locked topics

[Jrecee]

I'm going to use this topic to come out of the closet.



Ok phew. It was getting dark in there.

[noiseredux]

I don't even know what the "baby thread" was...

but I do feel sometimes that the modding is like Minority Report. "Uh oh, I can predict that this thread will go nowhere or turn into a flamewar, so I will lock it BEFORE that even happens."

[fastbilly1]

I am fairly certain that Lord of Duct has a precog in his basement.

[noiseredux]

haha, nice.

It's tough though on a serious note. There's a certain balance that I think is tricky to achieve. You want a community that is moderated well -- but abuse of mod powers happens from time to time. Not just in this instance.

And it's also tricky for the members, because there's maybe a certain degree of mod-abuse that must be overlooked at times considering the end result is a really good community that a lot of us frequent.

[Niode]

It's best to end a thread before it gets out of control. If people want to take the discussion into PM they are more than welcome to. Mods can't access that information, only the SYSADMIN, which I think is only Racketboy, and even then I think the only way is to view the database. I don't think PHPBB has the ability to view other peoples PMs, not even if you are superuser.

It's best to stop the discussion before it gets out of hand, if people carry on they will get warnings and could end up being banned for it, we don't want that to happen. The worst thing we want to do as mods is ban an otherwise valuable member of the community over one serious incident.

Thread locks are very uncommon here. Generally a thread will get merged/moved/edited before lock. It may seem like they're quite common since we've had a few happen in the last 48 hours. Out of the thousands of topics and posts every week, only a very small percentage (I'd guess less than 5%) get locked/deleted.

Don't forget that, if RB or another moderator disagrees with the decision they can always unlock it.

Also, don't forget you can always help us by reporting threads, it brings attention to mods straight away since it puts a big 'ol exclamation mark on a thread that has been reported and we can look further into it. If a thread seems to be getting out of hand, don't retaliate, let us know and we'll sort it out. Don't get petty though, we're not baby-sitters.


Also: Noiseredux, in what way do you think there has been an abuse of mod powers? I think Mr.Popo's decision was a fair one. The topic had been de-railed and had turned into a everyone vs Inazuma thread. I think it was fair for the thread to be locked, any other mods want to weigh in on this?

[noiseredux]

Also: Noiseredux, in what way do you think there has been an abuse of mod powers? I think Mr.Popo's decision was a fair one. The topic had been de-railed and had turned into a everyone vs Inazuma thread. I think it was fair for the thread to be locked, any other mods want to weigh in on this?

I wasn't talking about the Inazuma thread. I don't even know what that thread was. I didn't read it. I was referring to a completely different, and rather pedantic modding that went on a while back that I sorted out with the mod over a series of PM's rather than making it public. As such, I'd rather keep it between that mod and myself as ultimately, we just sort of agreed to disagree.

[jp1]

I'm not a mod but I agree it was derailed. The whole everyone vs. Inazuma thing makes him sound like some sort of victim though. It isn't as if we are all just picking on him.

[Niode]

I'm not saying that, it's just that Inazuma's opinions are so polarising that any thread that he casts his opinion out, turns into 'I'm right (inazuma), it's society (the rest of the forum-members) that is wrong'.

[jp1]

It's true. I always say to myself "Why did I bother to try and reason." Then again I always end up sticking my hand back in the flame.

[Xonticus]

I'm not saying that, it's just that Inazuma's opinions are so polarising that any thread that he casts his opinion out, turns into 'I'm right (inazuma), it's society (the rest of the forum-members) that is wrong'.

+1 Internets to you my good sir.