Moderation of the Conspiracy Theory Forum - Medical Misinformation

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119746056#Comment_119746056

They are not my standards really. They are the standards of boards everywhere else except that forum - across politics, science, history and current affairs.

If the Mod doesnt have the time or expertise to assess the content all the more reason posters on the forum should be free to challenge content expressed as statements of fact - as long as the forum charter is adhered to and the basics eg attack the post not poster.

bucketybuck

A forum on a discussion board where discussion is not permitted is quite an achievement really.

Regardless, I continue to believe that the CT forum should not exist at all. Previously it seemed to exist so that some posters could get their kicks by teasing what are clearly mentally unwell people. Now it appears that those mentally unwell people are to be given free reign to post whatever they want without regard to logic, reason or decorum.

How is either of those scenarios a good thing?

Discussing the moderation is like discussing what sauce to put on faeces, it isn't the sauce that is the problem. You need to step back and discuss whether it should be there at all.

agreed.

while we're at it, the forum on psychics is a fairly outrageous thing to be running also but look one thing at a time

King Mob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119746097#Comment_119746097

It's not just that challenging conspiracy theorists is no longer permitted, it's that it's not permitted to ask conspiracy theorists to explain their conspiracy theory or explain why they believe it.

Conspiracy theorists are free to dump a link from twitter or whatever, make no or little comment on it, then completely ignore any questions about it. They don't have to explain why they posted it. they don't have to explain why they believe the information in that link. They don't have to address or respond to any of the issues with that link, like the fact it's from a dodgy source, or directly contradicts the claims being made. They don't have to explain how it fits into a conspiracy. They don't even have to explain what the conspiracy theory is.

The new guideline for moderation suggests that anyone who asks any of these questions or attempts to move the discussion along these lines could earn a ban if the mod decides that they meet some unknown, unquantifiable level of offense or "badgering." While the conspiracy theorist is free to keep badgering, link dumping and repeating the same point without actually engaging.

This is all in the name of promoting discussion. But the issue that I keep failing to understand is that if a conspiracy theorist isn't willing to answer any of the above questions, what discussion are they looking for? What discussion is possible? Why is it the fault of the person asking these questions, and not the person avoiding them?

On top of this, I still doubt that this new guideline will be applied at all consistently or fairly. Already I've reported several posts that I believe breach the new guidelines and nothing has happened.

So no, the only way to post in the conspiracy forum is for conspiracy theorists to keep link dumping and not engaging and non-conspiracy theorists to point out all the issues in those link dumps for conspiracy theorists to ignore.

This isn't really discussion. And I don't understand what the value is in it beyond just countering misinformation that isn't allowed elsewhere on the site.

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119747020#Comment_119747020

This isn't a reasonable interpretation of what was said by the moderator.

The point they made was that after asking a question two or three times and seeing that the poster isn't going to answer or change their opinion based on your questions it is better to stop asking the question because the discussion isn't progressing.

In essence this cuts out potential pages of back and forth argument that has no value beyond being seen as a form of vindication for the person asking they question.

This has been a persistent issue on the forum for well over a decade and it's overdue that this change be made. Yes it will upset some regulars but if you're doing something wrong the fact that you've gotten away with it for X amount of time doesn't validate that behaviour.

There is some room for improvement on the front of people posting links and not substantiating what those links are or why they're being posted.

Away from that a lot of what is being complained about here shouldn't be entertained.

I was called out in a thread some months ago where it was obvious that moderation was absent on the forum with one poster in particular openly abusing people they disagreed with, you (Kingmob) were in the thick of this (not being openly abusive but encouraging the situation to escalate) when I pointed out the obvious issue you lambasted me and essentially told me my opinion was neither valid or wanted.

This was an issue where as a regular contributor to the forum any reasonable person would have thought "maybe I should speak to the site staff about this for the good of the forum", you (Kingmob) seemed delighted by the situation and were happy to allow it to continue and did not appreciate anyone wanting to change it.

I created a thread for the purpose of solving that issue in feedback and Big bag of chips kindly stepped in to deal with the issues.

What I'm seeing here amounts to little more than whinging from people who were free to be as unpleasant as they wished for far too long and how are having a predictably petulant response to their behaviour being properly dealt with for the first time ever.

A reasonable response would be to modulate your own behaviour and attempt to seek improvements across the board by working with the moderator.