Moderating Questions

[panzerfuehrer]

For the TFL Staff - I am a Moderator on another Forum, (www.officer.com). Recently, we switched to the UBB type format used at TFL, which was a huge improvement.

I have been impressed with the leadership of the Administrators and Moderators here, and am trying to apply some lessons from my experiences at TFL.

Questions, though:

What is the rationale or rule of thumb for closing threads?

Is the Staff Lounge helpful? I am talking to our Administrator about doing something similar.

How do you decide when someone has gone too far? I remember seeing a "maybe one warning if you're lucky" policy in the Terms. Do you send them a private e-mail warning?

Any input or advice appreciated. Thanx and keep up the good work!

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Panzerführer

Die Wahrheit ist eine Perle. Werfen sie nicht vor die Säue.

Those that beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those that don't.

[TheBluesMan]

What is the rationale or rule of thumb for closing threads?

There's no rationale! We close 'em at random. Just Kidding. :)

Actually, we usually close a thread if it exceeds 100K or 50 posts or so. This, like many things that Moderators and Administrators do, is a judgement call. There are a few threads with more than 50 posts that are under 100K. Likewise there are plenty of threads that hit 100K well before reaching 50 posts. The idea behind this is that the longer posts take too long to load, and not everybody has a 500MHz Pentium and a T1 line (I've got a 66MHz Mac.) :o

Is the Staff Lounge helpful?

I like the Staff Lounge because it is the only place on TFL where I can walk around wearing nothing but a belt and holster and nobody seems to mind. Just Kidding. :)

For me, the Staff Lounge is invaluable. Believe it or not, the Staff does try to "think twice, post once." This can be difficult for those of us that can't hold two thoughts at the same time (like me). We'll often bounce ideas, suggestions, praises and flames off each other before deciding on a course of action on the other forums. The walls are indeed padded, BTW. ;)

I'll leave the rest of the questions to some of the other Staff.


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RKBA!
"The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security"
Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 4 Concealed Carry is illegal in Ohio.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry Website (http://www.ofcc.net)

[DC]

Staff Lounge: very helpful..also I can revert to pure Sicilian without worrying about who might turn me in

Going too far:...SL helps, but most important are the goals of your forum....short term or long term. Many of us have been "netting" for quite awhile...the looser the forum, the shorter its life and the lesser its credibility. There is a mix to this, but you need to know that you won't attract and keep everyone.


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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!

[Dennis]

Drawing the line between debating and insults can be difficult. It's a value judgement you must make every single time - and yes, it DOES depend upon the member.

Constant and intentional offenders are dealt with more severely than a typically polite member who just blows his lid once, corrects it, and apologizes.

Value judgements = tough calls (sometimes).

Don't burn yourself out. Early on, I felt I *had* to respond to nearly everything. Then I had to respond to the responses, etc. etc.

I was spending so much time on TFL (over 200 hours in a month) that my ISP reprimanded me and accused me of using a "dedicated line"! They actually threatened to charge me an additional $95/month! :eek:

I'm slowly learning that if I keep my mouth shut, another member will make the same point for me. I guess I'm not very original! Worse, the other member usually states the point better than I could!

All the old-fashioned rules apply, e.g.:

- Attack the opinion rather than the speaker.
- Commend in public but reprimand in private (eg e-mail).
- Get in the habit of documenting "facts" - or stating outright that you have no documentation and ask for some. Lead others to do the same.

I hope you are as lucky as the TFL staff and have one or two leaders who *know* what the consistent philosophy was, is, and will be. Life is good when you have a mentor or two! Lacking consistent policy and guidance leads to chaos.

Finally, as Rich constantly reminds us, "Take the high road".

Good luck!

[panzerfuehrer]

I appreciate the quick responses folks! Sounds like a lot of common sense, a couple grains of salt, and good manners.

Officer.com has been around for quite a while, and is probably one of the leading LE sites on the 'net. If any of you visit, you can still see the old BB (closed) and what a mess it was. We changed because some folks who were proponents of drug legalization (mostly MJ) linked to our site and proceeded to flood the BB with postings, some intelligent and civil, and others, well....

As you might imagine, there was a lot of flaming on both sides of the issue. Anyway, we created, among others, a drug law forum for debating the issue without clogging up the entire BB. Some folks are a little uptight with me because I closed a thread that was >60 posts and 2 full pages, as well as getting a bit rude near the end. I politely suggested that they may wish to start Part Two, because it was taking a while to load the thread, along with a gentle reminder to keep it civil.

BTW, where can you find the size of a given thread e.g., 100K? Some of the folks tend to be long-winded, and I'm sure we use up that much long before 50 posts, especially in the drug law forum.

Thanx again.

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Panzerführer

Die Wahrheit ist eine Perle. Werfen sie nicht vor die Säue.

Those that beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those that don't.

[DC]

You can determine the size of a thread by watching it load....
In Netscape its at the very bottom of the browser and you can watch the bytes increase as the page loads

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!

[4V50 Gary]

One advantage we enjoy here at TFL is the support from the Boss, Rich. At another website, the moderators are pulling their hair out trying to keep order and they're not given much discretion in deleting or editing posts. To exaccerbate the situation, memberships aren't yanked from identified trolls.

The staff lounge serves wonderfully as an in-house forum where issues may be resolved without resorting to endless emails.

[Dennis]

In Internet Explorer, right click on the thread title at the top of the page - in this case, "Moderating Questions".

Click on "Properties" to get a rough idea of the size of the thread.

And the folks here are right. Order from chaos is a *direct* result of the Top Dog's leadership. In TFL's case, Rich deserves the kudos for picking the original Administrators. The rest of us were picked because of increased membership and consequent increased workload. ;)

Viel Glueck, Kollege.