Mod stickies

Liam Byrne

Can I suggest that a way be found to highlight people who have been recently made mods ?

If they're already on ignore (prior to their elevation and in an effort to avoid confrontation due to repeated prior non-mod run-ins)* and are then promoted, there's no way of seeing their posts.

I just found the thread that welcomes them but it was well down the list due to general activity, so I had no idea until someone quoted their post.

* Possibly (and hopefully) in separate fora.

Liam Byrne

And I've just gotten into trouble for not heeding a warning that I hadn't seen - I had taken their (quoted) comment re "previous warning" to be another mod's comment earlier in the thread, which wasn't even applicable to my post, and I was wondering why I'd been referenced in the mod's quoted post.

Seriously guys - whatever about the stupidity of putting an existing mod on ignore, getting into trouble when you miss a warning because they've recently been promoted is a little unfair, don't you think ?

star-pants

Down the bottom right hand side of every forum there is a list of current Mods & CMods - all it would take is a quick glance every now and then and you'd be up to date on who is moderating that forum.

There aren't always welcome threads for new moderators, that's a personal choice up to the forum and mods in question. If it's a busy forum a 'here's your new mod' thread could also get lost down the pages quickly and so not all posters might see it (as it seems happened in your case). It's not up to the moderators to personally make sure all potential posters are up to date. It's like the forum charters, they're there at the top of every forum for a reason, for posters to read. Same with the list of 'current Mods/CMods' at the bottom of every forum, it's an up-to-date list (with occasional exceptions).

I can't see what more they could have done, they've the mods listed below and they even had a welcome thread.

Taltos

Something else to consider, while you were infracted for something other than the warning you still have to consider that "problem" threads take up quite a bit of review time to ensure they are not off on one again. Once an inthread warning has been issued I know I personally approach all further charter breaches a lot more sternly.

Where I may have previously issued an inthread warning this now may become an infraction or worse depending on what has happened up to that point in the thread.

I know this might not appear fair at first glance but you have to take the whole thread into context, and that includes not only the general approach of the mods on the forum but also the expectations on the poster community.

Don't forget though - if you really feel this is harsh why not approach the mod in question and ask them to reconsider?

Tom Dunne

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Can I suggest that a way be found to highlight people who have been recently made mods ?

Ok, go right ahead and suggest something.

Liam Byrne

star-pants wrote: »

Down the bottom right hand side of every forum there is a list of current Mods & CMods - all it would take is a quick glance every now and then and you'd be up to date on who is moderating that forum.

Can you please let me know where this is on touch.boards.ie ?

Liam Byrne

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Can I suggest that a way be found to highlight people who have been recently made mods ?

Ok, go right ahead and suggest something.

I did. Read the thread title.

El Weirdo

star-pants wrote: »

...It's like the forum charters, they're there at the top of every forum for a reason, for posters to read...

To be fair, that's exactly it. The charters are stickied and it's relatively simple to tell if they've been changed since you last read them due to the title turning bold or a note/date put in the title.

I suppose if the mods' names were added to the charter (as I'm pretty sure they are in most fora) as a general rule-of-thumb, that might be a solution.

Ken.

Maybe the op could type a list of all mods of all forums and put it in the help desk. Then a kind admin could sticky it there and update it when new mods are added.

Tom Dunne

Liam Byrne wrote: »

I did. Read the thread title.

I work a lot with databases. One of the big "things" is duplication of data - or at least the elimination of duplication of data.

If the mods are listed on the bottom-right hand corner of the forum, why do we need an extra sticky to list what is already listed?

Penn

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Can you please let me know where this is on touch.boards.ie ?

In fairness, how can the mods anticipate that someone might only view Boards on the touch site, already have the new mod on ignore, and not visit the forum regularly enough to have missed the welcome thread (not sure what forum it is so don't know how quickly it moves)?

g'em

Liam Byrne wrote: »

If they're already on ignore (prior to their elevation and in an effort to avoid confrontation due to repeated prior non-mod run-ins)* and are then promoted, there's no way of seeing their posts.

