Moderation Problem

Lately, I've noticed an increase in mod-overzealousness on this board.

A good moderator is one who does his/her job without being noticed. A moderator who brings attention to his/her own moderator powers in a matter-of-fact way is one who creates an aura of intimidation, which is never good for the forum.

There has been a clear breach of forum rules by one moderator today, Letehn closed a topic in the FFA due to being "quite sick of them" (by them, he means topics like them). In addition to providing this 'reason', she(he?) felt the need to add a resounding "Closed." at the end of the post, therefore affirming her absolute authority on the matter (this is actually a technique used by the mods quite frequently here.)

According to the forum, the only posts that are to be closed in the FFA are ones that contain hate speech or violate US law. I looked this forum over and it contains no such thing - granted it is an annoying poll and certainly immature, but such polls are allowed to exist in the FFA and should not be closed on personal whims. If it is a case of Jeremiah Hong being offended (the person whom the poll was jesting), notice that the entry to the FFA contains a disclaimer that "you may find it very offensive or even upsetting" so I'm afraid if he wants to avoid this sort of thing, he should deny himself access to the FFA. This also not a case of spam either, I have looked through the FFA and have only noted the occasional topic devoted to mocking Jeremiah Hong, certainly nothing that is clogging the forum.

I understand that Letehn may have been acting on her personal emotional impulses, and we are all human of course, but I would imagine that being a moderator is a special responsibility that requires emotional restraint and applicatition of ethics and logic. It is very unethical to set rules and then break them arbitrarily, it completely undermines the entire system and creates an atmosphere of fear and suspiscion.

I am making a plea to the administrators (btw, I have never seen the admins guilty of this behavior) to ask the moderators to follow the rules strictly and only when it comes to closing and moving polls about. I would also ask the moderators be more tactful about how they show thier power, there is no need to add loaded phrases like "Banned. Closed. Warned." which can be quite insulting. Please maintain a more professional and mature attitude about this.

I would like you to understand I do not want to cause trouble, rather I want to prevent causing trouble and also to maintain a friendly, casual, and educational atmosphere in this forum. I am also not defending W.E. Sapphire, as I personally don't care for those kinds of topics, but I am defending the right he has to post such topics according to forum rules.

I agree, the people here have issues with moderation. Lets go all out instead :P

anyways...

There has been a clear breach of forum rules by one moderator today, Letehn closed a topic in the FFA due to being "quite sick of them" (by them, he means topics like them). In addition to providing this 'reason', she(he?) felt the need to add a resounding "Closed." at the end of the post, therefore affirming her absolute authority on the matter (this is actually a technique used by the mods quite frequently here.)

Frankly, myself and I'm sure many others agree with him. Besides, you can't really call its closure the suppression of freedom of speech as nothing was actually said; it was a wasted topic, pure garbage. Sapphire created it as a joke and probably expected it to be closed. Is it so wrong of a moderator to try to keep this forum clean? Sure its the FFA but without preening, imagine how many unnecessary, pointless threads there'd be. It would be like walking through a bombed area of Iraq.

I am making a plea to the administrators (btw, I have never seen the admins guilty of this behavior) to ask the moderators to follow the rules strictly and only when it comes to closing and moving polls about. I would also ask the moderators be more tactful about how they show thier power, there is no need to add loaded phrases like "Banned. Closed. Warned." which can be quite insulting. Please maintain a more professional and mature attitude about this.

This is quite standard on many forums and shows the author of the offending post or topic the results of their actions. It allows them and others to see what isn't acceptable and can possibly prevent someone from doing the same thing again. Also, If the author of the closed topic is offended and embarrased by having their topic closed, they need to grow up. They wrote it, they should take the responsibility for it.

This also not a case of spam either, I have looked through the FFA and have only noted the occasional topic devoted to mocking Jeremiah Hong, certainly nothing that is clogging the forum.

Sure. Let's all make a thread on how we feel about atleast one other person in the forum. See how well that goes.

Well, to summerize I would like to say the Letehn acted well within his boundries as a moderator and acted very responsibly ( :D hehehe....). Freedom of speech is very muchencouraged but make sure you're actually making a point.

YES! Someone thought I was female... Finally!

COugh, um. Anyways! To adress this! :innocent:

here has been a clear breach of forum rules by one moderator today, Letehn closed a topic in the FFA due to being "quite sick of them" (by them, he means topics like them).)

The moderators are in agreement that useless ''popularity contests'' need to be closed. They always, litterally, result in carnage.. Hehe. Scroll back a few pages in the ffa, and you'll see.

In addition to providing this 'reason', she(he?) felt the need to add a resounding "Closed." at the end of the post, therefore affirming her absolute authority on the matter (this is actually a technique used by the mods quite frequently here.)

Yes, I must admit this is very satisfying. ;) But you'll find it's a technique moderators on a lot of boards use! *I* use this technique only on established members though, those that would ''know my character''. Hehe.

According to the forum, the only posts that are to be closed in the FFA are ones that contain hate speech or violate US law. I looked this forum over and it contains no such thing - granted it is an annoying poll and certainly immature, but such polls are allowed to exist in the FFA and should not be closed on personal whims. If it is a case of Jeremiah Hong being offended (the person whom the poll was jesting), notice that the entry to the FFA contains a disclaimer that "you may find it very offensive or even upsetting" so I'm afraid if he wants to avoid this sort of thing, he should deny himself access to the FFA. This also not a case of spam either, I have looked through the FFA and have only noted the occasional topic devoted to mocking Jeremiah Hong, certainly nothing that is clogging the forum.

Indeed, you are rigth in everything you say. We realized that such a free enviroment couldn't really exsist here as the forum started to grow, and are considering merging the off topic and ffa.

PS: Thanks for the support, Hill! ;)

Closed... Joking... of course...

I have to agree with Letehn's action here - the whole point of the topic was to bait Jeremiah. And knowing how Jeremiah is likely to respond... we almost certainly would have seen some very sketchy posting in short order.

That said, I'm all for having "all things in moderation, moderation included". I just think this case was about as clear-cut as it gets.

Well, it wasn't so clear cut to me, however you have provided some background information on the topic which helps me understand your actions better.

One question though, if all of the moderators have agreed that "Popularity Contests" that cause aggression will be closed, why isn't this fact up anywhere in the forum rules? Mabye I just haven't seen it, but you should consider adding this, mabye it will stop this sort of thing from happening more often, and would certainly make me feel better.

Oh, and actually I orginally addressed you as male, but I wasn't sure so I checked some of your posts to find out, and then went back and edited it to change to female :innocent:.

Male? Female? Who?

Anyway... look at that poll again, and tell me that's "just a popularity contest". As far as I can tell, there's no point to it except to denigrate a specific member.

Well, actually Letehn said it was a popularity contest, not me. I honestly can't tell if the poll is deliberately mean or just playful mocking.

One question though, if all of the moderators have agreed that "Popularity Contests" that cause aggression will be closed, why isn't this fact up anywhere in the forum rules? Mabye I just haven't seen it, but you should consider adding this, mabye it will stop this sort of thing from happening more often, and would certainly make me feel better.

Good point there. Unwritten rules that result in closing topics need to be expressed so the members can't complain when you end up closing them. Er, so they can't complain about not knowing they'd be closed. Moderators can't expect the members to know all the rules about closing topics if they aren't written down, and can expect resistance when these rules and actions are exercised.