What do you expect from your moderators?

What do you want to see here? Some more categories, forums, and mods? Hmm...
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Mecca
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Mecca »

Phytotron wrote:So, there too, not exactly irrational overreaches, but sensible title clarifications, right? Right.
Changing my topic titles was never irrational, I just want to be able to name my topics what I want with out them getting changed. It's not a huge deal.
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Titanoboa
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Titanoboa »

If you'll excuse the necromancy, I think it's time to look over the character limit on these forums. People evade it, constantly.
These are the options I see right off the bat:
  • skip the limit and tolerate short posts (having everyone paste the notice is more annoying than the short posts themselves),
  • start enforcing rules that forbid evading the character limit,
  • change the notice - see sinewav's thoughts below, quoted from this thread
sinewav wrote:I like the minimum character rule. I would even make it larger. But rather than a simple notice saying "you need this many characters" it could be a warning/reminder that your post should be well thought-out, and spamming repeatedly will result in a "time-out." And yes, offenders should get a time-out for trying to get around any rule.
#2 and #3 can be combined.


In addition to this, even though some users don't like the concept, a well constructed "+1" feature (name it what you want, i'm calling it +1 because we all know what that means) would be a useful complement to the character limit as it's a substitute for "LOL", "+1" (obviously), "agreed/yes" and "thanks" posts. Somewhere on the frame of the post, there would be a +x displayed, showing how many appreciated that post and (this is important) you're able to see who did +1 the post (by hovering or clicking). This lets you make a judgment on how much these +1's are really worth (was it a clan-related post, and most +1's were from clanmates? Was it attacking someone, and most +1's were from his/her "enemies"? Are all 37 +'s from random unknown accounts, indicating that someone is "cheating"?)
It wouldn't be a popularity contest in a bad sense. Yes, people are going to prefer their friends' posts, but that will be very transparent. In the end, posts with good content will receive many +1's and that will encourage people to try to write good posts (whether they are meant to be informative, supportive or just funny). A good kind of popularity contest, where quality is promoted. I'm not saying it will be perfect, but I really think it's worth a test run.
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ppotter
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by ppotter »

+1

:)
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by sinewav »

The only mod I know of for phpBB is Reputation System. I don't think any changes to the forum are needed. And even if we wanted to, I believe it would be Tank Program's job to implement it and we see him less than distant relatives during the holidays.
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Titanoboa
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Titanoboa »

sinewav wrote:The only mod I know of for phpBB is Reputation System.
I think that would do the job. I think the code for it is here? Adding the feature of showing who voted shouldn't be a HUGE project. And it's a piece of cake after that, assuming the phpbb versions are compatible and it really takes just 10 minutes to install. Then just disable negative votes (and whatever else of the few settings that you prefer), and voilá.

I think if we collectively arrive at the conclusion that this would be a good idea, implementing it won't be a problem for Tank.

sinewav wrote:I don't think any changes to the forum are needed.
The character limit isn't serving its purpose at all. It is easy to evade (although a minor nuisance), nothing happens when you do it, and people do it all the time. It's a useless feature in its current state. If that isn't when a change is called for, then when?
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by sinewav »

Titanoboa wrote:...a minor nuisance.... If that isn't when a change is called for, then when?
My guess would be when we have a major nuisance instead of a minor one? Don't get me wrong, I don't think the character limit meets the intent. But I also think having a rating system would be another problem altogether.
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Titanoboa
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Titanoboa »

sinewav wrote:
Titanoboa wrote:...a minor nuisance.... If that isn't when a change is called for, then when?
My guess would be when we have a major nuisance instead of a minor one? Don't get me wrong, I don't think the character limit meets the intent. But I also think having a rating system would be another problem altogether.
Fair enough, but the two are separate issues (though they are related) - the character limit is a simple fix once we have agreed on what direction to go with it.

O and with "minor nuisance" I was describing the process of evading the limit - if we do want a character limit forcing people to write longer posts, evading it shouldn't be that simple. A "don't make short posts" rule would be a speed limit and the character limit a road bump - but we're all driving around it without having to slow down. We should either remove it, or adjust it so that it serves its purpose.
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Slov
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Slov »

Agreed with Titan. Let's do it!
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Z-Man »

In principle, the character limit is a good thing. We do not want posts that simply state "lol". However, we do want posts that simply state "Thanks!". So yes, a different implementation would be good, like what already happens when a reply was made while you were typing, or what happens on the Wiki if you do not give a change summary: a quick confirmation.
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Titanoboa
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Titanoboa »

If you're ready to deal with people who ignore it and post "lol" (or similar) anyway - by handing out warnings, time-outs - then it's an ok solution. Otherwise it's again just a road bump everyone will drive around. Of course, the rest of us (non-mods) can help out by maintaining a culture that frowns upon short posts (the question is if that's too optimistic).
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Jonathan
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Jonathan »

Titanoboa wrote:Of course, the rest of us (non-mods) can help out by maintaining a culture that frowns upon short posts (the question is if that's too optimistic).
That's pretty much where we are, except it's a subculture.
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Z-Man »

In the system I propose, the punishment for posting "lol" anyway is that your silly and stupid post will stay there for everyone to see.
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Phytotron »

Slov wrote:Agreed with Titan. Let's do it!
Of course you agree; you've been arguably the worst offender of the nothing-but-"lol" posts this forum has seen.


Yes, the current character limit method isn't working as intended—the fact that people will put in the extra effort to get around it just so they can post that useless "lol" or other internet grunt is confounding to me. But, something should be in place if the moderators aren't going to manually take down each one.

I absolutely oppose any kind of +1 or reputation system. You can talk about "but it would be the good kind of popularity contest!" all you want, but no one—no one—is going to see it as a measure of well-constructed posts, or repudiation of useless crap posts. It's going to be (ab)used the same way it is on any other dumbass forum that uses it. No.
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Slov
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Slov »

Why does everybody worry about this "popularity contest" thing so much? Why is it such a big problem if some "not-well constructed" post gets a lot of reps or likes or whatever? Who really cares?
The point of it would be that it gets rid of the LOL!s and +1 replies and I'm sure it would work..
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Re: What do you expect from your moderators?

Post by Clutch »

Because that's what will happen and is what usually happens when systems like this are implemented. The fact that people care is because with something like this, it isn't about who had more things of actual substance to say, it would be about who is who, probably

I'm also against it, if it comes to some kind of vote
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