Biased Banning By Mods???

Tester46

Why was my thread "What are your Haggling Strategies?" closed down by the mods?

I got:
- no PM or warning
- no explanation of why the thread is unacceptable (could it have been moved for example?)
- no note to say which Mod closed the thread

I can't see why the thread is so unacceptable that it had to be closed down. Particularly when a similar thread is still alive and kicking on the same board here . Maybe the Mods at boards.ie aren't feeling the pinch in these straightened economic times? Must be all the subscriptions they're pocketing...;)

Dudess

Tester46 wrote: »

Why was my thread "What are your Haggling Strategies?" closed down by the mods?

I got:
- no PM or warning
- no explanation of why the thread is unacceptable (could it have been moved for example?)
- no note to say which Mod closed the thread

Y'see, to me, the above concerns are perfectly reasonable...

Maybe the Mods at boards.ie aren't feeling the pinch in these straightened economic times? Must be all the subscriptions they're pocketing...;)

... not so reasonable... and serves to discredit you. Mods are volunteers. And you speculate as to whether such threads aren't acceptable on Boards... yet in the very same post, you point out another such thread is "alive and kicking".

I can't see why the thread is so unacceptable that it had to be closed down. Particularly when a similar thread is still alive and kicking on the same board here

That could be the very reason for your thread's closure - duplicate threads are locked as a matter of course.

What do you think is "biased" about it?

Oh and who's banned?

Mr Magnolia

Tester46 wrote: »

Why was my thread "What are your Haggling Strategies?" closed down by the mods?

I got:
- no PM or warning
- no explanation of why the thread is unacceptable (could it have been moved for example?)
- no note to say which Mod closed the thread

I can't see why the thread is so unacceptable that it had to be closed down. Particularly when a similar thread is still alive and kicking on the same board here . Maybe the Mods at boards.ie aren't feeling the pinch in these straightened economic times? Must be all the subscriptions they're pocketing...;)

The answer may be in the question, ie. use the first thread to discuss it instead of having several threads on the topic.






Now, I'm off to lie down with all my subscription money

Gordon

Who are they biased towards?

Tester46

Y'see, to me, the above concerns are perfectly reasonable...

OK, well deal with them then? I think they are reasonable too.

... not so reasonable... and serves to discredit you.

Forgive me for being human and a bit peeved that some heavy handed Mod just closed down a thread with no discussion and no reason given.

That could be the very reason for your thread's closure - duplicate threads are locked as a matter of course. What do you think is "biased" about it?

The other thread developed into it - I just tried to start a thread with a clear title that everyone could see. OK, if the Mod feels it was a duplicate, then say so - that would be fair enough. But to just close the thread with no comment - very heavy handed.

Oh and who's banned?

You're right of course. I used the wrong word. But then I don't spend my life on boards.ie so I don't always know the correct term for what you do.

stovelid

Tester46 wrote: »

But then I don't spend my life on boards.ie so I don't always know the correct term for what you do.

I think it's known as closing your thread.

Dudess

Tester46 wrote: »

OK, well deal with them then?

Look at the forum I moderate - it ain't Bargain Alerts. I'd recommend you send a personal message to one of the moderators of Bargain Alerts (Blade, Ruu, basquille, Captain Obvious).

You're right of course. I used the wrong word. But then I don't spend my life on boards.ie so I don't always know the correct term for what you do.

Yeah, you'd need to spend your life on Boards.ie to know the difference between banning a member/moderator (yes, those seemingly untouchable species can get banned by fellow mods - damn you Terry! ) and locking a thread.

Tester46

Dudess wrote: »

Look at the forum I moderate - it ain't Bargain Alerts.

Noted. But who did close the thread? I don't know which Mod closed it and no one is owning up to it? So, who will deal with my original post? I could have PM'd the Mod if he/she had the the decency/honesty/other to post to say why the thread was being closed.

Yeah, you'd need to spend your life on Boards.ie to know the difference between banning a member/moderator (yes, those seemingly untouchable species can get banned by fellow mods - damn you Terry! ) and locking a thread.

