Site is a graveyard - How can boards save itself? [Threadbanned users in 1st post]

I'm sorry you were so offended and had to get your yellow card out.

Keep up the important work 👍

Important or self importance?

I don't know if it has been accepted that the issue with modding is 'over modding'.

The reason I've stopped using the site is significantly modding related but with respect to these points rather than 'over modding' as such.

• Modding inconsistency
• Modding being initiated and implemented solely as an action of a flagged post
• Modding being applied without context
• The application of 'don't being a dick' rule being entirely subjective.
• Dispute resolution process (escalation through CMod's) flat out not working
• Militant application on some threads, none on more.
• Lack of modding process application visibility
• Lack of knowledge of process amongst mods
• Moderation stifling conversations that may be unpleasant to some degree, but are happening in society and there should be an effort for them to take place on a platform like Boards rather than just shutting them down

In terms of resolving the biggest issue, which is the moderation that everyone is talking about, there has been action taken on 'back seat modding' for quite a while but maybe having more of the community able to participate in such behaviour to help keep conversations or individuals in check without having the finger of wrath pointed at them for doing so would actually lead to more of a self policing environment which could help make better use of the few mods left around here than what is currently happening. Just a thought.

I dropped in to the thread a few times the last few days but didn't contribute but wanted to see the flow of the conversation. This did have me shaking my head.

The single poster in question at that point had finally been banned for implying that mods were circling the wagons. To be threadbanned for this, given the thread, really had me thinking that this in itself is a synopsis of the problem with the site. I didn't necessarily agree with the comment or sentiment, but was it ban worthy? No, in my view (even if there had been some other comments that proceeded it) and the ban and reaction on the thread to it really only served to suggest the poster had come quite close to some degree of truth in their post.

There was conversation here during the week that young people are most definitely not using discussion boards, and maybe that is the case, but if it is, it doesn't make sense to be trying to moderate like chaperones at a teenage disco in 1970's Ireland where the tiniest bit of inappropriate behavior sees the lights turned on and the perpetrators marched out of there. Or it being an environment where the 'chaperones' cannot be questioned.

Excellent post @ Tell me how

A blind man on a galloping horse could see why that thread was closed. It was a consumer issue which had been asked and answered and then went way off course. It was in Consumer Issues, not After Hours.

Nah, this poster was pushing his luck and took it a bit too far.

Insidious low level trolling is a lot more sophisticated than that.

It doesn't mean a simple explanation can't be attached. I just noticed a moderator managed to post in the thread over 8 hours after it was closed down somehow.

I don't think Beasty was that hard in the prison forum, if you ended up there you usually had done something wrong...

I completely agree. I had never had a thread ban until the most recent iteration of boards, even when discussing very controversial topics. Now “discussion” and “debate” is difficult unless the opinions being discussed are completely non contentious.
it is a pity, because Boards discussions have helped change my opinion on some matters and certainly inform my opinion by seeing different perspectives in others.

I think too many on this thread are judging the Moderation, traffic, and usefulness of Boards based on just a very few forums like CA, Soccer or After Hours. There's a host of other vibrant forums on the site where discussion thrives, advice is given, moderators rarely get involved and posters aren't bickering.

I got a thread ban lifted but got it again. Imo it was harsh, considering some of the other stuff I've seen posted. I guess one, myself included, really has to look at the difference between sarcasm and trolling. It's a fine line imo. I do think some posters on certain threads get away with their own low level of trolling.

@Big Bag of Chips , any comment to add on the unbanning of one the most vexatious serial rereg trolls in CA this morning?

There's been lots of fine words here about dealing with low level trolling but action speaks many times louder..

Clearly Beasty isn't on board with any proposed change to how they are dealt with. His action this morning is a slap in the face to those who took their time to post on the topic here, and demonstrates what the moderation policy on these individuals will be from here on.

That sounds good in theory, but call me cynical - I can't see that going down well with mods if other mods from the same forum intervened and started over-ruling them.

As I've said, I've found CMods don't want to know unless you've dealt with the mod first.

So adults should be able to discuss issues with each other.

You'd wish.

But there are mods that don't do that. They don't discuss, they take the line "do as I say, not as I do", and expect nothing less than an admission of wrong behaviour and a grovelling apology, even if their action was (in the opinion of the person challenging it) unwarranted.

This is where accusations of power-tripping mods comes in.

I personally will not admit to wrong-doing or apologise for something just for the sake of it when I believe the mod was wrong in the first place.

It leaves a poster between a rock and a hard place.

I don't, currently, and I hope I never will. Now I just don't bother with the forum they mod any more.

But I am filing the information on this thread for future use, if ever its needed.

As an aside, as well as the "ignore poster" function, boards should explore getting an "ignore thread" or "ignore forum" feature, if possible, with Vanilla.