Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Recent events in the Never Ending Stories forum have caused a community consensus in our forum to emerge, that the current PDMA (public discussion of moderator action) process is insufficient to address the concerns many have about moderator behavior.
Moderators deserve to be respected, but there needs to be a better grievance resolution process in the event of mistakes and hurt feelings on behalf of the community. The current private appeals process is unnecessarily opaque and does not hold moderators sufficiently responsible for mistakes. If moderators are doing their jobs, they should have nothing to fear from explaining their actions where necessary.
As such, there needs to be a thread or sub-forum where complaints and concerns can be brought up publicly, and where moderators and community members can discuss the rationales for moderator actions as equals. This would be an exception to the current PDMA policy, under which no discussion of moderator actions is ever allowed.
The rules as they stand represent a foolish policy which does more to separate the moderators from the community which they moderate than to protect moderators. The term 'moderator' means a guide, not a policeman, but lately some moderators seem to be embracing the latter mentality. The Internet in general is a place for free discussion, and while the maintenance of an orderly forum with thousands of members means adherence to the rules is important, lack of accountability to the forum at large can cause the growth of an insular and authoritarian mentality among moderators that offends many of us forum members.
This thread is for public discussion on reforming the PDMA rules and increasing moderator accountability to the community.
My proposed changes are listed in bold. Please consider them and offer ideas for improvements of your own.
Moderators deserve to be respected, but there needs to be a better grievance resolution process in the event of mistakes and hurt feelings on behalf of the community. The current private appeals process is unnecessarily opaque and does not hold moderators sufficiently responsible for mistakes. If moderators are doing their jobs, they should have nothing to fear from explaining their actions where necessary.
As such, there needs to be a thread or sub-forum where complaints and concerns can be brought up publicly, and where moderators and community members can discuss the rationales for moderator actions as equals. This would be an exception to the current PDMA policy, under which no discussion of moderator actions is ever allowed.
The rules as they stand represent a foolish policy which does more to separate the moderators from the community which they moderate than to protect moderators. The term 'moderator' means a guide, not a policeman, but lately some moderators seem to be embracing the latter mentality. The Internet in general is a place for free discussion, and while the maintenance of an orderly forum with thousands of members means adherence to the rules is important, lack of accountability to the forum at large can cause the growth of an insular and authoritarian mentality among moderators that offends many of us forum members.
This thread is for public discussion on reforming the PDMA rules and increasing moderator accountability to the community.
Current PDMA Rules said:Public discussion of moderator actions (PDMA)
Public discussion of actions taken or not taken by moderators or admins is not permitted. If you have a problem with something a moderator has done, then PM the moderator concerned. If you are not aware of which moderator made the action, then PM one of the moderators of that particular forum. Moderators are required to answer you and justify their actions, but they are not necessarily required to agree with you. Please give any mod pmed at least 24 hours to respond. If you do not get a response to the PM within that time frame or are not happy with the response you did get, then you can request a review (see details below). In your PMs, it is highly recommended that you be polite. There are occasions where moderators get something wrong, but generally this is a perception issue, and they may not have seen something in the same way that you have. Remember this if you want to have a constructive discussion with the moderators.
General discussion of how and why moderators do what they do are permitted in the Site Feedback forum when the discussion is in the spirit of improving the forum. Discussing specific incidents of warnings, infractions, bans, specific posters or moderators is not allowed. A statement of a fact of a warning, infraction or ban you yourself have received without value judgements is allowed. Publicly discussing a specific instance as a "hypothetical" is not allowed.
Proposed PDMA Rules said:Public discussion of moderator actions (PDMA)
Public discussion of actions taken or not taken by moderators or admins is permitted under certain circumstances. If you have a problem with something a moderator has done, the first resort should be to PM the moderator concerned. If you are not aware of which moderator made the action, then PM one of the moderators of that particular forum. Moderators are required to answer you and justify their actions, but they are not necessarily required to agree with you. Please give any mod pmed at least 24 hours to respond. If you do not get a response to the PM within that time frame or are not happy with the response you did get, then you can request a review (see details below) or post in the moderator feedback and appeals thread in Site Feedback. In your PMs and the appeal thread, it is highly recommended that you be polite. There are occasions where moderators get something wrong, but generally this is a perception issue, and they may not have seen something in the same way that you have. Remember this if you want to have a constructive discussion with the moderators.
Specific concerns with moderator behavior and enforcement are permitted in the designated moderator feedback and appeals thread in the Site Feedback forum. Please avoid flaming or trolling moderators when you express your concerns publicly, as the opportunity to discuss moderator actions is a privilege afforded to CFC members as members of a mature community. Please try not to abuse this privilege.
Outside of the appeals process, mentions of specific incidents of warnings, infractions, bans, specific posters or moderators are allowed, but are discouraged outside of Site Feedback. Posters discussing moderator action in other forums will be forwarded to the appeals thread, or to the appeals process listed below.
My proposed changes are listed in bold. Please consider them and offer ideas for improvements of your own.