Boat Loads of Moderators

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

I think an appropriate comparison to this whole situation is growing pains. It may seem excessive/overkill/intimidating/etc now, but eventually it will be just right and will make things (hopefully) more efficient and cooperative. Just have to stumble through the awkwardness until the situation matures and fulfills what it was created for.

[Evilshy 5,090]

Yes. Without going into too much detail, I have a day job that requires me to adhere, strictly, to a rather extensive list of rules. Part of this job involves exercising tremendous restraint. There are actually many activities that require you to not do something that you have the power to do because you may be incorrect.

 

But in that case, if you do screw up, you risk being warned, or even losing your job. If you are wrong here, the worst that can happen is that you'll lose your mod powers. Which isn't much of punishment, since, according to you, you didn't want to be a mod in the first place.

[3005 332]

I was on the Spongebob boards of TV.com a few years back. We were the most active forum on that site, but the moderating staff on TV.com was horrible. They banned users for absolutely no reason, passed out TOS warnings like there was no tomorrow, and abused power to the limit. Eventually, that killed the forum.

 

I'm not saying that's how it currently is, but it can definitely progress to that stage, and really, kill the boards. When it comes down to it, a forum is a community, and who wants to be on that sort of community where they're getting their posts deleted?

 

Just saying.

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,892]

 

 

While I do understand that they are not global mods, they are still given a place of authority over all the other members.

 

Like many have expressed, this seems a bit intimidating, even if they don't have the ability to ban you.

 

 

 

My personal distaste for the increase in mods is not so much the way it may intimidate members but how it at least seems like members were selected for modship under very flimsy criteria.

 

The general behavior of some of the mods, and their interactions with various members tells me at least that some mods shouldn't have been given any sort of place of authority.

 

 

And to everyone saying to message the admin or super mods about complaints over mods

 

No offense, but I don't think I'm gonna be sending a feedback PM to any staff member for a while. LoL, last one wasn't very fun or productive~

Nor do I believe something such as a complaint over a mod will be handled in a fair manner.

[Pinkie D Pie 1,036]

Ok i've lurked here long enough, time for my reply to this issue.

 

I personnaly am pretty glad about these new mods. I use to use a website, which wasn't a forums website, but had a very nice forum on it. I loved going to it. But after awihle I noticed something. The mods for the forums, didn't care what happened. They let every post go by, breaking the rules or not. That is why I left that website. I would rather have mods pattroling the forums, making sure any of the really inapropriate posts got deleted. I would rather have mods who care about the forums(Hopefully the new ones do) rather than a few people who just watch and let anything go by. I logged onto that website today for fun, and I found my once happy forums there in chaos. Nothing there was any good. All the posts were retarded. I don't want that to happen to a place that I really love like these forums. So if the new mods can keep out the spammers and what not, I for one am for them. I don't like them being invisable though. I would rather know they are there. Some new members might feel even more frightend b the fact that they are being watched by people they don't even know are there.

 

I doubt anyone cares about my opinion but I'm posting anyway.

[Evilshy 5,090]

Ok i've lurked here long enough, time for my reply to this issue.

 

I personnaly am pretty glad about these new mods. I use to use a website, which wasn't a forums website, but had a very nice forum on it. I loved going to it. But after awihle I noticed something. The mods for the forums, didn't care what happened. They let every post go by, breaking the rules or not. That is why I left that website. I would rather have mods pattroling the forums, making sure any of the really inapropriate posts got deleted. I would rather have mods who care about the forums(Hopefully the new ones do) rather than a few people who just watch and let anything go by. I logged onto that website today for fun, and I found my once happy forums there in chaos. Nothing there was any good. All the posts were retarded. I don't want that to happen to a place that I really love like these forums. So if the new mods can keep out the spammers and what not, I for one am for them. I don't like them being invisable though. I would rather know they are there. Some new members might feel even more frightend b the fact that they are being watched by people they don't even know are there.

