Boat Loads of Moderators

[Pinkie D Pie 1,036]

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

 

Yes, it is useful, but really this is starting to get out of hand if you ask me. Certain questions are neccisary, but really, I accepted simply because I know it won't be changed. And if I notice someting going wong, I will just PM feld0 or something. I'm not saying act like sheep, just everyone could be more tolerante to the new ideas...

[Evilshy 5,090]

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)

 

Well, ultimately we have to accept them if we want to keep using the site.

 

And I'd like to reiterate to anyone who might've thought otherwise: I do not have a problem with new mods, I have a problem with proactive moderation. To me, it seems equivalent to police officers coming into your house every day or so to make sure no crime has happened there in the past few hours, even though they haven't been called and have no reason to believe that any crime happened.

[Marcato 2,143]

 

 

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.

~

 

Now saying the moderators are unbiased is a difficult thing to confirm. I can tell you from personal experience and conversation, that when it comes to serious matters Feld0 is one of the most unbiased persons I have ever met. Same goes for Zoop. They all give careful looks to both sides of the arguments and try to understand them. The others I can't guarentee, since i haven't talked to them as much. But the super moderators I can say they wouldn't be there if they were biased. It's the very reason they have their discussions in the skype group , to avoid bias.

 

Well, i do believe personally sometimes old threads and posts should be delt with, but mostly just the wrong section. If a moderator is deleting a post from months ago it seems rather unnecessary to me and a way to almost get there "moderation points" up, but they arennt that stupid that they would let pride and arrogance lead their actions. Otherwise they never would have been picked would they?

[Whiteshade 1,426]

Yes, it is useful, but really this is starting to get out of hand if you ask me. Certain questions are neccisary, but really, I accepted simply because I know it won't be changed. And if I notice someting going wong, I will just PM feld0 or something. I'm not saying act like sheep, just everyone could be more tolerante to the new ideas...

 

This, only with more spellcheck

[Pinkie D Pie 1,036]

This, only with more spellcheck

 

Sorry terrible speller and punctuatier, and all that other junk.

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

And I'd like to reiterate to anyone who might've thought otherwise: I do not have a problem with new mods, I have a problem with proactive moderation. To me, it seems equivalent to police officers coming into your house every day or so to make sure no crime has happened there in the past few hours, even though they haven't been called and have no reason to believe that any crime happened.

 

Agreed. It's the principle of the matter that has me unsure about it, not the actual mods chosen. Except that Tom guy. He has poor taste in favorite ponies as I'm sure my opinion on that particular matter has been well documented

Edited June 26, 2012 by Doctor XFizzle

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,527]

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.

~

 

Shankveld, we're both on the same side here.

 

The reason that you saw what looked like a gross proportion of your low-quality posts being deleted compared to others' low-quality posts is because no mod was seeing the others. The global mods only see a fraction of the site's content over the course of their duties, and rely to a great degree on reports to bring content in need of action to their attention. It incidentally happened that we received a few more reports on your posts than others - it's very possible that this may be because you are a much more active member than most.

 

With the new section mods allowing us to take a more proactive approach to moderation, we are better able to clean up content that goes unreported. You can have my personal assurance that no one on the mod team is stalking your activity and niggling over what of it to delete.

 

Should you feel something was unfairly deleted, you can dispute it with the other mods or one of the admins and we can retrieve and restore it from the logs if necessary. It's not "Click. Gone." It's really "Click. Archived," for precisely this reason.

 

---

As for old posts from months ago being removed, this treads into an area that 95% of users likely aren't aware of, but is absolutely crucial for the site's long-term health. While it's true that these posts are of little consequence to the active members of the site, the topics they are in are indexed and ranked by Google and other search engines. A little over one-third of our traffic consists of guests, and the overwhelming majority of them (as well as our registered members) find MLP Forums through search engines.

 

If a guest comes across a topic while searching for something, they won't care how old it is. They'll only care about the quality of the content on the page they find. Cleaning up old threads improves their quality for whoever finds them next, and increases the chance of a guest deciding to take the next step and register. That's why we do it.

[Evilshy 5,090]

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.

 

 

Well, at best it's an Oligarchy; a small group of people who, between themselves, have executive power over everyone else. New members of the group are chosen by the group itself (which is what makes it different from a Republic, in which members of the group are decided by a vote of the people.) Not a dictatorship, but certainly not a democracy.

 

 

 

Also, more on topic: I still haven't seen any reason why proactive moderation is a good idea. I honestly do not see any reason to go around looking for unreported content to delete, since, as I said before, it's probably unreported because nobody had a problem with it.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Evilshy

[Marcato 2,143]

I feel this thread might be straying from it's original purpose and what some people want to see. We should be happy for these new moderators. It's a great honour and responsibility to be a moderator on such a large sight. I'm surprised as many actually became moderators as they did. If this is near equal who they originlaly had in mind that makes for nearly everyone considering how many there are. That means they are up to the task. I personally would likely deny it since i already have a busy schedule. Being a moderator on a site is hard work when you dedicate yourself, and to be willing to accept that, takes a lot of guts.

