UK posts being made invisible

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

I believe I already explained why the thread was made invisible. I locked the thread when I was out of control, and left it visible for an hour to allow the "dust to settle" and so members could see it was a closed topic. It served no purpose other than to show continued bickering.

that's gotta be a typo

[LaL 418]

fixed

lmao! good catch

[Leney 0]

Have our lives become so sad an empty we are debating this tripe? Surely I am not the only person rolling my eyes and thinking everyone needs to GROW THE HECK UP!

I have worked as a moderator as well as other duties for over 7 years on a site (professionally not volunteer) and you know what we tell people who cry about moderation/censorship etc - This is a privately owned forum, not governed by the US Constitution, as with any social club, you can adhere to the rules, or you can move on, or risk account termination. No one is nailing you to the floor and telling you you must stay. I'd consider yourselves very lucky the owner is even concerned with your input and ideas because I know how other businesses deal with it. Sorry for my very direct, real world response. I do have a heart

Do I like censorship? No. Do I think it applies to this forum? No. There is a host of things you agreed to when you signed up for your account, perhaps you should have read it carefully.

Anyway, stop being so stroppy and start being happy! YEESH PEOPLE!

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

THAT is up to charles he is the hat supplier!

i'll get right on it. incoming pm about color etc.

Actually, mawilson gave me the hat. Charles pimped it up for me!

actually that's a different hat than the one mawilson used

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

now that i'm all caught up.....i'd much rather see posts edited - removing the content that violates tos rather than them made invisible, for the following reasons:

- if the entire post is invisible, no one knows anything was done and even the poster may miss something of theirs being made invisible, so how would they know they did something wrong?

- the "edited due to tos violation" reinforces to all that mods are out there.....(cues x-files soundtrack)

[PlatyPius 5]

Which is better - no moderation at all, which has gotten the board where it is now - or mods?

And were exactly is VJ without mods? Personally I think it was better around here before posts started magically dissappearing. The main basis for VJ is for supporting people through visa and AOS application, and if you look at those forums they execute extremely well. I don't know how experienced the current mods are at their jobs, but I can't help but feel that the mod power has gone to the heads of some of our new mods and its spoiling things around here.

This is of course IMHO, but I still believe the correct way to deal with a bad thread is to lock it.

Mags is an administrator on my message board and a co-administrator on another message board. She hasn't suddenly become a (limited) Mod and gone power mad. I've only seen that happen to one or two "Organizers" here.....

[PlatyPius 5]

Going forward, I'd like to see:

- invisibility as last result. It is big brother & unneccessary unless racist, threatening, etc.

- warnings to chill out

- consistency in which posts get censored

- less bias

-If a threadmust be name changed, say why. This thread had no business being renamed, or moved.

I do appreciate your work, mods!

edited

[LaL 418]

Going forward, I'd like to see:

- invisibility as last result. It is big brother & unneccessary unless racist, threatening, etc.

- warnings to chill out

- consistency in which posts get censored

- less bias

-If a threadmust be name changed, say why. This thread had no business being renamed, or moved.

I do appreciate your work, mods!

Am I the only one who doesn't really give a sh!t what Devilette would like to see? I wasn't aware she had suddenly become board owner.

suggestions were asked for Platy.

[PlatyPius 5]

Going forward, I'd like to see:

- invisibility as last result. It is big brother & unneccessary unless racist, threatening, etc.

- warnings to chill out

- consistency in which posts get censored

- less bias

-If a threadmust be name changed, say why. This thread had no business being renamed, or moved.

I do appreciate your work, mods!

Am I the only one who doesn't really give a sh!t what Devilette would like to see? I wasn't aware she had suddenly become board owner.

suggestions were asked for Platy.

Sorry.... I got through most of the first page and all I saw was "Me! Me! Me!" type stuff, and it really got to me.

[Yodrak 7]

charlesandnessa,

Now that things have calmed down I feel that I can post a few thoughts. Not picking on you, but you provide a nice opening.