I'm just going to go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room here. If you have someone on ignore, well, frankly that's your issue and not ours - if that ignored person gets made a Mod it means we don't see much wrong in the way they go about their business, in fact quite the opposite. I've never seen this problem come up before, neither do I see any point in putting any more work on (usually) overstretched Mods as it is. By and large most forum Mods make announcements about new Mods, which is a lovely gesture, but we're not going to police that.

It's your job to make sure you operate within the rules, not ours. Mods aren't babysitters.

seamus

You could stop ignoring people and instead relish in open and two-way debate without censorship, warts an' all. Seems a bit silly to come onto a forum for the purposes of discussing and then block out opinions that you don't want to hear.

Just sayin....

Liam Byrne

g'em wrote: »

I'm just going to go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room here. If you have someone on ignore, well, frankly that's your issue and not ours - if that ignored person gets made a Mod it means we don't see much wrong in the way they go about their business, in fact quite the opposite. I've never seen this problem come up before, neither do I see any point in putting any more work on (usually) overstretched Mods as it is. By and large most forum Mods make announcements about new Mods, which is a lovely gesture, but we're not going to police that.

It's your job to make sure you operate within the rules, not ours. Mods aren't babysitters.

I don't want to name names as - particularly in the forum in question - I've had no issues with their posts; IIRC the ignore was deserved due to a frustrating encounter on a separate forum.

So (hypothetically speaking) someone could - for example - be a logical and fair-minded poster on a particular topic in, say, Personal Issues, but a biased and argumentative one on something like their favourite soccer team or political views or AH.

And I didn't start this as a whinge or complaint - if you notice I didn't even debate the sanction - just as a query re whether there was a feasible possibility of highlighting it and avoiding the issue arising in the future.

If not, then fair enough. I'm a realist. It would be something that should be rare enough, and if there isn't a simple option to facilitate the suggestion then it's hardly going to be a regular enough occurrence to warrant a massive development overhead.

If there were a simple solution that someone could think of, then great.

Overheal

Even for those I do have on ignore, I still click to read their posts. Just a handy little buffer. Completely ignoring the posts disrupts the flow of a thread.

Sergeant

Overheal wrote: »

Even for those I do have on ignore, I still click to read their posts.

muffler

Liam Byrne wrote: »

If they're already on ignore

There's an old adage in horse racing circles which goes along the lines of....."if you're blinkered then expect the whip"

As others have said, maybe you should be open to a full debate and dont exclude others.

Enda Kenny does it you know

star-pants

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Can you please let me know where this is on touch.boards.ie ?

I don't use touch.boards.ie (so I've no idea) - but to be fair, most websites that are 'apps' or 'touch' versions are curtailed versions of the full site, so you won't have all information available on that regardless.

The list at the bottom of each forum (on the full site) is an up to date list, once someone is made a moderator or de-modded the system updates it.
To update a thread or make an announcement can fall to human error if there is a delay or someone forgets. So the list down the bottom is really the best option because it's automated.

Most users don't read stickies anyway, or announcements, that's been proven many times. Also most forums try to keep the number of stickies to a minimum.
Granted some forums may have a list of current Mods in their charter, but again, very few actually check it.

Overheal

Sergeant wrote: »

stupidity filter.

minidazzler

seamus wrote: »

You could stop ignoring people and instead relish in open and two-way debate without censorship, warts an' all. Seems a bit silly to come onto a forum for the purposes of discussing and then block out opinions that you don't want to hear.

Just sayin....

To be fair, putting someone on ignore usually (for me at least) isn't about their opinions in general. I just do it to people who I don't like as people because of the way they post.

I use touch.boards.ie and I can see Liam's point. Whatever about having people on ignore, that's a different thing and argument entirely.

