fact or fiction?

I should make an alternative thread with the same general idea... I'll call it:

Fucked or Faction?

Well what I posted is a paraphrasing of the only account I read here by someone who was made a moderator as to the process of that. It's basically semantics anyway and I don't know who's sillier you for pounding this dead horse, or me for keeping on disagreeing with you.

So I guess for this final, final retort I will argue that the *announcement* of the list of moderators was made before they accepted the positions, but they were still in fact asked and they did in fact ruminate over it and eventually accepted.

I know I am probably driving you to distraction by continuing to argue it, but I am pretty sure I know which side of the debate over res-mods looks the most childish and has the least substance overall.

I think its clear the res-mod program has had some mis-steps but the plethora of angry shouting threads about the "evil conspiracy" of the res-mod program is just laughable. What's funnier is that some of the smartest people on the forum are believing this crap.

I know I keep reaching for the "childish" word and I don't want to paste anyone in particular with it, because as I also keep saying I have a lot of respect for the intelligence and general "coolness" of most of the people here. But these last few days and over this one issue, that's all I see. A bunch of whiny babies.

Where is the real evidence that it's all "falling apart?"
Where are the constructive *alternative* suggestions?
No where to be found.

It's all just "tear it down," because IT NOW AFFECTS MEEEE!!!
Wah!

I don't know if you pay much attention to my postings, but over time, Cocoanut Cookie (Koala) and I have had a contentious forum relationship. Yet you will note my strongest complaints about the ResMod program have been about how she has been specifically treated - the singling out of her thread for movement when others on the exact same topics were left, then the petty 2 star rating given by the mods after moving it back because the thread dares to protest. I am standing up for it because I genuinely believe it is wrong, regardless of who it is happening to. It's not "wahhhh it now affects meeee" because I'm not worried about being moderated. If I take a warning, I will make sure it is worth it and say what I really think instead of trying my damdest to be diplomatic. What bothers me about the entire thing are not the missteps, but the lack of culpability.

You may think it is childish to complain about all of this, that is your opinion. I think it is fair to raise objections to something that essentially equates to paying customers being governed by other paying customers, without representation. That horrible G word that we were promised we would not be submitted to. The ResMods may all be fabulous people (though clearly one or two do not deserve the position in any way shape or form), but this should be handled by employees of Linden Lab. I know they enjoy socially experimenting on us like guinea pigs, but in the end they are a service provider.

My hope now is that we can at least weed out the ResMods who have no business moderating anyone, and that something does come of the targetting of Cocoanut that was very blatant. To say the program got off to a horrible start is an understatement - most of it could have been avoided had there been actual planning, and involvement of the community in actually choosing those among themselves that they respect as leaders, not just having people thrust upon them.

The AR's are now confidental. In the recent Tweaks , the SL name is no longer included with the AR report. Now when a ResMod receive an AR report, the only info they get is the complaint and a link to the thread.

MJ

From what I've read you make it sound like one of the ResMods moved her thread. They didn't. That particular thread was moved during the time the ResMods didn't yet have permissions. Jeska moved that thread for the reasons she stated. As far as the rest, I agree. The program never had a chance, I see that now

MJ

Actually, I know it was Jeska who moved the thread - it is just now irrevocably tied to the ResMod thing because a) there is discussion by ResMods in it about why it should be off topic b) it was ruled to not be off-topic by Jeska herself but then still left in Off topic c) then when it was finally moved back, it came through with the bonus spite ratings. Whether Jeska or the ResMods moved the original thread, ultimately, the responsibility is hers to ensure this stuff is being handled correctly.

Oh okay, I hadn't been to the forums since yesterday morning, so I didn't know the rest of it. Also, I thought the star rating was removed from the ResMods as well. I know that at the beginning only ResMods and Lindens were going to be able to rate threads, but I believe (although not for sure) that the ResMods were not given that ability.

Its all still a big mess nonetheless.

MJ

And who specifically moved it begs the question of all the similar posts which were not moved ... and the apparent hand-wringing over whether to move it back or not.

Clearly if it was right to move one, it was right to move them all. That didn't happen.

This program might not be a bad idea, and might indeed have been helpful for the community. However, I wonder if it can ever recover from the manner in which its been launched and handled.

My "arses and elbows detector" (TM) has just started going off at ear-bleeding decibels after reading Jeska's statement. You're spot on. Cristiano.

Only one question remains: Given we have Robin Linden and Jeska Linden, which one is the arse and which the elbow?

Now to get rid of the angst and ratings completely.

If you'd wanted to find out what's best for the community, you'd have put the mod selections to a vote.

If you're going to force representative government on us, the least you could do is ask us for our input.

Apparently, you at LL have learned nothing from months of claims that indeed you allow some players to run the show, and, in fact, just feed right into that line of reasoning with actions of this type. I've been trying to defend LL and SL from this barrage of accusations of unfair business practices (favoritism, nepotism, hand selecting certain residents for "jobs", et al) for months now, only to have LL come along and write the next chapter in the naysayers' book.

as per Coco's thread:
-Jeska moved it to Off Topic
-i moved i back
-then came the ratings. i didn't rate the thread at all and have no information about who did (nor could i reveal it if i did), but agree that if the ratings were done out of spite, it is a serious problem.

