Self-Appointed Forum Police - Does It Bother You?

HA HA..........Bullseye!!!

Not sure what you meant by quoting me, Isabeau - but Kitty's wasn't the post I called out as similar to my own sentiments.

To put my own verbage on it, some of the folks who have an issue with "Self-Appointed Forum Police" do just as much harm as those attempting to do the policing themselves.

To me - whether 'policing' is appropriate comes down to whether someone is trying to be helpful, or simply trying to do a 'neener-neener'. If its the latter, they deserve to reap what they sow. If its the former, I don't think they deserve groans for attempting to be helpful.

Of course, in any text-based communication mechanism, its difficult sometimes to discern tone & intent. Sometimes folks are truly trying to be helpful, but suffer from a poor choice of words.

Nothing to see here...move along...

I’m pretty easy but Ive occasionally called people out for trolling or misleading thread titles or just being on my wrong side at that particular moment. Big deal and don’t take it personal. I think group moderation can be more effective then one person calling the shots. And even though no one other then the mods can close or lock or redirect a thread, groups can easily hijack or elevate a thread. But ive just not seen too many examples of individuals being overly impatient or rude. It happens Im sure but just not that often. IMO

/me wonders if Bec ever got the pie out of her dress last week

I was just joking because in my post I wrote that I was 'easy', and you agreed with me.

So in other words, I was trying to be funny, and failed miserably.

lol no worries.

I'm attempting to read/reply to a forum while I'm on a confrence call. I guess that's sorta like texting & driving

This is not the right forum for this question - not that we appear to have a proper forum for it, but that is totally beside the point.

Well.. it was born of annoyance as you can no doubt tell- I had thought of just mentioning it in passing in the Undead Thread- but figured not everyone goes there and I wondered if it was just me over reacting.

i think it's helpful when we are reminded of what this place was intended for..... although i have all but given up and allowed myself to participate in the GD lately.

It should be pointed out that there are those who shall remain nameless but whom some here are familiar with that post time and time again with subject matter inappropriate for this forum. They know it and they don't seem to care, whether it be defaming others, or simpy shameless self promotion of their businesses. If they are treated poorly in this forum as a result, where their posting privileges would otherwise be suspended if there was moderation (or more moderation) in this forum, I find it hard to be sympathetic about any mistreatment they receive as a result. It's been my observation that most of the regulars here have been very tolerant of such people....in the beginning....and for a time...but eventually even the thickest of skins can get worn thin by repeat offenders.

I think it's a bit ridiculous to expect every new forum poster to have waded through all the more specific subforums before posting here in order to ask a question. This is, after all, "Resident Answers" and it says right on the forum listing that this is the place to ask questions. Hell, I don't see why there's a need for this forum to be exclusively about "questions if and only if said questions are not covered in more detail somewhere else". It doesn't say that. The converse case is different though, I'm all for informing people they don't need to be asking shoe shopping questions in the scripting forum

But like Isabeau suggests, the tone of the reply makes a big difference, i.e., helpful vs. snarky or condescending. There've been a couple of times when I was in a bad mood and pointed out to some "officer" that they were NOT helping matters. I try not to let it bug me though.

Sometimes the best answer *is* "post in forum X, they know all about this". Being nice about it goes a long way though, to me.

The moderation problems aren't unique to these forums. They've been around for years. All you need to do is look at the number of Usenet groups that have spawned *.moderated versions to see how old and how pervasive the problem is. They also show that a large body of users agree that moderation of some sort is frequently necessary.

This also shows that there are no perfect solutions. There will always posts being placed in inappropriate forums. People who rely on the forums will, with some justification, get frustrated or annoyed when other people do things that make it more difficult or less efficient to use the forums. Some of them will, at times, allow that annoyance to show through in their responses. It's not easy to find a balance that conveys the annoyance appropriately without offending the other person. Many cases just turn into a no-win situation.

The best I can offer is to encourage people who respond brusquely to remember that many of the offenders are newcomers, and should be given some extra kindness and consideration. Similarly, explain to people who are offended by such responses that the underlying issues are real and legitimate, the problem occurs frequently, posting in the correct place is a convention of etiquette that should learn and follow, and that they shouldn't take such responses personally.

One word on Search. Sucks. I was searching for a thread earlier today, tried to be as descriptive as possible and got pages of useless threads. I found it by searching through my posts, since I posted in it, and luckily it was recent enough that I could find it.

It's so bad that I rarely suggest that people search the forums. When I do, I'll often try it myself first to see that the results are meaningful.

However, if you know the author, then using the Advanced Search to search by name is usually effective. I use that for searching for my own posts (but rarely for others, since I try to avoid noticing author names).

when i do a search it seems like the same threads pop up everytime.i just figure they all have something in common and give up on search

One thing that makes the search less useful than it otherwise would be is having thousands and thousands of off topic, just chewing the fat threads mixed in with threads concerning how to use Second Life.

Some folks may always be trying to use the search from the little box that appears when you click on the word "Search" in the top of the forum page. There's a so-called "Advanced Search" page that has a link at the bottom of the little Search box, it's at /invalid_link.html .

The Advanced Search page allows you to a few things the little Search box doesn't, like use phrases in quotes, set a date range, pick out which forum to search from, etc.

Also useful is to use the Search This Forum search, so if you have a Scripting question, go to the Scripting forum and use the Search This Forum link to see just posts from the Scripting forum.

I don't think Resident Answers is the place for this sort of discussion.







*runs away*

/me whips off her pants and waves them in salute.

Ah these forums are fine as is, you want to see real anarchy visit some newsgroups where there is no moderation at all aver.

.

I don't see the difference in a post that isn't relevant to the forum and a reply to said post that isn't relevant to the post.

Neither one bothers me at all.

You're all under arrest for making me read this thread.

/me peeks into thread, sees "Pie Police" and scampers off quickly.

I can one up that. Try being a part of medical newsgroups (even with moderation) that deals with an infection of the central nervous system, alters brain chemistry and can lead to, among other things, loss of emotional control Wow, am I glad that finally cleared up.