European Union Charter

jank

Is it a wise thing to have mods being active and participating in this board?
Essentially this board is the defacto lisbon treaty board until the referendum will take place next week.

Surely for this referendum and future referendums mods should moderate and not start threads advocating what on what side to vote.

Sorry if this has been discussed before but this is that place to where I was directed.

orestes

The mods of a forum are usually appointed because they have shown they have a good grasp of the subject matter of the forum and have the ability to be impartial where needs be. Their personal opinions/beliefs have no bearing on their modding, and anyone who allows their vote to be influenced by the position of a mod of an internet forum is so insane that they shouldn't be allowed to vote in the first place.

Mods are people. They have opinions and are free to express them. Gagging them in the forums they mod is possibly the single dumbest idea I have encountered since I have started using boards (not directed towards the OP, this has come up countless times before so I am talking in generalities).

Oh, and before we start the usual crap, they're just users outside of the forums they mod, so we can cut that one off at the pass hopefully.

jank

orestes wrote: »

The mods of a forum are usually appointed because they have shown they have a good grasp of the subject matter of the forum and have the ability to be impartial where needs be. Their personal opinions/beliefs have no bearing on their modding, and anyone who allows their vote to be influenced by the position of a mod of an internet forum is so insane that they shouldn't be allowed to vote in the first place.

I am not questioning their modding or their knowledge on the subject matter but I am questioning if it is wise in general for the people who are expected to moderate such issues to be active in participation of the topic.

Its like Matt Cooper on today FM moderating a debate like last Thursday. I think he did a really good job, but would you think it would be acceptable for him in the middle of the debate to give his own personal opinion on the Lisbon treaty. Hell no! It would be highly unprofessional and his credibility would be shot!

orestes wrote: »

Mods are people. They have opinions and are free to express them. Gagging them in the forums they mod is possibly the single dumbest idea I have encountered since I have started using boards (not directed towards the OP, this has come up countless times before so I am talking in generalities).

I am not calling them to be gagged on day to day topics but I am calling for a charter change where in upcoming referendums of all kinds be it abortion Lisbon III, NAMA(if it came to that) or whatever their participation is curtailed somewhat.

As you said Mods are people. People can be irrational even with the best intentions therefore a framework should be put in place where judgments and acts of irrationality don't happen in the first place.

orestes wrote: »

Oh, and before we start the usual crap, they're just users outside of the forums they mod, so we can cut that one off at the pass hopefully.

Agreed.

Rb

They're only expected to be impartial in their moderation duties i.e cleaning up the forum, banning/infractions etc.

The mods also happen to be some of the best posters there, so having them gagged would be a loss to the forum in itself.

jank

Rb wrote: »

They're only expected to be impartial in their moderation duties i.e cleaning up the forum, banning/infractions etc.

The mods also happen to be some of the best posters there, so having them gagged would be a loss to the forum in itself.

But isn't that the crux of the issue, the question of impartiality will always be thrown out there.

Ziggurat

Mods impartiality will always be called into question, anyway. How many threads have you seen over time, here, started by people bitching about being picked on by a mod or the countless "mod conspiracy" threads of late.

Look, mods occupy two positions: that of moderating their forums and also as users of those forums. I'm not going to pretend to not know what this is about because from what I've seen only no voters have brought this topic up time and again.
The thing is that I have yet to see one - just one - instance of a Politics mod acting with a clear bias against a no voter. In fact, I've yet to see one instance of the mods acting with any bias.

projectmayhem

jank wrote: »

But isn't that the crux of the issue, the question of impartiality will always be thrown out there.

The mods are trusted and worthy enough to be impartial in their moderating duties... but they are, at the end of the day, still posters who part-take in discussion on boards. Not employee's to be gagged in case of offending anyone or stirring the proverbial.

Mods are chosen because they contribute positively to a discussion, not because they will shut up and "police" a certain forum.

bonkey

jank wrote: »

But isn't that the crux of the issue, the question of impartiality will always be thrown out there.

The question of impartiality will always be thrown out there...I agree. Then again, I believe it would be thrown out there even if the moderators weren't allowed to express an opinion. Someone would still argue that their actions were indicating bias.

Fortunately, boards.ie has a system in place for addressing that question.

Any complaints can be taken to Help Desk, which will then be addressed by the Admins.

If someone can show that a moderator is being unfair, there is a problem which can be addressed.

Note the emphasis there. Making empty allegations of bias isn't sufficient...but if you can show that there's a problem, the problem will be addressed.

K-9

jank wrote: »

Its like Matt Cooper on today FM moderating a debate like last Thursday. I think he did a really good job, but would you think it would be acceptable for him in the middle of the debate to give his own personal opinion on the Lisbon treaty. Hell no! It would be highly unprofessional and his credibility would be shot!

Not sure about Cooper but I think Vincent Browne has stated his position and he can present a reasonably balanced programme.

_blank_

Hi

jank

Who deleted GuanYin's post?

Anyway look I guess I am not changing anyones minds here but no doubt when future referendums or elections are held this issue will crop up again.
There should be a general election in a few months so we will see how this turns out.

BuffyBot

GY did.

seamus

bonkey wrote: »

The question of impartiality will always be thrown out there...I agree. Then again, I believe it would be thrown out there even if the moderators weren't allowed to express an opinion. Someone would still argue that their actions were indicating bias.

There you have it in a nutshell.

The Matt Cooper comparison isn't really valid for a number of reasons:

1. Matt Cooper gets paid to moderate, not to debate.
2. Matt Cooper moderates a debate, not a discussion. In any discussion, there's no harm in the moderator giving his opinion. In a debate, the moderator should not take sides.

Dyr

My grand daddy would have probably said that you shouldn't expect a fair debate with fine gael when theres a blue shirt chairing the meeting. He's was right and all.