An Open Letter Re: Mods

[flashflash account]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

Is my original point going to get addressed....?

I don't want this to be a mods vs non-mods thing, I hope I've made that clear. Some of the best friends I've ever had are on the mod team, and that's extended to the rest of ffr as a whole too which is why I'd rather sort through issues before people get exiled. I say this as someone who's never had disciplinary action from a mod in anywhere really, except when I spammed my sig in the stepmania discord a few years ago.

this thread is already off topic
maybe that's just the way this forum goes

[SKG_Scintill]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

I was a chatmod on the dragon's fury forums
I kept muting, kicking and banning people who I found were in any way being offensive and/or "not nice"

In other words:
I was a partypooper with no sense of humour, with no sense on nuance, who would at a glance, on a whim, shut down the fun for everyone

I was no longer a chatmod on the dragon's fury forums

[Charu]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

I tend to think of myself as probably the least heavy handed mod when it comes to moderation, but this particular thread had devolved to the point where people were posting number puzzles. That stuff in it's own thread would be fine, but this one had devolved too much to continue imo.

I'm so used to GameFAQs style of posting that it was normal for me, dohoho.

...

I mean it was essentially becoming a "All in One" thread as soon as people were talking about something else besides QueenAshy's status.

[devonin]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

The reason posts get deleted is because it does the community more harm to have a bunch of gross hostile crap on display for everybody to see that it does harm to somebody having their gross hostile post deleted.

[Gravity Kitten]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

they wouldn't do this to me over at thirdstyle dot com

[Celirra]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

The reason posts get deleted is because it does the community more harm to have a bunch of gross hostile crap on display for everybody to see that it does harm to somebody having their gross hostile post deleted.

So here's the scenario, hyperbolic for further clarity of course:

Jimmy posts an opinion he has for x, y, z reason, with hopes to have his opinion heard, or to hear thoughts about said opinion. This opinion is controversial, and negative, but is a stance regardless.

Susie posts a retort to Jimmy's opinion. It's not terribly civil either honestly, and is the opposite from what was originally said.

Jimmy and Susie bicker back and forth in this thread for a few minutes, when their posts get deleted and the thread gets locked. Maybe they also get a 1 day ban.

Jimmy still has his stance, probably even more strongly than he did before, and he's even more upset about it potentially. He may also dislike Susie now.
Susie still has her stance, probably even more strongly than she did before, and she's even more upset about it potentially. She may also dislike Jimmy now.

9 days later, a new thread comes up, and both Susie and Jimmy are present and their opinions come up. Chances are they'll be even more vitriolic because of what went down, not getting closure, maybe they also didn't like being censored, they essentially got cut off early and had their voice suppressed instead of being corrected. They probably use more poignant grammar and more angry bolded caps now; the cycle repeats and the problem grows each time.



This is an oversimplification as well, and isn't quite accurate but is what I've moreorless noticed happening potentially, with at least a couple people.
Would not deleting posts help this? ....well it couldn't hurt, assuming we want them to stay in the community (I do, because I like 95% of people on ffr well enough).

[SKG_Scintill]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

there's a difference between insinuating black people are a different race as a humorous quip (tastes may vary) and saying "Dude, ******s should just leave the country, I can't stand the idea all these children having a negro as their parent"

the rules may say it's not allowed to post content which is racist but can we really not see the difference between having a dubious sense of humor and being... actually fucking racist?

[devonin]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

there's a difference between insinuating black people are a different race as a humorous quip (tastes may vary) and saying "Dude, ******s should just leave the country, I can't stand the idea all these children having a negro as their parent"

the rules may say it's not allowed to post content which is racist but can we really not see the difference between having a dubious sense of humor and being... actually fucking racist?

Um...about that.

[SKG_Scintill]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

also, permabanned from the ffr discord for calling QueenAshy a he? really?

[Charu]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

also, permabanned from the ffr discord for calling QueenAshy a he? really?

Wait, that was a perma? I thought it was a temp ban.

[SKG_Scintill]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

are you really going to delete my post / ban me because my post posing the hypothetical situation where someone's actually racist is the same as posting something actually racist?

[devonin]

Does it look like I am?

So here's the scenario, hyperbolic for further clarity of course:

Jimmy posts an opinion he has for x, y, z reason, with hopes to have his opinion heard, or to hear thoughts about said opinion. This opinion is controversial, and negative, but is a stance regardless.

Susie posts a retort to Jimmy's opinion. It's not terribly civil either honestly, and is the opposite from what was originally said.

Jimmy and Susie bicker back and forth in this thread for a few minutes, when their posts get deleted and the thread gets locked. Maybe they also get a 1 day ban.

Jimmy still has his stance, probably even more strongly than he did before, and he's even more upset about it potentially. He may also dislike Susie now.
Susie still has her stance, probably even more strongly than she did before, and she's even more upset about it potentially. She may also dislike Jimmy now.

9 days later, a new thread comes up, and both Susie and Jimmy are present and their opinions come up. Chances are they'll be even more vitriolic because of what went down, not getting closure, maybe they also didn't like being censored, they essentially got cut off early and had their voice suppressed instead of being corrected. They probably use more poignant grammar and more angry bolded caps now; the cycle repeats and the problem grows each time.



This is an oversimplification as well, and isn't quite accurate but is what I've moreorless noticed happening potentially, with at least a couple people.
Would not deleting posts help this? ....well it couldn't hurt, assuming we want them to stay in the community (I do, because I like 95% of people on ffr well enough).

Person A and Person B getting into a debate, unless it crosses the line (and typically if it does, only the parts that do get deleted) resulting in deleting/locking/banning is just not a thing.

You're leaving out Person C, D and E who show up and tell person A they're a stupid idiot and nobody wants them here, and then one of them goes too far and gets banned, person F, G and H deciding this is a great hill to die on about unfair bannings and horrible mods.

[SKG_Scintill]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

sorry I may have assumed such action from your "Um...about that."-post
you know... because I totally haven't gotten banned for less than that before

[devonin]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

Do you know, right this minute, how many forum users are currently serving non-perma bans for things that aren't "being under 13"?

Would you like to guess how many users are banned right now?

Five or Eight years ago, the number of people serving non-permanent bans at any giving time was often as high as 40 or 50.

[SKG_Scintill]

Re: An Open Letter Re: Mods

yes, there were also more than 15 people online per day