Moderating ** A perspective **
Lets discuss: Those dreadful words.
“YOU HAVE BEEN MODERATED”. :drama: Let me start out with an excerpt from “our rules”, which BTW, I encourage anyone who hasn’t seen or read them, to do so.
Our administrative/governing members have worked on that document and decided that those ARE the rules of our forum. If you consider enforcement of those rules, “censorship”, well, there are plenty of URLS out there. What is a Moderators job? Quote:
A- Keeping everyone happy B- NOT pissing off a small group leaving the rest unaffected. Statistically, B is attainable. That’s how we moderate. Moderate a post, one person gets pissed, don’t moderate it and a whole demographic can be affected. We have to look at the big picture. I personally have moderated many posts that I agreed with, liked, laughed at or enjoyed, but just it did not fall within our guidelines, or crossed the line. We have to follow our own rules even if we agree with or like the post. Lets break that action down into 3 categories/viewpoints the way it happens in this forum. 1-The Moderat-ee 2-The Moderat-or 3-Me. The Owner/Admin, and in some cases. The Blame-ee, The Mommy, and in others viewpoint, “The farkin a-hole”. Now, lets break them down. Moderate-ee’s. They come in 2 forms. Type 1 Moderate-ee. Those who recognize a post for what it is. A post, a single solitary post in an internet forum, which has absolutely no bearing or effect on your health, mental well being, family, income, taxes, home, the war in Iraq, or world hunger. Most moderate-ees recognize the moderation of a post has absolutely zero effect on anything. This moderate-ee still has all his or her limbs, he did not loose and eye, and there is no blood loss. It was a POST. ONE POST. Without it, there is no fallout, except the post that was once there, is gone, for whatever reason. Type 2 Moderate-ee. This type is the moderate-ee who sees his post as precious. It is all worldly. Without that beloved post, life as he knows it will no longer exist, he treats it as a loss of a limb, a major organ, or loved one. When the precious post is deleted, the world stops. He fires off a PM to the moderator. WHERE IS MY POST!. Why did u delete it!!?? ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! You are a __________ <- fill in derogatory name. This is sometimes followed by:
What I will say, is in a war between a type 2 and a moderator(or me), the moderator will always win. NEXT: There are the moderators. Those are the guys willing to help to keep this place running smooth. They are in charge of enforcing the rules as written, day to day operations and helping members out wherever they can. They don’t get paid, they don’t get vacation, sick time or paid time off. They do it because they want to help this place run smooth. What do they get in return? Their name in green, the thanks of 99% of those members who recognize the thankless job they do and appreciate it, and then the bullchit, headaches and crap by the remaining 1% that trash talk them, challenge them and “just don’t get it”. They eventually grow a thick skin. They realize that when 200-300 members say “thank you”, and one calls them a censor, a nazi, or an a-hole, that that one is really irrelevant and most likely the moderated posts are also. Let it be known than moderating does not only involve deleting curse words or porno pictures. It involves, splitting threads, moving threads, keeping stuff on topic, helping new members, guiding people around the forum and keeping things civil. Flames and flame wars need to be shut down immediately in order to keep peace. The ramifications of a mishandled or neglected war can quickly involve a dozen or more members slinging chit which leads to an all out chitstorm. These flame wars ALWAYS results in a flood of PM’s to my inbox. Hundreds of posts a day, and thousands of views. The moderators are in the middle of all of that. Anyone who thinks its easy, moderate for a week and see what its like to be abused. Then there’s the Admin or Group Owner: Me and Badger. . An inordinate amount of resources are put into the place. I average 40-50 PMs a day, and when there’s a chit storm brewing, that doubles or more. I run the forum, do the nightly maintenance, the upgrades, scrub the posts, pay the bills. For that, what I have learned is, the buck stops here. We have thousands of members. Think of the demographics. Think of how many walks of life are here. How many levels of moral values, work ethics, different upbringings, different beliefs and most common, different opinions. There is no way every one of you, will ever agree with every other one of you, at any one time, and no way for me to keep everyone happy. Each individual reads posts and see pictures through their own eyes. Their views may be 180 degrees off of the next guys, and not even in the same book as the person who wrote it. One guys PG is another guys X, one guys stick burner is replacing someone elses Pellet Pooper, I hate pork, and someone else loves chicken. We will never agree on everything. On some days, we agree on nothing. Here’s an example of what happens each day: Remember, the internet text offers no inflection, no body language, no facial expressions. So, someone reads a post and freaks. A moderator gets the “report bad post” message. Here is what happens…. this is the rock, and the hard place. If we delete it, sometimes, the poster appreciates, or at least understands. But other