Dispute with mod

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751279#Comment_122751279

Thats really the problem. Whether it's Israel or US election or Ukraine or covid before that or whatever, Im sure there are others, everything is so black & white and entrenched its crazy. People dont seem to want to discuss at all they just want to rant and be confirmed and thanked and other than that just scream at each other and be right at all costs and have the last word. And I dont care how strongly you feel about a topic I have honestly no idea how anyone thinks this is a good way to spend their time. Cant be good for your mental health.

I'd say we could dramatically improve mental health of boards users if CA forums were just closed. Let people talk about soccer and and cars and farming and mustard but by god CA is just mind bending.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751287#Comment_122751287

If you mean how many mods have we actually managed to appoint in 12 months the answer is 1 I think.

We appointed 2 more the year before that.

We have tried a couple more times in that time period to appoint multiple new mods but on those occasions we never got anyone to the able and willing stage of the process.

reclose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751356#Comment_122751356

Is it possible there’s an issue with the process if you can only appoint 1 mod over a 12 month period?

Rooks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751279#Comment_122751279

The only two Trump fans I know of in real life are dumb conspiracy theorists.

reclose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751374#Comment_122751374

Thats a factual statement. I don’t know any others. If you check back even earlier in that thread you’ll see me challenging pro Biden posters a little too.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751367#Comment_122751367

It's a lot to demand of someone and trust to bestow to someone.

reclose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751410#Comment_122751410

CEO’s of multinationals are replaced faster. I think you are overstating it.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751422#Comment_122751422

Yes, by offering mouth watering salaries.

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751226#Comment_122751226

No, it wasn't. Why is so hard for yourself to believe? I've been very open and honest that I have many trans and non-binary friends.

reclose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751428#Comment_122751428

Is it taking 12 months because people are saying no or because the process to select one takes too long?

Select people and get rid of them fast if they act the bollox.

reclose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751435#Comment_122751435

Your friends tell you what sites you can spend your time on?

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751435#Comment_122751435

I, certainly, recall you posting about having friends who are trans. Would have been in one of those CA threads where an awful lot of anti-trans hatred gets spat out.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122750873#Comment_122750873

Thanks for proving my point.

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122749568#Comment_122749568

As someone else said, if someone does a lot of reporting weight the importance of their reporting.

So someone who reports 10 times a day only gets a tenth of a bang for their buck as someone who reports once a day.

That could work with an automated system (no idea if the software could be designed along those lines)

Note I don't advocate such a system at the expense of real mods who are worth their weight in mullah and should be paid for by the (two tier) membership.

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751454#Comment_122751454

What is 5, or 6, of those reports are reporting spam?

Rooks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751408#Comment_122751408

It's not a fact that they're "dumb" though, is it? That's your opinion of them. You probably disagree with the things they say and you call them "dumb conspiracy theorists" in order to make it easier to dismiss their views.

Now let's read your earlier post:

"I think alot of posters have no tolerance for hearing something they disagree with or don’t like."

Indeed. I have nothing more to say on the matter. I am satisfied.

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751439#Comment_122751439

What I actually said is,

My trans friends do not approve of me still being involved in boards as it is seen by my friends as a hostile ground. But that's just a personal anecdote.

And they don't. They see it as hostile to them, and I understand why, but theyre not "telling me not to post here"

There's a difference between voicing and opinion (IE: we don't approve) and telling you what sites you can spend your time on.

Not everything is a binary choice.

There's spectrums EVERYWHERE.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with this thread. I just hate being called a liar.

Cheers.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751437#Comment_122751437

I don't know why you're asking me? 😉

Big Bag of Chips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751437#Comment_122751437

The process to select one doesn't take long. That's another over exaggerated point people-who-know-very-little-but-like-to-spout-a-lot make.

If a forum needs new moderators the mods and category mods suggest some names to the admins.

The admins decide if the suggested names should become moderators.

The category moderators approach the posters to offer them the role.

They either accept or decline.

That's it. From start to finish it takes less than a week. Maybe 3-4 days if everyone has been online over that time.

People are rightly not permitted to say hateful things about trans people here - it's a topic that there is a lot of strictness around, so that's nonsense.

Saying you disagree that male/female/man/woman/girl/boy is defined by gender rather than biological sex (and thus having ramifications for women's and girls' sport) is not hatred of trans people, no matter how much some pretend it is. In the past, there was a regular trans poster, who got some horrible abuse - e.g. being called a freak. Those kinds of scumbag posters are thin on the ground now. Boards was absolutely more filled with extremists in the past. There's a "shoot on sight" policy today for the loons - the same lot used to languish for much longer before (and fair play to the moderators and admins for that). There was awful misogyny on Boards ten years ago or less - some proper woman-haters, now it's a much nicer place for women. Again, fair play to the mods and admins. People are far more moderate here these days, but some like to pretend that those who are not racists/bigots - they just have more conservative views than liberal - are as bad as the lot who wanted this place to be like 4Chan in 2007. There's a vast spectrum between far left and far right, and most people are somewhere in the middle.

