Moderation and Forum Norms

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So, speaking from experience: if you come and ask about certain things, like- “why did this happen?”

I’d give you an answer that I feel I can, for instance- would you enjoy if you got banned for a year and I spoke to some people about it who I don’t know your relationship with?

So, we go from there right? Like- if you go and say, “well that was a shit call” or something along those lines. I won’t ban you, even though it is a little rude, but I will ask for you to drop it.

From then on, it’s a question of what will happen from there. Some users get heated and insult us, others accept it but get a little snarky, while others accept it and drop it when asked.

I do not ban for snark, but I will get annoyed and might make it an official warning or drop a note about it on your profile for other moderators to see.

I will not ban, issue a warning, or leave a note if you accept it.

But, if you call me an idiot or insult a decision that I might have had no choice to do, but did because it is against the forum rules then you can get a low-level ban for insulting a moderator, get a note on your profile, and maybe even a thread to discuss what happened with the mod team.

Which might lead to a longer ban.

Now let’s say that you decide to do it in public and are publicly warned to drop it.

The same things will typically happen for me as stated above. I’ll ask you to drop it, if you don’t then a ban or warning can be issued based on how you respond. This is because sometimes people like to pile in and it turns into a mud-slinging fest as people feel obligated to defend friends or attack people they already dislike.

The worst is when someone thinks you banned a friend and gets nasty to you and you didn’t even know someone got banned until you get the PM in your inbox or the moderator inbox.

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If a resolution is what we’re trying to move toward, I think that what a “resolution” is will differ between people.

The specific fix is: determine the justice of the inciting incident and make adjustment.
The systemic fix is: draw insight from this to do better in the future, preventatively.
The complete fix is: perform root cause analysis on a backlog of specific incidents.
The cathartic fix is: let wronged individuals air their historic grievances for acknowledgement.
(Surely, there are more.)

I think the the only achievable goal (given limitations in time, platform, etcetera) is the specific and then systemic fix. That’s not to say the complete or cathartic ones are invalid, just that they might have unrealistic scopes.

This is my attempt at defining the goal, so that we can measure our progress toward it. Unless I’m wrong, the one thing no party disagrees with is: let’s do better next time. Maybe we should accept sunk costs and focus on this?

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I have a huge respect for moderators who have taken time to read, and join in on the discussions and strive to do better. (without digging in their heels to much)

I also have a huge respect and admiration for those who have had the courage to speak their mind even if they were worried of getting suspended by speaking their mind.

also i wanted to say sorry, i might have gone a bit to far in some posts i have written. i am mostly a lurker that reads what authors make, and try to give feedback. (pardon my typos i am a bit tierd and my fat cat is almost sitting on my keyboard)

i would buy a coffe to all you moderators for the hard work you do here but sadly there is no function here that let me do it.

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@Bryce_Kaldwin, I would like to ask about this in particular. Are there any standards for how moderators are expected to make notes on people’s accounts? I can imagine that, in the heat of the moment, as humans, mods may be tempted to go full Mean Girls and create burn-book style commentary, which, while the average user can’t see it, still doesn’t sound like it’s in good faith. Can you comment on that, at all?

I’d also like to second @ihauk’s sentiment - I appreciate all of the moderators and staff who have genuinely tried to come at the issues this past week in earnest and with ingenuity. I feel that some moderators have come up with some good ideas for alternatives to avoid issues cropping up, and I feel that many of those who have not come up with ideas have been very willing to listen to the issues at hand and try to understand. I’m sure there are some (or, perhaps, all) that are frustrated with the current state of affairs, but I’m glad that, for the most part, there is at least the acknowledgement that these discussions need to happen.

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It’s matter of fact, “shows a problematic predisposition towards aggressive behavior to WIP authors and other users.”

Might be one, the most recent one I did was, “Username Changed from X to Y.”

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Having recently gained access to this, it is a dry factual record of warnings given noting who gave the warning and a date. For example: “warning given by HannahPS, May 2020 re asking for updates”. (this is a fictional note obviously!) The purpose is to give other moderators context for actions, and to keep a timestamp in case of investigation or needing to check something in the future. There isn’t any sort of burn book commentary - if I saw something like that, I’d raise it with other moderators and staff. I believe that the rest of the moderators would too.