times we get the “where is my post” complaint. The Moderatee has now lost the precious post, and reacts as if he lost his limb,or we removed and organ. If we don’t delete it, we get the “I find it offensive” and “I thought we were better than that”, “Its against the rules”, “how come you left that one and deleted mine?” We have been accused of under moderating, over moderating, being a church and being on the verge of smutty. A lot of times, WE CANNOT WIN. There are too many people here to make everyone happy. Then comes my least favorite complaint. The real wedgie. The “I’m gonna quit” in its various forms. Whether it be from being moderated, having a tiff with another member, don't like what someone typed, or not liking changes made as we evolve. I have heard this lame threat SO many times its pathetic. Why tell us this?? What this tells me is that the person believes that the friendships established are not worth the loss of a post, or that the quitter is unwilling to compromise, it’s his way or the highway. C'mon, grow some balls and thicken your skin. IMO, its just a ploy to get attention, and have friends all run to your side.. please don't leave us.. wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... do u really need confirmation? Is your hissy fit just a ploy to get people to look at you and give you validation to your existence here. To us(the mods), its just more work for us to run damage control. We don’t intentionally try to piss people off, we try to find a middle ground. There is no other option for us, yet some people choose to leave because they don’t like the middle ground we choose. Some dont like that we have to adapt and change as time goes by. Sometimes we choose the path of least resistance, or the path that’s most conservative or socially safe. Other times, we have to make a best guess what will work. But we cannot always make everyone happy, and they feel the need to ‘quit”… what-everrr.. Well, the doors right where it was when they arrived. It’s unfortunate, I hate to see someone leave over disagreements, but we will have one less member today, and 25 more tomorrow. We will be here in a week or a month and they are welcome to return, and usually do. So where did this come from? Years of hearing the same old stuff. Its drafted, and has been added to over several weeks. It spawned from hundreds and hundreds of posts which were complaints either to, or from the moderators. I have a feeling that a lot of people just don’t see, or maybe just don’t realize what it takes to run a forum. How difficult the job is to keep peace and running smooth. We are here to try to organize, and keep civil rest. Keep things within our established guidelines and keep people from becoming upset at others. The moderators are the traffic cops, the referees, and the cleanup crew. So next time someone is moderated, try to look at it from the moderators viewpoint, overseeing a crowd of hundreds. He may enjoy your post, but knows from experience that it is crossing the line somewhere. Step back and look past your ONE individual post…is it more important to have that post up, or to avoid conflict and avoid insulting someone? Is it so important that you to tick off a friend, whether u agree or not. We want to just keep and all around pleasant environment that not only keeps our members here, but attracts new members when they peek in to visit. |
Outstanding! :thumb:
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I paid for that?
Yes, and I will pay again and again. Thanks for running a tight ship! |
Thanks MODS!!!!
I know I wouldn't want your gig. Thanks for all you guys do!!!:thumb: |
I haven't been moderated in a little while now. I am beginning to feel left out.
OK, seriously though, you guys have to have a thick skin, and have to make some tough decisions. Members of the forum need to step back any time they get moderated and try to remember how much different it is at this place than others. They should appreciate the fairness and even the levity (Each time I get moderated for something over the line in the "funny" department, the mod is laughing too). If you don't like the mod treatment, just do us all a favor and either lurk or leave. |
if a mod is forced to be an "arsehole", isn't the case really just a member who needs to grow up/check themself?
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Would not want a Mod's job either! Like the site because of them and the job they do:thumb:
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Thanks for a well maintained site! :thumb:
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I was going to write some long dang thing about what it was like being a moderator but it's Monday, so... Thanks again to you folks who understand where we're coming from, thanks to those who 'self-moderate' by putting aside personal feelings, and to those who can't do that - we'll be in touch. :becky:
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Oh, and special thanks to those who learned to self-moderate! :laugh::boxing:
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I'm not sure I've ever been moderated?!?!?
Hmm...let me dig up some midget on goat pron and see if I can fix that. |
Are people whining about being moderated again? You just need to get used to it. :becky: It has been a while for me too.
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Gee dog, THANKS! :doh::heh:
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