How NOT to post on this forum - A Case Study.

Insect Overlord wrote: »

The reason the posts were removed to a new thread (and not deleted) was because for a short time a legitimate debate was being carried out. The topic of that debate was of no help whatsoever to the OP in the other thread, you are correct. That is why the other thread was cleaned (i.e. to keep it on-topic). The fact that one poster refused to follow site-guidelines, despite polite recommendation, is of no fault of mine.

I don't know what you find sad about that.

What I find sad about it, is that it is being put up as some kind of example for the rest of us plebs. You as a mod, or another mod, could just as easily have dealt with it. Explained to the offending parties by PM what they were doing against the charter, and if/when they did not comply with the charter, then the mod on duty could have infracted/banned them and just deleted all the offending posts, and the problem would be gone from sight.


Moving the offending posts into a thread of their own as some kind of "example" for the rest of us smacks of a few things to be honest, and also goes against something we are told on a regular basis not to do in the open forum.

Now I know by discussing it now I could be accused of discussing an issue in public rather than taking it to PM, but isn't that what you have done by creating this thread?

And by creating this thread and stating on it how it is an example of how to not post in a proper manner, I think that you made it fine for me to question it and discuss it, because you put it out there in your capacity as a mod.

I don't agree with how the banned poster was putting their pov across, but I do think that highlighting the incident in a seperate thread is wrong, and that unless you are going to do the same from here in with every thread that has a similar incident in it, and by that I mean take the offending posts and make a seperate thread stating that this is how not to do it, then what you have done is little more than isolating a poster or even be seen as unfair treatment after a punishment was already handed out.

Best thing in my eyes is to have simply deleted the lot after handing out a punishement, but that is only an opinion and not a suggestion, as a suggestion would be back seat modding.

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Some very good points there, Kess, thanks. Feel free to post any opinions/feedback you have about this. As it's a thread of an unusual nature, posts about my handling of this will not be considered back-seat modding.

As someone who has gotten his fair share of infractions, some I defo deserved and some that were dodgy, the one thing I know that always works with me is for a mod to PM me with the issue and to advise me to tone it down/shut up/edit post or whatever. If I then ignore that, then I get what I deserve. But I know that if I got a punishment for something, and accepted that punishment as fair, as in I did not go to the feedback forum to contest it, then I would not be happy to see a matter I presumed to be over and done with put up again as an example.

Some posters may agree with me, others may think I am spouting utter rubbish, but modding can be a divisive topic at the best of times. Some mods are excellent at what they do, in that they hardly get noticed doing their job but get the job done fairly, and other mods have a more hardline approach that works well in extreme situations but can be overkill for lesser offences.

I'm not pointing the finger at any particular mod or mods btw.

I know modding can be pretty thankless, but the majority of people will respond in a positive manner to a mod that takes the time to explain the problem by PM, and will generally respect the mod more for it, and will try to abide by what they have been asked to do.

I think people get the backs up when they see what they think is overly harsh modding or modding that potentially opens a can of worms for the future, the latter being my bugbear today.

I think that consistency is the key. An obvious thing to say I know, but no less true in my eyes. I have seen some bannings on here over the last few months that made very little sense due to seeing other posters say similar things and get no punishment. Now the idea of hitting the report button everytime someone does not get banned for something another did get banned for is not and option and would be petty, but seeing bans handed out for things that others were not punished for does grate, and whilst that did not happen in today's incident it does happen, and of course is not limited to this forum.

Maybe we should have a thread on here every three months or every six months or whatever timelimit was deemed the right one, where we the forum users are asked to comment on how we think the forum is, and what improvements or changes could be made.

Something like how it gets done on the soccer forum. That way the mods/adims have feedback on issues in the forum, and can then get a feel for what people are thinking and maybe create more of a community feel.