SWG Tales

Talaraine wrote:Okay so how would you suggest continuing the discussion that got derailed?

Perhaps you can enlighten us to what discussion you are trying to continue? Novall's original post was about flaming, and how it will be dealt with, and we have been discussing modding policies since that point.

I think Talarine was asking about the example you posted, Eboobi.

You locked a thread and the follow ups got locked. What do you reccommend to prevent the lockage of follow ups in the future. I think that was what her question was about...not about a particular thread in general.

Well, if a thread got locked, perhaps the best thing to do is not post another thread about a thread getting locked. That was the specific instance I was referring to.

E-bo Obi wrote:Well, if a thread got locked, perhaps the best thing to do is not post another thread about a thread getting locked. That was the specific instance I was referring to.

Exactly, If you want to know why it got locked, you should PM a mod, or the mod who performed the lock for that information.

E-bo Obi wrote:Last time I modded someone the offending party had nothing nice to say to me in PM's afterward. When I lock a post I get bitched at. So basically it is up to us which one we want to deal with. The minor bitching from a post being locked or the overall bitchyness of one user you modded. So far I have had less complaints when I have just locked. Actually only one lock, two because the follow-up thread got locked as well, I have ever done was complained about to my knowledge.

Moving someone's post to a storage thread that isn't accessible by the general community is possible, and would store it.

As for people complaining: Sorry, 'bo, but isn't that part of the job? Why is editing or removing a post listed first on the modding rules if it's hardly ever used? Doesn't preventing the loss of a quality discussion preclude suffering some complaints? Being a moderator isn't easy, I've been one on a much smaller forum, and I think simply locking a thread is much less benefitial to the community. If a thread can be saved, I think it should be.

Without putting the mods reasons for locking threads or their abilities in question, Im making the observation that simply locking threads is becoming the daily routine.
Now while there's in all likelyhood proper reasons for doing so, it does not solve the underlying issues or make people more reasonable. They'll just find a new thread to hi-jack and carry on. Posting the reason while locking and directing people to PM the mod in question, would be a good practise I think. This would give you a lot more understanding from people and less confusion about why threads are being locked. At the same time it makes mods responsible, so the underlying reasons don't feel as "I locked it cause I wanted to, its my right, got a problem with it?"
That'll just cause more tension, so this is my suggestion. Make it common practise to post WHY threads are locked. Sometimes, it really isn't obvious.
Some Mods are very good at explaining why they do as they do, while others simply state, because. I realise you take a lot of heat and you get a lot of unwanted stress from disgruntled community members from time to time but I think it would help with more clarification, beyond "because I said so" kind of thing.

I agree. And the post lock E-bo is referring to was mine. I had a legitimate post with valid concerns which was locked because members of the mod team started spamming it and having a field day. So when the post was locked I posted a follow up basically calling them out on it because I didn't think it was right that a legit thread was locked because they couldn't behave. And while responses varied, the overall impression was the "because I can" feeling Yala mentioned.

I'm not posting that to rehash the past, but since E brought it up it does have a certain relevance.

Yala wrote:Without putting the mods reasons for locking threads or their abilities in question, Im making the observation that simply locking threads is becoming the daily routine.
Now while there's in all likelyhood proper reasons for doing so, it does not solve the underlying issues or make people more reasonable. They'll just find a new thread to hi-jack and carry on. Posting the reason while locking and directing people to PM the mod in question, would be a good practise I think. This would give you a lot more understanding from people and less confusion about why threads are being locked. At the same time it makes mods responsible, so the underlying reasons don't feel as "I locked it cause I wanted to, its my right, got a problem with it?"
That'll just cause more tension, so this is my suggestion. Make it common practise to post WHY threads are locked. Sometimes, it really isn't obvious.
Some Mods are very good at explaining why they do as they do, while others simply state, because. I realise you take a lot of heat and you get a lot of unwanted stress from disgruntled community members from time to time but I think it would help with more clarification, beyond "because I said so" kind of thing.

