ResMod "Parting Shots"

I'm referring to this message:

/327/56/192343/2.html

Where a ResMod locked what seemed to be an interesting thread for "naming names".

What I find bothersome is that in the process of locking the thread, the ResMod also posted their own (controversial) opinion, thus claiming the "last word". I beleve this is an abuse of editoral privilege. If the ResMod believes that the discussion does not belong on the forums, then they have the right to lock it, but they should not simoultaneously take part in it.

As originator of the referenced thread, I too was disappointed in the posting associated with the closing of the thread. I don't really object to the thread being closed, but found it more than passing strange that a thread that was faulted for being off-topic was evidently germane enough for the moderator to post a personal position on that very topic.

Of course I'd be more than happy to explain to the moderator why that position is naive but at this point I guess editing the closing post to be more in-line with Forum guidelines would be more appropriate.

It is part of my job to bring facts to controversial topics, usually those facts are how the topic violated the guidelines or to answer questions about the guidelines. For this reason I quoted the Wikipedia article. I tried my best to bring those facts and the realities of SL together without drawing any conclusions that weren't obvious. I apologies if I didn't give the facts a fair shake, it is hard to do in a short post.

On the other hand, I agree with you: I shouldn't use my power to disseminate my opinions. When it comes to disputes, even facts are in contention, everything becomes an opinion. It's a balancing act, I couldn't do my job without making judgment calls based on opinion, but at the same time I put at risk my job with those opinions. Consequently this is something I give great thought to before doing.

Arguments aside. I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do. I tried to make it as unbiased as possible.

To do this job well, it requires me to be in touch with the pulse of the community, and at times that can be hard to find. People will put up with a lot as long as things are going moderately well and not talk about whats bothering them. I knew my post would probably trigger a review thread, review threads keep me in touch with the community because people don't water down their opinions. A small screwup can act as a catalyst.

So, how are people feeling about current moderation quality (ignoring this case)? How are people feeling about SL in general? What would you like me to change?

I promise to take every suggestions into consideration.

I would take the same issue with your last post in this thread /327/3d/192924/1.html. Obviously that thread never should have been created and was rightfully locked but your final "thoughts" seemingly gave credance to the OP's claim that his little tiff with another user was somehow "antifurry discrimination," a view that only he and yourself seem to share. Based purely on the chatlog that was posted the OP wasn't anything approaching an innocent victim in that event at all. If he wants to engage in smacktalk with another user he shouldn't be too surprised when they smacktalk back to him and to call that "discrimination" only encourages the OP and belittles actual discrimination.

I don't actually agree that it is furry discrimination, just responding to Talon's comment. I've made an edit to my comment, thanks for the feedback. *makes mental note to be sure to address things better in the future*

The thing is, the posted interpretation of that Wikipedia article was an opinion on the topic of the thread, not on whether the topic was germane to the forum. (It's also an opinion much like that put forth unsuccessfully by Microsoft's lawyers in its US and EU anti-trust cases, but I don't mean to re-open the thread here.) All that said, to reiterate, I really don't have a problem with the thread being closed: It would have been more appropriate in the old "Land and Economy" forum, RIP, and was admittedly speculative, more about possible future virtual economies than about the concrete example cited in the original post. I certainly don't envy the judgment calls a moderator must make at every turn, and feel that the moderation of threads is generally quite fair and (oh, god, I was gonna say "balanced"!).

It's right under that little avatar picture every time you post...

Broccoli

I'm not new to computers but I'm new to regular forum reading and only do it with this one because I'm so intrigued by SL.

Besides the great info you can get, I was surprised at the passionate level of debate over pretty big issues that most people avoid elsewhere: personal responsibility vs. social responsibility (land sale errors); ethical business practices (land bots); "virtual" vs. "real" (Av sex); tolerance (SL's various races); freedom of speech (what is "obscene"; the future of virtual worlds, etc. Pretty incredible and despite the usual loser who just dumps and runs, most forum posters are bright and articulate. However, a lot of the time, it feels like a lot of people shouting in a small room.

