Complaint about Mod

scarbouro

I would like to make a complaint about a forum moderator Biko in the blog's and social media forum. Any thread created to discuss bloggers is shut down for several days at a time. It's getting ridiculous at this stage. I understand the the forum shouldn't be used for gossip or slagging off bloggers . But instead of shutting the whole thread down, why can't they issue bans to the people who are going off topic or creating gossip. It's very easy to see which posters are the culprits. Instead, everyone is being punished for their behaviour. Every few days Biko locks down thread's for this. It would make more sense to get rid of the poster's who only want to create trouble. Thank you.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Is it a case that the forum is underresourced in terms of mods. Maybe the mod can't look at the thread for a few days but due to a number of posts being reported shuts it down.

If so does the forum need new mods.

dudara

Hi scarbouro, have you attempted to contact biko to see why this course of action is being followed?

CIARAN_BOYLE

Would it make sense to add an additional mod to the forum

It seems to me as a non regular of the forum that the mod does not have the time to mod the forum and shuts threads down when there is a volume of complaints but no time to review the thread.

scarbouro

dudara wrote: »

Hi scarbouro, have you attempted to contact biko to see why this course of action is being followed?

No dudara, I haven't contacted her directly but a number of people have asked Biko before to just ban the poster's and not the thread. There are plenty of people who are abiding by the rules of the forum but are not able to post due to the thread's being locked down. On a forum of blog's an social media, it seems we're not allowed to discuss them... Makes no sense. If you check the forum , Biko has blocked all threads with anything to do with bloggers, including one only started this morning!! I also see I'm not the first to make a complaint about Biko if you look back through the last few pages here. I think something should be done.

Zaph

To be fair to biko, he has banned posters from that forum and the problem still persists, so clearly that course of action isn't effective. This is the second forum that this sort of discussion had caused issues in, so personally I think it says more about the people posting about these bloggers than the moderation. Perhaps the simplest solution is just to ban all discussion of them completely and if people want to continue to bitch and moan about a bunch of nobodies then they can do it somewhere else.

jcd5971

Zaph wrote:

To be fair to biko, he has banned posters from that forum and the problem still persists, so clearly that course of action isn't effective. This is the second forum that this sort of discussion had caused issues in, so personally I think it says more about the people posting about these bloggers than the moderation. Perhaps the simplest solution is just to ban all discussion of them completely and if people want to continue to bitch and moan about a bunch of nobodies then they can do it somewhere else.

I don't even post there and only seen this thread on the trending page, but I just have to say that's a shocking generalisation of a whole cohort of posters, if I said that in any thread I'd be at least looking at a card.

scarbouro

Zaph wrote: »

To be fair to biko, he has banned posters from that forum and the problem still persists, so clearly that course of action isn't effective. This is the second forum that this sort of discussion had caused issues in, so personally I think it says more about the people posting about these bloggers than the moderation. Perhaps the simplest solution is just to ban all discussion of them completely and if people want to continue to bitch and moan about a bunch of nobodies then they can do it somewhere else.

That's just crazy to ban a topic because some posters can't behave! That's not the solution. Surely a Mod is there to keep an eye on the thread and ban whoever isn't abiding to the rules! Closing it for everyone else is completely unfair and wrong. We should be allowed discuss the topic like anything else, especially when there's a forum to do so.

dudara

Please note that posts in this forum have to be approved before they will appear (with the exception of the starting post in a thread). Please do not post multiple times.

CIARAN_BOYLE

scarbouro wrote: »

That's just crazy to ban a topic because some posters can't behave! That's not the solution. Surely a Mod is there to keep an eye on the thread and ban whoever isn't abiding to the rules! Closing it for everyone else is completely unfair and wrong. We should be allowed discuss the topic like anything else, especially when there's a forum to do so.

Then it becomes a matter of whether the moderator resources are adequate. If the mod closes a thread for further review its usually because s/he doesn't have the ability to review it at the moment and there is a sufficient volume of posts reported that the moderator feels that the thread must be moderated.

This brings me back to my previous point of whether the moderator can be offered support.

scarbouro

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Then it becomes a matter of whether the moderator resources are adequate. If the mod closes a thread for further review its usually because s/he doesn't have the ability to review it at the moment and there is a sufficient volume of posts reported that the moderator feels that the thread must be moderated.

This brings me back to my previous point of whether the moderator can be offered support.

Well maybe that's is the case and there needs to be more mods. But there was one thread started this morning and blocked automatically by Biko without any discussion allowed in it. In my opinion,that's has nothing to do with needing more mods, that's Biko jumping the gun and not allowing any discussion on the topic at all.

