuase of the volume of posts they have to deal with. And so implement blanket rules. And those places do have guidelines for their moderators to try and avoid them being out of line in the first place.

The bottom line here is my post was moved, with no reason, when the post was only trying to be within the spirit of what a club should be. There was an accompanying PM saying that they thought it should be elsewhere. That was a misinterpretation of the post, so I re-worded it and posted it again so it was clear why it should be where it was. Then someone else comes along and removes it, because?

No there haven't been any complaints before, but we shouldn't wait for more, moderators in moderation when the situation requires.

There is no reason for moderators to touch posts that are on topic and have no offensive content. It is that simple.
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HDimagination · Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 362 Location: Ellesmere Port

you missed my point: when a mod decided to move your post, and PM'd you with an explaination, rather than reply to them direclty and discuss the matter, you just posted again. Not only were you ignoring a moderator, but also some-one you know personally. That's just impolite. Further than that, rather than just choose to dicuss the matter quitely with the individuals concerned, you've chosen to make a political issue of it, invoking 'the spirit of the club' and comparisons to 'animal farm'

I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to resolve this situation, but was there not a method that you could have tired before making this out to be a situation that puts the very future of the club at stake?

dead · Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 9:04 pm Post subject:

I'm afraid I agree with HDimagination imagination here. If you have a problem with a moderator then bring it up with one of the committee don't try to make a political point over it. I'm very fed up with people trying to play petty politics.

I don't know what has happened here, but if you ignored a moderator in a forum that they moderate then they have every right to delete the post.

If you want to carry this on take it to PM either with me of the moderator in question.

Ian

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