How's our driving? (Feedback for the forum)

Discodog

As far as I am aware Mods make individual decisions & it can be seen as bad form to go against a decision made my another Mod. After all it would be a bit like undermining them. I don't think that they log a reason so Seamus & Hellrazer may not know.

A quick glance at Fayesy's profile shows that she has not posted since the 4th of Jan so she may be away. In the meantime you could either await her return or PM the C Mod. If you are still not happy & you get no response here then take it the main Helpdesk.

Oh God I am beginning to sound like a Mod :eek:.

The thread in Hunting that we were supposed to be welcome to post in has been locked with no explanation as well.

Btw I don't think that A&P is looking too bad despite the attempts by a few to derail it.

homerhop

The thread in Hunting that we were supposed to be welcome to post in has been locked with no explanation as well.

You were welcome to post in it and did, i can only presume it was locked because of glib replys about golfing.

Whispered

You are beginning to sound like a mod DD I am aware of how the process works and have also had a look at fayseys profile. She has been online a few times since I sent my PM, but as I said obvously has not had the time to respond.

Is it always bad form to change another mods decision? particurlary when the mod in question appears to have been pressed for time and may have made a quick decision based on reported posts? When another mod has more time to look at the thread properly, wouldn't it make sense for them to re-evluate the decision? Sort of like the first mod is damage control .

Then again perhaps some people would feel as if they are being undermined? I have seen decisions made in forums where privately a mod has said they think it was a bad decision, but on the forum made no comment or even agreed with the decision. So yes maybe you are right and other mods are mindful of not stepping on toes so to speak.

Of course it could be a case where the other mods feel this is a non-issue and not worth a response, but considering the amount of open converstion Semus and Hellrazer have facilitated in this thread I would be suprised if that is the case.

How long do you feel is a reasonable amount of time to await a response to a question from a mod before going ahead with a PM to a cmod? In this case I'm not going to bother, as it wasn't a thread started by me, rather one I was interested in. But in general, I would be interested to know how long you think people should wait.

Discodog

No idea but maybe there is some protocol. I am more concerned about sounding like a Mod even though they are all wonderful people

Discodog

Well the thread shredder has struck again. Fox thread totally gone. If that means that it has disappeared for good it would be appalling censorship.

Whispered

Fayesy posted on the end of it she was moving it to admin so the other mods can look and issue infractions where needed, or something along those lines.

Discodog

Did she reply to you regarding the other thread ?. I think it is so wrong that we agree some "rules" with Seamus. Hellrazer says that he is happy for the forum to run itself & doesn't want to intervene. Fayesy clearly doesn't agree.

So could all the Mods get together otherwise all the effort that has been put in by Seamus & this thread is a total waste of time.

The thread was fine until a post was incorrectly reported.

Whispered

Discodog wrote: »

Did she reply to you regarding the other thread ?

No she didn't.

Discodog

Just to advise that Seamus is looking into it so I suggest that we give him some time.

seamus

Discodog wrote: »

The thread was fine until a post was incorrectly reported.

I don't think the post was incorrectly reported to be fair to the poster who did report it. That is, there was a genuine reason for reporting it which was a perceived "attack the poster" comment from EGAR. And EGAR's post skirted the line - the thread could have survived just fine without that piece of input

The thread will be back, with caveats naturally.

Hellrazer

Discodog wrote: »

Hellrazer says that he is happy for the forum to run itself & doesn't want to intervene.

Thats not what I said at all-Its quite obvious that the forum cant run itself-I said Im happy to be more "hands off and less quick to jump in and delete/lock a thread or ban people.

Fayesy clearly doesn't agree.

Its my opinion that Fayesy should answer that for herself.But in every forum there are different mods that mod in their own way and in my opinion thats the way it should be.

So could all the Mods get together otherwise all the effort that has been put in by Seamus & this thread is a total waste of time.

Watch this space

The thread was fine until a post was incorrectly reported.

That post was definately not incorrectly reported.Seamus says it was borderline--I dont think it was.It was a breach of the rules.I let it slide,Fayesy didnt.

Discodog

seamus wrote: »

And EGAR's post skirted the line - the thread could have survived just fine without that piece of input

The thread will be back, with caveats naturally.

