Moderators - Behind the Scenes

[glitterdown]

Why do the moderators, whether evil or not, not clean up after themselves as vigorously as they clean up everyone else's spam?

I thought I was reading a nice little discussion about Mr. Columbo and flat-world societies, and here it's actually hit-on-jeslange-day?

Please delete this post, when you delete the other rubbish, thanks

[Thomas Pickert]

[...] as vigorously as they clean up everyone else's spam?

Could you explain why you feel that moderators are 'cleaning up vigorously'? I'm not aware of any cleaning up of 'spam', except for posts in General Support.
I'm curious what made you word your comment like that.

[jeslange]

Glitterdown, there are two reasons why the general discussion forum isn't moderated as strongly as the general support forum.

1) The two most "aggressive" currently of the moderators are Anthony and myself, because we practicly live in the forums as of late. However, he and I don't have mod priveledges in General Discussion.

He and I did discuss moderating this thread recently, and acquired the assistance of a player with the capability of doing so. This has been the only recent moderation in General Discussion that I'm aware of, and it was my posts and Anthony's posts that were moderated. So, at present, the posts of moderators in General Discussion have actually been moderated more aggressively than those of other players.

2) General Discussion isn't critical to the game itself, whereas General Support is (and also Suggestions to a lesser extent). I'm heavy handed in General Support because the players who take care of problems need to be able to see at a glance what the issue is, so that it can be fixed more quickly and with less stress. That puts all of us in a happier position.

Your allusion to the issue of going of topic is valid. One task of mods is to watch for that and to take care of it, which can be done by splitting the topic or simply encouraging players to not go off-topic, etc. However, General Discussion traditionally has a relatively laid back atmosphere, so moderating for on-topicness is usually not practiced unless a player requests it. So, it's not that mods are treating non-mods differently, it's that nobody's being moderated for topic relevance in most cases in this particular area of the forum.

The "ll" in my above post was my equivalent of deleting the post, which was and effort to "clean up" a bit.

[boomhaeur]

"So, it's not that mods are treating non-mods differently, it's that nobody's being moderated for topic relevance in most cases in this particular area of the forum."

I wouldn't go quite that far - I just think the topic "meandering" threshold is a little higher in the GD forum. For support and stuff it's critical that things are kept simple and straight-forward to make The programmers (Thomas') life easier.

In this forum though a little meandering here and there doesn't have ahuge impact - trying to enforce "General Support" lkike moderation in this area would probably kill it. I've also tended to consider the users of this forum actually quite good for bringing themselves back on topic if things start to swing away too far, and in recent weeks we've seen more than a few topic splits when threads have dramatically diverged in terms of topic.

At the end of the day I view this forum is for the other half of the society simulation project - the community of cantr players - and I think it needs to be left to grow and manage itself and really only have moderator intervention when things are very off topic for prolonged periods or where information is posted that could jeopordize the elements of the game.

If people are second guessing what they can and can't post here it will have a very negative affect on the forum and ultimately I think will sacrifice some loyalty to the game by the players.

Now, what the hell was this thread about originally?

[Anthony Roberts]

...

However, he and I don't have mod priveledges in General Discussion.

...

Speak for yourself, I do so have mod access here (See? I just split this into a new topic.)

And, I agree with her statements. This is "General Discussion" - You discuss. If we were to remove your discussion posts, off topic or not, you'd no longer be discussing

[nitefyre]

Why do the moderators, whether evil or not, not clean up after themselves as vigorously as they clean up everyone else's spam?

I thought I was reading a nice little discussion about Mr. Columbo and flat-world societies, and here it's actually hit-on-jeslange-day?

Please delete this post, when you delete the other rubbish, thanks

Yes, I tell you...*maniacal extremist enthused gestures with psychotic uncurable grinning* ...the immodest moderators have it in for the most of us. Their nearly unstoppable, easily abusable, concise power to eliminate any word from the land, that can be used to conceal and hence oppress. To make ignorant the people, to take their words to twist, to shake our unprotectable will to speak free. As it may be written as rights in bills outside of this for that oft but not present enough right-which unfortunately yet does not hold legality in this domain, as made sure of by the nearly dictatorial power invested in these manipulative moderators, to profusely flood us with an addiction of green. Boast it and hoist it above our heads, *coughs*Anthony*coughs* these creatures do. They think this shall make unbelievable my words, as apparently...it has.

Disclaimer: Umm yes. Disclaim everything.

[Anthony Roberts]

1) I don't get what you just said.
2) Why did you say my name? Are you slandering against me?
3) What bill of rights? This is the Internet. Doesn't apply here.
4) You're confusing

[glitterdown]

I think I was just being irate about having to wade through like 2 full pages of BS... I'm cool with the whole Off-topic-ness and general relaxed nature of the Discussion Forum, but i felt that after reading about 4 people's comments (and comments to comments) about how best to win points with jeslange (and get him/her into the virtual sack), I thought it appropriate to point out that it was kind of annoying.

Honestly perhaps it's less the moderation and more the topic-splitting that gets me, since i always lose my threads

Bah, who knows. Thanks for humouring me though.

[Anthony Roberts]

Glitter, don't worry yourself. That virtual sack has been taken to the dry cleaners to be steam cleaned, indefinately. It was mere joking on my behalf, and to Jess and I - it was fine, we're cool with each other. But of course, to everyone else, they would interprite the "jokes" as something else. As to why not only have they been removed, but will not be cropping up again anytime soon. Your arguments were well justified, of course

[The Crazed Sheep]

FIGHT.THE.POWER.