-

re: resident governing

i was wondering if maybe Robin was referring to in-world government, while Jeska is referring to the forums? this would make perfect sense.
the gridverse is filled with too many variables and could too easily be taken advantage of for there to be player run government.
however, the fourms are fairly easily moderated (not lorded over, ultimately) by residents which then leaves more room for Lindens to worry about more important things. BUT, if this is going to be completely handed over to residents after some amount of time, there may be a need for some "semi-Linden" title and papers to be signed and so on, as well as more permanence to the amount of time one moderates for. this eventuality is much more complicated than the ResMod program we have now.

Some of the babies are afraid they won't be able to call the other babies names.

Ignore their crying.

This is called irony.

I nominate Siggy for Forum Czar! No one has more common sense -- nor the balls to apply it!

(Oh, and it's 'i' before 'e', dearie. )

Cybin, your heart is in the right place, and you have more then taken the brunt for all the resmods here. However, this is exactly why I no longer support this program in its current form. This isn't a user run board, its a professional, and official board owned by Linden Labs. The ONLY way one could say there was impartiality would be for them to higher mods from outside of the community. People that have no preconceived ideas or history with any resident. Those hired would have training in public relations or customer service.

I'm not saying that those that are res mods now do not have such training, but just randomly placing people in such positions that may have never had to deal with "the public" in an official way was an accident waiting to happen. The star rating on Coco's thread was an example of why folks need to be screened carefully, and then TRAINED before relased on the general population. During that training, further problems in personality could have been seen and possibly corrected before harm was done.

I am one that believes Coco does get singled out. She brings much on herself, but I think there are those that like to push buttons on those they know will get a rise just for sport. These forums have become a form of second life to a lot of people, and they derive entertainment from them as much as those that find their entertainment in world.

Jeska knows this, but my guess is Jeska has no budget so she is trying to make it work with resident volunteers.

Jeska, it CAN work, but you all are going to have to put the effort into doing more then throwing a few folks out to chum the waters.

I'm apparently in the minority here (or a very, very quiet majority ) but I think the ResMod program is an excellent idea. Folks are giving it a pretty rocky start, but in my humble and unsolicited opinion, I'd say that the furor and protest are pretty much in line with the forums historically. I should note that my perspective is that of a daily reader but rare poster.

I want to take a moment to give a word of thanks to the folks who have agreed to step into the crossfire and moderate here. Having been in similar leadership roles, I appreciate how easy it is for folks to take potshots in lieu of gentle, encouraging, and thoughtful feedback. Hang in there, y'all. This birthing pains / working the kinks out phase will pass soon enough.

True, it isn't perfect and it isn't pretty (yet). It'll take time to find the folks best suited for this, and longer still to get the team all working fully consistently. That's okay. If the biggest fish we have to fry are issues like this, I'm okay with it. It means a lot of things are going right when folks are functioning at this level of Maslow's Hierarchy.

Have a good weekend.

Well damn

I feel sorry for the resmods, in many ways, theyre not able to participate in the forums as they once were.
I look on them as something like sacraficial lambs, put out to the slaughter by the high priests of LL.
Before this ResMod experiment, there was NOTHING wrong with forum moderation. Jeska did a superlative job.
But if the workload is that excessive, then its my opinion LL should hire paid employees, and not rely on the goodwill of "volunteers". Noone should be placed in a position where they have to face the ire of half a community, and be made to feel friends have turned against them.
This whole ResMod thing sucks, whichever angle you look at it from.


What we really need is for Jeska to be cloned, so she can rotate with herself on forum moderation.

ResMod pros:

1. leaves more time for LL to concentrate on the bigger things involving SL.
   
2. puts more power regarding our "world" in the hands of the residents themselves.
   

ResMod cons:

1. unpaid volunteers can be dedicated and effective (I've seen it work on other boards) IF the board is the be all and end all reason for the person to be there. SL's forums are a small side note to the actual platform. Simply put, it would seem there are more interesting things to be doing with/in SL than modding the forums.
   
2. appears unprofessional to have residents mod a board for a business's product.
   

Just my thoughts.

- Weebler's alt

on the other hand those sames pros and cons be turned around depends on your point of view:

cons:
- the community is the point of sl... so sl should put more effort into forums as the forums are one of the community tools
- two words: player government

pros:
- volunteers love sl and will make a good effort to promote the best in sl
- it's good to let the residents feel empowered

note:
i don't go for much on either sides of this.

my concerns is that what ll does should be:
- professional: planned with due diligence
- clear: as in people can predict as easily as possible what the consequences of given actions are
- transparent: if punitive actions are taken, people should know why, have reasonable recourse, and they should know who implemented the action. furthermore, i do think they should know who accused them
- consistent: the rules should be applied consistently, which they aren't

places where ll has failed in the above four points are writ large in the resmod fiasco.