Mods reading reported posts in fora they don't moderate

Insect Overlord

darced wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I can only reply to what you give me.

darced wrote: »

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K-9

Countless mods seems a bit dramatic all right.

darced

This post has been deleted.

Nuri Sahin

I'm no longer a moderator and stepped down of my own accord a few months ago, something that I had been longing to do for close to a year now due to personal reasons mainly. Truth be told, I didn't have much need to use the reported posts forum since all reported posts are emailed anyway with a link to said thread where whatever incident that was reported happened. Admin can confirm this to those who've never been a moderator or don't know it works.

Rafa's Wrinkly Ballbag wrote: »

He seems to know a lot about how many and exactly what type though doesn't he?

Did I mention any Manchester United supporters usernames in particular in my post last night or an exact number?

I made a fairly general comment because a couple of your fellow Manchester United supporters have gone out of their way in the past, outside of boards to mention a small group of United posters who have it in for the regular Liverpool posters and will report any misdemeanor be it just that or the most harmless of comments. All of which is done for ****s n giggles in the hope it would wind us up. Unfortunately they didn't say who they were as they rather avoid being dragged into it. One person said to be careful with that I say on here as someone wants me to be permabanned. Why I don't know, my posts are fairly harmless for the most part from what I recall.

You seem to be very defensive though. Why is that?

MugMugs

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

The reason a name change takes so long and can only be done before 10am is because we prevent access to threads/posts and go through every post one by one, replacing any old quote with the new username. If you were to change your username from rarnes1 to something else tomorrow then the quote above would not say rarnes1 anymore, it would say your new username. However my mentions of your username outside of a

tag will remain.

Danny

That's not the case.

Tombi!

Just so I'm understanding it:
The RP forum, does discussion take place on if a post should/shouldn't be deleted? Because if so I can see the point of mods looking through other sections.
Let's use K-9 as an example. He can look at any of the threads in the RP forum. But if he gave input on say... a soccer post that was reported, he'd be told not to do it/don't be acting like a mod in forums you're not modding?
Because if so, that's just like me looking at Prison or DRP just outta bordem or to just understand things a bit better.

BTW, Dav said people got sitebanned for messaging people that are mods on other forums and requested a reported post to be removed.
I assume that the mod requesting the post was sitebanned. If the mod they did ask, did as request (ie: say it's not against the rules), would they also be sitebanned?

5starpool

Brutal Deluxe wrote: »

Just so I'm understanding it:
The RP forum, does discussion take place on if a post should/shouldn't be deleted? Because if so I can see the point of mods looking through other sections.
Let's use K-9 as an example. He can look at any of the threads in the RP forum. But if he gave input on say... a soccer post that was reported, he'd be told not to do it/don't be acting like a mod in forums you're not modding?
Because if so, that's just like me looking at Prison or DRP just outta bordem or to just understand things a bit better.

BTW, Dav said people got sitebanned for messaging people that are mods on other forums and requested a reported post to be removed.
I assume that the mod requesting the post was sitebanned. If the mod they did ask, did as request (ie: say it's not against the rules), would they also be sitebanned?

Whatever about anything else, a mod cannot remove a reported post from the reported post forum, only an admin can do that, or someone who is specifically a mod of the reported post forum, and I doubt any moderator is. Someone could PM a mod based on a reported post and ask them not to ban them I guess, but I would really doubt that happens too much.

Ando's Saggy Bottom

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

I'm no longer a moderator and stepped down of my own accord a few months ago, something that I had been longing to do for close to a year now due to personal reasons mainly. Truth be told, I didn't have much need to use the reported posts forum since all reported posts are emailed anyway with a link to said thread where whatever incident that was reported happened. Admin can confirm this to those who've never been a moderator or don't know it works.



Did I mention any Manchester United supporters usernames in particular in my post last night or an exact number?

