Invisible mode, reported posts and pms: communicating with moderators

Begging the pardon of ghosts, but ghost mode is unfair to use regularly. It's fair if everyone uses it, or fair if no one uses it.

I allow my comings and going to be publicly available information, and any ghost who ever checks my profile is cheating - and same goes for noticing that I'm browsing the subforum they're in, which is really hard to imagine never happening. Staff 'see dead people' anyway, so it only puts other members with nothing to hide at a disadvantage.

Surely that makes sense.

-Also, it explains why an old friend never has last active data displaying; I talked to him about pulling that excrement years ago.

Loppan Torkel said:

Why can't I see the stats for a certain member? When he was logged on the last time for instance.

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I'm not sure, but are stats visible if the person has you (generic you) on ignore? (or the reverse too)

Buster's Uncle said:

Begging the pardon of ghosts, but ghost mode is unfair to use regularly. It's fair if everyone uses it, or fair if no one uses it.

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The reason I use invisible mode here is because in years past, there were online stalkers from a couple of forums where things went very bad. These two <expletive removed> would follow me around the 'net to forums they knew I frequented (ie. here at CFC) and did active searches to see if I was elsewhere (some of those searches resulted in cases of mistaken identity, thereby causing trouble for completely innocent bystanders). What they did with the information they found was post on their own sites and blogs, twisting my words into the most vile connotations and making some really nasty insinuations about me and my family. That's one reason why I've never posted photos of myself or my family online: these two have done google searches, would find them, and continue with their harassment and slander.

I figured that if I went into invisible mode on those forums where I know they found me, it might make them think I'd abandoned those sites, and it's worked somewhat.

I've had a similar experience, actually, and it went on for almost two years straight (and to add insult to injury, was commonly perceived as me being in a feud with someone I was ignoring/avoiding so hard I stopped checking CFC for the duration because he posted here occasionally). But you know? I was very active where I was active, and he was reading all my posts - what point in concealing the rest? Your situation may be different, of course.

p.s. &^%$#@! stalkers must die.

Please post a few more times so we can home in on your IP -the Agency.

Have a party - it's dynamic.

Also - the stalker? He was always logged out or ghosting while he spied on me. Stalkers LOVE ghost mode.

Takhisis said:

On his profile, assuming, of course, that that person isn't using invisible mode.

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The profile shows much less than the usual info. What's this invisible mode? (edit: nvm, found it) I don't think I'm on his ignore, but maybe he asked for a temp-ban... It doesn't matter that much ..merely curious.

Loppan Torkel said:

The profile shows much less than the usual info. What's this invisible mode? (edit: nvm, found it) I don't think I'm on his ignore, but maybe he asked for a temp-ban... It doesn't matter that much ..merely curious.

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Every user has options to disable showing information on their visitor wall. That's probably what's going on here.

Yea, that's probably it. I probably should check the features out a bit more

I have a related follow-up question. What's with (most?) so many of the staff seeming to ghost all the time? It's a good way to catch bad citizens in the act, I guess, but is another thing making moderation less visible, thus giving up a positive prophylactic effect (in favor of more gotcha?).

I was just trying to contact one who mentioned possible illness to me when last we spoke, and who has been quiet since - when I click on his account, no last activity. It's more than a bit frustrating.

And sometimes you have/see a problem that most anyone on staff could attend to, but it kinda sucks when you can't see who's onsite to get quick action...

Buster's Uncle said:

And sometimes you have/see a problem that most anyone on staff could attend to, but it kinda sucks when you can't see who's onsite to get quick action...

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This has been a frustration around here for years. The usual way to handle it is to report the post (the triangle icon), state what the problem is, and submit. The report will get forwarded to the mod forum, where somebody will decide what to do about it. This could take minutes, hours, or days. It depends on which forum the problem occurred in, if anyone's around at the time, and if the issue requires discussion before they decide what to do about it.

Some moderators use invisible mode because they don't want to be inundated with PMs, telling them about problems that are happening, asking for something to be moved, edited, closed, opened, etc.

