I was a moderator for a long time, though not on english-speaking forums (mostly on literature and rpg forums if you're curious).
Here are a few things I noticed about forum moderation:
- It's impossible to have a set of rules that is precise enough so each case of trolling can be judged equally - forums don't have a legal system, they have a set of rules and you're supposed to respect the spirit of it, and be a nice person in general. But it's not possible either to just make it a personal judgment everytime.
- Instead, moderators consult each other. They discuss (sometimes they even have a regular week/month meeting), and they make decisions. I don't think this forum is much different. Of course they are humans, so they have human biases, and since they also choose new moderators together, it's inevitable to have some homogeneization ongoing, even if in my experience there are always odd elements (moderators aren't chosen depending on their personal or political opinions, and there are good, motivated people everywhere). When those odd elements start leaving en masse, that's when you have a problem. Well, except if they are nazis of course.
- The worst trolls - that is, the most damaging to the community - always cross the line at some point. Political trolls will start making propaganda and act like if they could take the power on the forum. Misogynist trolls will start sending PMs to the wrong people. Racist trolls will put a racist avatar and use "code names" (for some reason they think using different words for their racism make them immune). Fake SJWs start being angry at everyone and send PMs to moderators to ban other people because other users "might have offended an obscure category of people by using a word that evokes eating meat".
And when they do, you have to ban that account forever, because they won't stop. Generally they will create new accounts anyway, and the cycle repeats itself.
- Other trolls are just people with questionable views on the world, that will never go further. Sometimes it feels bad to keep them within a community, but they are not damaging. They are part of the real world. Sometimes they will provoke heated discussions - that, too, is part of the real world we live in. Which doesn't mean they can't be moderated, but as long as they don't cross the line, it's better to treat them like users that had a bad day and are a bit angry. Sometimes they even evolve in a good way. Remember that people on forums can be young, and be teens testing their limits. Nowadays it's fashionable to be an alt-right troll or a fake SJW, but there were trends for "know-it-alls" (before wikipedia), "true gamers/geeks", pirates that threatened everyone to DDOS the website, just to cite the less weird ones.
Btw, everytime there are people saying the mod team isn't diverse enough - generally because they don't feel there are enough moderators who share their opinions. But they'll try to argue that many other "minorities" aren't represented either. That's because questioning the legitimacy of an authority instead of how this authority is put in practice is very easy and satisfying - once you start questioning legitimacy on a forum, you can always find a way to be right about it.
Here are a few things I noticed about forum moderation:
- It's impossible to have a set of rules that is precise enough so each case of trolling can be judged equally - forums don't have a legal system, they have a set of rules and you're supposed to respect the spirit of it, and be a nice person in general. But it's not possible either to just make it a personal judgment everytime.
- Instead, moderators consult each other. They discuss (sometimes they even have a regular week/month meeting), and they make decisions. I don't think this forum is much different. Of course they are humans, so they have human biases, and since they also choose new moderators together, it's inevitable to have some homogeneization ongoing, even if in my experience there are always odd elements (moderators aren't chosen depending on their personal or political opinions, and there are good, motivated people everywhere). When those odd elements start leaving en masse, that's when you have a problem. Well, except if they are nazis of course.
- The worst trolls - that is, the most damaging to the community - always cross the line at some point. Political trolls will start making propaganda and act like if they could take the power on the forum. Misogynist trolls will start sending PMs to the wrong people. Racist trolls will put a racist avatar and use "code names" (for some reason they think using different words for their racism make them immune). Fake SJWs start being angry at everyone and send PMs to moderators to ban other people because other users "might have offended an obscure category of people by using a word that evokes eating meat".
And when they do, you have to ban that account forever, because they won't stop. Generally they will create new accounts anyway, and the cycle repeats itself.
- Other trolls are just people with questionable views on the world, that will never go further. Sometimes it feels bad to keep them within a community, but they are not damaging. They are part of the real world. Sometimes they will provoke heated discussions - that, too, is part of the real world we live in. Which doesn't mean they can't be moderated, but as long as they don't cross the line, it's better to treat them like users that had a bad day and are a bit angry. Sometimes they even evolve in a good way. Remember that people on forums can be young, and be teens testing their limits. Nowadays it's fashionable to be an alt-right troll or a fake SJW, but there were trends for "know-it-alls" (before wikipedia), "true gamers/geeks", pirates that threatened everyone to DDOS the website, just to cite the less weird ones.
Btw, everytime there are people saying the mod team isn't diverse enough - generally because they don't feel there are enough moderators who share their opinions. But they'll try to argue that many other "minorities" aren't represented either. That's because questioning the legitimacy of an authority instead of how this authority is put in practice is very easy and satisfying - once you start questioning legitimacy on a forum, you can always find a way to be right about it.
