Bump

While I don't mind a mod editing my post I wish I was informed that posted needed "tagging" which is NOT in the posting guidelines once again..

BYOND Alert

XXXX edited your post '[Offering] [Paid] Cheap shell hosting.': Tagging. [Link]

Added to the subject [OFFERING] [PAID], I would of though Cheap shell hosting would of came across as I am offering a service ...

Once again I want guidelines and I want Moderators to also have them.

That is fine, just proving the point that we all need better guidelines.

Just because YOU find it easier to read doesn't mean you an have the right to just change it to your liking.

This isn't a personal attack or anything as such just stating the point that mods can do whatever they wish... without a public guideline.

Like I said not a personal attack and you don't have to explain yourself, I didn't mind its just once again the fact that you guys don't have a public guideline and all we have to go off is a 4 step guide that hardly explains much at all.

The issue with guidelines is that they will never be comprehensive or objective. It's very much a gut feeling as to whether or not a post crosses the line, and can depend on the mod as well as sometimes the history of the poster. Any rules that are obvious enough to write down should be obvious to users already, and for those that might not be (and even those that are), I think the BYOND moderators tend to be extremely lenient. We clean up a lot of posts, but it's only once in a blue moon that we're forced to actually ban someone.

I think I like Forum_account's idea of making moderator actions more visible. Maybe something like what The Escapist forums use, where they collapse and grey-out the post with a "[user] received a warning for this post. Click here to show the post" message. Then it would provide some "second hand" (for the lack of a better term) experience as to what is considered acceptable on the forums.

Toddab503 wrote:

I like that idea as well. It reminds me of the comment system on youtube. Although, youtube also uses a post thumb up and down system, where if a post is thumbed down enough it becomes hidden in the same way as that just with a different message explaining why.

The problem seems to be that people don't like having their posts messed with (even if the mods mean well) and the mods just love messing with posts (even though they mean well). The mods need to learn to first act in ways that don't change or disrupt posts and use locking/deleting as a last resort. Giving public warnings should be the first action taken when a problem comes up. Hiding posts should be the second action (it leaves the posts in their original form, so it's less intrusive). Or, if it's more appropriate, the second action could be to split the thread (there may be a valid tangent that just belongs in its own thread). Deleting posts or locking threads should only be done if other methods don't work.

The mods don't give public warnings and don't have the ability to manage threads like that (posts can't be hidden and I don't think threads can be split anymore). It's partially by their heavy-handed nature but also from the lack of tools that they're quick to mess with things.

Things like this could be very effective. In fact, a reputation system built off something like that thumb up and down concept may not be too bad of an idea. Trolls playing with it could be a problem, but if it is handled correctly it would allow members of any and every kind to know who is known as 'good' or 'bad' around the forums.

The ratings would be largely based on popularity so I wouldn't use it for anything too important. I wouldn't label a user as "bad" because their posts get a lot of negative votes. But, on a smaller scale, looking at posts with a lot of negative votes can lead to safer conclusions. That should be the moderator's job - to review comments that have received a lot of negative votes and take the appropriate action. Too often the moderators go looking for problems. I've seen a few threads get locked for going off topic even though the OP was involved in the discussion - if it didn't bother the OP, how big of a problem could it be?

Wow really ? You would delete a post that didn't use the dm tags? You sir are completely fudged!

There are no rules saying you must put code in the dm tags....

Why wouldn't a mod just edit the post? Too lazy like yourself perhaps...

I can't think of any instances where we've deleted threads in Developer Help for not putting code between the <dm> tags. Generally we'll either comment that the user should do so or just edit the post and do it ourselves.

I'm just noting that BYOND mods seem to have been deleting posts that have made valid arguments against their heavy-handed deletion. The game in question is http://www.byond.com/games/Falacy.Forums?tab=index

Go ahead and delete my posts, just make sure to provide a good reason.

My suggestion of deleting posts is just a suggestion to quickly teach people how to use tags. Because obviously, the preset new post lines aren't good enough. I have seen several people completely MISS the dm tags (That clearly state put your code in here) and paste their code outside of it. A mod will probably know coding well enough to fix some of the obvious errors (such as undefined variable because you used it in a loop or something like that) and the person will be none the wiser. That's the point, so you get the raw code rather than possibly corrected code.

The mods supply a reason why things are deleted. In Falacy's forum moderation thread, there is a claim that the mod deleted the post for the reason of "This isn't rocket science". Granted it may be a lie, but I don't see any reason to assume so.

My way of moderation is extremely lax. Follow the simple guidelines laid out AT THE TOP OF THE NEW POST POST IN BLACK AND BLUE and I won't bug you.

If you've ever read anything I post, it's that the least moderation is the best moderation. My suggestion is based on a personal opinion of "if you cannot follow simple instructions, you're kicked out of the lab" principle.