A Call to Arms: STOP THE OVERMODERATION OF OUR THREADS!

[jwbryson1]

Where's that obnoxious smily, now?

Ah yes.

 

[runnah]

Ridiculous. This is a privately owned site and the mods are here to enforce the guidelines. Again, anyone is free to raise a question if they perceive an error was made; but I stand by my comments on the overly dramatic way this thread was started. And there IS a difference between starting threads for fun conversation and starting them on hot button topics to see how long it takes before the popcorn smilie comes out. You've freely admitted in the past it's part of your entertainment here; why bother denying it under some free speech nonsense that doesn't exist in this particular arena? Just sayin'.

I feel that I brought up a valid point and accurate comparison.

None of the topics I started were designed to be hot button issues. I started them with honest intentions. If anything the direction that they took is a provocative insight into the human condition.

If I did admit to such heinous allegations it was under duress and should not be taken as fact.

 

[kathyt]

kathy, your post seems to be wavering a little toward the view that the moderators are trying to discourage good critique on the site. I'll clarify that we've never ever operated with such a mindset either long or short term; indeed many of the mods (often leading by example as best we can) aim to encourage the quality of critique given on the forums.

We only lock or move in to break up threads when the critique has been left behind and, for whatever myriad of reasons, the thread has fallen into a general battle of wills or egos instead of focusing upon the critique.

We do have a problem pushing critique from the middle to the upper ranges - but honestly that is a problem I've seen on nearly every forum community. It's easy to get from beginner to medium and easy to get help in that regard. Going higher is harder to get help with and one has to network more and put more personal effort into it. We'd love to increase the amount of support, as a forum, that we can offer in that regard so are always open to user based projects and ideas as well as listening to users on how we can help in that regard.

A huge part of critique has to include business practices too, or lack thereof. Critiquing images, pricing, business models...it all relevant and the threads usually intertwine. At least I feel they do.

 

[kathyt]

Clearly, we can all agree that personal attacks against members of the forum, racist or derogatory commentary about an individual’s sexual preference or lifestyle, etc., should be dealt with quickly and convincingly.

The OP is nothing but a drunk, gang-bangin', selective color-usin', railroad track-shootin, homosexual crybaby that sucks at photography and therefore has no business shooting a wedding.


IBTL

I am literally LOL. Nicely played! :mrgreen:

Jdubs, what does IBTL mean?

 

[hopdaddy]

One forum I'm on, has a section named "The Octagon " where anything goes If you dare enter . Flame suites are advised ,No moderation in that section at all . It gives people of a certain mindset a place to enjoy the festiveity...so to speak........Just a thought , Due to my grand abality to distroy the proper use of grammer and most of all the rules of spelling, I stay out of that section .

 

[kathyt]

One forum I'm on, has a section named "The Octagon " where anything goes If you dare enter . Flame suites are advised ,No moderation in that section at all . It gives people of a certain mindset a place to enjoy the festiveity...so to speak........Just a thought , Due to my grand abality to distroy the proper use of grammer and most of all the rules of spelling, I stay out of that section .

That could get ugly.

 

[The_Traveler]

Myself I've only served to provide my stance on the situation thus far and I've also left the field fully open to members to further justify the argument that the specific locked thread mentioned is valid to re-open (whilst the opening thread mentions that its part of a WAVE of over-moderation we've no other specific examples presented to discuss).

I think that Moderators should make their presence known specifically more.
Use the 'cut that out' kind of comment to keep discussion out of the bad places.
Then, if specific people violate that rule, take them out of action for a day or so.

Closing a thread seems to be the wrong thing a good portion of the time.

If Mods can't be everywhere, then appoint section mods who can 'police' a specific forum.
This isn't a salary issue.

 

[The_Traveler]

AND, a huge portion of the time, threads disintegrate because people who are trying to get attention hijack the thread and then it goes downhill from there.

Perhaps they don't mean to be disruptive but they are.
So the OP gets cheated and the site loses.

 

[Overread]

Myself I've only served to provide my stance on the situation thus far and I've also left the field fully open to members to further justify the argument that the specific locked thread mentioned is valid to re-open (whilst the opening thread mentions that its part of a WAVE of over-moderation we've no other specific examples presented to discuss).

I think that Moderators should make their presence known specifically more.
Use the 'cut that out' kind of comment to keep discussion out of the bad places.
Then, if specific people violate that rule, take them out of action for a day or so.

