Improved forum moderation ('Shitposters under curfew')

[Granger]

Hello, I have reported threads made by permbanned user. Can I ask why aren't they Hel'd?

It is one thing to claim someone is masquerading under another account, it is another thing to be sure enough about that to warrant action on such claims.

As the current approach to protect the forum against users unfit to participate has some shortcomings I propose a to try a different approach:

Instead of useless temporary bans there is a different consequence: losing the ability to post freely. You can still post with that account but the message will not hit the forum unless it is approved by any one of the moderators. Should the quality of the message be so low that no moderator is willing to approve it within a certain timeframe it'll be dropped. Should an account impeded by this behave for a reasonable timeframe the privilege of being able to post directly to the forum will be restored. Evasion of this mechanic leads to permanent termination of all forum privileges for the initial account.

This limitation can and will be given with a light hand as the worst case (someone innocent be objected to it) is that there will be a delay (until a moderator sees it and approved it) when posting.

Comments welcome.

Update: The system has been tested and is now working as intended. Some shortcuts here and there for moderators are still missing to ease the approval process (flagging an user already works painless and swift) but they'll be available eventually to make sure that offenders are as least annoyed by being under curfew as possible (within the scope of the basic idea to annoy them more than the moderators that have to deal with them).

So for the moment please think twice about applying to being a test subject of this new approach to moderation since it might currently take longer to approve your good posts to the public than intended.

Please use this thread only for discussions and suggestions about the actual mechanic, not for comments about specific uses (that is what the Plea for Moderation is for).

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

It sounds like the offender would be put under a probation period of a sort. At the moment nothing came up on the top of my head but I will post additional comments when it comes.

[Oddity]

As the current approach to protect the forum against users unfit to participate has some shortcomings I propose a to try a different approach:

Instead of useless temporary bans there is a different consequence: losing the ability to post freely. You can still post with that account but the message will not hit the forum unless it is approved by any one of the moderators.

yo why don't you approve this: 8======D ~ ~ ~

[Onep]

An Oddity post?!

[Amanda44]

As the current approach to protect the forum against users unfit to participate has some shortcomings I propose a to try a different approach:

Instead of useless temporary bans there is a different consequence: losing the ability to post freely. You can still post with that account but the message will not hit the forum unless it is approved by any one of the moderators. Should the quality of the message be so low that no moderator is willing to approve it within a certain timeframe it'll be dropped. Should an account impeded by this behave for a reasonable timeframe the privilege of being able to post directly to the forum will be restored. Evasion of this mechanic leads to permanent termination of all forum privileges for the initial account.

This limitation can and will be given with a light hand as the worst case (someone innocent be objected to it) is that there will be a delay (until a moderator sees it and approved it) when posting.

Comments welcome.

I can't see any issues with this, other than it being tiresome for the mods and possible arguments over whether a post is good enough quality ... it would definitely save us (forum users) from having to wade through so much nonsense every day in almost every thread if it made a difference, but, it still isn't going to prevent them making unconnected alt accounts that you can't 'prove' are theirs - even though everyone knows - to post with as they do now and then behave better on their main account. Meaning forum wise I don't see much changing.

I just think the main problem here is consistency and reluctance in dealing with certain posters ... which is then visible to everyone leading to a knock on effect where bans aren't taken seriously and in some cases, a thing to be accumulated.

I think if you make alt accounts to avoid a ban and get caught posting anywhere other than this thread you should automatically face an extension of your original ban and repeat offenders permabanned. And I apply the same measure to repeat offenders in general, if a member repeatedly gets banned for 'bad' posting it's pretty obvious they neither care or are willing to stop, it then seems a bit silly allowing them to endlessly continue to maintain that behaviour, which also serves as encouragement for like minded people.

Rules and punishments are pointless when they are not enforced systematically across the board.

If a permabanned member seriously want to return it's not like they can't make an appeal at a later date, you can also make a new account for reformed behaviour ... I know a few who have ...

[DDDsDD999]

Comments welcome.

Get the fuck away from this shitty game's shitty forums, luv u <3eat a fat dick lol inb4 banned for sassing a mod.

[Granger]

(moderation queue)

I can't see any issues with this, other than it being tiresome for the mods and possible arguments over whether a post is good enough quality ... it would definitely save us (forum users) from having to wade through so much nonsense every day in almost every thread if it made a difference, but, it still isn't going to prevent them making unconnected alt accounts that you can't 'prove' are theirs - even though everyone knows - to post with as they do now and then behave better on their main account. Meaning forum wise I don't see much changing.

