Inspiration
Posts 369 to 373. Note: I’m not pitting SkipMagic, so this could probably go in ATMB without incident.
I’m curious why the recommendation for an out-of-line post is to click the “Report Bad Post” icon and move along (Quick, Easy, No Fuss)… unless it’s a moderator, in which case you should go find the mod e-mail address and talk to the mod directly. Or evaluate mod politics and e-mail a different mod who may listen.
Why not just click “Report Bad Post” when a moderator is out-of-line?
Surely this usage can be understood?
The primary purpose of the Report Bad Post button is to alert the forums mods of a post that may require their attention. So you’re welcome to use the Report Bad Post button to comment on a mod post, but realize that it’s basically just a shortcut to emailing the mods of that forum. If you want to ask a question or make a comment about a mod’s post, reporting the post is fine. Personally I prefer a direct email, as I can just reply to your message and there isn’t the chance that your question won’t be lost amongst all the other reported posts, but either way works.
On the other hand, if you believe a mod has made a bad decision or is acting in a way you disagree with, a Pit thread is usually the best way to handle it, as it brings the discussion out into the open and lets all the other staff see your concerns, and other posters chime in with their thoughts.
Since we are on this, if I report a mod’s post and it is the same mod who gets the report, what is this mod supposed to do? pass it to someone else? conflict of interest and all that.
And a surprisingly good answer at that — surprising not because good answers are not to be expected from Giraffe, but because good answers in general on this sort of thing are hard to come by.
This is another good reason why a Pit thread is a preferred solution. But, if for some reason you don’t want to start a Pit thread, you could also e-mail an administrator with your concerns.
Just so there is NO confusion, when a poster hits the “button of Doom=Report Bad Post=red triangle thingy,” that report goes to every moderator in that forum. Of course, that doesn’t insure that posters don’t have the idea that we mods cover for each other. So the advice to email an Admin is your next line of defense. Of course, the Admins will cover for us too. So, your next…
It goes all the way to the top. Been there. Done that. Oh, wait . I was being an ass. Okay, never mind. But really everyone here should know that if you have a legitimate beef or even if you are kind of a nut(who me?) you can and will be heard.
I’m really more curious if the mods would “get it” if a Mod Note post with no inherently objectionable content showed up in the queue.
Or would they likely jump back with a “If you have a problem with a moderator action, e-mail them or use the pit.”
Just seems like the process in place is to make it more difficult to meta-police the police than to rat on your neighbors.
Over the past 11 years we’ve had quite a few people moderate for us, first on AOL and then on the Reader’s own site.
All joking aside, they’re people just like everyone else, not infallible, prone to error of various kinds. Not all choices made have been perfect ones.
The staff is in fact held to a higher standard of behavior than regular posters and their behavior is observed. When problems are found they have been dealt with.
Even I have not been immune from mistakes, I’ve said and done some things over the years that I have had cause to regret, there’s a lot of actions over 11 years and not all of them were perfectly handled. I do hope I make better choices today.
We choose not to talk overmuch about people that have been removed from the board; they aren’t here to defend themselves and thus the situation is inherently unfair. This is also true with actions taken against member and staffers; there’s no good purpose served in holding them up to further public scorn for problems in the past, this is not a shame-based kind of place. Mostly people learn from the mistakes they make, that’s the way of life.
Do you feel there is a problem here that we have overlooked, something we don’t know about? Please write any administrator – or if you believe that’s not good enough – write Ed Zotti, EdZotti@aol.com. Management is responsive to member concerns and all complaints are investigated and handled as appropriate.
Ummm… Then don’t talk about the people. Talk about what happened and what was done. There should be no need to identify the personalities involved if the process is fair and generally free of structural problems.
