Child of Karras on 7/5/2004 at 00:15
Closing, locking of topics. Sure besides the warez and the off topicness, what else would register as a potential lock? Does personal opinion get in the way? Are potential flamewars (even with a debate about the ongoing discussion) locked? Do mods follow the system or does the whole issue of "what they feel is bad" gets counted in as well?
Gingerbread Man on 7/5/2004 at 00:46
There are loads of variables.
Certain things are generally closed as a matter of course: Instance Three of something that was posted twice previously an hour ago, blatant spam / solicitation, really unsalvageable flaming, etc.
Some things are closed as a matter of moderator tolerance, and even then it depends on which moderator, which forum, who's doing the posting that ended up with a line being drawn...
Very little gets locked, even in CommChat. If something is locked, it's usually because of a violation of the obvious posting regs regarding porn, hateful things, solicitation, etc.
A broad answer, I guess, would be that with the exception of stuff that is just asking to get closed, thread closures happen at the discretion of the moderators based on their understanding of what the greater part of the posting population in the forum in question feel is appropriate for that subset of things.
Of course, any and all issues with things like that are perfectly legitimate things to question a mod about (in PM or email)... Sometimes there's been a misunderstanding that can be cleared up, sometimes the guidelines or vibes could do with explicit explanation, sometimes it's just a matter of opinion / feeling as well.
Off-topicness hardly ever results in closure... Not unless a thread is specifically labelled as "please don't drag this discussion too far afield kthnx" and even then only rarely.
Child of Karras on 7/5/2004 at 10:43
Thanks.
What exactly is your job GBM? You're an admin yes but what's the responsibility other than be the overseer of the rest of the mods? Are you in charge of promoting and demoting mods? That's David's job too since he was promoted after fett stepped down? Who has more uh, "power"?
Server Goddess? MsLedd is the person keeping the forums running?
Quote:
Originally posted by Gingerbread Man Instance Three of something that was posted twice previously an hour ago, blatant spam / solicitation, really unsalvageable flaming, etc.
So... ulsavagable flaming meaning going totally off the mark where it's no longer a heated debate and it falls under the category of mere "insulting one another"?
Quote:
Some things are closed as a matter of moderator tolerance, and even then it depends on which moderator, which forum, who's doing the posting that ended up with a line being drawn...
So let's say, the topic is about why Garrett is so hot. Someone comes in says, no he isn't. Then there's a heated discussion with each side explaining their own points and suddenly, someone comes in and suddenly starts talking about something rather irrelevant like morality or how we should consider getting lives because liking rendered characters is fucking stupid. Would that draw the line and hint to the mod to do a lock up?
Quote:
A broad answer, I guess, would be that with the exception of stuff that is just asking to get closed, thread closures happen at the discretion of the moderators based on their understanding of what the greater part of the posting population in the forum in question feel is appropriate for that subset of things.
Have flames ever been moved from one to another because it is more "suited" for that new location?
Sorry if I'm being a pest. I'm merely curious about how things work around here.
David on 7/5/2004 at 11:29
Administrators can alter every little thing about the forums and the members of them. Moderators cannot ban users, but they can request that someone is, and the chances are if they think someone should be banned then they will be.
On a day-to-day basis they will be a few PMs from people with queries, as well as a few emails and deleting of a few porn-bot accounts that have decided to make it their mission to get their URLs on the memberlist that day etc. We also moderate our own forums and deal with anything major in the other forums if their moderators are not online at the moment.
We are "in charge" of the other moderators, but very rarely need to do any "managing" as we're pretty good at picking our moderators (I think so anyway ;))
It was Fionavar, who stepped down and who's position I took, not fett.
There isn't really a hierachy amongst the admins, although Dan and Saam as founders get to take more "sick days" ;) as they have delegated responsibility for the forums to GBM, MsLedd and myself.
MsLedd is indeed in charge of the server. TTLG owes its continued existance to her. It is quite amazing how we manage do so much on such a tiny server. A new shiny one is up and running awaiting our decision on what to transfer to it, other than the forums of course.
As for your theoretical situation about how "hot" Garrett is, it would probably depend on the actual situation. It is more likely that assclown would get a bit of a slap and hopefully allow that thread to continue on its way.
Flames would not be moved from one forum to another, simply closed.
Again, it is more up to the individual moderators, but if they ask for our opinion, which happens occasionally, then it will be given.
We're just a big happy family :D
D'Arcy on 7/5/2004 at 13:49
I think it definitely depends a lot on the moderator's oppinion, and also on other variables. Locking/deleting a thread is most of the times a relatively difficult decision, at least if I don't want to piss people off. I've even had people PM'ing me complaining because I moved their thread from ShockGen to the Hints and Spoilers Forum... Many times I end up asking David's or GBM's oppinion before closing or deleting some threads. I think I'm a rather lenient moderator, therefore when I need to scare someone I threaten them with GBM (he's much better playing the bad cop role) ;)
Right now, for instance, I have decided to close every thread that is posted in ShockGen about the nVidia 5x.xx drivers. We've been having lots of threads about it, and they really belong in the Tech forum. Since we already have a huge thread there dedicated to this, it wouldn't make any sense to move all those threads to the Tech forum (they would then fall into the category of repetitive threads that GBM mentioned). So I just point the poster to the existing thread, and lock the one he posted.
