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Author Topic: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation  (Read 14153 times)

Katrina Oniseki

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Hello!

I'd like to talk about the process of Moderation, its typical methods, and some things you as users can do to help us out.

First of all, let's set some terms for this conversation. There are two broad categories for moderation, Warnings and Actions.

Warnings can be public warnings either IC or OOC, and they can be private chat warnings. Public Warnings should be considered a gentle nudge in the right direction OOC (even if the warning is serious IC). Private Warnings are more serious, and if you've received one, it is typically your last chance to cease whatever the warning was about. IC warnings are typically handled IC, as you might expect. There really is little difference there.

Actions are used when warnings were either ineffective, or would be insufficient to stop the disruptive behavior. Actions consists of Mutes, Kicks, and Bans. A mute silences your participation in the channel, and usually lasts less than an hour. If you've been muted, the proper response is to calm down. There is no appeal for being muted. Just wait it out and relax. Kicks and Bans are, respectively, temporary and permanent. You can appeal both. Both of those deserve their own thread, so I won't get into detail here. Whether IC or OOC, all actions are subject to the same process of appeals (or lack thereof).

As most of you are aware, the moderation team of the Summit is perfectly willing to issue moderation on our own against users who we feel openly and obviously violate the rules or spirit of the channel. We often step in quickly for particularly egregious cases, but we tend to be much slower in doing so for the more mild cases. In many cases we may issue private warnings, or simply make a note of it for later and not do anything at all yet.

This sometimes leads to the perception of favoritism or selective moderation. Such perception is not entirely unfounded, but it sometimes ignores an important part of the reason for inconsistent moderation of mild disruptions/trolling: Lack of User Reports. We as moderators strongly rely on user reports to determine how disruptive behavior is. If somebody is being a jerkwad on the Summit IC and nobody reports it, we have no way to know if everybody is secretly upset about it. We tend to assume the not-accused troll is considered legit and avoid interfering.

Speaking as myself (Katrina), I can say that I avoid interfering in mild cases unless I get reports, because I'm wary of the common perception that the mod team is an oppressive Orwellian police force. In short, I try to be more libertarian with my moderation and only action when necessary. Other moderators might be far more willing to slap a mute or kick on someone for being a suspected troll.

If you want the mod team to notice and do something about a character/user or situation, FILE A REPORT. We can only act according to our own perception of the problem until reports start showing up and giving us certain reason to suspect foul (role)play.

It is important to note here that we may not always agree with a report. We may strongly disagree, and reports should not be assumed to guarantee moderation. On the other hand, it should not be considered a guarantee of immunity. Depending on what we see in the logs, we may issue moderation against more than just the reported person (up to and including the person who made the report).

I'll wrap this up here for now by restating the concept that The Summit and OOC are not moderated based on a constitution of rules and laws. It is moderated based on the perceptions of the community and the moderation team on certain guidelines of behavior that are open for discussion and negotiation via the proper channels. Some things have been beaten to death, like slaves on camera (no pun intended). Others are more flexible to interpretation, like playing an unsavory or foul-mouthed villain.

In all cases though, we do not rely on the letter of the law, but rather the spirit of the law. If you feel such moderation is not being done to your satisfaction, we encourage you to step up your game in assisting us using reports.

Thank you.
« Last Edit: 27 Oct 2013, 13:58 by Katrina Oniseki »
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Lyn Farel

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #1 on: 27 Oct 2013, 14:21 »

I'll wrap this up here for now by restating the concept that The Summit and OOC are not moderated based on a constitution of rules and laws. It is moderated based on the perceptions of the community and the moderation team on certain guidelines of behavior that are open for discussion and negotiation via the proper channels. Some things have been beaten to death, like slaves on camera (no pun intended). Others are more flexible to interpretation, like playing an unsavory or foul-mouthed villain.

Mh, if I understand it correctly, it's mostly the subject of mob rule and tyranny of echo chambers ?