I made a fairly general comment because a couple of your fellow Manchester United supporters have gone out of their way in the past, outside of boards to mention a small group of United posters who have it in for the regular Liverpool posters and will report any misdemeanor be it just that or the most harmless of comments. All of which is done for ****s n giggles in the hope it would wind us up. Unfortunately they didn't say who they were as they rather avoid being dragged into it. One person said to be careful with that I say on here as someone wants me to be permabanned. Why I don't know, my posts are fairly harmless for the most part from what I recall.

You seem to be very defensive though. Why is that?

This is the first mention of Manchester United in the thread. Again you seem very very well up on exactly who's reporting what for someone who claims not to have gone digging for such info and furthermore you seem to be using this info to further some kind of online feud with fans of a team you don't like.

You talk about me being defensive when all that screams from your post is pure paranoia with talk of groups of Utd fans and people getting you permabanned

steddyeddy

Sad Professor wrote: »

Then you follow the DRP and have the infractions/bans removed. If the Admins/Cmods come to the conclusion that the Mod has a personal grievance with you due to you reporting their posts (which they have a record of), then that's pretty serious.


Unless their "colleagues" are idiots, they will check your posting history and form their own conclusions.

For the sake of argument lets say that a mod had a personal problem with a poster for the above reasons. How would an Admin/Cmod prove that beyond reasonable doubt. I'm not doubting any resolution process I'm just saying that "personal grudges" are extremely hard to prove in any setting.

Thanx 4 The Fish

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Of course, when he was a mod he read the forum. Like many mods would read the forum. You scroll through what isn't interesting and notice what is. The suggestion that mods wouldn't do that is a little naive.

I don't do it and never have. There is no need, I get notified of posts that are reported and deal with them and see if there is anything around them in my forum. That you used to read it says more about you than it does other mods, please don't tar us all with your brush.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Would it not make sense to have the reported post forum anonymous for the reporter?

MugMugs

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Would it not make sense to have the reported post forum anonymous for the reporter?

Then it's wide open for abuse.

wnolan1992

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Would it not make sense to have the reported post forum anonymous for the reporter?

But then you'd end up with exponentially more abuse of the report post feature.

If it were anonymous, I could go into AH (for example) and report every post. The Mods would have to check each one of those reports to see if they require action, and since the reports were anonymous there'd be no way to stop me.

ToadVine

wnolan1992 wrote: »

If the RP forum was public, any troll could start targeting those who report their posts.

The irony is delicious.

Insect Overlord

ToadVine wrote: »

The irony is delicious.

That's not irony. It would only be ironic if all of the mods were trolls... >_>

<_<

LuckyLloyd

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote: »

I don't do it and never have. There is no need, I get notified of posts that are reported and deal with them and see if there is anything around them in my forum. That you used to read it says more about you than it does other mods, please don't tar us all with your brush.

Grand. Well if all mods (baring bad apples like myself) don't read it there shouldn't be a problem removing the oversight of access to all reported posts then? Given it serves no purpose.

Tom Dunne

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Given it serves no purpose.

It does serve a purpose.

As part of what I affectionately call my morning slop-out, I have a routine I go through to help keep the site ticking over - check the Feedback thread for spammers, browse the Mods forum for issues needing attention and browse the Reported Posts to see if there is anything in there needing attention. Only then do I turn to viewing the site as a user.

It acts as a central repository and as others have said, a learning experience for new mods.

As I see it, the issue here is really one of trust. There is a hierarchy of trust from the site owners down to the regular users. Is it perfect? Certainly not. Has this trust got the site to where it is today? It certainly has.

The question is, do do you trust the large body of people who run this site?

LuckyLloyd

Tom Dunne wrote: »

It does serve a purpose.

As part of what I affectionately call my morning slop-out, I have a routine I go through to help keep the site ticking over - check the Feedback thread for spammers, browse the Mods forum for issues needing attention and browse the Reported Posts to see if there is anything in there needing attention. Only then do I turn to viewing the site as a user.

