Why are the mods here like this?

Fionn MacCool

I run my own forum and have a few moderators, and have always made an effort to keep it all low-key. None of the mods have user titles or anything, and many of the newer members don't even know who the mods are.

On here however, there seem to be a number of mods who feel the need to shout about it all the time. Ending posts with /MOD YEH IM A MOD BTW DID I MENTION IM A MOD!!, even when absolutely nobody has stepped out of line in a thread some of them will still feel the need to wade in and announce that they are a mod and will ban anyone who breaks the rules.

I know what these positions of 'authority' can do to certain people, and I can understand that many of them might actually have a sense of achievement regarding their mod status, but is it really necessary?

IITYWYBMAD

Can you give some examples? I'm not try to be smart here, but I can't say that I've noticed this.

AckwelFoley

Its seen as bad manners to SHOUT IN A THREAD , ESPECIALLY IN BOLD - so people dont do it.


So, because threads are often large and there are many posts, people dont often read carefully, and if a mod wants to make an important point that wont be missed they highlight it.

Its common practice and makes sence to me, so i dont really see the issue as being a problem

Fionn MacCool

IITYWYBMAD wrote: »

Can you give some examples? I'm not try to be smart here, but I can't say that I've noticed this.

I don't want it to look as if I have some petty grudge with anyone in particular, I just want to know if people think it's necessary conduct. IMO moderation should be a back-end task and not something you make a song and dance about.

snyper wrote: »

Its seen as bad manners to SHOUT IN A THREAD , ESPECIALLY IN BOLD - so people dont do it.


So, because threads are often large and there are many posts, people dont often read carefully, and if a mod wants to make an important point that wont be missed they highlight it.

I didn't mean they literally posted in bold capitals. And besides, 9 times out of 10 it isn't an important point they're making, it's just 'HURR I just wanted to remind everyone that I'm a mod'

seamus

Posting moderator comments in bold makes them stand out from the rest of the thread and makes a point that this is a moderator's direction as opposed to just the moderator making a normal post on the thread.

It's not an official thing, but one moderator started doing it a couple of years back and most of us adopted it because it works well.

Most of the moderation on boards is very low-key. The sheer scale of the forum would be far larger than yours and so you're more likely to see more moderators doing stuff here.

Also, in fast-moving threads, it can be useful to make moderator actions as visible as possible - e.g. someone posts a joke where it's not appropriate. If the moderator simply removes it, ten other people will come along and make a joke. If the moderator makes a statement about "No jokes" on the thread, then fewer people will post a joke.

Tallon

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

IMO moderation should be a back-end task and not something you make a song and dance about.'

I don't agree, I think it should be in-your-face to a certain degree.

That being said, on boards, it's not like that, mods have user titles because the site is so large and it is neccessary to see who mods where.

When a mod posts in bold it generally means they're posting as a mod, where as if it's in standard font, they're posting as users of the site just like everyone else.

I really don't feel the mods are standing on rooftops about their superpowers...

Admins, imo, would be the back seat people. Again, with the shear size of the site, the mods are more front line troops.

How many admins / users do you have on your site?

Fionn MacCool

I just find it incredibly sad and pathetic that anyone would feel the need to 'sign off' their posts with yet another reminded that they're a mod.

Tallon

Can you link to an occasion where this has happened, just for the sake of a mod stating he's a mod please?

Also, can you answer my previous question?

How many admins / users do you have on your site?

Fionn MacCool

Tallon wrote: »

Can you link to an occasion where this has happened, just for the sake of a mod stating he's a mod please?

I can't find the post I was referring to, so let's just treat the situation as a hypothetical one: if it happened, do you think that's necessary?

Also, can you answer my previous question?

600 or so, but it's beside the point. Nobody needs to know who the mods are on here. But I can appreciate that for certain people, when they are made mod they will want everyone to know.

Wibbs

seamus wrote: »

It's not an official thing, but one moderator started doing it a couple of years back and most of us adopted it because it works well.

