Lads ye need to start advertising for mods

Beasty

Just to let everyone know we have 2 new Admins on board now. awec and Big Bag of Chips have agreed to take on the role. I'm hopeful you might also now see one or two others from the existing Admin team participate in some of these threads as well.

That has taken away two of our most active CMods and one of the priorities now is to get some more CMods in place which will hopefully in turn allow us to do a proper review of current and possible new mods across the site.

newhouse87

Yes we would all like new mods with varied backgrounds and diversified opinions. Severely lacking at the moment.

Deja Boo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119973675#Comment_119973675

This idea has merit. Perhaps even shifting modships around a bit would help give even the niche forums much needed fresh perspectives.

Long term modships encourage complacency, with some mods assuming outright authoritarian ownership over "their" forum. What should be fun & interesting forums can (and have) become unwelcoming to interested parties, thanks to a few domineering, autocratic mods.

newhouse87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119973692#Comment_119973692

Long term modship leads to dictatorship like modding. Biases of certain mods become very apparent. Ill probably get banned for this and post deleted as has been occurring a lot lately with a certain mod when their modding is called into question.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119857863#Comment_119857863

Under the old system there was a way of checking the IP addresses of new regs against previously banned ones, in order to see if the new poster was a rereg (as I'm sure you recall)

Are you now saying that tool is not there anymore?

If not , may I ask how you are supposed to check these things under vanillas tools

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119973675#Comment_119973675

The boards is owned by a private company and its entirety up to them how they operate it. The idea that any of us should have a say in the management of a private company is nonsense. You can use the service or not, you can even set up your own service if you wish, but expecting to dictate how they do business is just not going to happen. If the company is happy with the operation it will remain so, if not they will change it.

At the end of the day you can only speak for yourself.

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119973755#Comment_119973755

I presume they can still check IP addresses, but what they also had was a very particular set of tools. Tools they had acquired over a very long career. Tools that made them a nightmare for re reg tools.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119973755#Comment_119973755

This tool exists, but on Vanilla only Admins have this functionality which slows down the process.

But it's not a perfect method either, generally it's a great confirmation when used in conjunction with other evidence.

So as Beasty says, it definitely helps when users tell us who they believe the re-reg is.

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119973820#Comment_119973820

He's not dictating, just saying what he would like to see.

So you don't have to do the blah blah private company thing.

erlichbachman

I could be a mod, whats the pay and benefits like?

Beasty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974221#Comment_119974221

Just to clarify. Unlike on the old platform we cannot do any automated checks in the way we could. Admins can see register IPs and last IP. We then have to match up individual IPs. We can also see individual post IPs, but only on the mobile site. Trying to check anything on the IP front is much more labour intensive than on the old platform, and quite a bit less effective

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119973755#Comment_119973755

It would be very foolish to rely on IP addresses to identify people, given the easy availability of VPNs and GDPR requirements.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119973820#Comment_119973820

It's not a typical private company though. It is a private company that relies on the goodwill and considerable workload of volunteers to keep it operating day to day. It needs to consider its wider community in a way that a typical private company doesn't have to worry about.

Spudman_20000

The moderation on certain forums has certainly strayed more into censorship in my opinion, with biases clear as day to see. We're seeing now what was going on with Twitter pre-Musk so it's not outlandish to say it can happen on Boards too.

Users are getting forum bans for going against certain narratives, and branded with catch all terms as the reasoning.

GreeBo

I don't see why its so complicated and why you are insisting on doing it from the top down. The site needs more CMods and Admins, but it wont die without them, it will die without more mods.

You dont win wars with more generals, its soldiers who do the work.

Pick active, balanced posters on each forum and make them mods. You dont need a million tools if you are already reading 99% of the posts on a forum anyway. You only need tools if you are relying on reports from threads and fora that you dont read or care about.

Seems much more like not wanting to let go of power to me. Again, its not complicated, just mod more posters and move them in and out if needed. Far easier than trying to manage the entire site by a handful (1) of people.

