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I would consider asking another mod to step in if I was involved in an argument, but I think the majority of the time, where moderation amounts to not much more than a warning to steer away from politics or chill out if a fight is getting too personal, it's a bit unecessary.
I think this a key point. Almost the only thing I do as a mod is simply ask people to get less heated with no punitive action involved. Believe me, when there is any real action like a ban or locked thread, we all talk about it behind the scenes. I can't see anyone ever getting any that is a legitimate member of the forum (not a spammer) getting any kind of a ban here without mod discussion. And while a thread might get locked but a lone mod, it's not going to stay locked if they are the only person on staff that wants it locked.

Obviously, it is invisible to all of you, but we do check in with each other a lot.
 
It definitely was intended to be dismissive, deliberately so, primarily as a warning to new readers, secondly to deflate the situation. I don't see that as sarcastic, though.

We can quibble whether it was "sarcastic" but I don't think dismissive is the way to go either. It's editorialising, which I think is best avoided when renaming threads.

Titling a new thread "where we discuss why D&D is crap" isn't sarcastic, but it's not a good idea either.

I can see your point on the second, I don't agree with the first. The majority of my posts here are as a regular poster, and my opinions carry no more weight than anyone else. The only thing I have any authority in regards to is my actions as moderator. My taste in games, playstyles, media, food, etc are of no consequence to anyone else and there is no authority behind them. No one is obliged to agree with me in any way, and my posts are just as open to criticism, friendly ribbing, and argument as anyone else's opinion.

Completely agree here. As far as I'm concerned admin and mods are regualr posters when they aren't acting in an official capacity and shouldn't be treated any differently or held to different standards. In fact, treating staff as some kind of "other" separate from the rest of the board is what makes me dislike at least 50% of the moderation practices on other forums and isn't a road I'd like to see us go down.
 
I just want to remind people that one forum that professes to indulge in free speech had its mod eject 2 or 3 people in one week for disagreeing with him

I am not interested in this topic so I shall close the thread.

and that another routinely posts in black text and then when people argue with the black text come up with "dont argue with mods!!!!" In red text.

Forum ban for criticising moderation policy in a thread about moderation policy.

Egads, this place is a haven of moderation in comparison. Ive never seen any mods here not be anything but fair.
Ive had 2 posts that line danced the no politics rule and it was resolved with a friendly PM and an edit by me.

Likewise. I far prefer the moderation policy here than anywhere else.

My one "official" interaction was when I had a sig that was amusing to me in context, but appeared political out of that context. A mod sent a friendly PM and I removed it.

Also, I've found the mods very responsive if you want to ask if something would be ok to post ahead of time, if it's a bit borderline.
 
Just thinking further, we sometimes need to mod discussions we are in because there are only three of us. Because there are only three of us, we are able to be very loose in moderation, working by casual agreement. We could up the number of mods to a point where there were always multiple people "on duty". My concern is that the more people we have moderating, the more it needs to be done by... policy, and that could really change things a lot here.
 
One thing to be aware of for the future is that for those of us outside your timezone I quite often don't see any members of staff on when I'm browsing. Doesn't seem to be an issue yet, but it could potentially cause problems down the line if stuff all kicks off when you're all in bed.
 
Also, I've found the mods very responsive if you want to ask if something would be ok to post ahead of time, if it's a bit borderline.
There are a number of users who PM with me about things. Sometimes it is a question. Sometimes it something that concerns them that doesn't seem worth hitting the report button. Sometimes they just want to vent. Sometimes they are questioning something I did. And that's fine.
 
Black Leaf hit the nail on the head...Editorializing.
Editorializing as a mod sets precedent, and, like it or not, establishes truth for the site.

People, including the mods, don’t want the mods to get involved in that purposely, so they should avoid it inadvertently as well.
 
I am not interested in this topic so I shall close the thread.



Forum ban for criticising moderation policy in a thread about moderation policy.



Likewise. I far prefer the moderation policy here than anywhere else.

My one "official" interaction was when I had a sig that was amusing to me in context, but appeared political out of that context. A mod sent a friendly PM and I removed it.

Also, I've found the mods very responsive if you want to ask if something would be ok to post ahead of time, if it's a bit borderline.
Yep. That is EXACTLY how I got perma banned there. Lol
 
Yep. That is EXACTLY how I got perma banned there. Lol
That forum has sure gone wackadoo. I stay away from the problematical stuff but I also don't post there so much anymore. Nor do I post much at the other one either since most of the threads don't have much to do with actual gaming, just gaming politics.
 
I don't post much.

The Pub is one of three forums I frequent. And it is the only one that I usually go to see actual, passionate discussion about elfgames. The other elfgame forums are mostly train wrecks and I like to rubberneck.

The posts can get heated. But to me, it honestly seems that most are thought out and just genuinely passionate about the hobby. Nothing to knock, as far as I'm concerned.

You guys do great.

I'll go back to lurking quietly now.
 