 

Good on all of you! And congratulations!

[3005 332]

Anybody ever suggest moderator elections? They avoid issues like this, they get who the community wants to be watching them into positions, and it really is a fun, eventful, and engaging process. Users may run campaigns, get their friends to support them. It's a suspenseful and fun time that eventually gives the user a great prize.

 

I doubt anybody'd go for it, but I thought I'd put the idea out there.

[Whiteshade 1,426]

Anybody ever suggest moderator elections? They avoid issues like this, they get who the community wants to be watching them into positions, and it really is a fun, eventful, and engaging process. Users may run campaigns, get their friends to support them. It's a suspenseful and fun time that eventually gives the user a great prize.

 

I doubt anybody'd go for it, but I thought I'd put the idea out there.

 

Popularity contest =/= best mods

[NavelColt 22,881]

Anybody ever suggest moderator elections? They avoid issues like this, they get who the community wants to be watching them into positions, and it really is a fun, eventful, and engaging process. Users may run campaigns, get their friends to support them. It's a suspenseful and fun time that eventually gives the user a great prize.

 

I doubt anybody'd go for it, but I thought I'd put the idea out there.

 

A good point, but elections have their own issues. Popularity should have a small role, when maturity should have a lead one. If anything I'd say a preliminary election round to get a selection of members voted, and then an input from the staff as well to select the end result mods from that group, would be ideal. That way both the member interest, and professional input from the staff are both involved. It might need some organizing, but it could be done.

Edited June 26, 2012 by ~Chaotic Discord~

[Finesthour 7,287]

Anybody ever suggest moderator elections? They avoid issues like this, they get who the community wants to be watching them into positions, and it really is a fun, eventful, and engaging process. Users may run campaigns, get their friends to support them. It's a suspenseful and fun time that eventually gives the user a great prize.

 

I doubt anybody'd go for it, but I thought I'd put the idea out there.

 

Popularity fights.

nty.

[Marcato 2,143]

Anybody ever suggest moderator elections? They avoid issues like this, they get who the community wants to be watching them into positions, and it really is a fun, eventful, and engaging process. Users may run campaigns, get their friends to support them. It's a suspenseful and fun time that eventually gives the user a great prize.

 

I doubt anybody'd go for it, but I thought I'd put the idea out there.

 

Not everything can be solved democratically. If some one wants to be a moderator they probably shouldn't be one. Some people think moderating/administrating is easy. Let me tell you from experience.

 

It's not.

 

I can tell you how many times on my own server for minecraft where I have been overwhelmed with issues and rules being broken adn two different directions on how to deal with things. It makes for a very stressful day, and on top of that I'm not getting paid to do it. Wht's worse I'm paying some one else so I can do it because i'm hosting it online. The stuff is hard to deal with. On a crowded forum and they really have made a good decision to get more moderators. We can't put all hopes on too jjust a few people with spare time.

 

Anyways, just imagine the kind of people who would be in power if it was a userbased vote. Far more power abuse then what most people here are afraid of.

[Chigens and Kay 3,832]

Welp. I read enough of this, it certainly was a great read guys!

 

Anyways, here is my two cents:

 

I do respect the descision to elect new mods, however they must prove their moderation skills first.

 

How can you judge these guys when they haven't even been on the job for a day...Give 'em time to fit the moderator shoes.

 

I will reserve my full judgement for a while.

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

"If chosen as your new moderator, I will put more soda machines in the cafeteria, there will be more assemblies and pep rallies, and I will work with the staff to get more Fridays off."

 

That's how it works right?

 

Ultimately it should be up to the staff's discretion. The user-vote would totally be a popularity contest and those can bring the pettiness and ugly out of people.

[Whiteshade 1,426]

"If chosen as your new moderator, I will put more soda machines in the cafeteria, there will be more assemblies and pep rallies, and I will work with the staff to get more Fridays off."

 

That's how it works right?

 

Ultimately it should be up to the staff's discretion. The user-vote would totally be a popularity contest and those can bring the pettiness and ugly out of people.

 

Oh, in that case I support user votes wholeheartedly. We could use a few more soda machines...

[Fox 5,330]

Think about the children!

Edited June 26, 2012 by Fox

[Keypassion 232]

I think ten mods at once is a little overwhelming. Maybe four or five mods to start with then introducing more over a period of time would be the best option so the regular members don't feel overwhelmed by the major influx of staff, and so the staff that's already in place can get used to the new staff. But that's just my opinion.

[Yellow Diamond 7,574]

Truth be told, I doubt the presence of additional moderators will garner much attention a week from now. Currently everpony is scrutinizing our movements, so there is bound to be more discussion about our activities.

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,892]

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 was explaining why none of the mods should expect to see anymore feedback PMs from me. And it isn't because I am "displeased" over that past decision, it was actually because I know I pissed quite a lot of mods off that day. Something I really didn't want to repeat again.

 

I mentioned not expecting a fair response because of the reasons Shank mentioned, not because I think it was gonna be some "repeat" of that incident.

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.

