Guild Forum Moderation

[Hatchnet]

Sigh, He\'s got a big job to do and as much as I hate to aprove of such things he\'s going to have to be a Nazi about it for awhile.

[zanzibar]

\"Nazi\" does seem to be the right word.  I saw him close a bunch of threads.  I thought he was being heavy handed, but it seemed to be the right thing to do.  Then he deleted a bunch of posts in DC thread which were intelligent, calm, respectful, and not \"fighting\" or \"bickering\" in the slightest.  I thought, this seems a little weird.  So we send a few PMs back and forth.

Ok.  So everything which isn\'t related to guild bios or recruitment is off topic, and therefore it gets deleted.  I\'m not saying it\'s right or wrong -- but it definately demonstrates change.

[Valbrandr]

But the second best nominee after me is probably karyuu

That was my first thought but I have no idea if she wants that job .

[Karyuu]

I would probably be more willing to take care of other areas ;) Aendar\'s persona fits the Guild Forum more than anyone else\'s. Glad to have him return.

[stfrn]

*looks at the changes to the guild forum*
Eh... I would have deleted more. Good work Aendar. But your blue text is neigh impossible to read on the alternative forum style.

[Sangwa]

Then he deleted a bunch of posts in DC thread which were intelligent, calm, respectful, and not \"fighting\" or \"bickering\" in the slightest.

Posts can be calm, intelligent, respectful and not fighting or bickering and still be unfit to a forum. Off-topicness, pointlessness or personal discussions should be kept from the public forums.

This was more or less what I was expecting from a decent moderation. Good work Aendar.

Still, getting some new moderators should still be a wise choice. Aendar is just one person.

[zanzibar]

Originally posted by Sangwa

Then he deleted a bunch of posts in DC thread which were intelligent, calm, respectful, and not \"fighting\" or \"bickering\" in the slightest.

Posts can be calm, intelligent, respectful and not fighting or bickering and still be unfit to a forum. Off-topicness, pointlessness or personal discussions should be kept from the public forums.

This was more or less what I was expecting from a decent moderation. Good work Aendar.

Still, getting some new moderators should still be a wise choice. Aendar is just one person.

Those are all artificial constructs.  The point is that from what the \"new\" admin told me, ALL posts will be deleted unless they are SPECIFICALLY about guild info or recruitment.  Off-topic then refers to ALL posts which are not in that category.

[AendarCallenlasse]

Exactly Zanzibar.  It is the Guild Forums therefore anything not pertaining to guilds is off-topic.

Whether someone was OOC or RPing in the tavern has nothing to do with a guild or the way it works.  And therefore shouldn\'t be in a guild\'s thread.

As I said, we are going by my definition.  You\'ll learn to adapt in time.

P.S. I\'m hardly new

stfrn: That\'s unfortunate as the dark-blue has been my signature color for a while now.

[zanzibar]

Originally posted by AendarCallenlasse
Exactly Zanzibar.  It is the Guild Forums therefore anything not pertaining to guilds is off-topic.

Whether someone was OOC or RPing in the tavern has nothing to do with a guild or the way it works.  And therefore shouldn\'t be in a guild\'s thread.

As I said, we are going by my definition.  You\'ll learn to adapt in time.

P.S. I\'m hardly new

stfrn: That\'s unfortunate as the dark-blue has been my signature color for a while now.

Whoa whoa whoa.   First of all, I put new in quotation marks.  I\'m not an idiot.  Further, there are many things which are guild-related which are now considered to be off-topic and therefore worthy of deletion.  Guild-related is different than pertaining to guild-info and recruitment.

[Efflixi Aduro]

Zanzibar he\'s een around since Ot 2. And stfrn\'s right aendar with the brown forum style I have to highlight your text to read it. =/

*hands karyuu a pick us sign while he reaches for his own*
Cmon lets go protest outside the ps embassy!

[Karyuu]

I\'m pretty sure that would be counter-productive, Efflixers ;) Though I think that having forum mods from various time zones would be a good idea.

[anpulevich]

Originally posted by Efflixi Aduro
Zanzibar he\'s een around since Ot 2.

At no point did I imply that he was new.

[Sangwa]

I think Kiern should become a guild forum moderator. It\'s my opinion his perspective wouldn\'t contrast with Aendar\'s.

It would be perfect if Aendar and Kiern had different time zones, though. So, if you don\'t, one of you has to move.

[ramlambmoo]

The Guild forums have degraded the way they have not because of the wrong type of moderation, but because of the complete lack of it.  I Dont think therefore the current situation should be used as an excuse to implement further \"facist\" type restrictions on what goes on.  Certaintly, If people are going to get into flame wars, then its not acceptable, But I think people should be free to civilly discuss anything related to Guilds; whether its the People, what they do, etc.  Very strict guildlines would solve the problem, but it renders the forum useless.  After all, If we had no forum, we would have no problems with any of this, yet I dont see many people clamouring to support that.  The actions of a few should not be an excuse to limit the rights of those who merely want to discuss things with others.

As I said, we are going by my definition. You\'ll learn to adapt in time.  

Last time I checked, they werent your forums.  The job of a moderator on a forum is to make the place enjoyable and functional for all, not to impose his/her wishes upon those who use it.  Whether people \"learn to adapt in time\" is completly irrelivant; most people living under facist regimes (to use a crude example; I dont mean this as an analogy) learn to adapt over time, but that doest nessecarily justify it.  

The Guild forums have kind of become a place to discuss the actions of other people, which are too often related to their guilds (since that Is who you would complain to about someone, If you didnt want to go to a GM).  While this leads to heated arguements, keep in mind it does keep these inevitable discussions out of the General Discussion forum.  If you\'re going to push for Guild Forums to be strictly guild related talk only (of which there is extremely little, by your definition), then consider where the rest of these discussions will end up at least.

I think another dedicated moderator would be good, To ensure there is always at least one person there if Aendar decides to, er, take a break again.  I think Karyuu and Kiern would be good choices.  As for \"Sure, if you want to piss off a bunch of people. \"- Thats never swayed the appointment of mods in the past, so I dont see any problem now.

[zanzibar]

I\'m inclined to agree with ramlambmoo\'s assessment.  The \"new\" mod said that he was going to delete childish \"bickering\" from certain threads, but the posts I\'ve seen him delete were calm, well writen, and progressive.

However, when members of guilds misbehave, it is possible to have things taken care of via PMs.  The advantage of this is that the boards appear cleaner, more polite, and \"nice\".  However, the problem is that when conflicts or questions arise, there is a distinct lack of input or recognition from the community.  That is to say, the RP-based system of reputation shaping becomes completely restricted to dialogue in-game.  Maybe that\'s a good thing, however RP-chat does occur in the guilds forum.

Restricted chat to PMs also means that things can be more easily ignored or swept under the rug by guild leaders, for what consequence it may or may not have.  When guild leaders are absent for long periods of time, PMs are also somewhat meaningless.  For instance -- Mitaki is no where to be found, and Rioth was gone for a very long time and only returned relatively recently.  If a confident subordinate isn\'t commissioned to act as caretaker, then people will be sending PMs until the cows come home with no results.

So it is possible to limit all dialogue (dialogue as opposed to questions and info-posts) to PMs, but I think the consequences have to be taken into consideration.