The Mod guide/code - what do you think needs adding?

Topic title sums up well.

I just want to hear what everyone thinks moderators should do, how they should be and how they should ask.

I'm constructing a guide to keep them in check you see (as advised by staff meeting) and having member input is always good.

I'm not going to be here most of the day, Dan. Perhaps sometime this week I can discuss my thoughts with you?

No problem. No doubt you'll find me on mIRC most days.

Alright, sounds good.

The mods should moderate keep posts clean and friendly. That what moderators should do, they need to keep an unbiased opinion yada.
In terms of forum maintenance... They should be able to manipulate the topics fully.

Only thing they cannot do? Add people to user groups, change themes and such. (stuff admins do)

So basically, what they are doing at the moment is fine.

mods should not lock a thread/delete it because it disagrees with their opinion
mods need to stay NEUTRAL at all times

I don't think mods should have to be neutral at all times because they have a right to their opinion just as everybody else.
But, one thing I have noticed is that some mods feel much more superior than others which leads to hard headed opinions and not willing to accept other people's thoughts...

Basically, mods can say what they want as long as it doesn't make someone else want to flame nor flame themselves.

Many times I find myself coming across something that should be deleted such as a new topic in the trading forum, which of course you aren't supposed to do, and it takes a mod 2 days to finally see it... that's just a little annoying; it would be nice to have the mods do what they need to do quickly and not let it sit. I find it hard to believe that not one of the 6 mods or 4 admins notice it during that time.

Last, and I'm not mentioning names, here, but it seems that whenever people revive an old topic mods just close it automatically without really looking at the post or anything. According to the rules:

Uutton wrote:

14. THREADOMANCY
Threadomancy, the art of "reviving" threads which have become inactive.
DO NOT revive threads that have been rendered irrelevant over the inactive period. Only post on old threads if the topic is still viable and you can contribute a new angle on it.

Many times people post something and the topic is still viable, just like my RMT in the strategy section, but mods close it anyways. By the way, I would like that topic unlocked, please, as I still use that team and any advice on it is still useful.

Shnoogle wrote:

I don't think mods should have to be neutral at all times because they have a right to their opinion just as everybody else.
But, one thing I have noticed is that some mods feel much more superior than others which leads to hard headed opinions and not willing to accept other people's thoughts...

Basically, mods can say what they want as long as it doesn't make someone else want to flame nor flame themselves.

Many times I find myself coming across something that should be deleted such as a new topic in the trading forum, which of course you aren't supposed to do, and it takes a mod 2 days to finally see it... that's just a little annoying; it would be nice to have the mods do what they need to do quickly and not let it sit. I find it hard to believe that not one of the 6 mods or 4 admins notice it during that time.

Last, and I'm not mentioning names, here, but it seems that whenever people revive an old topic mods just close it automatically without really looking at the post or anything. According to the rules:

Uutton wrote:

14. THREADOMANCY
Threadomancy, the art of "reviving" threads which have become inactive.
DO NOT revive threads that have been rendered irrelevant over the inactive period. Only post on old threads if the topic is still viable and you can contribute a new angle on it.

Many times people post something and the topic is still viable, just like my RMT in the strategy section, but mods close it anyways. By the way, I would like that topic unlocked, please, as I still use that team and any advice on it is still useful.

We had an issue on the forum because of that. If a mod disagrees with something and locks it or deletes it, how is it fair to the threadstarter?

GaiaAero wrote:

Shnoogle wrote:

I don't think mods should have to be neutral at all times because they have a right to their opinion just as everybody else.
But, one thing I have noticed is that some mods feel much more superior than others which leads to hard headed opinions and not willing to accept other people's thoughts...

Basically, mods can say what they want as long as it doesn't make someone else want to flame nor flame themselves.

Many times I find myself coming across something that should be deleted such as a new topic in the trading forum, which of course you aren't supposed to do, and it takes a mod 2 days to finally see it... that's just a little annoying; it would be nice to have the mods do what they need to do quickly and not let it sit. I find it hard to believe that not one of the 6 mods or 4 admins notice it during that time.