And some of the staff listed are MIA - as in they haven't been around for several weeks or months (or years, in some cases). There is another thread around here where that discussion is going on.

Valka D'Ur said:

Some moderators use invisible mode because they don't want to be inundated with PMs, telling them about problems that are happening, asking for something to be moved, edited, closed, opened, etc.

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Sucks to be them, I guess, but wouldn't you say they're not doing their bleeping jobs if so?

Is it right to constantly tell everyone to use PMs for everything, then pull something lame like that?

I also have had confidentiality breached on post reporting here, which not only broke faith but escalated a conflict -rather opposite of the purpose of the report post function- so don't hold your breath waiting for me to ever touch that button again.

It would be nice if there were a general 'PM moderator' button for those who are interested in contacting a moderator, but not interested in which one. If moderators were all visible, it wouldn't necessarily be all that helpful, because just because a moderator is logged in, doesn't mean they're actually present, or if they are present, doesn't necessarily mean they're available.

So if the issue is wanting a problem dealt with, or a thread moved, etc., then you should be using the report button. That's the best way to get in contact with moderators.

Buster's Uncle said:

Sucks to be them, I guess, but wouldn't you say they're not doing their bleeping jobs if so?

Is it right to constantly tell everyone to use PMs for everything, then pull something lame like that?

I also have had confidentiality breached on post reporting here, which not only broke faith but escalated a conflict -rather opposite of the purpose of the report post function- so don't hold your breath waiting for me to ever touch that button again.

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Well... the thing is, I used to be a moderator here a few years ago, originally in the Arts & Entertainment forum, then OT as well (this was before OT was split into the Chamber and Tavern). So some of the issues people bring up in Site Feedback are ones I can see from both sides, and it can be alternately confusing, frustrating, and just plain weird for me to sort it out in my own mind, depending on if the issue refers to something that happened before, during, or after my time as staff.

I've given my reasons for using invisible mode, and it's something I've been doing for years on this site. The stalkers I referred to know I'm a member here, and their own sites are still active - I checked that a couple of days ago. They're still active, still hateful, and thank goodness I seem to be off their radar these days. I'd like to keep it that way. (I suppose I could have asked for my present account to be killed and start a completely new identity here, but would very much prefer not to. I did consider doing that elsewhere that they found me, but that was partly to protect other members there who also got innocently caught up in their campaign of hate.)

Other people here who use invisible mode do it for their own reasons, mods included. It's not forbidden for mods, so this is an issue that could be brought up in its own thread: Should the moderators and admins of CFC be allowed to log on in invisible mode? That way some of them might be able to explain further, and you could give your reasons why you think they shouldn't be allowed to.


As for using PMs here... well, not everyone likes doing that. I use PMs here, but not the email system. Off-board email is fine, if it's someone I trust with my personal email, and there are very few here I've ever trusted that far. It gets to be a problem if a staff member consistently ignores their PMs, deletes them unread, or takes forever to see them in the first place (all hypothetical examples). All these examples are instances where a moderator would be failing in his duty, in my opinion.

Buster's Uncle said:

Sucks to be them, I guess, but wouldn't you say they're not doing their bleeping jobs if so?

Is it right to constantly tell everyone to use PMs for everything, then pull something lame like that?

I also have had confidentiality breached on post reporting here, which not only broke faith but escalated a conflict -rather opposite of the purpose of the report post function- so don't hold your breath waiting for me to ever touch that button again.

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I never use invisible mode and I don't ever get spam pms just because I'm here. I'd rather be a beat cop than a secret agent.

Good for you, Bj.


Valka, I beat my stalker with a Russian Winter strategy - I avoided engaging him or even [girldog]ing much about him in private, and it took forever, but he finally ran out of steam after over a year and 1/2, and despite his slander campaign, I'm contributing and happy and a leader in my part of the community, and all he has left is a very bad reputation. So, I'm impressed with his hate stamina, but you know, it worked out okay. A stalker story with a happy ending, (which I bet doesn't comfort you at all -sorry.)