I would say the moderation has been a tightrope walk between allowing the discussions and making sure things don't get out of hand. You are sure doing it far better than I would.

I would have either completely given up or clamped down really hard (both of which would have destroyed the forums usefulness).

Now I'll wait for all the really good suggestions that will follow but for now I'll just say I think you are doing a thankless job very well and you couldn't pay me enough to do it.

Yeah, moderating this verbal insurrection is a big-time difficult job. My hat is off to you, Strife. If you make errors, they are the errors that any normal human being might make.

And yes, what is discussed here is extraordinarily important IMO. I do not know what will happen to SL; I very much hope it prevails. But prevail or not, I think what happens here, and what is said here, will have a big effect on 3D VR, which I think will prove to be the biggest thing to happen to the Internet since the Internet itself sprang into existence.

So, let us carry on. Intelligently, I ask of all. And Strife, Keep doing it; we need you.

Piss poor. Some threads are left to fester while all they do is attack, while others are closed very early that actually have questions. Besides that, you can't actually ignore this case when you ask about the current moderation as its a good case in point to how wrong it is to have resident moderation.

It is not part of your job to "to bring facts to controversial topics." Especially since those "facts" are just your own interperation of definitions created prior to SL and virtual worlds. Your job is not to claim the last word in a heated discussion as if your Linden bottom kissing makes your opinion above every other resident here.

Your job is to lock threads that do not follow the rules.

Your job is to move threads into the correct sections because morons can't post correctly... by the looks of the animation section, you aren't doing such a hot job on that front either.

I think a lot of this could be resolved with a General Discussion Forum!
Resident Answers would still have its place and still be a useful location for people to go with real hardware/software/access to SL issues. Though so many of us visit the Forum just for its entertainment value.
Come on some of this shit is down right funny!

OBTW…my Sleep Poll!

Nice pipes and catchy tune. Had it stuck in my head for days!
D’Oh…there it is again

DK

DaQBet,

we used to have both General and Off-Topic sections of the forums, of course.. there wasn't a Resident Answers forum then either.. "RA" is the new General, boiled down to what was most helpful about.. people getting answers to SL-related questions.

feel free to check the archives and read through some of the old General and Off-Topic threads.. you'll see two main things. why we enjoyed them so much... and why they're no longer part of these forums.


and Luth.. i'm headnig over to Animation now to see if there's anything out of whack currently.

keep in mind, i, as a ResMod, will check my email for ARs and react accordingly. sometimes there are so many of them that by the time i'm done going through a couple pages of ARs i'm not really of the mindset to then come back and search through every forum/thread to see what else i can do.
not that i never look through the forums myself, but sometimes my brain needs a break.

I'd like to see multiple threads on the same (recent) topic merged. I used to mod an unrelated board, so I know it can be a hassle, but it also makes reading the boards far easier and prevents some repetition of information.

I agree there's some inconsistency about what gets closed on the RA boards, but I also only ever see you and Cybin moderating on a regular basis and it's a big job for just a couple of people to keep up with.

Just a comment...

I get the feeling that it is not common knowledge that the typical catalyst for a Resmod looking into a thread, is numerous 'Report Bad Post' messages being received by the Resmod team.

As a result, it may look to the outside that ResMods are arbritrarily picking and choosing which threads they wish to address and which they dont. Unless I'm mistaken, you folks don't (usually) get involved unless the thread has been flagged by many bad-post reports.

Assuming I'm on-base here: it might be useful if you began making a habit of saying something to the effect of: "This thread has received numerous 'report bad post' complaints, and is thusly being locked for violating {insert guideline here}."

This might make it clearer that you're *not* arbritrarily picking & choosing posts to address, but rather looking at the ones that have received many complaints. If you directly connect it to user complaints the majority of times threads are closed - folks may start noticing the pattern, and better understand why you're doing what you're doing.