That forum has sure gone wackadoo. I stay away from the problematical stuff but I also don't post there so much anymore. Nor do I post much at the other one either since most of the threads don't have much to do with actual gaming, just gaming politics.
You have to think, at this point, they're pretty happy with the direction they have took - people have tried to warn them numerous times what the results would be if they kept going, and they did, and - lo! - they had the predicted results. You can only think "oh, it's an a mistake..." so many times.

And, you know, that's cool. There's clearly an audience for the thing they're doing and they're clearly enjoying themselves there. But there's also a big audience for not that thing.
 
I'd actually appreciate some suggestions as to what would be considered a "neutral" spin-off thread title, were a similiar situation present itself. If I understand the general consenses, spinning off an argument to it's own thread is seen as generally preferrable to thread bans or thread closures, but that a title like "This Old Argument", if not sarcastic, is seen as a form of editorializing. As I didn't view it that way, I acknowledge the possibility that is a blindspot of bias on my part, something I'd like to avoid in the future
 
One thing to be aware of for the future is that for those of us outside your timezone I quite often don't see any members of staff on when I'm browsing. Doesn't seem to be an issue yet, but it could potentially cause problems down the line if stuff all kicks off when you're all in bed.


I use to be the all-nighter mod, but school has curbed that to an extent (I'm still on later than any of the other staff members - just going by my time zone, seems like the forum goes to "sleep mode" around 11 and starts back up about 6 am - typically Endless first pops in around 5 am my time. I'm typically awake until 2-3 and periodically check in). But even when I was here from 1 am to 6 am my time, generally it was just an open tab that I would check in on every once in a while, and I think there's only once in 3 years that something happened during that time that I had to moderate.
The forum is REALLY quiet in those wee hours.

IF something were to happen in the middle of the night and no staff was logged in, my suggestion would be to report it and walk away. Chances are someone's going to see the report within an hour or two at most.
 
I'd actually appreciate some suggestions as to what would be considered a "neutral" spin-off thread title, were a similiar situation present itself. If I understand the general consenses, wspinning off an argument to it's own thread iss seen as generally preferrable to thread bans or thread closures, but that a title like "This Old Argument", if not sarcastic, is seen as a form of editorializing. As I didn't view it that way, I acknowledge the possibility that is a blindspot of bias on my part, something I'd like to avoid in the future
Waiting for the forum to go up in flames and everyone to quit because a comment disagreeing with a moderator a) was allowed and b) resulted in an admission that maybe something wasn't done right.

I believe that's banned elsewhere.
 
I'd actually appreciate some suggestions as to what would be considered a "neutral" spin-off thread title, were a similiar situation present itself. If I understand the general consenses, spinning off an argument to it's own thread is seen as generally preferrable to thread bans or thread closures, but that a title like "This Old Argument", if not sarcastic, is seen as a form of editorializing. As I didn't view it that way, I acknowledge the possibility that is a blindspot of bias on my part, something I'd like to avoid in the future
I'd go dry and dull.

"Spinoff thread - What are narrative mechanics?" or something like that.
 
I'd actually appreciate some suggestions as to what would be considered a "neutral" spin-off thread title, were a similiar situation present itself. If I understand the general consenses, spinning off an argument to it's own thread is seen as generally preferrable to thread bans or thread closures, but that a title like "This Old Argument", if not sarcastic, is seen as a form of editorializing. As I didn't view it that way, I acknowledge the possibility that is a blindspot of bias on my part, something I'd like to avoid in the future
The thread drift was about early narrative games (I missed the original thread it spun off from), so something like... Early Narrative Games? White Wolf and the History of Narrative Games?
 
I'd actually appreciate some suggestions as to what would be considered a "neutral" spin-off thread title, were a similiar situation present itself. If I understand the general consenses, wspinning off an argument to it's own thread iss seen as generally preferrable to thread bans or thread closures, but that a title like "This Old Argument", if not sarcastic, is seen as a form of editorializing. As I didn't view it that way, I acknowledge the possibility that is a blindspot of bias on my part, something I'd like to avoid in the future
Those forum tags talked about a page or so ago would be good here. Tag it as tangent then state what thread its from followed by a title.
 
I've definitely noticed that everyone kind of goes to sleep at a certain time. Since I work for a company out of Tokyo I'm up stupidly late at night. I catch the Euroopeans coming by in the morning usually though.

I'd be curious to see a graph of post frequency. I feel like everyone has games on Friday nights or something because it always feels dead here then :tongue:.
 
I'd go dry and dull.

"Spinoff thread - What are narrative mechanics?" or something like that.
Dry and dull is fine with me. It might be good to have some kind of tag that indicates the thread is one that was spun off due to getting ugly. That way someone coming in who wasn't in the original thread knows that we expect people to step a little lighter than usual in the discussion.
I've definitely noticed that everyone kind of goes to sleep at a certain time. Since I work for a company out of Tokyo I'm up stupidly late at night. I catch the Euroopeans coming by in the morning usually though.

I'd be curious to see a graph of post frequency. I feel like everyone has games on Friday nights or something because it always feels dead here then :tongue:.
I've spent time on gaming forums from Japan and Australia, so I know how you feel.
 
I've definitely noticed that everyone kind of goes to sleep at a certain time. Since I work for a company out of Tokyo I'm up stupidly late at night. I catch the Euroopeans coming by in the morning usually though.