It acts as a central repository and as others have said, a learning experience for new mods.

As I see it, the issue here is really one of trust. There is a hierarchy of trust from the site owners down to the regular users. Is it perfect? Certainly not. Has this trust got the site to where it is today? It certainly has.

The question is, do do you trust the large body of people who run this site?

It's not really a question of trust at all though to be honest. You have a situation akin to a manager in a large corporation having visibility of grievances or complaints to HR from all departments across the corporation. It's an oversight. I'm sure the owners and people who run the site value high standards and robust processes and, as such, this is something that can be improved upon.

Oryx

Why is it such a problem? Only mods read the forum (for the most part they don't but anyway). Mods have already been approved by the admin team and held as trustworthy.

The example has been given here of a possibly rogue mod possibly abusing this privilege. But to be honest, a rogue mod could abuse their position anyway. They just wont do it for long, it would become apparent quickly.

It is simply a tool that helps the site operate. Abuse of it is not at all apparent, and it is informative to mods in terms of doing the job right.

Orion

There's a bit of the Streisand effect here too. I never read the reported posts forum but now, after reading this thread, I want to ...

Dades

steddyeddy wrote: »

For the sake of argument lets say that a mod had a personal problem with a poster for the above reasons. How would an Admin/Cmod prove that beyond reasonable doubt. I'm not doubting any resolution process I'm just saying that "personal grudges" are extremely hard to prove in any setting.

"Reasonable doubt" is for the courts. If the Admins are agreed there may be something to support such an allegation, almost always a private word is enough.

A bit of this does wonders for people's behavior:

Doctor DooM

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

It's not really a question of trust at all though to be honest. You have a situation akin to a manager in a large corporation having visibility of grievances or complaints to HR from all departments across the corporation. It's an oversight. I'm sure the owners and people who run the site value high standards and robust processes and, as such, this is something that can be improved upon.

Except every time this analogy is used it's debunked.

This isn't a corporation. It's a volunteer service. People will stop volunteering if you hamstring their ability to do what they've offered to do. As has been mentioned many times now, the RP thread is incredibly useful in your first few months as a mod, then becomes virtually ignored unless there's a reason.

Ando's Saggy Bottom

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Except every time this analogy is used it's debunked.

This isn't a corporation. It's a volunteer service. People will stop volunteering if you hamstring their ability to do what they've offered to do. As has been mentioned many times now, the RP thread is incredibly useful in your first few months as a mod, then becomes virtually ignored unless there's a reason.

But if mods could only see reported posts of their own forum they'd still have the experience of looking at how reported posts are dealt with. The benefit could still be there for new mod without needing to see reported posts from fora that don't concern them, surely? So defending the current system by saying its for the benefit of new mods alone doesn't wash with me.

Spear

Rafa's Wrinkly Ballbag wrote: »

But if mods could only see reported posts of their own forum they'd still have the experience of looking system how reported posts are dealt with. The benefit can still be there without needing to see reported posts from fora that don't concern them, surely?

Most forums produce only a tiny amount of reported posts, easily single digit numbers per year, if any.

Oryx

Rafa's Wrinkly Ballbag wrote: »

But if mods could only see reported posts of their own forum they'd still have the experience of looking at how reported posts are dealt with. The benefit could still be there for new mod without needing to see reported posts from fora that don't concern them, surely? So defending the current system by saying its for the benefit of new mods alone doesn't wash with me.

Similarly, the argument that mods shouldn't have access to the forum doesn't wash with me. I really think you are seeing an issue that isnt there.

Not that I use it much, I'm another that goes straight to an offending post from an email 99% of the time.

Ando's Saggy Bottom

Also its strange so see some mods (or ex mods) openly say they look(ed) at reported posts from other fora, whereas others who say they'd never dream of it.

Would love to hear from other mods on where they stand on it. Why are some ok with it and what reasons would others have for declining to do so? What do they think of those that do?

