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aSlavesLife -> RE: to the moderators (7/25/2007 7:00:56 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Najakcharmer
quote:
ORIGINAL: aSlavesLife
Nah! The mods only slam you if you dare to trade insults with one of their buddies. As long as you sit quietly and let the moderators pets flame to their hearts content, you are safe from the big mean mods.
Thing is, from your perspective it may look that way. From an overworked mod's perspective, it can look quite different. They don't necessarily have time to read every single post on the board; they step in when they're explcitly called for, and moderate based on what they see. If Person X stepped over the line two hundred and sixty-seven posts ago in another thread, and Person Y just stepped over the same line on a thread where a mod was just called in by Person Z, guess who's going to get moderated. It probably won't be Person X, because the mod is a volunteer who doesn't have time to find the other thread and read two hundred and sixty seven posts back. This will inevitably result in cries of favoritism, when in fact Mod Seventeen (or whichever moderator it is) who actually laid the smackdown may not know any of the people involved on the thread at all.
I moderate on a science board that can get as bad as this one in terms of sheer nastiness, though academics usually go about it with longer words rather than four letter words. Usually, though not always. Anyhow, the dynamics of how moderation works is the same whether it's a kinky site or not, and the folks who get moderated are always likely to percieve unfairness and favoritism whether that's what is really happening or not. Most of what's behind the apparent inequities in a volunteer mod system is a simple lack of time to delve deeply enough into any given issue, beyond making the crap stop that needs to stop. Generally a mod is likely to do that, and then stop looking.
Community moderators do not have time to convene a jury trial and a grand scale investigation for every offense committed on a message board forum. They're just going to do what they have to do in the moment to keep the board functioning for everyone. Inequalities will result. Such is life on the Internet.
I'm not saying that it is impossible for some favoritism to occur. I don't know the situation here or the moderators here well enough to speak to that. I do know how community moderation works, and how apparent favoritism and inequality can very easily be the result of limited staff time to keep a very large community functioning. I would suggest considering these possibilities before deciding that every decision here that you do not like is a result of malice or personal bias.
Well, my opinion is based on following the threads for months, noting which people flame others consistently, and seeing who does and does not get visibly reprimanded ( ie, silenced with the temporary awaiting approval penalty ) for their actions. After noting this pattern, I decided to experiment with it by singling out one of the frequent flamers and offering insult for insult with the person. After a very short amount of time I received a very unprofessional message from a certain mod, and when I responded back to the message about being biased received an even nastier letter in reply. I would hardly call that my perspective, especially when I contacted several others that had felt the wraith of said mod through e-mail afterward to compare notes on this pattern of behavior.
As for moderating on boards, I have served as a mod on an MSN debate board for some 6 years now, and know that it is often thankless. Fortunately though, none of our mods there are so cowardly as to hide behind a mask of anonymity. We are open as to who the mods are and, unlike some, will actually listen to a rational appeal from someone that feels they have been unfairly targeted. We will even go so far as to ask for another moderator to look over the claims to see if we might be showing a bias for or against someone. Our lack of anonymity keeps us honest, and prevents us from being heavy handed and showing favoritism. A lesson that could certainly be learned by a certain double digit moderator here.
I am sure that not every decision here is the result of malice or personal bias. The fact that the flamers can be narrowed down to a small handful makes the resulting bias all the more glaring when it does happen. But, that being said, the mod in question has been tamer as of late. Perhaps she has finally reached a state of emotional maturity surpassing that of a spoiled 5 year old, or perhaps the owners of the site finally caught up to her childish favoritism and slapped her cross eyed for it. Either way, the end result is that she now resorts more to making a point to show her disapproval by examining your profile rather than by bullying, juvenile threats, so there might be hope for the girl yet.
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