As it’s a bit of a slow time in the year as far as football talk goes, it’s a good opportunity now for a bit of a retrospective. I’ve been a mod for about 3-4 months and there’s a general developing style to how I’m going about this and it has been a really interesting learning curve. One thing that stands out however is that IMO, it’s a folly to take on a role like this without direction/input from the greater community as to how things are going, what you y want, and where the concerns/opportunities for improvement are.
So the purpose of this post is for me to share a bit about what I’ve been doing, ask specific questions about how people would like this role to function, request feedback about performance and provide an opportunity for people to have their own questions addressed… and whatever else may come from it. I’ll leave this thread up for a week or so (depending on how it goes) and then move it to the admin forum.
Feel free to be completely honest if you’re unhappy with the way things are going… it both provides the opportunity for learning/adaption but also, I’ve always been very mindful that my preference/approach to how things go may not actually be in line with what the forum wants and if its a case of things not being a good fit… I’m happy to step down or try something different.
So there are a lot of duplicate posts that get deleted. The software can be a bit slow at times which sometimes causes people to hit submit more than once which results in duplicates of the same post. Feels like the overall performance of the site has maybe improved since the last update a few months ago as that’s slowed down more recently.
In terms of edits… I don’t do too much of that (I don’t think). Around the time of our first final, I altered a few posts of people seeking insider info RE Membrey but beyond that… editing has mostly had to down tidying up the language or perhaps removing a more intense/harsher worded attacks. The latter situation hasn’t been too bad. The swearing has been more of a challenge. What I tend to do is that anything that circumvents the filter or is as properly close to cursing as possible e.g. it’s the word but misspelled… or is the word misspelled directed at someone specifically… it’s stuff like that tends to get edited. Basically anything that seems likely to be reported. I don’t know that that stuff is technically against the rules or is bothering anyone so it’s a bit of a personal preference/bugbear.
The next most common thing is deleting posts. This is where it gets a lot more contentious. At the beginning my thought was to try and keep threads on track by removing a back and forth that went on and on… and that was a complete miscalculation on my part as people obviously enjoy banter. As such I generally tend to let that all go unless starts heading into a more vicious/not good natured direction, the same conversation starts heading across multiple threads or a valid report is made. It’s been a hard balance to get right and I think there’s been a few missteps along the way but please please let me know if you think I’ve gone/am going over the top there. It’s challenging because a lot of forumites express frustration with discussions going off topic whilst others prefer that things go the way they go.
Beyond that… I’m generally focused on trying keep the meta commentary off the boards. And by that I mean things like: hey lock this thread, delete that post, forumite x should be banned, people need to get over this or all agree with that, this forumite is terrible etc - this type pf posting IMO generally just tends to result in conflict which quickly turns into insults, which then tends to go across multiple threads… so if it tends not to be football related and is more about the forum or forumites specifically… I remove it. Surprisingly I have received very little feedback good or bad but in fairness, I don’t know that I do it all that much (maybe 5 times total according to the log thread and a lot of it is from one forumite). The silence on it or the odd comment makes me think it might be an issue for some!?
All I can do in this regard is ask people to utilise the report function if they come across something bothersome and let me go about things that way… in my opinion, it kind of takes a personal edge off.
On the topic of reports… generally speaking, most reports are usually addressed that day, often within a few hours (I log on a lot). In most instances, I tend to respond with a PM to the reporter and the reportee explaining what’s happened and what the outcome is. Most people seem to be pretty receptive most of the time and in the spirit of transparency any edit/deletion etc is usually logged in the moderation log thread (though I don’t bother with the duplications). There is also a log of who reports and who is reported which sounds pretty interesting and possibly useful for trends but things seem fairly settled at the moment. The one exception to that is that there is a little spike at the moment surrounding more provocative and off-topic threads/posts and quite a few reports have been made about this… on my end, I’m just effectively removing the posts when I see them and I’ve reached out to the concerned parites.
Currently the report log is clear and there are no warnings, suspensions or bans in place. To be completely transparent… I haven’t suspended or banned anyone as yet and actually feel pretty passionate about not doing that. Apart from thinking that we all deserve a voice (as long as we play respectfully)… I think it would be hard for anyone to moderate and remain completely objective at the same time. It seems like it could be very easily to fall into the trap of say forumite x is involved in multiple conflicts and is annoying me personally + we’ve had runs so it will be easiest to suspend them. In that sense, my feeling is that anything in that territory should be directed to the administrator and they can review things themselves and make a more objective decision. N!ck doesn’t post that much so I doubt he has much in the way of baggage with anyone and is in a good spot to be detached and objective. I’ve only escalated one matter to him so far.
So I’d love to get some feedback on what people think about any of this… and also I’m quite keen for some direction from forumites as to what kind of situations best warrant intervening and what that looks like.
For example… if a particular forumite/s is involved in multiple ongoing conflicts or derails multiple threads posts but isn’t actually breaking the rules… or alternatively, if I see a post that looks to me like its aimed to provoke people. is that something to let go until reported or is swift intervention and logging better?
Am I overzealous and on a power trip with the back and forth or is the balance ok?
Are people happy for me to keep the meta commentary off the board or is it preferable for those discussions to happen in the effected thread - personally I find that to be derailing but that’s just my opinion?
Do people have other suggestions? Should we allow for broader AFL or other topics on the main board or should it just be St. Kilda talk?
Suggestions for how to improve traffic on the site?
Please fire away and have a happy new year everyone