CIARAN_BOYLE

scarbouro wrote: »

Well maybe that's is the case and there needs to be more mods. But there was one thread started this morning and blocked automatically by Biko without any discussion allowed in it. In my opinion,that's has nothing to do with needing more mods, that's Biko jumping the gun and not allowing any discussion on the topic at all.

The thread you are referring to is a reopening of another thread which was closed yesterday til Monday.

dudara

I just took a look at the recently closed "Topics bloggers shouldn't discuss". Now, at the outset, this was a great topic for discussion. Topics like body image pressures, unqualified medical & dietary advice, irresponsible attitudes to finance etc could all have been discussed here. However, it ended up being the usual chitchat / gossipy thread on bloggers.

This has been the nature of the bloggers threads in my experience. There are some great potential discussions to be had regarding ethics, standards and social influence. But there also a strong tendency to turn into "did you see what XXX did?".

Because of the chatty nature, these tend to be fast-moving threads, and mods aren't online all the time. By the time a mod gets to the thread, it could be too far gone. They could go back through and card/ban posters, and even delete posts. But if the thread has gone on for many pages, the damage will already been done.

Aside from more mods, (which isn't necessarily the right fix, because it doesn't guarantee that mods will always be online), what else do you suggest we can do to manage the blogger threads?

scarbouro

There's another thread there about bloggers mentioning/promoting product's that's closed until Monday afternoon. There was a lot of people posting on that and the majority of people sticking to the rules. Being closed for a few days is silly,the people causing trouble should be banned end of.

I think Biko needs to relax with closing down thread's and start punishing the people who are causing the thread to go off topic and allow the rest of us to continue with the discussion.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

I don't agree with using boards as a platform to gossip and bitch, but I'm at a loss as to why they're so protected. Blogging and social influencers are huge right now. They're interviewed for papers, for tv and on radios. They're appealing to huge brands who see fit to use them as advertisers and campaigners for their brand, they have a huge following and on the whole, are completely unregulated- with changes to that only starting to happen half heartedly.

They have a huge social media platform where they're endorsing all kinds of things, makeup, clothes, weight loss aids, dogs trust, pharmacies, electrical retailers etc. They're using their platform to publish controversial and ill thought out claims. They're everywhere on social media, but irelands largest discussion board is off limits to discuss them?

I would follow these topics on and off and agree they can get quite bitchy and there's no need to take personal jibes at people "look at your one there with her fella pure cringe" but also, why is discussing what they're broadcasting to thousands of people off limits? For example, a blogger constantly posting photos of her small baby, 65 snaps of the child in one day shouldn't be brought up because it's irrelevant apparently but that's the point - that content is irrelevant to why the majority follow her and if she's going to post those posts, but it's off limits to discuss, it just seems a bit odd is all.

There's currently a thread on a serious issue ongoing on AH in regards to an article a blogger published - and now the bloggers on twitter shouting for the thread to be closed.

If there's a current interest then it should be open to discussion (without getting nasty) rather than trying to censor debate or discussion. Hell, up until recently they weren't even allowed be named.

This whole digital influencer/social influencer/blogger thing May very well be a bunch of nobodies, but they're extremely relevant in the here and now.


I'd like to finish that post by saying no skin off my nose whether it's closed or it remains open, or we can't discuss bloggers full stop, but this censoring and shutting down discussion isn't really working.

scarbouro

Will there be anything done to resolve this situation or am i wasting my time contacting the "help desk"?

CIARAN_BOYLE

scarbouro wrote: »

Will there be anything done to resolve this situation or am i wasting my time contacting the "help desk"?

Well the admin asked for your suggestions regarding the resolution of the issue and you have not responded to him .
At any rate the moderator that you are complaining about deserves a right to make a response. As Biko has already indicated an unavailability til Monday what do you expect to be done as of yet.

dudara

scarbouro wrote: »

Will there be anything done to resolve this situation or am i wasting my time contacting the "help desk"?

I'd really prefer it if you tried to discuss amicably with biko first. Issues can often be ironed out between the mod and poster via PM.

scarbouro

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Well the admin asked for your suggestions regarding the resolution of the issue and you have not responded to him ..

I have made suggestions, more than once here! That the threads shouldn't be completely locked down by Biko for days at a time. They should ban the poster's who are making the thread go off topic. If Biko can't manage the forum , then maybe more mods are needed. A blanket ban on any thread about bloggers isn't acceptable.