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    Your Elvenar Team

Locking threads

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
Have to disagree with the OP. Moderating forums means keeping the peace, and that means shutting down discussions that have violated Terms & Services, or will inevitably devolve into sparring matches. Having been part of a moderation team on a forum many moons ago, I know how tough it is keeping threads on topic and free of abuse. The claim that locking threads is because they are uncomfortable for moderators is pure bunkum; moderators who allow threads to become personal don't stay moderators for long. Off topic threads get moved to proper areas, comments with questionable or outright prohibited content either are edited to remove such content, or are deleted in whole. Locking threads is the final option when posters just refuse to let a subject die off.
[emphasis added for clarity by AJ]
These are the exact things of which I am speaking. The answer is not to lock the thread but to first warn, and then punish via a suspension, the poster of such things. The abusive poster especially. The one who keeps getting somewhat off topic, a bit less, I'd say. But there needs to be targeted consequences for those who break the rules. After all, civility has to be trained into us, right? And no where does it need to be trained into us more than in a place where we are somewhat anonymous.


This. Almost every forum I have ever used has to lock the threads that become nothing but a back and forth argument between a couple of people, and usually involves a few people also be banned from the thread because they got too heated. Those threads can never be redeemed and are better off locked.

But if people think there is something worth discussing without the bad people involved, start a new thread and quote all the relevant posts in it.
[emphasis added for clarity by AJ]

Again, it's bad actors that ruin the thing. The "back and forth between two people" is not always a bad thing. I've engaged in that and sometimes it's that there are two people who are really invested, involved, and informed about the subject. As long as they are also civil there is no problem with a small group discussion in the midst of a large group of observers, so to speak. And while I can see it may become tedious, tedious is not against the rules. LOL! And a moderator should not have, in my opinion, the goal of insuring the thread is interesting.

Other than that, I think most people here, get my point. You close down threads only when pretty much everybody has gotten too heated to have a good discussion... which means the subject has become the personality/style/morality of the "opponents," rather than the question being discussed. And the best solution would not be to punish the entire forum for such bad behavior, but to warn and suspend the individuals engaging in such behavior. The rules are for the individuals and punishment should be meted out to those who break the rules, not everyone.

AJ
 

BrinDarby

Well-Known Member
Again, it's bad actors that ruin the thing
Assumptions and semantics can also ruin things.
This is where "moderation" comes in, erasing something
rather than solving it, means it will continue to occur
again. Unclear warnings also perpetuate problems.

When there's somethng askew, to you, and you feel a
change could/would benefit everyone..... many players
feel a duty to inform the group (playerbase), or suggest
a change.......... but where exactly can you voice a chg,
when that chg is in how "the company" treats its players ?
or even, god forbid, a chg to ToS.
--- You can't --- ( only option, 3rd party site )

Noone, including me, really wants those negative back-forths,
but just as locking a thread for content or locking for personal
reasons.... because nothing got "solved" either by the ppl, or
on content, it will reappear down the road.

I've been a mod too, and in an environment much more
transparent than we have here. Every Mod punative action
was logg'd and viewable by everyone. There was also an
appeal process. It was completely moderated by players,
for players. ( it was a mmorph / PvP )

I guess where I come down on this is ( looking for a win/win
for both Inno & the playerbase ), when such a problem as
was described arises...... it "can be" a win/win to solve the
problem, in a public manner, even if both sides don't get
what they want..... if the playerbase ( and no, Inno is not
run by consensus ) deems a solution reasonable, then there
is less chance of pushback, protest, conflict here. It also
fosters a feeling that Inno values us as customers, by even
the appearance that Inno hears what we say.
 

Gkyr

Chef
Just came across this thread after having my own support experience.
What I can say is that I had a minimal problem, an unwanted link that appeared in my sign-in page. A similar occurrence happened two years ago and was fixed right away by support. This time I was told it couldn't be done, was admonished for being the cause. When I politely insisted and asked for an escalation I was given an argument but at least it was escalated and then resolved.
My point is: volunteers come with agendas. Some want to be helpful, others want to be right. One can always ask for a second opinion.
 

mucksterme

Oh Wise One
Obviously you’ve never worked a volunteer support job.

Obviously you know nothing about me.
I was a mod on a much bigger forum than this. It was connected to a tv network.
When I take on a job like that I do it knowing what I'm getting into.
I knew I was a volunteer and that was the deal I signed up for.
And if I screwed up I didn't curl up in a ball sucking my thumb if people criticized me.
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
Just came across this thread after having my own support experience.
What I can say is that I had a minimal problem, an unwanted link that appeared in my sign-in page. A similar occurrence happened two years ago and was fixed right away by support. This time I was told it couldn't be done, was admonished for being the cause. When I politely insisted and asked for an escalation I was given an argument but at least it was escalated and then resolved.
My point is: volunteers come with agendas. Some want to be helpful, others want to be right. One can always ask for a second opinion.

Yep, in the long run people are people. They do have emotions and even the best moderator can have a really, really bad day... and do something they shouldn't. I do like that they did escalate it and take care of the matter. The only time I've ever been kicked from a forum was not handled well until the lawyers got involved. Sad, but true. Breech of implied contract is a real thing and sadly, the moderators (2 of them), in the end did real damage to the company. The core of the problem was there wasn't an appeal process in place outside of the two moderators (a very small forum, btw).

Lesson: even if a support person or moderator gets upset there should always be a way to appeal to the company and have the adjudicated by a neutral party. On the other hand, a mature and good moderator will step aside and turn the whole thing over to another long before that sort of thing occurs. After all, sometimes it's nobody's fault you and I can't communicate, sometimes it's just our styles of doing so are so different we constantly miss what we are saying to each other. Better to step aside in that case, as, apparently, the person did in escalating the thing.

AJ

AJ
 
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