IMO, too much is allowed under the banner of "having a laugh". I've moderated other forums before, so I know the problem with people shouting about mod abuse at every opportunity, but in the interests of forum atmosphere people should know the natural line between having a laugh and being a dick will be punished if you step on the wrong side of it. And yes, that's an arbitrary line and people are going to bitch about it, but if you're conducting yourself in a manner where a mod has mistaken your behaviour for being a dick that easily, then maybe you're the one doing something wrong, not the mod. And also, a mod should never conduct themselves in a manner where anyone could accuse them of treading on that line either (and sometimes that means not getting involved in the activities and banter of the forum like you're a member of it instead of a moderator). But anyway, you asked for my opinion ... I'm not that bothered by it.
We tend to moderate via PM, that way we rarely have to delete or close threads. What would you say the line is ?
please log in to view this image Oh dear the humour police have arrived I'll get my coat please log in to view this image
Doesn't really matter what my opinion is, I'm not a moderator. There's no set place for the line; when people are saying things to each other with intent to cause bad feeling or are getting into big personal arguments, that's where the line starts drawing near. The biggest job of a mod IMO is just having a good internal dickometre, to instinctually know when someone's intentionally pissing people off. Which I think it's obvious some people on here do to others, and it gets out of hand. It's a difficult job because this is a footie forum, and there's always a fair amount of line-walking banter going on when it comes to footie.
Most of the name calling spats die out quite quickly and if someone is on a rant, they are generally making a dick out of themselves for everyone to see. The danger of over moderating is that when it happens to them, people always feel that it's unjust and unfair - and it gives them a reason to start a crusade, which just causes more moderation problems. We don't really have any major problems- and when it gets out of hand, we speak to people via PM as it's a bit more productive to talk 'face to face' as it were.
Yep, but everyone feels that moderation of something they've done is unfair and unjust, including me. Doesn't mean you don't moderate them. Dicks don't need a reason to start a crusade; anything you do as a mod will be unfair and unjust in their eyes. IMO, you shouldn't be afraid to dole out punishment when people are being dicks and creating a bad atmosphere. People who don't like that they can't be dicks anymore can go find some other forum; no loss on the part of this one.
I think the OP was alluding to the fact that it's not a problem if people want to disagree with each other.
It could be worse, our board could be like the spurs board, hoddle is a knob is having some kind of breakdown over there at present lol, always knew it would only be a matter of time before that guy got found out, even his own supporters have realised his game lol. On a serious note, I think this board is one of the best moderated compared to the others, the spurs board seems pretty good to, and by that I mean you can have a bit of banter without getting warnings and banned for no reason. Plus a bit of handbags at dawn can be quite funny and amusing, provided it does not go overboard.
I believe most of the insulting on here is done "tongue in cheek".I never take offence and i never mean to offend others.I just take everything as banter On the subject of HIAG,Piskie and i have never been convinced he's a Spurs fan but just a WUM with a fake account.He's been banned from various boards and now i think even the Spurs lads are starting to suss him out