It seems to be a common feature of the replies to complaints that the Mods attack other parts of a complainer's post and ignore the main point. I suppose you always know you've made a valid point when the people in charge try to ridicule you/take the piss out of you to deflect away from the pointyou've made. I think the main point of my post is clear - the Mod in question closed the thread with no explanation.

P.S. Who is Terry and why are there so many posts about him banning people? Does it kinda make a mockery of a moderated discussion forum when some moderators lose the run of their, ahem, "power"?

stovelid

Tester46: the best thing to do is to PM the moderater(s) of the forum in question. If they have been remiss in closing your thread, you can ask them why.

If you come into feedback without doing this - and without being polite - people may react badly. You said yourself that you don't really know the drill - fair enough - but there is a danger that a genuine complaint (yours) may get lost in the hoopla because you get people's backs up with your approach.

Tester46

stovelid wrote: »

Tester46: the best thing to do is to PM the moderater(s) of the forum in question. If they have been remiss in closing your thread, you can ask them why.

If you come into feedback without doing this - and without being polite - people may react badly. You said yourself that you don't really know the drill - fair enough - but there is a danger that a genuine complaint (yours) may get lost in the hoopla because you get people's backs up with your approach.

And that's fine. But, from what I have seen, people who complain generally get the piss taken out of them regardless of how genuine their complaint is or how nicely (or otherwise) they make it. It is just a bit annoying that the Mods can act whatever way they want, but a person making a complaint must be super-nice and polite. But then it is a private website (as people have pointed out - go start your own website etc.)

Boards.ie provides a good service which I enjoy using. It would be a pitty if it lost popularity because of heavy-handed moderating.

That said I appreciate the point you are making and will PM the moderators.

Dudess

Tester46 wrote: »

Noted. But who did close the thread? I don't know which Mod closed it and no one is owning up to it? So, who will deal with my original post? I could have PM'd the Mod if he/she had the the decency/honesty/other to post to say why the thread was being closed.

Send a group PM to all of the Bargain Alerts moderators: Blade, Ruu, basquille, Captain Obvious.

It seems to be a common feature of the replies to complaints that the Mods attack other parts of a complainer's post and ignore the main point.

That I won't deny - it's something I've often expressed my concern about in Feedback. However:
- It's only done by a small number of people
- It's done by members as well as mods. And a handful of mods is not representative of all mods (of which there are several hundred). As I pointed out earlier, moderators can ban other moderators. A moderator is a member like anyone else on the forums they don't moderate.

I suppose you always know you've made a valid point when the people in charge try to ridicule you/take the piss out of you to deflect away from the pointyou've made.

Didn't I say I thought your concerns were valid? And some of the other stuff you posted... sorry but when you make sly comments, do you really expect them not to be picked up on?
And really, "people in charge" is a bit of a grandiose title. I'm not a person "in charge" just because I happen to moderate one of the many, many forums here.

P.S. Who is Terry and why are there so many posts about him banning people? Does it kinda make a mockery of a moderated discussion forum when some moderators lose the run of their, ahem, "power"?

Terry is one of the moderators of After Hours - a forum with extremely high traffic and levels of muppetry. He bans a lot of people as it goes with the territory, it's not a question of him losing the run of his "power".

Tester46

Dudess wrote: »

Terry is one of the moderators of After Hours - a forum with extremely high traffic and levels of muppetry. He bans a lot of people as it goes with the territory, it's not a question of him losing the run of his "power".

OK. Never seen that forum myself. Your reply is helpful, thanks. I'm PM-ing the mods now.

Tester46

Dudess wrote: »

Send a group PM to all of the Bargain Alerts moderators: Blade, Ruu, basquille, Captain Obvious.

I got my reply - it was closed by Ruu "Not really a Bargain Alert, sorry for the delay in replying."

Fair enough - does anyone have any idea what forum it should be in? All suggestions gratefully received.

Dudess

Consumer Issues maybe.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=580

tallaght01

I've never really had any interaction with ruu myself.

But any time I see a problem where he's been involved in resolving it, he (I'm assuming everyone on the net is a he) always does it politely and professionally.

He never seems to have to have the last snotty comment.

I mean, he could be a psychotic maniac, but from what I've seen he really epitomises what we should all aim for as mods.