Ye can blame me for this. Its my only claim to Boards fame. Why? Mostly because of what seamus wrote here;

Also, in fast-moving threads, it can be useful to make moderator actions as visible as possible - e.g. someone posts a joke where it's not appropriate. If the moderator simply removes it, ten other people will come along and make a joke. If the moderator makes a statement about "No jokes" on the thread, then fewer people will post a joke.

I would add I started doing it because of what had happened to me as a user. I got a ban because I missed the mod note in the thread. I saw it happen to others too. Nothing to do with the mods being right or wrong, just it was easy to miss, so I didn't want to be a cause of that when I ended up modding. Plus because I tend to actively post in the forums I mod I wanted to make sure people saw a difference and that my non bold posts were just like anyone elses. If a mod doesnt post much in a forum I can see where it would be less needed.

IITYWYBMAD wrote:

Can you give some examples? I'm not try to be smart here, but I can't say that I've noticed this.

Ditto. I can't recall seeing that either. Bit sad if true TBH. As for different modding styles, yea there are IMHO. Some are more "I has the powah" alright, but I can think of only a handful of them TBH and it's not a day to day thing. More a digging in of heels thing if pushed. Boards is a more mod aware site compared to others I frequent. The hierarchy thing seems more valued/disliked/commented upon than others. Meeting peeps from Boards in real life you do tend to get either "oooh you're a mod" or "urgh you're a mod" More of the former though, so thats OK.

Tallon

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

I can't find the post I was referring to, so let's just treat the situation as a hypothetical one: if it happened, do you think that's necessary?

Hypotheticaly?

Do I think a mod should gloat he's a mod in every post, No!

Do I think this happens on boards, No!

I'm not being rude, but if it happened, can you provide a link please.

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

600 or so, but it's beside the point. Nobody needs to know who the mods are on here. But I can appreciate that for certain people, when they are made mod they will want everyone to know.

Yes they do, as stated in my post above.

strobe

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

I didn't mean they literally posted in bold capitals. And besides, 9 times out of 10 it isn't an important point they're making, it's just 'HURR I just wanted to remind everyone that I'm a mod'

I usually never post in feedback but had to say, I've never seen that, not even once, I've been registered here for 5+ years and what with having no life and all I'm on here pretty much everyday and check about 14 or 15 of the forums, most of the biggest ones and a couple of the smallest. I think it's all in your head to be blunt. You are imagining things, or at least drawing inaccurate conclusions on peoples intentions.

You're going to have to link examples so we can see how and/or why you are misinterpreting things.

Daemos

seamus wrote: »

Posting moderator comments in bold makes them stand out from the rest of the thread and makes a point that this is a moderator's direction as opposed to just the moderator making a normal post on the thread.

This. From the sound of things the mods on your site don't really take part in the discussions, they're only there to moderate. That's not the case on boards, and I'd say there are more threads where moderators have posted than where they haven't. So writing moderarory posts in bold is basically just to point out "I'm posting as a mod, not a regular user"

But I would like to see an exampe of this so-called 'gloating'

seamus

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

Nobody needs to know who the mods are on here.

So what happens when a thread gets locked, deleted or moved? How does the poster know who to contact to discuss it?

Wibbs

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

I can't find the post I was referring to, so let's just treat the situation as a hypothetical one: if it happened, do you think that's necessary?.

Eh no offence there, but it either happens or it doesn't. I would say hypothetically yes it would be daft, but I'd also say hypothetically that a mod posting wibble wibble wibble every third post would also be daft, but since it hasn't happened...

600 or so, but it's beside the point.

Hang on, you have 600 admins with admin permissions and access? How big is this site? 4chan? Even if it was I'd call that a security hole the size of a small planet. Any one of them could bork the site if they had a mind to. Plus there could be issues with privacy IP addresses etc.

Nobody needs to know who the mods are on here. But I can appreciate that for certain people, when they are made mod they will want everyone to know

Of course users need to see some sort of flag that shows the thread is being moderated. Otherwise it just looks like users backseating threads. If they dont see them and say posts get deleted how does that work? So to recap, you have 600 admins on your site. How many mods? 6000?