And finally do mods haveany direction from above on this? What view do admins take of this practice in which some mods at least appear to openly engage, but others such as T4TF appear to disapprove strongly of?

Liam McPoyle

I was a mod for circa 2 years and rarely read RP's from any forum outside of the ones I modded.

The only instances I can recall of having done this was when there were multiple reports from the one post, call it the car crash effect if you will.

The RP forum was in my time at least,pretty damn boring and tbh I can't see why that would have changed in the last 12 months.

tbh

Rafa's Wrinkly Ballbag wrote: »

Also its strange so see some mods (or ex mods) openly say they look(ed) at reported posts from other fora, whereas others who say they'd never dream of it.

You think it's strange that a large group of people with disparate interests and experience, who don't know each other in real life, have different opinions on something?

Also, I don't think anyone has said they'd never dream of it, most of those who said they don't do it said that they don't read the reported posts forum because they don't have to - they use email instead.

I think the reason you're trying to suggest that some mods would "never dream of it" is because you want to plant the suggestion in readers minds that reading the RP forum in the way described is a heinous act, particularly because you're trying to score points against the poster in the OP.
However, most people don't have a problem with it, there's no direction not to do it and the fact that you have only one or examples of the abuse of the privilege over 15 years shows it's not a massive problem.

Would love to hear from other mods on where they stand on it. Why are some ok with it and what reasons would others have for declining to do so? What do they think of those that do?

For the record, I'm totally ok with mods, including myself, using the reported posts forum as a means of taking the pulse of moderation on the site. You would hope that mods are clued in enough to know not to abuse the RP forum and I believe that if the guy you mentioned in your op was still a mod, he'd probably be demodded for posting what he posted - that was stupid, imo. Hundreds of mods, thousands of reported posts, incidents like this, virtually zero. It's not a problem imo.

And finally do mods haveany direction from above on this? What view do admins take of this practice in which some mods at least appear to openly engage, but others such as T4TF appear to disapprove strongly of?

the bottom line, as I see it, is this.
Do mods have special privileges? yes, of course they do. That's just the way it is, and its necessary for the site to function as it does.

Will some mods abuse these privileges? yes, some will, and usually that is discovered and actioned.

Is it reasonable and proportionate to remove a useful facility to eliminate the .001% risk? no, it's not.

Dav

You know what, I don't think there's anything better to be said about this whole thing than what tbh just posted.

Ando's Saggy Bottom

tbh wrote: »

You think it's strange that a large group of people with disparate interests and experience, who don't know each other in real life, have different opinions on something?

Also, I don't think anyone has said they'd never dream of it, most of those who said they don't do it said that they don't read the reported posts forum because they don't have to - they use email instead.

I think the reason you're trying to suggest that some mods would "never dream of it" is because you want to plant the suggestion in readers minds that reading the RP forum in the way described is a heinous act, particularly because you're trying to score points against the poster in the OP.
However, most people don't have a problem with it, there's no direction not to do it and the fact that you have only one or examples of the abuse of the privilege over 15 years shows it's not a massive problem.



For the record, I'm totally ok with mods, including myself, using the reported posts forum as a means of taking the pulse of moderation on the site. You would hope that mods are clued in enough to know not to abuse the RP forum and I believe that if the guy you mentioned in your op was still a mod, he'd probably be demodded for posting what he posted - that was stupid, imo. Hundreds of mods, thousands of reported posts, incidents like this, virtually zero. It's not a problem imo.



the bottom line, as I see it, is this.
Do mods have special privileges? yes, of course they do. That's just the way it is, and its necessary for the site to function as it does.

Will some mods abuse these privileges? yes, some will, and usually that is discovered and actioned.

Is it reasonable and proportionate to remove a useful facility to eliminate the .001% risk? no, it's not.

That's the kind of response you look for in Feedback thread. I don't even agree with all of it but fair play nonetheless.