Last, and I'm not mentioning names, here, but it seems that whenever people revive an old topic mods just close it automatically without really looking at the post or anything. According to the rules:

Uutton wrote:

14. THREADOMANCY
Threadomancy, the art of "reviving" threads which have become inactive.
DO NOT revive threads that have been rendered irrelevant over the inactive period. Only post on old threads if the topic is still viable and you can contribute a new angle on it.

Many times people post something and the topic is still viable, just like my RMT in the strategy section, but mods close it anyways. By the way, I would like that topic unlocked, please, as I still use that team and any advice on it is still useful.

We had an issue on the forum because of that. If a mod disagrees with something and locks it or deletes it, how is it fair to the threadstarter?

And where did I ever mention that mods should have the right to lock something if they disagree with it? And just so you do not think that is a rhetorical question, I shall answer for you: Never

:/ Mods should do what is best for the forums with the powers they have. Enough said.

Shnoogle wrote:

I don't think mods should have to be neutral at all times because they have a right to their opinion just as everybody else.

I would have to agree with Gaia on this one. Moderators should be neutral on many situations. Not saying that they should have an opinion, but they shouldn't let the opinion affect their moderating. Let's say someone started a topic about political differences. If the Moderator's opinion is different than the threadstarter, he shouldn't be locking it because he disagrees with it, otherwise that would be abuse. Again, we're entitled to our opinion, but it shouldn't decide for us what is right and what is wrong.

Shnoogle wrote:

But, one thing I have noticed is that some mods feel much more superior than others which leads to hard headed opinions and not willing to accept other people's thoughts...

A bit of a contradiction there because you just said that Moderators should be opinionated. This is why Gaia and I want the Moderators to remain neutral in most situations.

Shnoogle wrote:

Basically, mods can say what they want as long as it doesn't make someone else want to flame nor flame themselves.

Many times I find myself coming across something that should be deleted such as a new topic in the trading forum, which of course you aren't supposed to do, and it takes a mod 2 days to finally see it... that's just a little annoying; it would be nice to have the mods do what they need to do quickly and not let it sit. I find it hard to believe that not one of the 6 mods or 4 admins notice it during that time.

Last, and I'm not mentioning names, here, but it seems that whenever people revive an old topic mods just close it automatically without really looking at the post or anything. According to the rules:

Uutton wrote:

14. THREADOMANCY
Threadomancy, the art of "reviving" threads which have become inactive.
DO NOT revive threads that have been rendered irrelevant over the inactive period. Only post on old threads if the topic is still viable and you can contribute a new angle on it.

Many times people post something and the topic is still viable, just like my RMT in the strategy section, but mods close it anyways. By the way, I would like that topic unlocked, please, as I still use that team and any advice on it is still useful.

To the Threadomancy comment, if I saw it correctly, the last post you made was on May 16th, right? Then Saxman made a comment to it on the 29th, 13 days later, or just about 2 weeks. There's a tool that people use to get more comments on their threads, and that's called a "bump." There's nothing against the rules saying you can't bump a topic (though it is highly discouraged to a certain extent). If you wanted more advice on the team, don't be afraid to "bump" a few days later, threads in that section come and go extremely quick. Though if you don't say anything in 2 weeks, people think that the thread is dead and your team doesn't need any more help. As far as I'm concerned, locking it was fine since Saxman's comment didn't even portray much help to your team, only just praising it.

He made a comment on how I could add bait-lix to my team to help with bulky waters so he didn't just praise it.

And just because I didn't post for a while, that does not mean at all that the team is perfect... I am still open to suggestions.

If you absolutely will not unlock it, then there isn't much I can do, but I still think it should be unlocked b/c I am still using the team and suggestions are always helpful.

This isn't being quite as productive as I was hoping. People seem to be getting ever so slightly distracted. PM me instead, that might work better.

The joys of this are that most locked threads "disappear", so really is you must get more info on it, then just bring back the thread, its really that not big of a deal.

If your gonna ignore it and its just gonna sit there for 2 weeks, thats just thread necromancy and we're trying to stay away from that because thread necromancy = spam.

Maybe turning it into a notice at the top of the forums would be a better idea?
Not sure.

oniongravy64 wrote:

Maybe turning it into a notice at the top of the forums would be a better idea?
Not sure.

Try it. We haven't gotten anywhere so far.