I'd be curious to see a graph of post frequency. I feel like everyone has games on Friday nights or something because it always feels dead here then :tongue:.

I don’t think I can do a post history by hour but I can get a visit history by hour. I will post it later.
 
We frequently moderate threads we participate in, usually because we're the first to see any issues.

I'm not convinced that represents bias. If there was a situation where I was arguing with one poster, and then chose to specifically moderate them based on that argument, I could see that ruffling feathers. In that case though, I simply moved the venue of the conversation. No individual participant was targetted by intention.

I understand you (Trippy) were upset that it seemed the new thread was attributed to you though you did not start it, but in that case it was just a matter of taking the first post from where the digression began. In the future, I would instead do a preliminary/ preface post before the transfer, something I was unable to insert after the fact.

I would consider asking another mod to step in if I was involved in an argument, but I think the majority of the time, where moderation amounts to not much more than a warning to steer away from politics or chill out if a fight is getting too personal, it's a bit unecessary.

I understand the point some are making, but see a huge difference in the implementation here vs other places. For the most part the mods here are accepting of disagreement. If a snarky comment is made by a mod and a snarky comment is returned its all good. Many places that would unload a whole can of drama.

I personally am a fan of using humor to defuse a situation

It seems pretty clear to me when a mod is shifting from gentle prodding, settle down none of this is worth bloodshed to a no, seriously that is enough.

I also remember the mod thread at that other place that resulted in multiple bans and permabands. I appreciate the opportunity to openly discuss the topic and see that even dissenting opinions are being given respectful consideration and discussion.
 
I understand the point some are making, but see a huge difference in the implementation here vs other places. For the most part the mods here are accepting of disagreement. If a snarky comment is made by a mod and a snarky comment is returned its all good. Many places that would unload a whole can of drama.

I personally am a fan of using humor to defuse a situation

It seems pretty clear to me when a mod is shifting from gentle prodding, settle down none of this is worth bloodshed to a no, seriously that is enough.

I also remember the mod thread at that other place that resulted in multiple bans and permabands. I appreciate the opportunity to openly discuss the topic and see that even dissenting opinions are being given respectful consideration and discussion.
That mod thread was a trap... lol. It is where I met my end there. :tongue:

Worth it
 
I also remember the mod thread at that other place that resulted in multiple bans and permabands. I appreciate the opportunity to openly discuss the topic and see that even dissenting opinions are being given respectful consideration and discussion.

I don’t remember that but I find that to be counterproductive if it was made to provide constructive criticism in how they mod over there. It also stifles open opposition to mod policy in the future. Everybody has to tiptoe about any feedback they may have. I’ve said it before a few times, but I’m no fan of how they mod over there.

This thread has helped the three of us see ways we can improve at how we moderate the Pub. That’s a good thing! Every site should be doing it.
 
That mod thread was a trap... lol. It is where I met my end there. :tongue:

Worth it
Admittedly, I was a little snarky in the post that got me suspended, but it was genuinely nothing compared to the behavior of the moderators there in general and especially in that thread towards old-time users with valid criticisms.

Still. Worth it.

This thread has helped the three of us see ways we can improve at how we moderate the Pub. That’s a good thing! Every site should be doing it.
Exactly! You can't improve if you don't listen or if people only say "Everything's fine please dont hurt me".
 
Thanks to High School and college clusterfucks, I couldn’t touch tequila or scotch for almost a decade. Finally my body stopped classifying them as deadly poisons and let me have them again. Love Glenfiddich and Glenlivet. Heard a lot of good things about Glenmorangie, gonna have to try it.
Friend got back in town, brought some Glenmorangie 12 year. Very nice.
 
Try these scotches:
Clynelish 14. Very reasonably priced for a 14, most of their production ends up in blends, but this is a very, very good whisky.
Glenfiddich 15 Solera. 15 years is the youngest age of the whisky‘s that go into the vat to blend. So you end up with 15, 18 and older whisky that get blended then barreled again before bottling. So good.

Rob
 
Friend got back in town, brought some Glenmorangie 12 year. Very nice.
Glenmorangie is great! Their master distiller, Dr. Bill Lumsden is probably the smartest man in scotch.
This on is the Lasanta, aged in bourbon barrels, finished in Spanish sherry casks. Smooth as silk. I’ll have to pick up the 10 year you and Dan are talking about.
 
I find it offensive that the admins here would delete criticisms! I'm outraged! How dare you!
 
This on is the Lasanta, aged in bourbon barrels, finished in Spanish sherry casks. Smooth as silk. I’ll have to pick up the 10 year you and Dan are talking about.

Smooth daily drinker.

The Lasanta is the 10 after 2 additional years in sherry buttes.

The Quinta Ruban is a port wine finish and the Nectar D’Or uses Sauternes, a French dessert wine. All three are really, really good.

I had a bourbon tasting today. Some very good stuff (Booker’s, Stagg Jr., Eagle Rare) but scotch is still king for me. (Japanese whisky is amazing as well. Jury’s still out on Irish, I have a closed bottle at home I should be opening soon enough.)
 
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