OT improvement suggestions

[Knight-Dragon]

I understand you have ot stick to the charter... I just wish the enforcement of it couldnt use a more common sense approach. that thread wasnt going to offend anyone. It mightnt have been to many people taste, but no one was going to do anyhting more than gripe, and move on. there was a very reasonable thread closing yesterday, I'm not against censorship where appropriate. I just think even the few under-18s we have here arent going to complain about something with a mildly smutty tone.

Basically it's TF's forum, and we moderate it according to what we have established as his guidelines. These guidelines have been laid down over many years and after a long process of adaptations and changes.

Of course if I am the forum owner, I will do things very very differently. But I am not.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Yes, that sounds like quite an accurate description of the past. But still I think it would have been a good idea.

Well, so do I. But I am too lazy to push for it these recent years.

I am not sure if I should engage with somebody who is a moderator himself in this kind of debate, but I will take a stab.
Might I point out that "common-sense, matured judgement and fair-handedness" are just words before anybody define them. They are nice and fluffy, and we all ascribe them to people we like.
I could name at least one moderator who the way I see it is sorely lacking all those qualities.

As usual, you can always appeal/complain to TF on any of the mods' actions and their perceived lack of moderator qualities.

Political opinions, on the other hand is something more concrete. And there has been some controversial decisions made by moderators where I dare say that politics played an important part. Sometimes one wants to be judged by one's equals...

Read post above.

I don't think this is an issue these days, since we usually bring up such 'controversial' cases for Staff discussion. More like a group decision, rather than any single mod's judgement.

Location is less important to me and I am not sure what is meant by background.

Different 'political system', life experience, age, life outlook, economic background, profession etc.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

I think splitting the forum is a terrible idea. Its great to have eveythign in together, more inclusive and more diverse ideas. Splittign it will slow down the post rate. Frankly, if spam annoys you that much, just get over it. Dont read it.

Yeah, we also get more duplicated threads, which need closing, which in turn adds to thread turnover. I need to close two just today.

Too much spam is not a good idea in a busy forum - I don't want to delve thru pages of threads and tons of posts to find the more interesting ones.

 

[Richard Cribb]

Well, so do I. But I am too lazy to push for it these recent years.

I might, if there is any use in it.

As usual, you can always appeal/complain to TF on any of the mods' actions and their perceived lack of moderator qualities.

Perhaps I should in the future. But that does not in any way remove the reason for my dissatisfaction, so it is beyond the point.

Read post above.

I don't think this is an issue these days, since we usually bring up such 'controversial' cases for Staff discussion. More like a group decision, rather than any single mod's judgement.

And that is not my point at all.
As far as I have been able to figure out, the mods on OT are to be found from the quite extreme right to the very moderate right on the political spectre. With some generosity, I think I can call a couple of them social democrats.
Now I realize that this is almost an accurate reflection on how political positions are distributed among the active OT posters, it can't be denied that the radical ones are a clear minority. But even so, in the democratic spirit, one should think that at least one of us should be eligible and represented among the moderators. Otherwise any group decision point is a moot point, since the "sinner" will not be represented anyway.

Different 'political system', life experience, age, life outlook, economic background, profession etc.

I am not so sure if I am so convinced by that.
At least what concern social class and probably also background, I think that one shouldn't exaggerate the differences.

 

[carmen510]

Separate the OT into a Politics sub-forum, a religious sub-forum, and a random news sub-forum. That should take care of around 75% of the salvageable threads. The rest is mostly spammy threads.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

I might, if there is any use in it.

Go for it.

Perhaps I should in the future. But that does not in any way remove the reason for my dissatisfaction, so it is beyond the point.

The only one you can really appeal to is TF. Appealing to the mods is not going to work - since we're all equal anyways. We don't go after each other with knives, not anymore. Appealing to the 'public' is worse. Just bring it to the Big Boss.

And holding your dissatisfaction is bad for digestion.

Otherwise there isn't much else to do...