Now there is a different problem. Of course there is bias/inconsistency/preferential treatment here. Don't let anyone gas-light you into thinking you're paranoid for observing what's right in front of your eyes. Yeah it's unlikely a conscious strategy, but (and we aren't permitted to mention names, otherwise I would easily be able to list them) there is a cohort of people (one a mod) who are uncivil, sneering, misrepresenting of what people say, downright trolling (because they goad and bait - or are just actual trolls) yet they're still here after years. And they are all of a particular political persuasion (or pretend to be) and… not so much defend the site and mods/admins (I defend the site) but blatantly brown-nose. Whereas someone with unpopular views (some I don't agree with but they're genuine, not out to wind up) is so nastily treated, someone gets carded for being uncivil when they weren't, yet others are uncivil all the time. So of course it looks like there is preferential treatment/a particular political leaning to the place. If I get a petty admonishment again (even though I am a genuine poster, unlike some of the trolls who get away with so much) whatever, but it needed to be said. When people's comments are removed but sneers in response are left there, well you can't blame someone for defending themselves.

drunkmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751503#Comment_122751503

Ok before I respond to anyone else, that post it too god damm long. Don't know what way you lean but that's 9 points right off the bat. Here's 4 days in the hot house to contemplate what you just done. See you Sunday.

That's back see modding, op shouldn't get a tick but you'd need the patience of Kobe to read through that as a mod if someone took issue with it.

Big Bag of Chips

The focus here, as usual, is Current Affairs. Moderators in all the other forums on Boards.ie do an excellent job in keeping their forums operating. It's why we never hear of any other forums in these threads. There are plenty of moderators doing excellent work.

Current Affairs is the outlier on the site. There will always be more angry and disruptive posters than there are moderators. That is now the shape of the internet. The new rules go someway towards cutting out 90% of the crap moderators have to deal with in that forum.

A number of feedback threads asked for change. The moderators and admins decide what changes will work best for the operating of the forum. These changes are already seeing benefits in the forum.

If anyone would like to put forward a name for consideration of CA moderator please feel free to PM me.

drunkmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751448#Comment_122751448

Look when a poster is normally truthful and isn't afraid to share their opinion regardless of the kick back, you should assume they're genuine.

I'll ask it again, which part of that original post do you think I'm lying.

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751469#Comment_122751469

Well I am not an algorithm meister but I imagine that there could be some feedback loop where a report's value could be evaluated in other (additional) ways to simple frequency.

I have recently observed in my own personal introspections that taking a first step along the path can make a seemingly difficult undertaking less so(of course the first step can be nothing but a misstep but the environment we are living in now evolves so rapidly that if we do not move forward we are in effect moving backwards)

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751437#Comment_122751437

I know the numbers sound crap but I can't emphasise enough how much of a pain it is trying to find mods for that forum.

The overwhelming majority of mods on the site are mods because they are passionate about the subject of their forum, be that rugby, gardening or music etc. It's a voluntary position and people do it cause they enjoy discussing their hobbies and want to foster a community around it.

The story for CA is very different. Almost every thread is incredibly divisive due to the nature of the forum. CA exists as a catch-all for contentious subjects.

How many people do you think there are who will say their hobby is discussing the news of the day on the internet, but who are also level headed and capable of sifting through a ton of shite to deal with a very high volume of issues every single day? It's a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Imagine the farming forum and the vegan forum were one single forum, and you were trying to find a vegan beef farmer who would be willing to moderate it fairly and equitably.

The problem we have with CA is that people who tend to be really passionate about the subjects discussed in CA to the extent where they will willingly give up their time to moderate it are often not the most suitable to mod that forum because there's pretty much no way they could be seen as a neutral-ish arbiter of the charter.

I am not saying we look for fence-sitters when it comes to CA mods, not at all. We're basically after people who are very active in CA who are respected by most posters on most sides of most arguments.

People say "oh just appoint someone and give them a go" but then I guarantee those same people will be the first to complain if this person isn't from the side of the political spectrum that they wanted and the first time they perform a mod action we'll get accused of bias and wanting to shut down certain view points.

Tom Mann Centuria

Providing they don't have big ban or warning history why not just appoint a few on trial and give them a go anyway. If it doesn't work out it has cost the grand total of fúck all, and out of 3 or 4 you might get a couple of good uns. Waiting for the perfect candidate is not the way these days, and I don't think there are too many (any) that will be respected by both sides in this polarised internet era. Not sure what the big fear is about mods who might not work out.

(Admittedly it might cause a slight uptick in shít in the short term)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751441#Comment_122751441

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751656#Comment_122751656

By your own admission that would have to be someone who posted regularly in CA, but then then you have the issue of rabid polarization of views . So getting someone unbiased is nigh impossible by your own criteria.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751766#Comment_122751766

or someone who mods under a new account for purpose so their personal biases are only known to the admins who can act as a check that they aren’t acting the maggot modding to cater to their side of certain divisions.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751800#Comment_122751800

Who does that. Though I quite believe it happens

amandstu

Perhaps an aside but when I started on boards bad language was less tolerated because it could be asterixed out and also because the argument was made that young children were free to visit the site and (presumably) we wouldn't talk like that in their presence in real life...

Now it is easy to change a character or two and write what we want .

I wonder if ,in the near future new algorithms will change the tide on that and enforce on this site what is generally accepted in society .