Author Topic: Mods For High-Drama Areas?  (Read 12029 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Smurfette Principle

  • Will Blind You With Library Science!
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 1639
  • Gender: Female
  • Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo.
Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« on: February 06, 2012, 08:11:43 pm »
I saw this on another thread and thought I'd bring it here. We have mods for just one sub-forum (indeed, the subforums with the least drama), so why not have mods for P&G and F&B? The other mods would be part of it - those are the two sub-forums with the most traffic - but why not have at least one mod whose job is to keep an eye on things there?

Offline Lithp

  • Official FSTDT Spokesman
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 1339
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2012, 01:52:49 pm »
Not sure if want.

It sounds like a good idea, I'm just not sure if there's anything a section-specific mod could do about those situations that a global mod can't.

Distind

  • Guest
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2012, 02:01:08 pm »
Not sure if want.

It sounds like a good idea, I'm just not sure if there's anything a section-specific mod could do about those situations that a global mod can't.

Lithp pretty well nailed my thoughts on the matter. We're still working it out a bit, but most of the mods we have are going to get the global promotion, but largely just so they can deal with any major issues that arise, they'll still be focusing on whichever forums they frequent. P&G being a fairly common one for the lot of us and F&B being F&B.

So we're going to have a decent number of mods floating around, enough that someone should notice trouble as it brews and now we're putting together some practices to handle them the mod team should manage well enough.

Offline The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist

  • The Very Punny Punisher and Owner of the Most Glorious Chest
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 4316
  • Gender: Female
  • And I fired two warning shots... into his head.
    • Tumblr Image Blog
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2012, 02:06:15 pm »
Subforum mods are really only neccessary when you're on a very high-traffic forum.

Plus, we probably want to avoid straying into "Too many chiefs, not enough Indians" territory.
"Je me presse de rire de tout, de peur d'être obligé d'en pleurer."

My Blog (Sometimes NSFW)

Offline Lithp

  • Official FSTDT Spokesman
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 1339
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2012, 02:47:13 pm »
My issue is...how should I put this...a lof of the issues that prevent a competent mod from moderating, on any board, are:

1. The issue is moving too fast for them to notice one or more instances of rulebreaking.
2. The issue is too ambiguous at this point to treat it as a problem.
3. The issue happened while they weren't online & quickly spun out of control. By the time they come back online, the thread may look completely normal.

Having more eyes doesn't necessarily solve any of these.

Offline N. De Plume

  • Mysterious Writing Implement
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 1936
  • Gender: Male
  • Nom, nom, nom…
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2012, 02:59:25 pm »
Having more eyes certainly can help issues one and three.

Issue 1: More eyes can help keep an eye on all aspects of a fast moving thread.
Issue 3: If the other mod has a different activity schedule, he or she can be online and taking care of business while the other mod is off.

Like you said, it doesn’t necessarily solve the problem, but it can go a long way to helping. The trick is just figuring out the right level of mod saturation.
-A Pen Name

Offline m52nickerson

  • Polish Viking
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Gender: Male
  • Winning by flying omoplata!
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2012, 03:52:44 pm »
You can also have a problem with consistency when you have a greater number of Mods.  I think that is a bigger problem then threads spinning out of control and or Mods missing things.  Regular member can always report post.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. ~Macbeth

Distind

  • Guest
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2012, 04:06:39 pm »
You can also have a problem with consistency when you have a greater number of Mods.  I think that is a bigger problem then threads spinning out of control and or Mods missing things.  Regular member can always report post.

This is one other important thing. With a fair number of mods we have a decent chance that at least one will be on, with the reporting capabilities that Keiro has provided us with they don't exactly need to be looking at something to find out there's a major problem. If a mod isn't certain of how to handle something they're expected to toss a bit of detail into the mod room and make others aware of it.

I'm going to be doing some permissions adjustments while installing my newest distraction tonight which should leave us with a good sized staff who have managed themselves well through the last blow up. We'll see how well we can work as a whole.

Offline N. De Plume

  • Mysterious Writing Implement
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 1936
  • Gender: Male
  • Nom, nom, nom…
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2012, 04:28:46 pm »
You can also have a problem with consistency when you have a greater number of Mods.  I think that is a bigger problem then threads spinning out of control and or Mods missing things.
Yeah, that is something that needs to be considered when deciding how many mod you need. Like I said, you have to figure what is just enough.

Quote
Regular member can always report post.
Still need to make sure there is enough mod manpower to get through the report queue at an appropriate rate.

