Cleggy the Spyder Man Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 In my time the main problem was that the officers of the club hardly used the forum. When things went wrong they just screamed "we are only volunteers, we have our normal lives to lead". It never occurred to them that if they managed the activity on the forum they wouldn't have to spend time cleaning up the mess. Spot on Norman - something I have mentioned in here before during troubled times - be good to see a couple of boardroom administrators appointed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Colonial Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Spot on Norman - something I have mentioned in here before during troubled times - be good to see a couple of boardroom administrators appointed Careful what you ask for, mon ami... Being a boardroom moderator is a pretty thankless and lonely task in itself that stirs the pot even more. It's an easy solution to press a button and make a post go away, but that inevitably creates a "where did my post go?" thread and more controversy. Then there's the "freedom of speech" argument, the toys out of the pram number, and the responsibility of who sets the standards and decides who has gone too far, which is an elastic measurement depending on the mindset and views of individual moderator. Frequently, there is no time to gather all the committee members together and come up with a decision about a thread - someone has to sit in the hot seat and take the decision, then stand by it and live with the consequences. No one is immune - I have posted a couple of things that I thought were harmless enough and an attempt at humour, which were removed, and I also chucked my toys out the boot box a few times too. No one is perfect, least of all me. However, what I have done in the past when moderating other forums and will do when I take over in here from Jon as membership secretary, and if I'm unlucky enough to be in the moderator hot seat when the effluence hits the fan and someone complains about a post, I will try to be as fair as possible. Any posts I decide to remove (and I hope there will never need to be a single one - dream on) will be replaced with a notice similar to "This post has been removed by a moderator because it was deemed not to conform to the Forum Guidelines." - hopefully that will stop the "where's my post / thread gone?" post / thread IYSWIM. To be fair, this is a very rare occurrence around here compared to many forums, so we really should count ourselves quite lucky. /but quis custodiet ipsos custodes? //no easy answers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleggy the Spyder Man Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 I think quite often a PM saying "be nice fella" would go a long way and sort out most issues before they exploded keep up the good work 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Verona Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Capt'n I've never moderated but have run companies with up to 360 staff. If you talk to people and keep them informed and are seen to be fair and even handed then you shouldn't have a problem. However, by not talking to people, not keeping them informed and be blatantly unfair, you will have problems and a lot of time spent sorting it out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurksalot Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 (edited) I've had posts deleted, on complaints I presume , and as norman purports , it is the removal with no correspondance , discussion or even reason that racks me off . I have not started flaming threads to raise issue and I am sure moderating is not easy , but a high handed approach seems so unnecesary on a forum such as this which is pretty much self moderating if allowed to be . Clever, witty and respectful comment seems so much more in the spirit than quoting the rules IMO . edit for typos Edited March 26, 2012 by Lurksalot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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