Shoddy Moderating in the Paranormal Forum

dellas1979

The modding of the paranormal forum, well its not done or there isnt one. Im not sure which.

Its turned into a bit of a circus now, for months (if not longer).

I PMed a mod asking why/whats happened, and got no reply. Ive asked in threads. No response. I was told put a thread in Feedback, got locked.

The fundamental problem is there doesnt seem to be a functioning/regular mod. Isnt it the mods/adminstrators jobs on this boards to check out the forums and control them (if a mod isnt assigned or checking a forum, which seems to be the case) and look at the state of the forum. A user can only do so much. I have reported posts, messaged mods etc. NO REPLY. I know other people have too, and after a while knockin on an unanswered door, people just, ya know, give up.

Can this forum be sorted so that we can enjoy it again?

Micky Dolenz

Hi dellas,

Thank you for raising the issue.

As you are aware, Mods and Admin are volunteers. Sometimes real life gets in the way. There are three mods on the paranormal forum and I will discuss the issue with them.

It is a forum I have an interest in, in fact, it is one of my few subbed forums. Anyone is free to pm me if they have any other concerns.

Thanks

dellas1979

Thanks for the reply.

I do appreciate that mods are volunteers, but maybe there is someone/mods with more availability (like seems to be in other forums)?

It is a very interesting forum! And I fear people are put off from posting interesting things, for fear of being ridiculed (which is what normally happens).

I remember last year, a lady posted something. And she was ripped/flamed apart. Ended in her closing her account. And there wasnt 1 mod available to control it.

Other forums are patrolled very well, so I think paranormal forum should be given this opportunity also.

Cheers,

Dellas1979

Gordon

The best way to report a post or a thread to the assigned moderators is by reporting the post by using the report post icon to the left of the post. If a mod is not alerted to the offending post, they may not see it in general browsing.

dellas1979 wrote: »

I have reported posts

Not on the Paranormal forum you haven't, not one Paranormal forum post has been reported by you.

Oryx

I hope it is okay to post here without invitation.

I am a moderator of paranormal, I have been for years. Sometimes I check the place every day, sometimes I might not get a look in there for a week or more. But I have two co mods who I presume are also keeping an eye. I do not read every thread, so I depend on regular posters to report posts they find problematic. But I have to say, in the main the problems I discover (misplaced skepticism, self promotion, phone numbers) by and large go unreported. Id need to be *ahem* psychic to know that posters have a problem if they wont report posts!

I don't respond to all reported posts, because if I have been offline, and the reports are a day or two old, I presume they are dealt with. This may not always be the case, and if so, I apologise. But I always respond to anyone who pms me, and if there is an ongoing problem with moderation, and I had been made aware of it by pm, I would have brought it up with my co mods. I don't wilfully ignore stuff like this.

Its very easy to say 'moderation is shoddy', but we are just links in a chain. Without help from the people who use the forum, our job of moderation is so much harder. OP, you say you pmd 'someone'. You didn't pm me. You haven't reported any posts according to Gordon. Begin taking more actions like this yourself, and you may see your experience of, and faith in, the forum will improve.

Riamfada

Hi dellas1979,

Thanks for the feedback. I think it may have been me you contacted previously about this in 3rd Oct 2012. I can't recall if I got back to you but certainly any feedback you gave would have been taken on board. I had a look at the PM and it wasn't really a question but more of a comment. I wouldn't necessarily respond unless I was under the impression that a response was expected. But I think you are referring to a more recent PM that certainly wasn't to me anyway.

In terms of the current situation in the forum I am surprised to see it regarded as a "bit of a circus". I can't seem to find anything from other posters which echo your comments.

If you do have an issue with a particular post in the forum please feel free to report the post and it will be acted on accordingly, if of course action is warranted by the moderator who receives it.

"I remember last year, a lady posted something. And she was ripped/flamed apart. Ended in her closing her account. And there wasnt 1 mod available to control it."

If I recall correctly this involved a user who set up a new account and asked for advice, she did not like the advice she received which led her becoming "aggressive" (for want of a better word) and to closing her account. But as you state this was last year and I would argue an infrequent event. The forum is open to paranormal enthusiasts of both the sceptic and believe variety and we have a difficult job of balancing the moderation between these opposing views.

I can assure you that if this was the situation, I was indeed watching it. I would only post if I felt I had something to contribute or if I believed the thread warranted intervention. I am on the forum everyday and check the posts frequently, moving posts between the forum and its sub forums but as I have little to post my name wouldn't appear frequently, but I am there.

I have certainly attempted to inject some life into the forum. I have tried to organise Paranormal Beers or investigation events but usually this results in me sitting in a pub on my own.

I would continue but I would be repeating the points made by Oryx. Again let me thank you for your feedback and I will certainly take it on board.

Regards
R

Riamfada

Can I also just point out that we keep a feedback thread open here stickied to the main page of the forum which we do read. There hasn't been a post in a while.