And reporting doesn’t do anything for a rapid-fire shitstorm if no mods are available to respond to the report immediately.

It’s all trade-offs. Of course, I am looking at this as someone who has never been a mod on any forum. And I don’t have the proper experience to suggest what is just right for FSTDT. Just throwing in my 2¢.
-A Pen Name

Offline Lithp

  • Official FSTDT Spokesman
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 1339
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2012, 04:42:51 pm »
There are reasons why it doesn't help quite as much as you'd think:

1. While there is a slight increase in probability, it is an inefficient solution overall. Once you get beyond a certain point, you mostly end up with a surplus of moderators who aren't doing anything. And since they're out of practice, their performance might suffer.

2. It's mostly an issue with the people who would be good at it having generally the same schedules. If you CAN get it, it might be a good idea to go for people who are on at odd times & would make good moderators, but it's generally not an available option.

As for Reporting, I've rarely been on the end that looks into the reporting, so I can only guess at how that would work. The problems that I might expect would be diffusion of responsibility, where no one reports because they all expect someone else to, & report trolls. Report trolls meaning if you have a forum with an anonymous report function, they'd spam that to give the mods useless shitwork to do & hopefully harrass a user or 2 in the process. In a chain of ironic drama, reporting might get used as a platform to legitimize your flaming, prompting a rule not to announce reports, making diffusion of responsibility more likely.

Quote
Like I said, you have to figure what is just enough.

This is generally the Golden Rule.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2012, 04:45:26 pm by Lithp »

Offline Keiro Dreamwalker

  • An Puisín Faolchú
  • Pope
  • ****
  • Posts: 371
  • Gender: Male
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2012, 05:49:50 pm »
The Report to Moderator thing is there for a reason. It's to help us catch the missing issues. I've had to throw out a few reports because someone mentioned it in IRC and by the time they'd reported it, I was already reading the issue in question.

By throw out, I mean I closed them. :p
You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on this journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not survive you long. Dovie'andi se tovya sagain!



People so seldom say "I love you". And then it's either too late or love goes. So when I tell you I love you, It doesn't mean I know you'll never go, only that I wish you didn't have to.

Offline GLaDOS

  • Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System
  • Bishop
  • ***
  • Posts: 179
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2012, 05:57:36 pm »
If you're looking for more mods, I'm sure many of us would happily volunteer...
(click to show/hide)
Space? SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
How are you holding up? Because I'm a POTATO.
Silence will fall.
For fuck's sake, please keep my fucks given levels balanced.

Offline ironbite

  • Overlord of all that is good in Iacon City
  • Kakarot
  • ******
  • Posts: 10686
  • Gender: Male
  • Stuck in the middle with you.
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2012, 05:59:42 pm »
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ironbite-you're funny.

Offline Shane for Wax

  • Official Mosin Nagant Fanboy, Crazy, and Lord of Androgynes
  • Kakarot
  • ******
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
  • Gender: Male
  • Twin to shy, lover of weapons, pagan, wolf-brother
    • Game Podunk
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2012, 06:05:33 pm »
Per Lithp's second point, that is why I pushed for someone who would be on in the early mornings and late at night. That's actually when I was most active and perusing the forums for anything amiss. It's not a very active time but it's also a time that spammers like to pop up in my experience.

So many times I've had to flush spammers at 4 AM on many of my sites. I can't stand having it there especially if it's linking to anything illegal or harmful to the forums or computers.

As for the reporting, it's easy enough to get thru the reports. It takes two seconds to see something is spam, but it takes longer if it's a rule breaking report (someone is flaming where they shouldn't, stuff like that).

In the end, you want a good ratio of mods but sometimes the ratio doesn't work. 1 mod to 100 people is what I have seen around the internet but sometimes that is either not enough or too many.

&
"The human race. Greatest monsters of them all."
"Ke barjurir gar'ade, jagyc'ade kot'la a dalyc'ade kotla'shya."
Fucking Dalek twats I’m going to twat you over the head with my fucking TARDIS you fucking fucks!

Offline VirtualStranger

  • Blinded with Science
  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 946
  • Gender: Male
Re: Mods For High-Drama Areas?
« Reply #14 on: February 07, 2012, 06:05:50 pm »
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ironbite-you're funny.

Are you trying to start shit? You've been deliberately antagonizing other members over innocuous comments for the past several days.

Regardless, let's not start a another goddamn flame war over who gets promoted to moderator. None of us has a say in the matter.