Thread locks have been becomming more frequent. It may be because of the general tension we're all going through. I've seen most threads that are locked getting a little post saying that it had degraded. ....essentially, I'm agreeing that a quick post for the reason for a lock should be consistently used.

Shensen wrote:I agree. And the post lock E-bo is referring to was mine. I had a legitimate post with valid concerns which was locked because members of the mod team started spamming it and having a field day. So when the post was locked I posted a follow up basically calling them out on it because I didn't think it was right that a legit thread was locked because they couldn't behave. And while responses varied, the overall impression was the "because I can" feeling Yala mentioned.

I'm not posting that to rehash the past, but since E brought it up it does have a certain relevance.

well the problem is that ANY good well-meaning thread, can be degraded into something bad, by anyone...

so my serious question back to you would be, if a thread starts well, but has turned into crap, should it stay unlocked for the crap to continue?

There is always the moderators ability to delete single posts or edit them, helping the legitimate threads stay on target, rather than locking what may have been a good debate with a mature approach from many.

I've seen that used before but it was a bit random I felt, one person was modded while others werent who essentially were spamming the same nonsense. If there is a tendency the whole thread is collapsing, then I can see why it would be locked or completely deleted. If one or two are starting to vent, unreasonably much then they can be filtered, again with a reason posted to avoid confusion.

I don't want to tell you how to do your jobs but, its just my feeling from observation and indeed own experience. I hope it helps, its not intended to offend anyone.

Edit with an afterthought.

I think Ekade touched something important as well, there is a lot of "they" (moderators/admins) and then us (the rest of the community) and we must be careful not to pitch against each other but remember that we are all part of the same team. Someone being a moderator or site own does not make them different people, they are the same as anyone with all that such includes, especially, responsibility.

Skorixor wrote:

Shensen wrote:I agree. And the post lock E-bo is referring to was mine. I had a legitimate post with valid concerns which was locked because members of the mod team started spamming it and having a field day. So when the post was locked I posted a follow up basically calling them out on it because I didn't think it was right that a legit thread was locked because they couldn't behave. And while responses varied, the overall impression was the "because I can" feeling Yala mentioned.

I'm not posting that to rehash the past, but since E brought it up it does have a certain relevance.

well the problem is that ANY good well-meaning thread, can be degraded into something bad, by anyone...

so my serious question back to you would be, if a thread starts well, but has turned into crap, should it stay unlocked for the crap to continue?

I think that is really up to the moderators, if people are still trying to discuss the topic then I'd say remove the crap. If the thread is basically played out and now being used for post count increase then yeah get rid of it.

In my particular case it was other mods which turned the thread into crap which begs the question who's modding the mods? (sounds kinda like the who's on first thing) I dunno maybe someone does say something and we just don't see it - perhaps we should. Again, I'm not trying to pitch the "us" vs. "them", but in relation to Novall's original post about accountability along with Jabe's comment about breaking your own rules it is only making it harder for you guys to do your jobs.

If our goals are to encourage good topics, and squash excessively negative posts.. why not move the garbage out of the thread and allow for the goodness of a thread to continue?

This:
1) Allows a good thread to continue
2) Extinguishes flames
3) Allows the Admins to go back and say, "hey, you did this in the past"


All the needs are met, no?

Ekade wrote:If our goals are to encourage good topics, and squash excessively negative posts.. why not move the garbage out of the thread and allow for the goodness of a thread to continue?

This:
1) Allows a good thread to continue
2) Extinguishes flames
3) Allows the Admins to go back and say, "hey, you did this in the past"


All the needs are met, no?

That would be ideal, but I don't know if it is possible to just move the garbage....

Mods/admins are currently working on a solution. Please be patient with us, thanks!

Shensen wrote:

Ekade wrote:If our goals are to encourage good topics, and squash excessively negative posts.. why not move the garbage out of the thread and allow for the goodness of a thread to continue?

This:
1) Allows a good thread to continue
2) Extinguishes flames
3) Allows the Admins to go back and say, "hey, you did this in the past"


All the needs are met, no?

That would be ideal, but I don't know if it is possible to just move the garbage....

It is, the funtionality is there. It's pretty easy to move selected responses to another thread.