That explains a lot...
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Katrina Oniseki

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #2 on: 27 Oct 2013, 14:31 »

I'll wrap this up here for now by restating the concept that The Summit and OOC are not moderated based on a constitution of rules and laws. It is moderated based on the perceptions of the community and the moderation team on certain guidelines of behavior that are open for discussion and negotiation via the proper channels. Some things have been beaten to death, like slaves on camera (no pun intended). Others are more flexible to interpretation, like playing an unsavory or foul-mouthed villain.

Mh, if I understand it correctly, it's mostly the subject of mob rule and tyranny of echo chambers ?

That explains a lot...

In a cynical manner of speaking, yes, you could say that. We understand that this method may not appeal to everybody, and that's okay. We don't expect everybody to like our way of doing things, and we understand it's not the only way of doing things. It is our way of doing it though.

If you prefer a clearly and explicitly written set of rules like a ToS and EULA that are followed to the letter, there are alternative venues available which follow that format.

Esna Pitoojee

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #3 on: 27 Oct 2013, 14:50 »

Worth noting that we used to have clearly written rules. People complained they were to strict and inflexible, so we got rid of them.

Can't have it both ways.
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Morwen Lagann

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #4 on: 27 Oct 2013, 15:01 »

It is also worth noting that us enforcing rules that are laid out in the EVE TOS/EULA is one reason CCP went and created a pair of completely unmoderated shitheaps. Ironic, huh?
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Lagging Behind

Morwen's Law:
1) The number of capsuleer women who are bisexual is greater than the number who are lesbian.
2) Most of the former group appear lesbian due to a lack of suitable male partners to go around.
3) The lack of suitable male partners can be summed up in most cases thusly: interested, worth the air they breathe, available; pick two.

Lyn Farel

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #5 on: 27 Oct 2013, 15:38 »

I'll wrap this up here for now by restating the concept that The Summit and OOC are not moderated based on a constitution of rules and laws. It is moderated based on the perceptions of the community and the moderation team on certain guidelines of behavior that are open for discussion and negotiation via the proper channels. Some things have been beaten to death, like slaves on camera (no pun intended). Others are more flexible to interpretation, like playing an unsavory or foul-mouthed villain.

Mh, if I understand it correctly, it's mostly the subject of mob rule and tyranny of echo chambers ?

That explains a lot...

In a cynical manner of speaking, yes, you could say that. We understand that this method may not appeal to everybody, and that's okay. We don't expect everybody to like our way of doing things, and we understand it's not the only way of doing things. It is our way of doing it though.

If you prefer a clearly and explicitly written set of rules like a ToS and EULA that are followed to the letter, there are alternative venues available which follow that format.

Yes... Thank you for the explanation.

Worth noting that we used to have clearly written rules. People complained they were to strict and inflexible, so we got rid of them.

Can't have it both ways.

Honestly I don't even know what to answer to that...
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Pieter Tuulinen

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #6 on: 27 Oct 2013, 17:15 »

I'll wrap this up here for now by restating the concept that The Summit and OOC are not moderated based on a constitution of rules and laws. It is moderated based on the perceptions of the community and the moderation team on certain guidelines of behavior that are open for discussion and negotiation via the proper channels. Some things have been beaten to death, like slaves on camera (no pun intended). Others are more flexible to interpretation, like playing an unsavory or foul-mouthed villain.

Mh, if I understand it correctly, it's mostly the subject of mob rule and tyranny of echo chambers ?

That explains a lot...

FML... Do you guys have to turn this discussion into WestSide Story.
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Anslol

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #7 on: 28 Oct 2013, 08:22 »

Even more important, why is this not in Moderation Discussion O-o
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Tiberious Thessalonia

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #8 on: 28 Oct 2013, 09:36 »

Moderation Discussion is for discussion of the moderation of this board, not the unrelated sister channel.
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Saede Riordan

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #9 on: 28 Oct 2013, 09:51 »

Worth noting that we used to have clearly written rules. People complained they were to strict and inflexible, so we got rid of them.

Can't have it both ways.

