Automated Messages

[Justin ZW 396]

I've noticed that when moderators perform some form of... moderation, they use an automatically generated message. While this saves time, it's very cold and impersonal. In my experience, people tend to appreciate it when you take the time to type something out yourself. It shows that they are aware and informed of the situation, and it can also be more welcoming to newbies. The site I work on used to use canned messages, but we agreed to stay away from them when we discovered that no one really liked them and we were driving users away.

 

Personally it's something that bothers me. You can't take the 60 seconds to make a post saying what you did, why you did it, and explaining a little bit more according to the situation? That strikes me as laziness.

 

Just my two cents on that.

[NavelColt 22,880]

This is really rather unavoidable when a forum becomes so pathetically big that reports and problems flock in by the dozen, each day, I'm afraid. Especially when the same exact problems happen over and over again, what the moderator would be taking that 60 seconds to type would be redundant over and over again on each issue, which would result in very similar messages with little to no personalization, either. We don't implement multi-mods from laziness, but rather for those moderation actions that happen -a lot-, such as moving things from one section to another that are high traffic (Show Discussion --> Sugarcube is common) or locking things for specific reasons. That way, the things that aren't quite as common, such as mergings, can receive fully customized responses.

 

I'm sorry if you're seeing it as cold, rude or uncaring, but it's really helpful for the staff to keep on top of things so that the forums can remain as clean as possible, whilst staff don't burn out from repetition of typing out the same thing over and over again fifty times a day I assure you, we do not just add multi mods for all moderator actions. They're only for actions that are so incredibly common that it's directly beneficial to saving everyone vast amounts of time in the long run.

[King 5,625]

Just to add on to what CD said, some staff still add a note at the bottom to add a little more personal input if they feel its necessary. That way it's not entirely automated, they're showing that they had a reason behind the mod action...obviously

[King 5,625]

I think the personal message at the end is usually if the automated one isn't clear enough. I don't think it's to "add a personal touch", because CD said:

When it comes to mods leaving personal messages:

Some mods I have seen do actually do that. From little things like  "Sorry to spoil the fun guys" to more in depth things.

Not all mods, and the ones who do actually do it, dont do it often.

Thus "Aint nobody got time for that" pretty much applies in all cases

[Shanks 10,816]

Yes there are of course the "automated messages" and with how huge this forum is I understand why they use them but I have seen some moderators make some more personal notes either instead of or in addition to these messages when they feel it is appropriate. I don't believe that the staff is doing this to be lazy, dismissive or rude but to save time because while a few seconds dosen't seem like that much time considering how many threads get moved, locked on a daily basis I could see how it could start add up.

[heG allaphsE 28]

I rarely see the automated meassages on this forum and it doesnt bother me if there are automated meassages

[Betez 1,734]

As it's been stated, automated messages are only for things that happen all the time. For more detailed things. (Like merging a thread) The mod will tell the user who's thread they merged, and why they did it.

[SBaby 660]

This is really rather unavoidable when a forum becomes so pathetically big that reports and problems flock in by the dozen, each day, I'm afraid. Especially when the same exact problems happen over and over again, what the moderator would be taking that 60 seconds to type would be redundant over and over again on each issue, which would result in very similar messages with little to no personalization, either. We don't implement multi-mods from laziness, but rather for those moderation actions that happen -a lot-, such as moving things from one section to another that are high traffic (Show Discussion --> Sugarcube is common) or locking things for specific reasons. That way, the things that aren't quite as common, such as mergings, can receive fully customized responses.

 

I'm sorry if you're seeing it as cold, rude or uncaring, but it's really helpful for the staff to keep on top of things so that the forums can remain as clean as possible, whilst staff don't burn out from repetition of typing out the same thing over and over again fifty times a day I assure you, we do not just add multi mods for all moderator actions. They're only for actions that are so incredibly common that it's directly beneficial to saving everyone vast amounts of time in the long run.

 

If you must do this, I think it would be better if it didn't state that it's an automatically generated message.  That's the number 1 reason so many people get offended by it, and why so many topics are made about it.  I get that this wasn't your intention, but that's how it comes off as.

 

It might not seem like a big deal, but removing that footnote from the automated posts would probably eliminate a majority of the complaints about them.

Edited October 10, 2013 by SBaby

[NavelColt 22,880]

If you must do this, I think it would be better if it didn't say that it's an automatically generated message.  That's the number 1 reason so many people get offended by it, and why so many topics are made about it.  I get that this wasn't your intention, but that's how it comes off as.

 

It might not seem like a big deal, but removing that footnote from the automated post would probably eliminate a majority of the complaints about it.

 

It's been there from the very start, and there's been a minimal amount of complaints over it, when you look at just how long 'the very start' is. It's there to make it known that it's a message re-used in topics; if it wasn't there, then instead of topics about 'it's cold-shouldered', we would then have topics about 'why do the staff copy paste these messages to everyone? That's lazy.' If one person out of ten decides to take offense to it, that's not something that can be changed. Can't please everyone all of the time, only some people some of the time.

 

I don't mind bringing it up to the others to see what ideas bounce around, but as you said yourself, it's important to keep in mind that focusing on the small things to a point where bigger things might not get the attention they deserve isn't something staff nor members should slip into, and in the grand scheme of things, a little line at the end of auto messages that only gives offense to those who decide to take offense onto themselves, isn't something I feel the staff should feel obligated to change, when it's worked fine for over half the forum's lifespan so far, in both the small and large crowds