And that is not my point at all.
As far as I have been able to figure out, the mods on OT are to be found from the quite extreme right to the very moderate right on the political spectre. With some generosity, I think I can call a couple of them social democrats.
Now I realize that this is almost an accurate reflection on how political positions are distributed among the active OT posters, it can't be denied that the radical ones are a clear minority. But even so, in the democratic spirit, one should think that at least one of us should be eligible and represented among the moderators. Otherwise any group decision point is a moot point, since the "sinner" will not be represented anyway.

And what exactly is your point?

When there's a mod discussion, it's always whether on how the issue is be dealt with within the rules, or whether it will be good for the forum, or etc.

A poster's (or mod's) political background never comes into the picture at all. I don't even know what's the orientation like, for most of my fellow mods.

BTW, Rik is left AFAIK. I have no right or left, since I don't bother with politics much.

 

[sirdanilot]

Uhm, what does politic orientation have to do with a bunch of Moderators on a Civilization fan site?

Sorry, I fail to get the connection here.

 

[ainwood]

It might also not hurt with a bigger diversity among the moderators; if there are some many reds here as some of the Usual suspects claim, why are there not at least one communist moderator?

Well, there is Eyrei....

 

[azzaman333]

Uhm, what does politic orientation have to do with a bunch of Moderators on a Civilization fan site?

Sorry, I fail to get the connection here.

I assume that some people believe that the moderators are harsher towards left-leaning people.

 

[Zhuge_Liang]

I agree to carmen. There should be a Political sub-forum, a religious sub-forum, a news sub-forum and the pictures only sub-forum.

The OT must also have more moderators to check it around the clock.

 

[Catharsis]

We don't need religion/politics/news subfora, because if those were implemented, you'd basically be seeing the same threads, but it'd take more clicks to get to them.

The only reason to split a forum off from Off-Topic is when interesting threads are being buried under the religion/politics/news discussions - that's why this science/technology subforum's being proposed. The three subjects you mentioned are all very popular discussion topics and are in no danger of being lost under a pile of other threads.

 

[sirdanilot]

I assume that some people believe that the moderators are harsher towards left-leaning people.

If any moderator would be affected by political orientation, they should be demoted instantly.
I haven't seen any demoted OT mods recently, so I don't think this is the case. So please, let's discuss more important issues!

 

[.Shane.]

The OT mods are fine. The forum is fine. Leave it well enough alone, please. If you split it up into sub-forums you'll find they are collectively used less and that your moderators have to waste a bunch of time because forum goers will instinctually seek out an OT-type forum and create it in some forum you'd hope they didn't.

 

[IglooDame]

I agree to carmen. There should be a Political sub-forum, a religious sub-forum, a news sub-forum and the pictures only sub-forum.

The OT must also have more moderators to check it around the clock.

Well, I agree with the "OT must have more moderators" sentiment, at least.

But how would one decide whether, say, Mitt Romney's speech about "religion in America" gets discussed in the Political, Religious, or News subforums?

 

[Mise]

3 Separate threads, one to discuss its political implications, one to discuss the religious content, and one for people to post links to the other two threads and ask for this one to be closed.

 

[ainwood]

Well, I agree with the "OT must have more moderators" sentiment, at least.

I don't (per-se).

Just needs the existing ones to remain focused.

 

[sirdanilot]

More moderators wouldn't be a bad idea, but I'm not entirely sure if it's really needed. Anyway, it's better to have too many than not enough, so it wouldn't hurt increasing the amount of mods. You can always demote them anyway (or make them mod of another forum, that is for example civ related).

 

[azzaman333]

I think a better geographical spread of moderators would be beneficial, since IglooDude and Whomp seem to be by far the most active moderators in OT which seemingly leaves OT unmoderated during the periods which neither can be on.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

ainwood is in NZ and Mathilda is in Europe (for now).

 

[azzaman333]

ainwood is in NZ and Mathilda is in Europe (for now).

But, they don't seem to be as active as Whomp or ID, which was my point.