Kuudos to ruudos

Fysh

Tester46 wrote: »

And that's fine. But, from what I have seen, people who complain generally get the piss taken out of them regardless of how genuine their complaint is or how nicely (or otherwise) they make it. It is just a bit annoying that the Mods can act whatever way they want, but a person making a complaint must be super-nice and polite.

There are a couple of things that occur to me at this point. One is the distinction between Feedback and Helpdesk - Helpdesk is for complaints, Feedback is for open-to-the-public feedback on the site. The distinction between these isn't always clear (something which is compounded by a regular flow of people arriving in Feedback to effectively make complaints ranging from "I don't understand" to "Why do the rules have to apply to me as well?", although usually couched in different terms).

The tendency for people to get mocked is not a good one, but sadly it has emerged over the course of time as a result of a minority (I hope) of people complaining vociferously and extensively about, well, subjects such as not being allowed to make unsubstantiated allegations about Bertie Ahern being a liar, for example. That being said, politely expressed feedback concerning a legitimate issue tends not to attract the Lolcat-vultures...

As for moderators being able to act "whatever way they want", it's worth noting that you have decided to go straight to the Feedback forum over a relatively minor issue rather than contact the moderator in question. It's hard to give credence to complaints about someone not following established procedure when the complainant has also failed to follow the established procedure.

Tester46 wrote: »

Boards.ie provides a good service which I enjoy using. It would be a pitty if it lost popularity because of heavy-handed moderating.

This is a legitimate statement and concern, but to be honest until someone can provide verifiable numbers it'll remain as a not-particularly-subtle veiled threat, and unfortunately make any legitimate points you have to make seem less valid. Heck, you're complaining about something that's less than 4 hours old! Business-level support starts out at a Next-Business-Day response time, perhaps you should reconsider your expectations if you expect a freely-provided service to exceed that sort of response time?

Tester46

Fysh wrote: »

As for moderators being able to act "whatever way they want", it's worth noting that you have decided to go straight to the Feedback forum over a relatively minor issue rather than contact the moderator in question. It's hard to give credence to complaints about someone not following established procedure when the complainant has also failed to follow the established procedure.

If you had read my initial posting you'll see I didn't know who the mod in question was. That mod, to be fair, posted later to apologise for the delay in identifying himself, which I of course accept.

This is a legitimate statement and concern, but to be honest until someone can provide verifiable numbers it'll remain as a not-particularly-subtle veiled threat, and unfortunately make any legitimate points you have to make seem less valid.

Sorry, but that's just your reading of it. I certainly didn't mean it as a "not-particularly-subtle veiled threat" so if you read it that way, that's your problem. It is unfortunate that even though my posting was legitimate and well intentioned, you chose to read it as a threat. How very George Bush of you.;) (Cheer up, it's a joke)

Tester46

tallaght01 wrote: »

I've never really had any interaction with ruu myself.

But any time I see a problem where he's been involved in resolving it, he (I'm assuming everyone on the net is a he) always does it politely and professionally.

He never seems to have to have the last snotty comment.

I mean, he could be a psychotic maniac, but from what I've seen he really epitomises what we should all aim for as mods.

Kuudos to ruudos

I have no problem with Ruu. My complaint was that the thread was closedwith no explanation. To be fair, Ruu then got back and explained - "Not really a Bargain Alert, sorry for the delay in replying."

That is good moderating.

togster

Really isn't that big of a deal in the greater scheme of things OP. It's not like you were banned. Like the other posters said, PM the mod. Hope you get an answer. Good luck

Overheal

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

The answer may be in the question, ie. use the first thread to discuss it instead of having several threads on the topic.

Amen. The only reason to start a new thread in that situation is if youre attention whoring and cant be bothered to use the same thread as everyone else.

If that were the case, you'll be right at home in here.

Terry

Tester46 wrote: »

P.S. Who is Terry

Hi.

and why are there so many posts about him banning people?

Because some people cannot behave properly in After Hours.

Does it kinda make a mockery of a moderated discussion forum when some moderators lose the run of their, ahem, "power"?

I'll never lose the run of my, ahem, "power".



Except for the few times that I did when I was drunk. Mistakes can be rectified though.

seamus

If there is still an issue after speaking to the mods, you can use the helpdesk.