It may also encourage folks to begin using the 'report' button when they see a thread clearly violating the guidelines, instead of just idly cussing at it & waiting for a resmod action that never comes because no one took the time to identify it.

Or not.... just thought it might help

Ann -

the reason you don't see me merging threads of a similar nature (by different posters) is because i don't know if that would overstep my boundaries.. both from LLs side and the side of the residents. it's a balancing act to be sure.. on one hand i want to do my job as LL needs it done, on the other hand i want to help the community, not injure it.

so, point is, good idea.. i agree, it would make the forums much easier. i'll try to keep an eye open for these occurrences and for now, i'll simply send a head's up to Linden Review and see how it's handled there. if it becomes standard to merge such threads, then i'll know i can do the same without going through LR every time.


Travis -

*waves* Hi!! you also make a good point; however, i would tweak it a bit. instead of saying "this received a lot of ARs" i would rather "this has been ARed", because i don't want people to assume that means "more = action", because honestly.. it doesn't. 1 AR carries the same weight as 10.

but you could be right.. and it's worth a shot to see if it helps out or not. i don't see where it could hurt if worded properly.

(are you going to SLCC this year? i don't see your name on the registered list. granted, mine isn't either.. but i plan on it!)

I understand what you're saying, but thread merging has been a regular part of every board I've ever participated in...the mods usually just made a point of altering the title to refer to the fact that it was merged, so OPs didn't have a meltdown when their threads went 'missing.' No information was removed, it was just...rearranged. lol

I think the Res Mods do a good job and the Forum is positively tranqual compared to how it used to be. I think you should give clear consise reasons for why threads are locked (which is normally done) and I think you need to cataorically avoid posting any opinions, whether they are personal or refferenced from a trusted source on the net at the time of locking a thread. Whatever your reasoning for locking a thread you can gaurentee you will offend someone so I think it is best that all comments are kept to a minimum at this time to avoid future critisism.

Personally, I don't mind how improper threads get closed.

This isn't RL, where police brutality suddenly makes a non-issue out of the offender's crime.

It's unfortunate that LL lets sanctimonius powerlusters "volunteer" for ur crappy avocation! You all suck! Lock this one up!

Wow. And people wonder why rezmods get snippy at times.

It takes a better crafted attack to have effect. I can't speak for the others but repeatedly breaking the rules on purpose and then complaining about the subsequent moderation I find rather annoying (right now, I'm not annoyed at anyone) but can't let that taint decisions. Even those who annoy are entitled to equal protection.

I suspect Jumpman may have a Private Dispute with me about recent moderation actions. I can't say more on it in public as that would violate the PD and Reposting rules but if he contacts me we can discuss it further.

hehe that guy is a "professional flamer" from past posts whenever he surfaces its just to insult people and apparently he gets banned ingame cause he feels the measure of a "man" is the ability to talk smack err or whatever that is that he does

Strife, from my experience in forum moderation, you should never have mentioned this "private dispute" at all. Such comments by those in positions of power do nothing more than provoke reactions from those who have problems with authority. It would have been much better to ignore the post publicly and contact him privately. And before I'm accused of limiting the freedom of speech of board moderators... I'm limiting the freedom of speech of board moderators. In my opinion, taking on that role really does require giving up some rights in order to fulfill necessary responsibilities.

In fact, I'll go so far as to say that board moderators should do no more than say, "In response to complains about ToS violations, this thread is locked." Comments, opinions - everything else by moderators should go into threads where they haven't taking "moderator" action. Moreover, if a thread in which one moderator has replied needs to be locked, then a different moderator should do that.

This is how I've seen successful boards handled.

I already contacted ur dumb a$$...ur response was lockin up a week-dead thread...but to hell with all that. You see my name lock em all up!

chicks go he he to me in game...and rasberry me to...r u really a girl?