 

I doubt anyone cares about my opinion but I'm posting anyway.

 

We do care about your opinion, and you have legitimate concerns. However, I don't think it's anything that couldn't be solved by having reactive mods and simply making it very clear to everyone that they can report questionable content.

[NavelColt 22,881]

I logged onto that website today for fun, and I found my once happy forums there in chaos. Nothing there was any good. All the posts were retarded. I don't want that to happen to a place that I really love like these forums. So if the new mods can keep out the spammers and what not, I for one am for them. I don't like them being invisable though. I would rather know they are there. Some new members might feel even more frightend b the fact that they are being watched by people they don't even know are there.

 

I doubt anyone cares about my opinion but I'm posting anyway.

 

See Feldy? I showed ya all those signs. The Shank avatars, the crazy code issues...told ya Discord was coming. He's taken over other forums already! </3

 

I'd also like to say that even under the circumstance that a mod or mods started deleting threads, abusing power, etc etc, apocalypse now, everything explodes twice: Omnipony and Thing 1 and Thing 2 are still up there at the top of the food chain. They are professional. They will listen to your side, unlike these horror story admins everypony keeps mentioning. I've seen those types of admins myself, and being an admin on a few Sonic boards, I can honestly say I've worked with or succeeded some of them. The ones who either don't care, or who have favoritism with their moderators. Feld0, if I may have a heart to heart with him for a moment, is the best damn site owner I've yet to see or work for, and I've been on lots and lots of forums. I truly, truly believe most of this drama and thoughts of what ifs are not something that need to be taken as a big deal. Yes, we should always keep an eye out for them, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

 

Give the newbies their chance, let them hatch from the egg and lug around their hammer, and if anypony begins seeing issues, for any reason, whether that be posts being unfairly deleted or what have you, then I believe they can feel free to contact Feldy, or his two cohorts, and let loose their concerns, as long as it is organized and not outright slandering mods on a personal basis.

 

He is ever-present, but he is also ever-helpful. He is Omnipony.

[Pinkie D Pie 1,036]

We do care about your opinion, and you have legitimate concerns. However, I don't think it's anything that couldn't be solved by having reactive mods and simply making it very clear to everyone that they can report questionable content.

 

Thanks, good to know people do care about others opinion, And I can see what you and everyone is getting at. The new mods are quite annoying to have around moving posts around all the time. Sure t's there first time, but if they go to that part of the forums alot, they should know what belongs and what doesn't. Another thing is that I always forget about the report feature somwhere around there, I never use it, simply because I have yet to run aacross to questinable of posts.

 

Now I have a question, was the old way of handling things not working, and that is why you changed it, or did yall just want to try something new?

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

I think this movement would have went a lot smoother and would have been better received if it was done gradually over a couple months. It's a quite a shock to normalcy when we go from having 6 moderators on Sunday to having 18 on Monday lol.

 

Also, chill yo stuff everyone, I got this. (EXCLUSIVE MLP FORUMS META LEAK)

[Marcato 2,143]

I would love to write a massive post covering eveyr single concern and thought of this on the matter, but but I am on my phone at this moment and it's rather difficult to write a long post with a small keypad. Instead i shall address my primary concern and a suggestion with it.

 

One concern which has been mentioned often is the worry of opinions reflecting the results. I was a sub-moderator on a forum once and I was partnered with some one else to do so. Me and my partner moderator of that section came up with a way to avoid these kinds of opinionated moderation events happening. We both had eachother on skype and livved in generally the same timezone. So we would talk things over about certain threads and posts when we felt our opinion might be biased towards a user or by our own thoughts and priorities. If we were really unsure we asked some one higher up with more experience. The system worked out amazing, and proved to be effective.

 

What i'm trying to say is maybe a system like this could work well for the partnered moderators. If you haven't already thought of something like that at least. It also helps the moderators to bond and know eachother better. That wayy they all get along and can work together to the fullest intended extent.