TouchingVirus

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

I can't find the post I was referring to, so let's just treat the situation as a hypothetical one: if it happened, do you think that's necessary?

Can't exactly give feedback on hypothetical issues in fairness. When it happens or you have examples they can be brought up. But to be honest if it's a personal thing it's best raised with CMods or other mods of that forum.

600 or so, but it's beside the point. Nobody needs to know who the mods are on here. But I can appreciate that for certain people, when they are made mod they will want everyone to know.

There are many other ways to see if a user is mod (username is bold, Mod bit in their postbit under the avatar, the list of users at the bottom of the forum).

Mods participate a lot in their respective fora and can have the craic as much as the rest of us. They post in bold to indicate this is an official post, a moderation post - be it a warning, gentle reminder or an in your face banning.

alwaysadub

I totally agree with mods posting in bold. If i go into a 20 odd page thread, i usually just skim through the pages. If i see something written in bold, it sticks out and i stop to read it.

I haven't noticed anyone signing off their posts boasting they're a mod. I have seen one mod who ends his posts with "/moderation" when he is posting as a mod. I still wouldn't class that as a boast or a "look at me i'm a mod" thing.

Mint Sauce

I can honestly say I have hardly ever seen any mod on boards sign off their posts stating that they are a mod.

Yes sometimes we do have to make our selfs heard but that is only as suggested above to prevent another 10 posters breaking the charter or posting something they shouldn't be, and as pointed out we would only use bold to empasise a mod action or request.

As for mods being known, ever single forum I know has some way of the mods being identified. On boards our names are in bold with our forum identified underneath, how else would you know who to PM if you had an issue and wanted to discuss it privatly.

Another forum I use the mod names are colour coded, simply to identify if a forum/global mod or admin. Again, so that you know who to PM if wanted to discuss something.

If I visted your forum OP, how would I know who to contact if I had a post that I felt unfairly edited or deleted?

Fionn MacCool

It doesn't really matter if I can provide examples. If you reckon it doesn't happen that's great, I just wanted opinions on if it did happen. Now I can refer to this thread if it ever does!

irish-stew wrote: »

If I visted your forum OP, how would I know who to contact if I had a post that I felt unfairly edited or deleted?

You could post in the Help board.

Gordon

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

I just wanted opinions on if it did happen.

No, sorry, but you said this:

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

On here however, there seem to be a number of mods who feel the need to shout about it all the time. Ending posts with /MOD YEH IM A MOD BTW DID I MENTION IM A MOD!!, even when absolutely nobody has stepped out of line in a thread some of them will still feel the need to wade in and announce that they are a mod and will ban anyone who breaks the rules.

So you were stating that there are a number of mods making such statements, you seemed quite adamant about it, you didn't request any opinions on whether or not it did happen.

You could post in the Help board.

Is this the forum in your signature that has 863 members? Do you actually have 600 mods for a forum with 863 members? Or is it another forum you're talking about?

Wibbs

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

It doesn't really matter if I can provide examples. If you reckon it doesn't happen that's great, I just wanted opinions on if it did happen. Now I can refer to this thread if it ever does!

So basically it didn't/doesn't happen, so what was the purpose of this whole thing? Seems a bit daftly circular to me anyway.

AckwelFoley

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

I didn't mean they literally posted in bold capitals. And besides, 9 times out of 10 it isn't an important point they're making, it's just 'HURR I just wanted to remind everyone that I'm a mod'

Ive learned that 9 times out of 10 when people use that specific statistic, they're making it up and it never tends to be as high as that.

The "HURR I just wanted to remind everyone that I'm a mod'" anicdote is very subjective based on opinion.

You might see it as that - most probably dont.

Im not dismissing you - but its hard to give someone advice or opinion when they have a "i have a friend who knows a friend that might have this problem" type of question with no examples or context to relate or refer to

Fionn MacCool

Wibbs wrote: »

So basically it didn't/doesn't happen, so what was the purpose of this whole thing? Seems a bit daftly circular to me anyway.

