Moderators

[Barrus]

Well, there is something new since you went on a vacation and that is that there are now forum rules available to read:

rules and guidelines

 

[Martin318is]

Forum Rules:
As Barrus says there are some pretty clear forum rules that have been posted as a sticky for a while now. These cover the types of behaviours that we expect members to follow.

Infractions:
There is no clear set of guidelines regarding infraction points. The points system came as part of the forum software package and were implemented but there has not been a mapping of points to actions as yet.

Part of the reason for this is that moderators look at individual posts against the history of a user and generally discuss what action to take with other moderators before doing something. A points system theoretically makes all this automatic but it is felt by the moderators at the moment that a personal evaluation is more acceptable than a computer driven one.

The result of this is that a single post may get someone banned by a moderator if it is sufficiently unacceptable or part of a sequence of similarly unacceptable posts. We can see the history of warnings and infractions given and this is referred to in our conversations with other moderators but it is the opinion of the other mods (based upon their own experiences with the member) that holds weight rather than the point value.

This may all change in the future if we do decide to use the infraction system more robotically but if that does happen then a clear set of details will be posted as a sticky.

 

[pedaling squares]

...Part of the reason for this is that moderators look at individual posts against the history of a user and generally discuss what action to take with other moderators before doing something. A points system theoretically makes all this automatic but it is felt by the moderators at the moment that a personal evaluation is more acceptable than a computer driven one.

The result of this is that a single post may get someone banned by a moderator if it is sufficiently unacceptable or part of a sequence of similarly unacceptable posts. We can see the history of warnings and infractions given and this is referred to in our conversations with other moderators but it is the opinion of the other mods (based upon their own experiences with the member) that holds weight rather than the point value...

That's a reasonable approach. It's kind of like being a judge without the salary or a parent without the diapers. I'm pleased to see that you communicate with each other as some admins will have a better handle on 'member x' than will others.

 

[craig1985]

Another forum I visit (not cycling) has a thread called 'Ban Announcements', where if a member is banned, the mod will post the reason why and the length of the ban, and then lock the thread straight away.

Thoughts?

 

[Ferminal]

Moving from the TFF thread:

I have often wondered why forums do not use a policy of moderation transparency. No one is forced to use their real names and few members do so. No one will be embarrassed in real life by their actions on a forum unless they voluntarily chose to use their real names. But moderators often use some sort of privacy argument to defend acting in secret. What is the problem with having everything out in the open?

One of the worst examples was DPF, a cesspool of secrecy and bad moderators pursuing personal agendas with everything made more galling by the holier than thou hypocrisy of the owner and his frequent lectures on integrity. Even worse is RBR, which permanently bans people for even attempting to discuss the actions of the moderators.

It's important to keep the inconsistencies of moderation away from the public eye.

If mod actions were on the table for everyone to see, any person would be able to connect a few dots and make any decision look inconsistent.

But effective moderation is imprecise, and is inconsistent, it has to be. Moderation needs to be case-by-case with plenty of sound judgement and common sense. It's good that the mods here are kind enough to give a basic explanation as to why a member was banned and for how long.

Also, the more we get concerned with moderation, the more it would interfere with proper content. If everyone could see other member's warn level etc it's just another thing to go off-topic about.

My only concern is that sometimes bans appear premature. I thought TFF had been quite a good boy recently and all of a sudden he's suspended. I'd prefer suspensions to be a last resort rather than a primary means of punishment. Of course now I'm just speculating (sorry Cal_Joe ) and TFF could have been given plenty of warnings recently.

And dim, I still think your ban was unfair too

Another forum I visit (not cycling) has a thread called 'Ban Announcements', where if a member is banned, the mod will post the reason why and the length of the ban, and then lock the thread straight away.

Thoughts?

Might be useful for a place like this with a reasonably small number of regular users.

I think it would be good if users could be suspended without having their group name changed to "Banned" and avatar removed. That way there's not some frenetic response as soon as you see someone has been hit.

 

[180mmCrank]

Good discussion and as I said in the TTF thread...

Complete transparency sounds great in theory until you end up spending hour upon hour trying to justify actions and apparent inconsistencies. I think a pretty good balance is struck here between keeping some things private and letting people know the boundaries of what is acceptable. This is something moderators discuss at length. Your feedback continues to be appreciated.

You need to keep in mind that most moderators are volunteers and we can't read everything - we do rely a great deal on what gets reported by you guys.

Cheers

Terry

 

[Martin318is]

If mod actions were on the table for everyone to see, any person would be able to connect a few dots and make any decision look inconsistent.