Here's an idea. When a new mod gets added, have it in the charter. As in something at the end like this:

If you need any further clarification before posting, please contact Deleted User

This can then be updated when mods are added and the thread title changed to

CHARTER - Read before posting (updated 28/02/12)

That way regulars know something changed with the forum as well as new people.

A welcome to the new mod thing is fine, but we should have who runs the forums in the charters imo

blackius

Heres a novel idea.
How about posting in such a way that it doesn't matter who the mods are because they'll never have issues with your posts.
It's not that difficult

Liam Byrne

blackius wrote: »

Heres a novel idea.
How about posting in such a way that it doesn't matter who the mods are because they'll never have issues with your posts.
It's not that difficult

Your point is completely unrelated to the scenario.

Liam Byrne

muffler wrote: »

Liam Byrne wrote: »

If they're already on ignore

There's an old adage in horse racing circles which goes along the lines of....."if you're blinkered then expect the whip"

As others have said, maybe you should be open to a full debate and dont exclude others.

I use ignore based on people's tactics, not in relation to their views.

Enda Kenny does it you know

No idea what that's supposed to mean or how it's even remotely relevant.

brimal

I may have missed something here, but is there not a vBulletin option/hack where users cannot be ignored in the forum they are mod in?

So in this case, when a regular user becomes mod, they get this privilege along with the usual banning, thread locking, etc. privileges that come with becoming a mod.

I can't see any disadvantage to this and seems like a pretty normal thing for forums to have - Any ideas?

Sad Professor

Not being able to identify the mod of the forum on the touch site is a fair point. However, I assume the vast majority of users post using the main site at least some of the time. So unless you have loads of other users on your ignore list who you think may be mods in the making, I don’t see what the issue is here. As already said, check the mod list at the bottom of the forum every now and then. Otherwise this is the risk you take when you choose to add a user to your ignore list rather than just skipping over their post.

As a user, the only reason I'd consider adding someone to my ignore list is if they were harassing me via PM. Otherwise I just ignore them the old fashioned way.

Overheal

brimal wrote: »

I may have missed something here, but is there not a vBulletin option/hack where users cannot be ignored in the forum they are mod in?

Actually as I recall that was/is on the Feedforward list of things to be addressed. So it is something that was noteworthy in the past but I'm not sure there is currently a fix in the works to do it. The other consideration as I recall it was that it took away a user's right to put someone on ignore who may or may not be a mod, eg. if someone wants to put me on ignore, but I 'mod' feedforward, should they be unable to? The other thing is I don't think Ignore is fine tuned enough to where it would only 'lift' if the user was in the forum a mod mods, eg. if the user who ignored me was visiting Feedforward they would be able to see my posts but not anywhere else. That would be something that expends the very finite amount of development time afforded to the site, for something which doesn't crop up a hell of a lot, ie. it's not the most efficient use of site resources making that work.

The quickest fix is make the list of mods visible on the touch site, and or making the usertag visible on an ignored user; and later, perhaps a new icon or way to distinguish a user is a mod of a particular forum (eg. Today, 20:39 [MODERATOR])

blackius

Liam Byrne wrote: »

blackius wrote: »

Heres a novel idea.
How about posting in such a way that it doesn't matter who the mods are because they'll never have issues with your posts.
It's not that difficult

Your point is completely unrelated to the scenario.

Oh no it isn't honestly.
It's the reason why the vast majority of users here are neither infracted,warned or banned I'd imagine throughout their entire posting career.There should at least in theory be no reason for a seasoned poster like yourself other than curiosity to know who is mod.
Posters anyway, who put people on ignore have more than likely a suffecient working knowledge of the site to know how to find out/check who is mod easily if curious.

nesf

There was a thread in the main forum announcing a new mod was appointed. It was not done by stealth.

Realistically having it in the charter doesn't change things either since, well, who checks the charter regularly?

Tom Dunne

Ok, I can see this is descending to bickering and petty one-upmanship.

So I think we will leave it at that.