 

*I apologize for any atrocious errors in my spelling and grammar. I blame my phone as it's proving really lagged up with IP.Board.*

[Shankveld 4,949]

Of course none of the mods had an issue, but I can't help to think they would if they weren't selected.

Also a lot of the concerns have not been addressed.

~

[Fizz. 1,078]

being an admin on a few Sonic boards

 

why in gods name are there so many posters from various Sonic boards here.

 

It's beyond coincidental.

 

Also, how many Sonic boards are there?

[NavelColt 22,881]

why in gods name are there so many posters from various Sonic boards here.

 

It's beyond coincidental.

 

Also, how many Sonic boards are there?

 

Sonic and MLP are cross-overed a LOT, and I find that many Sonic fans are also MLP fans and vice-versa. Maybe it's animation cuteness style, maybe it's the type of characters, who knows.

 

Tons xD I've been on five altogether. Two are now dead, one is getting there, then the other two are still going good, though neither of them are as active as this metropolis.

[Fox 5,330]

Sonic and MLP are cross-overed a LOT, and I find that many Sonic fans are also MLP fans and vice-versa. Maybe it's animation cuteness style, maybe it's the type of characters, who knows.

 

Tons xD I've been on five altogether. Two are now dead, one is getting there, then the other two are still going good, though neither of them are as active as this metropolis.

 

SONIC Edited June 26, 2012 by Fox

[Fizz. 1,078]

I think this movement would have went a lot smoother and would have been better received if it was done gradually over a couple months. It's a quite a shock to normalcy when we go from having 6 moderators on Sunday to having 18 on Monday lol.

 

Also, chill yo stuff everyone, I got this. (EXCLUSIVE MLP FORUMS META LEAK)

 

Reminds me of a Minecraft Server that promoted too many people to mod position at one time. It resulted way too many inexperienced, foolish mods running around banning for stupid and biased reasons, and they were only promoted because they were popular and longtime users. The server has since lost literally all of its original player base. This could easily happen here. Deleting posts is a much stronger power than most people care to realize.

 

 

(Of course, the administration in that one was and still is a mess, and way too political for a server. ANYONE involved in mod work there was doing anything to climb a bit higher on the power ladder.)

[Whiteshade 1,426]

This thread amuses me to no end. The class struggle, a true masterpiece.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,526]

And to everyone saying to message the admin or super mods about complaints over mods

 

No offense, but I don't think I'm gonna be sending a feedback PM to any staff member for a while. LoL, last one wasn't very fun or productive~

Nor do I believe something such as a complaint over a mod will be handled in a fair manner.

 

I brought your case up to review with the entire team at the time and we wrote a total of 2,391 words to explain every possible facet of why your suggestion was rejected. Over the course of the conversation, I and/or my were was accused of "copping out," being incapable of handling some feedback, and told to "shut the hell up".

 

My team and I spent a number of hours working with you on that particular case. We went above and beyond to personally address everything you had to say, especially considering that we are all volunteers taking time out of our lives to provide a free forum for people to discuss ponies.

 

At the end of the day, MLP Forums is not a democracy. You are not going to agree with the outcome of every single decision we make. At any point in that conversation, I could have given you a simple "no" and added you to my ignore list. We did our best to handle your request as professionally and personally as we could, and you acknowledged this.

 

Posting reaction videos and advising other members that contacting us is a lost cause is baselessly antagonizing the team of volunteers that work thousands of hours to maintain a totally free site for thousands of users to enjoy.

 

Now, we both agreed to move on and call that incident complete. I just wanted a chance to provide the other side of the story.

 

I would love to write a massive post covering eveyr single concern and thought of this on the matter, but but I am on my phone at this moment and it's rather difficult to write a long post with a small keypad. Instead i shall address my primary concern and a suggestion with it.