Camikaze said:

It would be nice if there were a general 'PM moderator' button for those who are interested in contacting a moderator, but not interested in which one. If moderators were all visible, it wouldn't necessarily be all that helpful, because just because a moderator is logged in, doesn't mean they're actually present, or if they are present, doesn't necessarily mean they're available.

So if the issue is wanting a problem dealt with, or a thread moved, etc., then you should be using the report button. That's the best way to get in contact with moderators.

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Some good points, but I don't know where I stuttered in my remarks about the report button. It ain't gonna happen.

I have raised the matter with the proper authority now, so please no one ask until he's had a chance to look into it.

Back to the ghost mods, there are all kinds of reasons you might need to be able to choose who you deal with...

I am one of the invisible mods - mostly cause I tend to come and go without logging out and since I have odd timing in my time that I am actively online its quite often the case that I leave CFC on my browser while away for hours or even the night when my computer is still running other stuff - me being visible then would just falsely show me as online when as a matter of fact I may not be.

Buster's Uncle said:

Some good points, but I don't know where I stuttered in my remarks about the report button. It ain't gonna happen.

I have raised the matter with the proper authority now, so please no one ask until he's had a chance to look into it.

Back to the ghost mods, there are all kinds of reasons you might need to be able to choose who you deal with...

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Yeah, I read what you said, but was just restating for the audience that the report feature remains the best way to contact moderators, and the officially supported way. If you don't like the report feature, that's a shame, and I'm sorry you had a bad experience with it here, whatever that happened to be, but it remains the best way to contact us. If you're using a method other than the best one provided, then unfortunately it may have some limitations, such as knowing which moderator to contact.

If you need to choose who to deal with though, then you're presumably going to contact the moderator you've chosen whether they're online or not.

Camikaze said:

It would be nice if there were a general 'PM moderator' button for those who are interested in contacting a moderator, but not interested in which one. If moderators were all visible, it wouldn't necessarily be all that helpful, because just because a moderator is logged in, doesn't mean they're actually present, or if they are present, doesn't necessarily mean they're available.

So if the issue is wanting a problem dealt with, or a thread moved, etc., then you should be using the report button. That's the best way to get in contact with moderators.

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Hmmm. Maybe the report feature should be explained with lotsa pictures, as you do for kids. Practically all of us don't know what the moderator's CP and private forums look like.

What's the difference between the current report warnings and the forum-wide 'announcements'?

How do you mean? When a post is reported, a thread is created in the 'Reported Post Discussions' subforum with the OP being 'CFC Bot'. The OP links to the post in question, states the reason for the report and the reporter's name, the name of the poster who has been reported, and quotes the post that is being reported. The title of the thread is 'Name of forum: Reported by name of poster'. This means moderators know which reports are relevant to them. Then we discuss each report within that thread, occasionally merging separate reports as necessary. So they don't have anything to do with the announcement system.

Buster's Uncle said:

Good for you, Bj.


Valka, I beat my stalker with a Russian Winter strategy - I avoided engaging him or even [girldog]ing much about him in private, and it took forever, but he finally ran out of steam after over a year and 1/2, and despite his slander campaign, I'm contributing and happy and a leader in my part of the community, and all he has left is a very bad reputation. So, I'm impressed with his hate stamina, but you know, it worked out okay. A stalker story with a happy ending, (which I bet doesn't comfort you at all -sorry.)

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Well, it's a long story and not suitable to post here. Basically I wasn't sufficiently "with them" which meant I was "against them" and they made it very personal and very nasty, going after not only me, but my family, co-forum members, and total strangers who happened to have the same username as me on some sites.

Takhisis said:

Hmmm. Maybe the report feature should be explained with lotsa pictures, as you do for kids. Practically all of us don't know what the moderator's CP and private forums look like.

What's the difference between the current report warnings and the forum-wide 'announcements'?

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For the basics of vBulletin, here is the vBulletin manual. It's freely available online. Naturally it won't show the specific CFC one, which may have features that have been added or disabled.

The vBulletin support forum may also be of some use in answering your questions. Again, this is freely available, and anyone can join.