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gdi I spent like an hour writing this…oh well, I’m still posting this. Ashes, I hope you like walls of text, lol.

All the user notes I’ve seen, ranging from years before I became a mod and up until now, have all been written essentially as what you would see in post-it notes: brief messages of info, reminders, or context. You’ll see things like possible warnings or suspensions they have received, prior problematic behavior, if you have contacted them before or not, etc. That said, there isn’t a specific way to write or format one (there actually isn’t a way to format them at all, it’s like writing in Microsoft Notepad), so we all have our little differences.
For example, because I’m used to writing in a clinical matter from writing hospital notes, I’ll (1) only ever refer to the user as ‘User’, (2) avoid using the word ‘I’—an idiosyncratic holdover from my high school AP Lit teacher, and (3) unless I know otherwise, I use singular they at all times to avoid misgendering anyone.

I know this might be confusing, so here’s an example.
Say a user’s history shows that they have a prior warning, their account has been shown to share an IP address with another user, and they have requested a username change. The user notes would say something like this (note that they are always seen from newest to oldest note):

Mod 3: (Feb 3) User says that @thirdusername is their little sibling's account. A similar note has been placed on @thirdusername's account.

Mod 3: (Feb 3) User shares an IP with @thirdusername (possible sockpuppet?) and has been contacted for further information.

System: (Dec '19) Received an official warning from @Mod 2 – "Asking For Release Dates"

Mod 1: (Aug '18) @firstusername requested that I change their name to @secondusername
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Wow, that was eerie timing, lol. All three within a minute :sweat_smile:

I figured that was kind of the case, but I felt like it probably needed to be addressed, because my mind went straight to, “yikes, I wonder what’s on my account.” Then “yikes, I’ve had moderators I’ve not gotten along with 100% in the past”, to “I hope the moderators are held accountable to not do the worst case scenario”, so thank you all for that.

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You have zero notes on your profile.

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Ninja’d by Bryce yet again.

It’s ok, I can one-up him. Ahem:

image
image1309×836 50.1 KB

For context, if you have any user notes, you would see this emoji

:memo:

by your username.

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You never got suspended either so you’re a good noodle.

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Hm, that’s simultaneously good and bad, I think. I wasn’t too horribly worried about it :sweat_smile: It was more of a “huh, if I thought this, somebody else may have, as well, and been afraid to ask.”

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The scientific term is goodle noodle but I digress…

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I prefer Her Holiness, the Goodliest of Noodliests, please and thank you :stuck_out_tongue:

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You know what? That’s a fair concern.

I have anxiety, so I’m always very “oh god what’re they saying about me :grimacing:” when I like…so much as breathe in front of strangers. Waking up with telepathy would simultaneously be my dream and nightmare come true.

Anyway, I get it, lol.

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Haha I think we jinxed each other all posting at once, not intentional I promise!

Something else that may be useful (and maybe reassuring? hopefully) to know is that the system records who created a note or a warning, so there’s a paper trail of which moderator wrote what at which point. There isn’t the ability for someone to put anonymous notes anywhere.

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i got a bit curious on this myself now (worried)

also do these notes disapear over time when a case is closed?

i understand its only moderators who read these “but no one likes having a post it note (from 2017) on their back when walking around”

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I wouldn’t! I was, at first, but it really sounds like it’s just an internal way of keeping moderators accountable. @HarrisPS even mentioned that there’s a log of who posts it, so nobody is going to be posting anything negative, just factual and to the point.

I can get down with that. It’s a good record of anything, like warnings or anything, you may disagree with, as well. I’d say it has its positives for everyone, so I’m super sorry if my bringing attention to that line gave you any anxiety, @ihauk <3

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this is good to read :slight_smile:

no worries friend <3

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Not all notes are recording of suspicion or bad behavior. Some might consist of notes that track a person’s username change from ApplesToOranges to GrapesAndMangos. :slight_smile:

Nvm. Bryce ninja’d me. I need to go get something to eat. :rofl:

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