MrMojoRisin

Oryx wrote: »

Sometimes I check the place every day, sometimes I might not get a look in there for a week or more. But I have two co mods who I presume are also keeping an eye. I do not read every thread, so I depend on regular posters to report posts they find problematic. But I have to say, in the main the problems I discover (misplaced skepticism, self promotion, phone numbers) by and large go unreported.

I actually have a similar approach to moderating the Paranormal forum as well -- I check in on the first page of threads every week or so to see if everything's in order. Tbh, I never expect a 100 per cent peaceful, agreeable environment in that forum, just because the nature of the subject alone guarantees disagreements. It's when those disagreements become very obviously heated and personal that I see fit to step in. Otherwise, like Oryx mentioned, I'm relying on posters to report issues, too. The resource is there for them to use.

Oryx wrote: »

I don't respond to all reported posts, because if I have been offline, and the reports are a day or two old, I presume they are dealt with. This may not always be the case, and if so, I apologise. But I always respond to anyone who pms me, and if there is an ongoing problem with moderation, and I had been made aware of it by pm, I would have brought it up with my co mods. I don't willfully ignore stuff like this.

Funnily enough, I treat old reports -- one-to-two days old) -- in the same way, if I haven't checked that email account (where I receive the report updates). Seeing as there are a bunch of us moderating the forum, it's normal to assume that someone has dealt with a report after a couple of days. I've actually seen this for myself a few times previously as well -- I've logged into Boards to sort out a report, only to find that someone else has resolved it already (which I've appreciated, obviously).

I always reply to people's PMs -- depending on the apparent urgency of the content of that PM, I reply within anything from one day, to a few weeks (I'm pretty busy otherwise much of the time anyway). I always reply to people though, regardless of how idiotic some of the PMs can be (not all PMs concern the quality of moderation/forum disruption for me, personally).

To give credit where it's due now, Oryx is the best Paranormal forum Mod I've known of there over the past few years. She may not always be 'active' on it -- but who is, in fairness? Not even regular posters are always active either -- but she maintains a steady presence and keeps a watchful eye on things. When she does happen to be online, and there's a forum issue, she hones straight in on it immediately and restores order (well, whatever 'usual order' you'd say the loose cannon-like Paranormal forum is in!). I think all the other Mods do a great job as well and, personal time issues/work commitments aside, I know that each of their deep interest in the paranormal means they never stay away from the forum for long.

Oryx wrote: »

Its very easy to say 'moderation is shoddy', but we are just links in a chain. Without help from the people who use the forum, our job of moderation is so much harder. OP, you say you pmd 'someone'. You didn't pm me. You haven't reported any posts according to Gordon. Begin taking more actions like this yourself, and you may see your experience of, and faith in, the forum will improve.

That's very true -- if someone wants the forum to be moderated better, they need to tell us that there's a problem, or suggest improvements (PM us, or report posts). Moderation is a two-way street -- realistically, we can only see so much. To cite one example -- a poster PM'd me a couple of years ago about another poster who was using two different usernames to post on the forum simultaneously. The dual-username poster was using both identities to antagonise a couple of other posters and hammer home their own points in a thread. Now, it hadn't been obvious to me that they were the same person because, at a superficial glance, the style of language from each 'poster' weren't very alike. If that person hadn't PM'd me to tell me, I would have overlooked it until things got out of hand further down the line.

MrMojoRisin

Similar to Oryx, I check in on the forum every week or so (usually the first page of threads, seeing as the forum is fairly 'low-action'), and I assume that one/two-day-old reports that I've seen by then have already been dealt with. In fact, I've often logged in to sort out reports several times in the past (within two days), only to find that another Mod there has resolved them already (which I've appreciated, obviously). Actually, that in itself assures me, at least, that the Paranormal forum is being moderated well. I reply to all PMs within anything from one day, to a few weeks, depending on the apparent urgency of the content within the PM.

All the Mods do a great job, and I'd go so far to say that Oryx is one of the best and most attentive Paranormal Mods I've known of for the past few years. She may not be 'active' on the forum constantly (but, then, realistically, who is?), but she maintains a steady, watchful presence, and she's always quick to step in to fix something when she's been made aware of it.

Awareness is what all this boils down to -- if users like Gordon (BTW, you didn't PM me at all either) want the forum to be moderated to their lofty standards, they need to make us Mods aware of problems, helpful suggestions, etc. Moderation is a two-way street, and we can't do it as best as we can if we aren't getting the full picture of what's going on. Tbh, I know enough about the Paranormal forum by now to realise that it's never a 100 per cent agreeable, peaceful environment; by virtue of the fact that the paranormal is a naturally contentious subject in itself (not unlike religion, I guess).

Maybe the posters who are still fairly new to using the forum find it all a bit 'full-on' and unexpectedly heated (which it can be) at first? The discussion of the subject is like a see-saw, and so it follows that the forum will be much the same. At the same time, that same friction and the differences of opinion help keep the forum alive and moving forward (however slowly). The forum wouldn't work if everybody agreed with everybody else and 'thanked' them all the time.

Riamfada

Can we consider this issue closed?

Spear

Dellas1979, I'm not going to approve your last post, aspects of it aren't constructive to the thread.