There was also a lot of attempts to rules lawyer everything I understand, which as a moderator, I can understand why would be obnoxious as hell.
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Morwen Lagann

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #10 on: 28 Oct 2013, 09:57 »

Anslo: Because it's about ingame channels (which are what this subforum is for), not this forum.

While the policy is the same (if you see something, report it) in both places, it's a lot more important for people to report things ingame because unlike a forum where there are handy tools for seeing what you've missed, like the 'unread posts' and 'replies' links up top, ingame the chat moves as fast as the participants are talking. If it goes out of your chat buffer, you're boned unless you feel like trawling through logs.

So it's not particularly helpful for people to engage in he-said-she-said later on without providing logs. We're also somewhat reluctant to slap someone across the face with a brick for something they did a few days before when none of us saw it and nobody bothered to say anything about it until that person did something while we were watching and got told off for it. It's not exactly a statute of limitations, but it's a little more effective to tell someone "Hey, <name>, don't post racist shit, you ignorant fuckwad" (wording negotiable, dependent on the phase of the moon, alignment of the planets, and the blood alcohol content of the moderator in question) within a few hours of it happening than it is to do so a few days later completely out of the blue.

tl;dr of the above: Reporting things as they happen (or shortly afterwards) allows us to react in a timely fashion.

Regarding the always-brought-up mob rule/echo chamber BS, because at this point that's what it is:

1) I find it odd that the people who constantly complain about this never pick up their toys and leave. Seriously, if you hate this perception you have so much, leave, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Everyone reserves the right to point and laugh at you if you come back crying because the alternatives were worse than what you had, though, so keep that in mind.

2) Just because moderation decisions are usually based on community perception of what is acceptable and what is not in addition to an internal fuzzy rubric (I say fuzzy because it isn't set in stone and is more like a set of guidelines than actual concrete rules) of what constitutes in/appropriate behavior does not automatically equate to mob rule or echo chambers. Just like the moderation on Backstage, if we get reports that are pretty clearly not motivated by "there's someone who's actually breaking rules and/or being disruptive" and are more akin to "I don't like this person so I'm going to nitpick every little fucking thing s/he does until you ban them so I stop complaining" they aren't going to be acted on unless there's some actual rule breakage going on. And yes. This does happen. Don't be that guy.

Worth noting that we used to have clearly written rules. People complained they were to strict and inflexible, so we got rid of them.

Can't have it both ways.

There was also a lot of attempts to rules lawyer everything I understand, which as a moderator, I can understand why would be obnoxious as hell.

Yes, especially when it comes from people who like to pretend they are important internet spaceships lawyerpeople IRL.
« Last Edit: 28 Oct 2013, 09:59 by Morwen Lagann »
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Lagging Behind

Morwen's Law:
1) The number of capsuleer women who are bisexual is greater than the number who are lesbian.
2) Most of the former group appear lesbian due to a lack of suitable male partners to go around.
3) The lack of suitable male partners can be summed up in most cases thusly: interested, worth the air they breathe, available; pick two.

Anslol

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #11 on: 28 Oct 2013, 10:07 »

Fuck you Morwen, I got my SJD from Harvard Law School's Jita Satellite Campus.

You'll be receiving a pixel slander court summons shortly.

But no really, thanks for the clarification!  :)
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Havohej

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #12 on: 29 Oct 2013, 06:02 »

Regarding the always-brought-up mob rule/echo chamber BS, because at this point that's what it is
Not entirely.
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Arista Shahni

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #13 on: 29 Oct 2013, 10:37 »

I has a funny log saved where someone threatened to report me for using (( )) in the summit for an internet link to a wiki article that is considered "in character and not meta logic.  Poor CCP Logibro got to watch me screaming "THEN FUCKING REPORT ME." for a good thirty minutes to people who were not mods and kept quoting the MOTD "don't use double brackets" thingy.

Regardless of how they work I'd rtaher have living human mods who actively mod then a room full of people whisper or yelling they'll tell on me.
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Anslol

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Re: The Importance of Reporting & Community Self Moderation
« Reply #14 on: 29 Oct 2013, 11:02 »

Gief logs pl0x
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