Clearing some things up

[Celegorm]

OK, I've been noticing a few things on here recently that just has me thinking, and analyzing things here.

Probaly the big thing is this fear that anything and everything you do will get you banned, or a simple disagreeance will get a thread closed/posts edited. I can't deny that ever mod has made mistakes and done one (or more) of those in a case where they shouldn't have. We are human though, and some mistakes/emotional rampages can happen.

However most of the time we act it's because someone else has found what you did unacceptable and has reported it. We can't just ignore that. At the same time people need to look at the context of threads before hitting that report button. The occasional swearing or something is normal in our society, so why can't it be here? There are occasions where just about anything can be ok or justifiable. So when we get a report about "Mild swearing" in a thread about a bad day we understand and probably don't care since you just need to vent. However if we edit it, it's simply because we weren't given much of a choice.

You guys know the Instabans around here. You need to do spam, porn it up, or be George or Bob.

Under most circumstances you'll get a warning about being banned if your doing something that we don't like. The only exception I can think to that would be just blowing up on another member with swearing with no good/little reason. Heck, after the warning unless don't stop following it, or start doing it more to piss us off things are OK and no more worries.

Another thing I've noticed is an over-all lack of PMs. Every criticism is done publicly. There is no need to make a post only to say "you really shouldn't be saying that" or anything like that. That only draws attention to the issue, and makes the original poster defensive. A simple PM can get things done a lot easier, and cleaner not to mention save us mods the trouble of a bunch of pissed off people because we had to step in and edit things. If you don't want to PM the member, PM us and we'll talk to them.

I used to get PMs about that all the time, and things never were tense about it. The messages were sent, things were talked about and the problem was taken care of. Why can't we still do this?

 

[Half Evil]

OK, I've been noticing a few things on here recently that just has me thinking, and analyzing things here.

I think thats the entire problem, it scares me..















......joking lol

 

[Lowndsey]

At the same time people need to look at the context of threads before hitting that report button. The occasional swearing or something is normal in our society, so why can't it be here? There are occasions where just about anything can be ok or justifiable.

That's where a lot of problems stem from. What some people find acceptable here others don't. Even between mods..what one mod finds acceptable another may not. Nothing wrong with that as it's human nature but when definitions of rules become a matter of opinion problems are bound to occur. I think if some swearing is to be allowed maybe it should be rewritten into the rules. I have no problem with some swearing provided the rules allow it and people know exactly where they stand ..not some grey area where one day something that results in a ban may not result in a ban on another day.

 

[BrynF_UK]

Its like trying to argue whats a 'bad' swearword and whats an 'acceptable' swear word, everyone is going to have a different opinion - although I think that sometimes some posts seem to have a swearword every second word ... and thats including **** because lets be honest, we all know whats being said putting some stars in doesn't somehow make the word ok - but you see, thats just my opinion Someone else could and might disagree which is fine - but we definitely need to change the rules like Lowndsey said, because we cant keep going on with gray areas like this

 

[Celegorm]

I see your point about the rules. The question is, what would we change them to? Something like "Profane language is usually not allowed but can be considered justifiable by moderator decision?" That's like the only thing I can think of that would cut out people pulling the "I thought no one would have a problem with it" card when it isn't acceptable.

 

[BrynF_UK]

Well, what I was thinking of was 'no heavy profanity' or something like that, like b*****d or f**k (see, stars make allll the difference ) i dont know, those are just examlpes of what im trying to say but just to use common sense (which is what needs to be used anyway) and not to use words that you know someone will complain about

this is just my opinion, not gospel i want to see what other people have to say

 

[hascet]

I pretty much agree, but if more things are to be taken to PM then the size limit needs to be increased, and time limit decreased. That is probably why most people don't PM, its takes ages between responses and you can literally fill up your inbox with one conversation.

 

[Celegorm]

I pretty much agree, but if more things are to be taken to PM then the size limit needs to be increased, and time limit decreased. That is probably why most people don't PM, its takes ages between responses and you can literally fill up your inbox with one conversation.

I know what your saying, and it has a valid point, but people used to do it all the time when I first became a mod. I don't think any of your limitations have gotten worse since then.

 

[UK31337]

As I probably pointed out when I was still modding and again afterwards before I was banned originally, mods interpreting the "rules" their own way and going off on a banning spree without consultation is just not on. I'm thinking back to the days of Grandad and Wombat here, those two treated this place like their playground and seemed, to me at least, to honestly think that they were untouchable by David or anyone. I miss those two like I would miss motor neurone disease, purely because they thought they were that much better than everyone else and the rules were there to be ignored.

Mods are here to help David out with running the site, and it being his site he ultimately he has the final say. I've seen too many occasions where somebody gets permanently banned for infraction x and they mysteriously become unbanned three days later and are posting like nothing ever happened, because David thinks it was a crap decision to begin with and a mod just went off and misused their powers for no good and valid reason. Back in my day stuff like that just created bitching and in-fighting between mods before David eventually (if he ever did) stepped in and made his decision final, said final decision was usually not what the original banning mod wanted... cue more bitching and arguments. What one mod finds acceptable one finds appalling, personal opinion should never be used in place of hard and fast rules.

IMO David needs to clarify the rules, carve them into stone, and the mods stick by them to the absolute letter or get fired. Simple as. It'll never happen but you can only dream.