Some time ago, I was browsing the archives and ran across a post which clearly violated the rules, basically a rather nasty insult against another poster in GQ. I thought about reporting it, but since the post was made two years ago, there didn’t seem to be any point.
Then, this morning, there’s a zombified (zombiefied?) post which Colibri mod-noted, even though the comment was made 13 years ago and the poster hasn’t been around for over 12!
So now I’m thinking I should have reported that post I saw anyway. (Not that I’ll ever find it again…) Is there a rule of thumb for how recent a thread needs to be to report it, zombie or not?
Technically, no, there’s no statute of limitations.
I will say that I’m more reluctant to moderate something old. And if something from way back is reporting I’m more ready to say ‘to hell with it’ than otherwise.
As has been pointed out, I didn’t mod-note the posters, but simply posted a reminder that such remarks were not acceptable under current standards, so other posters should not respond to them. If I had not, other posters might have not noticed they were old and derailed the thread (as it largely was the first time around).
There’s usually no reason to report a post unless the thread is active (new or zombie). The reason we issue mod-notes or warnings is usually to prevent threads from being derailed. If a thread is not active, there’s no reason to issue them.
For the most part, if a post is hasn’t been reported for more than a day or two after it was made, I’m probably not going to moderate it, especially if the thread is no longer active. The exception might be a reminder like the one I issued in the thread in question.
There’s no hard and fast definition of a “mod note,” and different mods may have different practices. If you notice, I labeled my post “Moderating,” not “Mod Note.” I tend to label a post “Mod Note” if I am directing it a particular poster for potential rules violations, or other behavior that may disrupt the thread. I use “Moderating” for more general comments, such as the reminder in this case. I use “Mod Instructions” for, what else, instructions.
Again, this is just my personal practice and other mods may use other conventions.
I personally don’t differentiate between a mod note directed at someone or a mod note that’s just a more general comment or instruction within a thread. To me they are all just mod notes, instructional and not warnings.
If the mod note is directed at someone specific, I usually quote the specific post or part of the post that’s the problem so that the person knows what it’s directed at.
We look at everything in detail, though. We don’t just count up warnings. If you have one warning and then you go several years without another, the fact that you went for a long time without getting a warning factors into the overall picture and that one warning isn’t so severe. On the other hand, if you repeatedly get warned for something, even if the warnings are spaced pretty far apart, that tells us that you’re not changing the bad behavior that got you the warning.
Some people get bothered by the fact that the warnings never expire, but really, if your overall history is good, one warning over a long period of time is no biggie and isn’t worth worrying about.
ETA: Moderators (and admins) can see your warnings, but regular users can’t. Any regular user looking at your profile won’t see them.