I really don't expect a complaint over the mod to be handled fairly. Not because I think the staff is incompetent and doesn't know what they're doing, but because complaining to a mod about a fellow mod doesn't seem like it would result in anything good.

 

I know very well that at least some of the mods seem like they'd support each other to the end. While that's nice and all for a friendship, I don't think that would result in fair dealings when it comes to complaints about mods.

 

 

 

 

It was a very blunt and simple explanation as to why I am presenting my distaste over certain mods in this thread, yet no time from now are you gonna see a PM listing which mods I think shouldn't be mods for reasons A, B, and C.

 

 

 

My post was clearly a very rude inside joke. But I never once gave any details of the events, displayed "my side or the story", asked for democracy, or even advised members not to contact the mods.

 

No need for the private details to come spilling out and no need for assumptions to be made.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Lady Rarity Pony

[Fox 5,330]

I've read the mixed feelings about having the new founded moderators. I'm not against it, but it's going to have to getting used to. It's been just a day and people have gotten very upset. A very touchy subject, consequently I'm feeling a little wierd like some members of the forums about it(DoctorX Fizzle). However, I can see why people are outraged by these new mods.

The new moderators probaly do share different view points, and not share the same as others on the forums, but that's like any member on the forum, and Shankveld did mention deletion of posts, if it had some vulgar language, but wasn't hurting anyone. Deleting it is kind of an overkill... A moderator maybe abusing their power just a little bit because they were experimenting, but subconsiously not intentional I don't hope. We would have to readdress the conditions of why some posts were being deleted, and have to review if it was appropiate, or not, or maybe some happy new mod fun.The thought of the mods having too much power might be true, but isn't it a little early to judge? Like I mentioned, it is the first day.

 

I would like to point out the 700 members a month thing isn't really trustworthy statistic, because how many of them become active members? The sudden addition to the moderating team was intimidating to some. I, flabbergasted. I think the Admins should have introduced the moderators a few at a time, then just a whole bunch jump into the small MLPForum Moderator car. I welcome the new moderators with curious precaution, except I'm just undergoing the stress as others reading the topic, concerning the everyones thoughts about it. I'm sort of disturbed how we as the MLP Forum community are welcoming our friends into ModHood. I don't think anyone has taking consideration on how others that were given the privledges to join the moderating team were here for making a better community. The new Moderators are feeling unwelcomed due to peoples dislike in the extension of mods. That's not a way to greet new people in a friendly community.

People are worried about being watched? If your not doing anything wrong then what's wrong with being watched? :S The addidtion of mods will make it easier to attend trolling problems, if one occurs or lack of contented subjects. Like Feldo said,

 

"10 Section Moderators

The best analogy for a section moderator that I can think of is a janitor. Section moderators only have basic moderation tools available to them in a few specific sections. If MLP Forums was a school district, we would appoint a few janitors to each school to keep them clean. It's much more practical than giving every janitor the responsibility of keeping every school clean. These moderators have been appointed to sections that they are already active in, mostly for the purpose of increasing the percentage of content that is actually even seen by us. They cannot warn or ban members - if they feel direct action against a user is necessary, they must ask a super mod or admin to do it for them, which greatly limits the extent of both their power and responsibility."

If a moderator is treating you unfairly, then go talk to an Admin, or Super Moderator. What's that? You don't trust them with your problems? Everything has it's problems, but you can communicate with others that might be dealt with "unfair justice," and unite with other members to address a problem together that might be concerning you to higher authority. They've been trying to solve MLP Forum users problems in the past to the time of right now. Like Zoop stated:

 

"We'll be keeping a close eye on things to ensure that everything goes smoothly in the coming days; as always, if you feel that any action taken by a moderator to be inappropriate you can bring it to Swoop or I for review - we'll be all too happy for an excuse to bully the newbies should they slip up on accident. They are worried about what people will think of the new moderators, and are worried for them welcomed poorly."

 

In conclusion, for the upcoming future, this site may combust randomly with newly attracted users. However, would you rather Feldo make random Moderators when that sudden increase happens? Or test them before and see which users are qualified for the job?

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

Well I was gonna quote Fox but he changed his entire post lol. nvm, he put it back up lol

 

I hope the new mods aren't taking any of this unrest personally (although I cannot speak for everyone as others have stated their, uh, confusion to put it lightly). It's just that this was a sudden, overwhelmingly major addition to the site so of course it was bound to rustle some jimmies. Majority of us will support you in the end, it's just that all this came about in a matter that is uncomfortable to us and it contains some principles that are uncomfortable to some of us.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Doctor XFizzle

[3005 332]

I know very well that at least some of the mods seem like they'd support each other to the end. While that's nice and all for a friendship, I don't think that would result in fair dealings when it comes to complaints about mods.

 

Yes, because a staff of mods that would stab each other in the back sounds like such a wonderful idea.

Edited June 26, 2012 by DreamState

[Finesthour 7,287]

Just so you guys know, a lot of people are pissed because even though it is the first day, so many posts from members are disappearing like flies.

 

And we have no reason why.

 

Jimmies shall be rustled, like Fizzle said.