My only concern is that sometimes bans appear premature. I thought TFF had been quite a good boy recently and all of a sudden he's suspended. I'd prefer suspensions to be a last resort rather than a primary means of punishment. Of course now I'm just speculating (sorry Cal_Joe ) and TFF could have been given plenty of warnings recently.

You kind of answer your own query in the one post (as I am sure you realised at the time). TFF did indeed receive some warnings etc in the days leading up to the post that caused the suspension.

That said, from what I gather, the post he made would probably have earned at least a 48hr suspension all by itself anyway.

 

[Hugh Januss]

You kind of answer your own query in the one post (as I am sure you realised at the time). TFF did indeed receive some warnings etc in the days leading up to the post that caused the suspension.

That said, from what I gather, the post he made would probably have earned at least a 48hr suspension all by itself anyway.

Soooo.............what did he say?

 

[Ferminal]

Soooo.............what did he say?

Sticky beak.

 

[Anonymous]

Good job.. took you long enough though

 

[BroDeal]

It would be nice if sometimes threads were moved instead of locked, like the RBR thread which interests a lot of people here since they were banned by the world's worst cycling forum moderator (with the possible exception of ChrisH). Just sayin'...

 

[Cobblestoned]

Ok people, the fact that I have to carry my complaint into a public thread is sad per se. I feel forced to complain this way then, after my "report" was totally ignored and this ugly post is still there.
This fact, this act and these circumstances seem to be the highlight of this ugly campaign against me.
The blood running thru my veins abhors any comments or whatever speculation about my familiy - and in this circumstances - my mother in special.
Perhaps in the spheres where Mr.python is living, motherjokes or something like that are common practise and well excepted - but not for me.
Never ever (again) joke about Italian's mothers, especially my mother !
I expect an apology from Mr. python for that one, and I expect a reaction of mods and forum's responsibilities in form of deleting this disgusting and deep comment.
The fact that I had to go this step forward and complain about this on this way again, is shameful.
You can't expect me to ignore everything and everyone, or take this one easy. For me this is a serious incident and writing "produced" is another outstanding insult -adding that Mr.python failed totally with his speculation.

don't know why but you and a certain cobblestoned seem to have been produced by the same momma

Thanks for whatever and this is the attemp to regulate this incident peacefully !
yours truly
cobblestoned

PS: The usual suspects should save up any ridiculous comments or attemps to turn this incident on me, or play down what happened !

 

[Hugh Januss]

Ok people, the fact that I have to carry my complaint into a public thread is sad per se. I feel forced to complain this way then, after my "report" was totally ignored and this ugly post is still there.
This fact, this act and these circumstances seem to be the highlight of this ugly campaign against me.
The blood running thru my veins abhors any comments or whatever speculation about my familiy - and in this circumstances - my mother in special.
Perhaps in the spheres where Mr.python is living, motherjokes or something like that are common practise and well excepted - but not for me.
Never ever (again) joke about Italian's mothers, especially my mother !
I expect an apology from Mr. python for that one, and I expect a reaction of mods and forum's responsibilities in form of deleting this disgusting and deep comment.
The fact that I had to go this step forward and complain about this on this way again, is shameful.
You can't expect me to ignore everything and everyone, or take this one easy. For me this is a serious incident and writing "produced" is another outstanding insult -adding that Mr.python failed totally with his speculation.



Thanks for whatever and this is the attemp to regulate this incident peacefully !
yours truly
cobblestoned

PS: The usual suspects should save up any ridiculous comments or attemps to turn this incident on me, or play down what happened !

Oh for heavens sake, you are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. What Python wrote doesn't rise nearly to the level of a mom joke, maybe a Sparticus Rox/Cobblestoned joke. A proper mom joke must include some sort of put down of your mom such as

Your momma so fat, she has her own area code.

Or maybe an attack on her morals such as

Your momma waits at the dock for troop ships....

Please note that these are only examples and are in no way addressed at your own mom whom I do not know at all, but I am certain she is a wonderful mom in spite of how you turned out.

 

[Barrus]

Ok people, the fact that I have to carry my complaint into a public thread is sad per se. I feel forced to complain this way then, after my "report" was totally ignored and this ugly post is still there.
This fact, this act and these circumstances seem to be the highlight of this ugly campaign against me.
The blood running thru my veins abhors any comments or whatever speculation about my familiy - and in this circumstances - my mother in special.
Perhaps in the spheres where Mr.python is living, motherjokes or something like that are common practise and well excepted - but not for me.
Never ever (again) joke about Italian's mothers, especially my mother !
I expect an apology from Mr. python for that one, and I expect a reaction of mods and forum's responsibilities in form of deleting this disgusting and deep comment.
The fact that I had to go this step forward and complain about this on this way again, is shameful.
You can't expect me to ignore everything and everyone, or take this one easy. For me this is a serious incident and writing "produced" is another outstanding insult -adding that Mr.python failed totally with his speculation.