Beasty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974320#Comment_119974320

We are not trying to "identify" people. We use IP and other information to identify any posters who re-register to evade bans. Who they are in real life is irrelevant unless they are shilling or advertising

Beasty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974275#Comment_119974275

How much can you afford?

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974320#Comment_119974320

Every company dealing with the public depends on reputation, goodwill, quality of service etc... to survive. The boards is no different. If people are not happy with the company's offering they will stop dealing with the company and management will have to react if they want to continue to attract those particular customers or they'd prefer not and wish to attract a different type of customer.

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974277#Comment_119974277

I don’t think you guys should be telling anyone what you do to identify “problem” re-regs. Keep your cards a little closer to your chest and keep ‘em guessing.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974636#Comment_119974636

The old muppetcheck ;)

growleaves

I've decided I will buy Boards.ie if the current owner is willing to sell.

Beasty will be fired but he will receive a lump sum of severance pay in recognition of his years of toil. He will also be allowed to continue posting.

Posters will be made CMods and Admins based on my own personal criteria.

For instance the poster from the Conspiracy Theories forum who believes that space travel isn't real will be made an Admin.

With this glorious revamp, we will consign hated rivals like Reddit Ireland to the ash heap of history.

Join me friends for Boards 3.0 - the next chapter.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974595#Comment_119974595

At risk of stating the obvious, posters are people. IP addresses are personal data of those people.

I'm not suggesting that you can't use IP addresses in this way. I'm just pointing out that

1) GDPR would apply to IP address information, and

2) Anyone with half a brain can get around IP address tracking using a VPN.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974612#Comment_119974612

Boards is completely different. When I go to Lidl, they don't ask me to clean up after the mess made by other sloppy customers.

Boards does ask a bunch of its customers to help out and contribute considerable unpaid hours of work to keeping Boards going. It is fair to say that Boards couldn't operate effectively without these volunteers. This is VERY different to most commercial businesses.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974440#Comment_119974440

It is not that simple to find active balance posters. With the tools we have available it can take a long time to identify a single potential mod. When approached they may (and often so) say No thanks and the search begins again.

Equally the mod rotation idea is a great one until you realise what it would involve. I cannot mod and demod people. Anytime I want a new mod for one of the 50 or so forums under my remit I have to identify potentials (often in forums I have never posted in). Once identified they need to be approved by admin. Only then can we approach the person. To do this on every forum periodically would take more time than I would be willing to give. You would need 5 or 6 active cat mods for each category to even attempt it.

Dial Hard

What "tools" do you need other than a pair of eyes? Genuine question. I can think of several posters offhand that I think would be great mods in each of the fora I frequent. Why is it so much more complicated than just observing each forum for a while, seeing who you reckon would be a good shout for the job and going from there???

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119974998#Comment_119974998

Doubt the reliability of using IP addr's given the increased use of NAT by ISPs, but regardless I suspect most re-regs are not the type to stop and think about scrubbing down their client setup even if they notionally understand the tech.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119975654#Comment_119975654

Agree its not that easy, but appointing admins and cmods to then try and find mods doesnt make that processes any easier or faster, it makes it slower.

Is it worse to have a bad mod and have to remove them or have no mods?

Pawwed Rig

A bad mod can be a nightmare. I would rather have no mod than a bad one.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119976058#Comment_119976058

With all the dead forums, I'd say no mods. If you exclude certain fora - CA, AH, Politics, Soccer and a few others - I'd say most fora might not even need much in the way of modding.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119976173#Comment_119976173

Well I would exclude dead fora by default, but there are active ones that aren't cesspits, I'm sure you could find someone to mod them from the group of regular posters who use them, then you at least have some fora knocked off the "unmanned" list and also have more people used to the ways of modding who might make potential CMods etc.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119976153#Comment_119976153

You just remove a "bad" mod, its not like you need to start a month long PIP or something, there is no HR to worry about!