Closing a thread seems to be the wrong thing a good portion of the time.

If Mods can't be everywhere, then appoint section mods who can 'police' a specific forum.
This isn't a salary issue.

We use all those methods as well - though often times its not something that all the forum sees. Removing a few posts and warning a few members happens in the background more. Thread locks however are an overt form of moderation we can use to clearly say to a whole group at once that behaviour is not tolerated. Furthermore sometimes a thread simply spirals out of control before any mod can get there - in those cases cleaning up often doesn't work since too many people are too riled up and will simply lash out at the moderation - locking is the best course for bringing a close to the topic.

Moderation team expansion is also something we keep an eye on - we like to think that most of the time we have a good sized team as it stands and we've even recently expanded it with 3 new moderators. We don't want to expand too fast however since we then run the risk of too many learning the ropes all at once (and of tripping over each other).

AND, a huge portion of the time, threads disintegrate because people who are trying to get attention hijack the thread and then it goes downhill from there.

Perhaps they don't mean to be disruptive but they are.
So the OP gets cheated and the site loses.

This does happen and its behaviour we do keep an eye on and we do watch members who repeatedly do take threads off topic. Where they do this often we will warn them (sometimes several times) and if they still fail to behave we will remove them. We do try our best to present a fair form of moderation and strive to avoid banning members where possible.

 

[The_Traveler]

AND if the mods want to stop thread that are repetitive, why don't they intercept the threads when they start?
How many - WHAT KIND OF LENS DO I NEED or I WANT TO DO A WEDDING threads do we need?

Why not send a message to every new registrant or poster when they say hello and give some expectations.
You want a better site, then so something proactively.

 

[Ilovemycam]

Forgot to say... I hope Yahoo does not ruin Tumblr. Flickr (Yahoo) banned me after 9 days. I lost 190 images on Flickr. If Yahoo runs Tumblr like it does Flickr I will be out of a website. But, I will still have an outlet for my work on a couple of other lower level blog sites.

Tumblr is a dream for free thinking and free posting. Only drawback is no feedback. But even Tumblr censors when you try to mail others a link or email address. Other than that, I have never had a censorship issue at Tumblr.

 

[texkam]

^ ^ But can someone just tell me "what settings" I need to use!

 

[Overread]

AND if the mods want to stop thread that are repetitive, why don't they intercept the threads when they start?
How many - WHAT KIND OF LENS DO I NEED or I WANT TO DO A WEDDING threads do we need?

Why not send a message to every new registrant or poster when they say hello and give some expectations.
You want a better site, then so something proactively.

Er I'm not quite sure what you mean? You're saying that a better forum is one that activly drives away and removes recruitment of new members and that the best thing a forum made to teach and help educate new photographers is to - remove all their most likely early threads?

It sounds more like you want us to make TPF a place for experienced members only - and honestly we are not going down that pathway. If you want that from a web community then you'll have to either found your own or find another. TPF will remain open to users of all talent levels.

Forgot to say... I hope Yahoo does not ruin Tumblr. Flickr (Yahoo) banned me after 9 days. I lost 190 images on Flickr. If Yahoo runs Tumblr like it does Flickr I will be out of a website. But, I will still have an outlet for my work on a couple of other lower level blog sites.

Tumblr is a dream for free thinking and free posting. Only drawback is no feedback. But even Tumblr censors when you try to mail others a link or email address. Other than that, I have never had a censorship issue at Tumblr.

Er I think you might be lost
Though getting banned after 9 days does tend to require you to have done something to get banned in the first place.

 

[tirediron]

jdubs, what does IBTL mean?

"In before the lock"

 

[runnah]

Er I'm not quite sure what you mean? You're saying that a better forum is one that actively drives away and removes recruitment of new members and that the best thing a forum made to teach and help educate new photographers is to - remove all their most likely early threads?

I don't think he is saying that. What I think he is getting is that sometimes the best lessons are learned the hardest. As long as it doesn't turn into personal attacks why let us not rip into some mom with a camera who thinks she can shoot wedding or start her own business? Is the bigger crime not saying anything and letting her charge good money to people who are expecting professional results? I say nip it in the bud and set her straight.

Where I will disagree with Lew is the fact that no forum in the history of the internet has ever gotten noobs to search before starting a thread. So chasing that lead is a fool's errand.