Not really, I just cba finding examples so was happy to let the thread continue based on hypothetical ones. As I said, I was just loooking for opinions. If I actually had any complaints about specific people I'd have offered evidence.

Fionn MacCool

Wibbs wrote: »

Hang on, you have 600 admins with admin permissions and access? How big is this site? 4chan? Even if it was I'd call that a security hole the size of a small planet. Any one of them could bork the site if they had a mind to. Plus there could be issues with privacy IP addresses etc.Of course users need to see some sort of flag that shows the thread is being moderated. Otherwise it just looks like users backseating threads. If they dont see them and say posts get deleted how does that work? So to recap, you have 600 admins on your site. How many mods? 6000?

He asked how many "admin/users" I had. Use a bit of common sense son.

Overheal

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

I just find it incredibly sad and pathetic that anyone would feel the need to 'sign off' their posts with yet another reminded that they're a mod.

Not sure what hypothetical examples you trying to get at. Back 3-4 years ago this might have actually been an issue with "t3h banhammerz" meme. Nowadays the site just has too much traffic and at any moment the **** could hit the fan if a radio personality dies or someone scores off-sides and the site doesn't look for that personality-set anymore to be positioned as moderators.

When you see someone sign off with /Mod it's not "Oh hey, I'm a mod, respect me and gimme lots thanks plz" It's "I have made this post in my capacity as a Moderator regard it as an instruction". This is the same thing as the typing in bold.

600 or so, but it's beside the point.

I presume 600 users registered, and that really is the point, taking into account the Medium and the Format. Message boards are old in their design and while they're scalable to a great degree it's hard to say they were really designed for threads that can literally go 30 posts per minute sometimes. It definitely works in slower capacity when a conversation can be slowly and steadily had over the course of days. But, Boards is much more active than that, it regularly has 3 to 4 times that number of people actively posting on the site in unison. It's like comparing a country road in Montana to the Jersey Turnpike and saying 'gosh, why are there so many cops on this highway?'

Wibbs

Overheal wrote: »

I presume 600 users registered, and that really is the point, taking into account the Medium and the Format. Message boards are old in their design and while they're scalable to a great degree it's hard to say they were really designed for threads that can literally go 30 posts per minute sometimes. Boards is much more active than that, it regularly has 3 to 4 times that number of people actively posting on the site in unison. It's like comparing a country road in Montana to the Jersey Turnpike and saying 'gosh, why are there so many cops on this highway?'

+1

Fionn MacCool

That's fair enough. I can see how some people might rationalise that.

I wasn't asking for something to be done about it btw, I was just wondering if anyone else found it pathetic. Perhaps though, this wasn't the best area of the site to ask!

Overheal

Fionn MacCool wrote: »

I was just wondering if anyone else found it pathetic.

No. And I only assume you find it that way because you are misinterpreting the intent behind it as self-gratifying.

Perhaps though, this wasn't the best area of the site to ask!

Only place to ask, to be fair. This is why this section is set up.

Carl.Gustav

Overheal wrote: »

But, Boards is much more active than that, it regularly has 3 to 4 times that number of people actively posting on the site in unison. It's like comparing a country road in Montana to the Jersey Turnpike and saying 'gosh, why are there so many cops on this highway?'

There are far bigger sites out there with far less moderation, and any moderation that takes place is invisible.

Overheal

Carl.Gustav wrote: »

There are far bigger sites out there with far less moderation, and any moderation that takes place is invisible.

Yes, like /b/ and the Steampowered Forums, or Battle.net - None of which are really shining examples of places I want to spend my time. On those sites the level of civility is certainly very diminished from what it is here. Lots of back and forth insults, spam, vulgarity, etc.

Carl.Gustav

Overheal wrote: »

Yes, like /b/ and the Steampowered Forums, or Battle.net - None of which are really shining examples of places I want to spend my time. On those sites the level of civility is certainly very diminished from what it is here. Lots of back and forth insults, spam, vulgarity, etc.

Indeed so you come here, most other people don't though.

If whoever runs the site is fine with that and aren't looking for more visitors

then there isn't an issue.