 

One concern which has been mentioned often is the worry of opinions reflecting the results. I was a sub-moderator on a forum once and I was partnered with some one else to do so. Me and my partner moderator of that section came up with a way to avoid these kinds of opinionated moderation events happening. We both had eachother on skype and livved in generally the same timezone. So we would talk things over about certain threads and posts when we felt our opinion might be biased towards a user or by our own thoughts and priorities. If we were really unsure we asked some one higher up with more experience. The system worked out amazing, and proved to be effective.

 

What i'm trying to say is maybe a system like this could work well for the partnered moderators. If you haven't already thought of something like that at least. It also helps the moderators to bond and know eachother better. That wayy they all get along and can work together to the fullest intended extent.

 

*I apologize for any atrocious errors in my spelling and grammar. I blame my phone as it's proving really lagged up with IP.Board.*

 

We have a Skype group with all 22 of us in it for precisely that purpose. We bounce opinions and thoughts on what to do with various posts and topics in there all the time, and it has proven to be a very useful communication, collaboration, and management tool.

[Shankveld 4,949]

quotey quote

 

I don't feel 100% comfortable complaining about mods to other mods.

The reason being, they normally choose the person power over me.

The 'mod-family' is a tight knit and I'm not apart of it.

You might claim to be unbias, but truth is you're not.

Not to mention if we get the mod involved, they aren't going to admit to being wrong.

Even if they are, they want to protect their power position.

 

Furthermore they could say they deleted my post because it 'didn't have enough content'.

That is vague, you could deleted 80% of posts based on that, yet mine are being deleted above others.

Deleted them all, or don't delete mine.

I'm not a big fan of restricting speech (this is forum after all) and demeaning my post's value is a HUGE grey area, and someone's opinion.

And I don't even get the right to dispute it, just click. Gone.

 

I try to report as much as I can, and I think that if we all just report issues, we have no need for all these mods.

Who go around deleting posts that are months old and not bothering anyone.

~

[Fizz. 1,078]

This thread amuses me to no end. The class struggle, a true masterpiece.

 

I love a good argument, or in this case, a mob of angry users attacking the poor administration. It's hilarious to watch.

[Whiteshade 1,426]

We have a Skype group with all 22 of us in it for precisely that purpose. We bounce opinions and thoughts on what to do with various posts and topics in there all the time, and it has proven to be a very useful communication, collaboration, and management tool.

 

So... you used Skype to draft the mods?

 

I should use Skype more.

[Pinkie D Pie 1,036]

This is starting to get annoying, so a question to you users out there, when are you going to accept the 10 new mods, and hope for the best?

 

(Even if it slightly entertaing to watch)

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,526]

So... you used Skype to draft the mods?

 

I should use Skype more.

 

No, I meant that we have a private Skype group that is the closest thing we have to a physical office.

[Literally Snails 2,307]

I had a post deleted that said "It needs more pinkie pie" Why is this?

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

This is starting to get annoying, so a question to you users out there, when are you going to accept the 10 new mods, and hope for the best?

 

(Even if it slightly entertaing to watch)

 

But open discussion helps ideas evolve and grow and can even perhaps uncover flaws which can be corrected to make the idea better. It would be unnatural and boring if everyone acted like sheep and just accepted what administration told them.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Doctor XFizzle

[3005 332]

The word "democracy" is not being used fairly here. Because a suggestion from a single user is rejected does not automatically denote MLP Forums as not a democracy. That's how it is on almost any forum. Honestly, of the entire team was dealing with you, consider yourself damned lucky. I've been in positions of power on numerous sites before, and I can tell you I would never spend as much time as Feld0 and his team evidently did.

 

If the staff votes on things and the power isn't all in one single person's hands, then it's a democracy. Obviously, if Feld0 takes that time to discuss things with his team and members, it's a democracy. I doubt he's going off and doing things without general support of his staff. All in all, I think things are fair here and that a staff as good as this one shouldn't be treated so poorly.

Edited June 26, 2012 by DreamState