With regard to invisibility, the 3 moderators can make a post invisible or we can delete a post (I think - the option is there but I haven't tried it). I have used the invisibility option on ocassion because it can be reversed should circumstances warrant. But we do not have the ability to edit a post. Maybe Captaine Ewok does, but we 3 moderators do not. So editing is not an option.

As to making posts invisible v. closing the thread I prefer to be flexible and will judge each thread on the situation as I see it in that thread. I might make a post or several that I consider to be really 'over the top' invisible if I think that a thread might be salvagable, I might merely post a caution, or I might close the thread if I think it is not salvagable. I've done all three.

Yodrak

now that i'm all caught up.....i'd much rather see posts edited - removing the content that violates tos rather than them made invisible, for the following reasons:

- if the entire post is invisible, no one knows anything was done and even the poster may miss something of theirs being made invisible, so how would they know they did something wrong?

- the "edited due to tos violation" reinforces to all that mods are out there.....(cues x-files soundtrack)

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

Yes I agree that editing out portions and leaving the "edited by" plus "reason why" is ideal however due to privacy reasons I did not enable that on the mod accounts (also because once it is deleted the evidence is gone forever) -- so this said, the mods are not to be blamed on that (blame me ).

One possible thing would be to see if we can make a post invisible but have a place holder automatically inserted where the post was that says (post has been removed for "reason to be input by mod"). This would show that something was made invisible (and could be restored later) but also tell people why it was done so there is no mystery. It would also re-enforce the moderation having occurred and provide feedback to people to calm down or stop the objectionable activity.

All that said, this does not exist and would require a custom modification to the forums software. I am probably skilled enough to code this however before I even start I would want to get some feedback on this.

[Mags 112]

One possible thing would be to see if we can make a post invisible but have a place holder automatically inserted where the post was that says (post has been removed for "reason to be input by mod"). This would show that something was made invisible (and could be restored later) but also tell people why it was done so there is no mystery. It would also re-enforce the moderation having occurred and provide feedback to people to calm down or stop the objectionable activity.

All that said, this does not exist and would require a custom modification to the forums software. I am probably skilled enough to code this however before I even start I would want to get some feedback on this.

That is actually a really good option and one I would be happy to use if you were able to implement it with few problems.

[Mags 112]

Actually, mawilson gave me the hat. Charles pimped it up for me!

actually that's a different hat than the one mawilson used

*removes foot from mouth*

Sorry, Charles! Thank you for my hat!

[rebeccajo 14]

Why can't people just be suspended for acting like turds?

In real life there's no magic eraser that takes away the stupid stuff we do. Editing and removing stuff might take away the inflammatory talk, but hey - that's what the person did and said and it should be clear to all those out there what they did or said that warranted a suspension.

[Yodrak 7]

Captain Ewok,

I personally would not want the ability to do something that cannot be un-done. It can be difficult to make a good edit, what should be edited out and what should not is subjective (this whole thread is an excellent example of subjective opinion), and mistakes (unintentional deletion of the wrong thing with the jerk of the mouse) are easy to make.

I would not use the feature if it were available, unless I could abort or retrieve. I'll stick with the reversable invisibility, the placeholder with explanation being a good addition.

Yodrak

Yes I agree that editing out portions and leaving the "edited by" plus "reason why" is ideal however due to privacy reasons I did not enable that on the mod accounts (also because once it is deleted the evidence is gone forever) -- so this said, the mods are not to be blamed on that (blame me ).

One possible thing would be to see if we can make a post invisible but have a place holder automatically inserted where the post was that says (post has been removed for "reason to be input by mod"). This would show that something was made invisible (and could be restored later) but also tell people why it was done so there is no mystery. It would also re-enforce the moderation having occurred and provide feedback to people to calm down or stop the objectionable activity.

All that said, this does not exist and would require a custom modification to the forums software. I am probably skilled enough to code this however before I even start I would want to get some feedback on this.