The privilege of instant posting could also be removed from newly created accounts (some forums do it, seems to work there) by default. And should it be decided to not approve 'endgame' related posts made by fresh (time and postcount) accounts in general then the problem with alt accounts would be solved - leaving only acceptable behaviour to gain the forum privilege of instant posting.

I just think the main problem here is consistency and reluctance in dealing with certain posters ... which is then visible to everyone leading to a knock on effect where bans aren't taken seriously and in some cases, a thing to be accumulated.

Bans wouldn't be needed anymore. One could think about permabans as a convenience function for the moderators in cases of someone being limited and not getting the hint at all, like some set (but hidden) amount of consecutive posts or a percentage (above a certain post count) of posts in total getting discarded - but in the end this shouldn't be needed since most sane will give up screaming against a deaf wall very quickly and the moderators have to deal with the insane anyway...

I think if you make alt accounts to avoid a ban and get caught posting anywhere other than this thread you should automatically face an extension of your original ban and repeat offenders permabanned.

See a bit up this thread how good this works with some permabanned users.

And I apply the same measure to repeat offenders in general, if a member repeatedly gets banned for 'bad' posting it's pretty obvious they neither care or are willing to stop, it then seems a bit silly allowing them to endlessly continue to maintain that behaviour, which also serves as encouragement for like minded people.

With a slight difference: since the proposed moderation system completely stops the 'bad' posts (of users on probation) from hitting the forum these won't have feedback anymore => no more trollfeeding / shitposter echo chamber / reward from trolling.

And there would be ample motivation to behave since having to wait for a post to be approved (since the moderators are not on 24/7 this might take a moment) isn't something to really enjoy, no one would really want to be flagged that way.

Rules and punishments are pointless when they are not enforced systematically across the board.

This also is something that would be addressed, since the new posts of the current usual suspects which would be submitted to the system are only a fraction of all new posts on the forum and it would be enough for one moderator to approve (given all moderators read through the few new pending messages, which is quicker than to read through all new posts) than now (one moderator being enough to remove something and not all of them are reading through all new posts) the end result would be way more consistent.

Some messages might take a bit longer to appear for public consumption (should only a minority of the moderators deem them fit for public consumption) though.

More comments please.

[Amanda44]

I can't see any issues with this, other than it being tiresome for the mods and possible arguments over whether a post is good enough quality ... it would definitely save us (forum users) from having to wade through so much nonsense every day in almost every thread if it made a difference, but, it still isn't going to prevent them making unconnected alt accounts that you can't 'prove' are theirs - even though everyone knows - to post with as they do now and then behave better on their main account. Meaning forum wise I don't see much changing.

The privilege of instant posting could also be removed from newly created accounts (some forums do it, seems to work there) by default. And should it be decided to not approve 'endgame' related posts made by fresh (time and postcount) accounts in general then the problem with alt accounts would be solved - leaving only acceptable behaviour to gain the forum privilege of instant posting.

Actually yes, that would work, we had a similar kind of system on another forum I used for awhile in that if a post was reported for some violation it was auto removed and placed in the mod room for whoever saw it to say 'yay' or 'nay'.

And I apply the same measure to repeat offenders in general, if a member repeatedly gets banned for 'bad' posting it's pretty obvious they neither care or are willing to stop, it then seems a bit silly allowing them to endlessly continue to maintain that behaviour, which also serves as encouragement for like minded people.

With a slight difference: since the proposed moderation system completely stops the 'bad' posts (of users on probation) from hitting the forum these won't have feedback anymore => no more trollfeeding / shitposter echo chamber / reward from trolling.

And there would be ample motivation to behave since having to wait for a post to be approved (since the moderators are not on 24/7 this might take a moment) isn't something to really enjoy, no one would really want to be flagged that way.

Yes, 'of users on probation', but, yeah, it is still going to act as a deterrent when the attention is taken away.

And, no, no-one likes being flagged, this is true. The mod thread will then be full of posters asking why their posts weren't allowed though and accusing mods of censoring them, ours was ... though not much different from now really ... unless you 'approve' them there first too ...

[algeralith]

The privilege of instant posting could also be removed from newly created accounts (some forums do it, seems to work there) by default. And should it be decided to not approve 'endgame' related posts made by fresh (time and postcount) accounts in general then the problem with alt accounts would be solved - leaving only acceptable behaviour to gain the forum privilege of instant posting.

Might as well just make posting require a subscription.

I mean, after all, it seems like you want to discourage new people from posting. Not all posts have the ability to sit in a moderator's queue waiting for approval. Some are time sensitive in nature.

[shubla]

You cant improve perfection