Well if I thought that someone could be shooting cats next to my home & rescue I would of crossed the line. It was late & knowing a little of EGAR's commitments she was probably wrecked when she posted.

I would offer to administer a slap on the wrist but I am not that brave or stupid

Thanks for sorting this out so quickly & without drama.

Discodog

Hellrazer wrote: »

Thats not what I said at all-Its quite obvious that the forum cant run itself-I said Im happy to be more "hands off and less quick to jump in and delete/lock a thread or ban people.

I must of been drunk . I totally accept that the forum cannot run itself & I trust that we can live up to your new expectations.

Whispered

Hellrazer wrote: »

Its my opinion that Fayesy should answer that for herself.

The problem is fayesy does not respond, either on thread or to a PM.

seamus

I'd love to post now, "Thanks for your feedback, your opinions have been noted", but that would be too cruel.

But definitely thank you for your input on this. Clearly a lot of regulars have given a lot of time and effort to discussion in this thread.

What I've done is compiled a list of the "headline" things to discuss arising from this thread. I hope I've got them all or at least the spirit of them all. There are 404 posts in this thread, so I had to skim somewhat.

We'll discuss them in our mod forum, but tbh you've pretty already made the approach clear for a lot of items.

Obvious thing:

We need an FAQ. I promised to start it back in November. It's now January. I suck. I probably put it on the long finger, sensing large workloads for me.
What I'm going to do is put it up and allow everyone to throw their information in - lists of useful information, lists of useful threads, everything.
Then we can all use these discussions in response to common questions. The FAQ / Useful Links thread will be done this afternoon.
This will also coincide with cleaning up the stickies, there are just too many. Ideally we'll have four or five max., but I'll have to look at them all first.

Everything else we come up with I'll stick in this thread when we've come up with it.

seamus

I've posted the new consolidated Charter/useful threads, eh, thread.

If anyone has any comments, etc, please use the chat/off-topic thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055469893

seamus

OK, just an update to let everyone know what has come out of this very useful process.

You've noticed the Charter's been updated, there's space there for FAQ's - if you notice any topic appear which you think is a useful thread or noteworthy, PM any of us and we'll stick it in. Also feel free to start an FAQ and we'll add it to the list.

A number of stickies have been removed. Yes I know this has caused some consternation, but the rationale here is that if they are popular threads, they will continue to jump up the forum listing. This appears to bear out so far, but it's something we'll monitor on an ongoing basis. If you want to keep track of threads you like, use the "Follow" button, as this is the easiest way to find them again if you want to see them.

In terms of moderation we are (hopefully you've noticed) keeping a closer eye on the forum in general. We want more of an open shop here in terms of talking, as I'm sure everyone does, so we're doing our best to accomodate less "popular" opinions and discussions without upsetting anyone.
We identified the primary problems with forum harmony - mainly being people soapboxing about an issue (e.g. ranting about spaying when the question was about what to do with a pregnant bitch), and people taking moderation into their own hands, telling people they're off-topic, in breach of the charter, etc.
We are coming down quite strong on back-seat moderation. If a post is in breach of the charter, or you otherwise have a problem with it, please report it and then leave it. Trying to moderate other posters will earn you infractions. Although the message for reported posts says it should only be used for spam/abuse, please use it for any instance where you think a moderator should look at a post.

In terms of soapboxing, remember that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. If someone needs advice, give them advice and not a lecture. You're wasting your breath lecturing someone on a topic they didn't ask for, because they won't listen and they're unlikely to come back for further advice.

Pre-moderation has been closed. It won't be reopened. It was the evolution of a solution to a problem which has since gone away. No other forum needs to pre-moderate posts, we decided this forum didn't need to be any different. Pre-mod caused more work than it prevented in the long run. Very few threads got moved there, but for some reason tonnes of threads got started there.
We won't be wholesale moving threads out of pre-mod, as this is a bit of effort for very little return (it has performance issues while it's being done). We might asks the techs to do it in future and just delete the forum. If you feel there is a thread in there which warrants re-opening/further discussion, please PM any of us.

At some stage in the future, we'll start a new thread such as this and get more feedback for more improvement. For the moment, we'll go as we are and see how we get on.

You can use the off-topic thread for general discussion about the forum itself (and anything I've posted here), but as usual please contact us or report any specific problems you may have.