Thanks for whatever and this is the attemp to regulate this incident peacefully !
yours truly
cobblestoned

PS: The usual suspects should save up any ridiculous comments or attemps to turn this incident on me, or play down what happened !

It does not insult, nor attack anyones mother, but is more likely to be interpreted as you being like two brothers, two peas in a pot. It's not even an insult to you

 

[Cobblestoned]

Are there any mods or admins out there, who are not member of the great No-BPC-club and with some kind of sense to react ?

BTW, just found this social things and whats happening there in da club and speculations about me.
This is something I can still laugh about.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Are there any mods or admins out there, who are not member of the great No-BPC-club and with some kind of sense to react ?

BTW, just found this social things and whats happening there in da club and speculations about me.
This is something I can still laugh about.

You should check with Susan. If there would be any way of interpreting Python's post as being disrespectful to your mom or women in general, Susan would be your best bet.
Good luck.


No offense Susan, but you do delete a lot of relatively harmless "guy talk".

 

[Barrus]

Are there any mods or admins out there, who are not member of the great No-BPC-club and with some kind of sense to react ?

BTW, just found this social things and whats happening there in da club and speculations about me.
This is something I can still laugh about.

Wow, now I have no sense. That's probably not the first to call me that, but still amazing. Is there anything in my post that warrants such an assumption (and you know what they say about assumptions). I can believe some people think of me this way, but most are probably reasonably content with me, although I too make wrong decisions and draw the wrong conclusions

Does it really matter what social groups I am included in on this forum? The no-BPC club came about at a time when BPC was especially vocal. So I did join, this probably was even before I became a moderator

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

You should check with Susan. If there would be any way of interpreting Python's post as being disrespectful to your mom or women in general, Susan would be your best bet.
Good luck.


No offense Susan, but you do delete a lot of relatively harmless "guy talk".

Yeah, that's what happens when you main mod is a woman who grew up in the 60s with the women's lib movement.......

You want guy talk, go to a locker room.

Susan

 

[Hugh Januss]

Yeah, that's what happens when you main mod is a woman who grew up in the 60s with the women's lib movement.......

You want guy talk, go to a locker room.

Susan

Yup, that's when I grew up (?) too. Guess I had bra burning envy, because I was not personally able to make such a strong statement myself.

Note: I kid, some of my best friends are women.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

Yup, that's when I grew up (?) too.

True. Coming of age in that time period tends to have given one the urge never to actually "grow up" or worse, become an adult.

I look at my high school friends on Facebook and think, who are these old people? How come they got old and I didn't?

Susan

 

[Anonymous]

Are there any mods or admins out there, who are not member of the great No-BPC-club and with some kind of sense to react ?

BTW, just found this social things and whats happening there in da club and speculations about me.
This is something I can still laugh about.

The "I'm so persecuted" card has been played before... and waaaayy better than this. Get some skills man, some mad skills, then throw down the persecution card. That's how the best do it.

You can thank me later.

 

[pedaling squares]

...I expect a reaction of mods and forum's responsibilities in form of deleting this disgusting and deep comment....For me this is a serious incident and writing "produced" is another outstanding insult...

I think this is a huge overreaction based on a desire for revenge and perhaps a cultural misinterpretation. But if you're really that upset, the way to get back at an anglophone is to quote lengthy phrases from Scarface in verbatim while bypassing the language filters. If nothing else it should give the rest of us a break.

 

[Cobblestoned]

What happened while I was sleeping and working ?
Where have all these nice posts and pictures gone ?

Must have been an ugly night.

 

[The Hitch]

So what did Cobblestoned do that he got banned.

Perhaps this can help us.

But if you're really that upset, the way to get back at an anglophone is to quote lengthy phrases from Scarface in verbatim while bypassing the language filters. If nothing else it should give the rest of us a break.

I hope he didnt follow your advice Peddaling squares. Thats entrapment

 

[pedaling squares]

So what did Cobblestoned do that he got banned.

Perhaps this can help us.



I hope he didnt follow your advice Peddaling squares. Thats entrapment

Ha. I don't exactly know what happened because I recently started scrolling past his posts. I suspect that he stopped discussing cycling and only engaged in fighting. But if my excellent advice contributed to the sudden calm then I will gladly accept a beer from anyone else who goes to watch the RvV in person next spring!