Forums with "Mod-Nazi's"

[mcklovin]

What do you think of forums that overly moderate. I've joined a relatively small forum (2-3k users) in the past week and it has about five mods who are relentless. I've received 3 infractions in a single week, one of them for offering free service to their users, I didn't even plug my site.

I wouldn't complain had the violations been serious or if they had a sticky-ed rules post.

Personally I think they can take their forum and stick it... to me their moderation practices have shown great immaturity (the forum I am talking about is run by adults).


In general how do forums like this make it? What do you think of moderation?... over moderation?

 

[cybrax]

Spare us the bovine fertiliser

SPAMMING or the Promotion of products or services without the site owners consent normally leads to an account being closed without warning.. it's a clause found in many forums Terms & Conditions of use.

Your post is sadly typical of many that forum and live chat mods (aka unpaid volunteers) have to deal with on a regular daily basis in support for several sites that I'm involved with. It contains only one side of the story and thinly veiled insults of a sexual nature directed towards them.

Don't come here whining and looking to have your bruised ego stroked better.

 

[wongers]

i wouldnt mind if you stroked my bruised ego better ;-)

Cybrax is right though. if you dont like it, then leave lol. simple solution

 

[krofunk]

plus 2 - 3k users isn't exactly small (providing they are active) and moderators tend to only enforce rules that you have agreed to while signing up please tick the box to confirm you have read these rules

 

[mcklovin]

So I was wrong for offering free design services in the design section because that's spam. That's like saying your signature is spam because you posted it in your signature section.

Define spam. I never posted any out-going links or even stated that I have a outside design service.

And yes 2-3k users however in the past week there has been about 3-8 posts (no exaggerations ), two of which were by me and half of the others by staff.

I may have a bruised ego, but the admin is no better. He should be trying to keep his forum alive and not nit-pick every post (perhaps thats why all the users left?).

Either way I pm'd him back demanding my account be closed. Yes that may have been immature... but imo it was provoked.

 

[callumacrae]

That's not immature, just logical.

~Callum

 

[dlukin]

1. The Golden Rule: Those with the Gold, make the Rules. It is their site and they can run it any way they want. Even if it destroys the site.

2. LOL at a forum's TOS. It is just and excuse to edit, delete, or ban you. I have seen forums where Member X breaks nearly every rule, but is allowed to stay while Member Y is bounced for something that really didn't violate the TOS. Spamming? Again, depends on the Mod.

3. Mods, even (or especially) volunteer ones, are human. Which means some have favorites and enemies. Some are on power trips.

4. Sounds like someone in this thread Mods on several boards. Since the OP was in general terms and did not mention any specific site, I think the implied "all Mods are angels" is a bit of fertilizer in itself.

 

[carrock]

A major attraction for most people is the internet's diversity.

If you genuinely can't find a well run forum on any particular subject, you can probably make a fortune running one yourself.

There are plenty of good forums where I put up with a lot of adverts because the content is genuinely useful.

 

[stardom]

how many people do you think actually read the box before clicking?

 

[DeadBattery]

In general how do forums like this make it? What do you think of moderation?... over moderation?

Before, we had a lot of moderators here. Luckily enough, I was one of them!
We kept on running into users repeatedly doing the same things over and over and kept adding "do not"s to the forum rules and gave infractions for those who disobeyed. (e.g. one liners in crossfire, referral links in earning money)
Those rules still work on almost all the posts here and that makes moderation here not needed as much. At least that's my two cents.

 

[cybrax]

Dlukin makes some valid points,

The internet and the web sites that populate it contrary to popular misconception are NOT a democracy, when one enters a site you are on their turf and have to abide by their rules, freedom of choice stops at the door.

Website TOS are a particular bain of my life, particulary the phrase "we reserve the right to change the rules without warning" it's so open to abuse by unscrupulous webmasters it beggers belief, Facebook being a classic example of this practice.

Yes, Mods are human and it is not uncommon to find one or more has had a bad day at work before coming online to a stack of abuse tickets eg: "he called me fat, I want him banned" sooner or later somebody does cop it from a Mod near breaking point. How site owners choose to run and train their moderators varies considerably, some really are thrown in at the deep end with no concept of just how difficult it actually can be to remain objective and impartial under difficult circumstances.

Imagine having to deal with legitamate problem being experienced by a member on site, when that individual had spent most of the previous week emailing graphic death threats detailing how they were going to harm you and your family for closing thier multiple bogus accounts.

Some I will admit though are Mods purely for the Kudos power trip, thankfully they are fairly easy to spot and as such normally weeded out during selection and training process. Of course not all web site owners have that luxury, they need a Mod(s) because they cannot do it all themselves and they need somebody now or the site will go completely to pot.


Are Mods 'Angels', One Percent may be lol, and to answer your question yes, I have modded several boards over the years from kindergarten scrabble clubs to those of a more cough adult nature. Nowdays I mainly help with training Mods, simple stuff like how to get a chat room under control without IP banning anybody and basically educating some in the finer points of foriegn cultures and offensive colloquial dialects. Until you actually see a Philapino try telling a joke to a Canadian you will never quite grasp how toe curling an experience it can be.