Killthesmiley wrote:there have been some really good posts here that were deleted. None of them which specifically "bash" anyone, but use certain situations as examples of why this rule is now here and why there may be problems with this rule.
Is this correct?
Ugh.
I am trying to follow this thread and catch up on the discussion, and am getting tired of reading a series of completely off-topic posts about whether or not to buy neutrogena products, and I hit this statement by kts. Having individual posts disappear silently (if this is what is happening - it's hard to tell)... that is confusing (later conversation loses it's context to later readers), and a horrible way to moderate.
Moderators, if you remove or edit a post, please leave a short statement as to what was removed and why and by whom, with a pointer to the rule that was violated. That's the least you can do if you take such bold action at all (and should be unusual).
I still have some more posts to read, but so far, there was some discussion about the "rule change" (although it still has not been clarified as to whether it applies as stated in the rules to restricting debate of specific "moderator actions" or actually includes deletion of discussion of "moderator policy" in general.)
Frankly, at this moment, the impression I have is that the Creators approved *something* based on a request from the Moderation team to help reduce attacks on moderators when they try to moderate, and that *something* has been expanded in scope to include more general discussion of policies. This is evident in the differences I pointed out in the second post on this thread between the stated rules and the way they were announced.
I returned to this thread with the intention of just catching up and staying out of the discussion, and maybe adding a comment stating that I am glad to see the thread remains unlocked and discussion continues. But if posts are being selectively and silently removed, that leaves a much less positive impression.
I'm not set in my views at this point, but I am beginning to think things have derailed on this forum. Some of samara's criticisms seemed to go a bit too far, but the statements about having a clearly stated set of rules/guidelines for users and for moderators, and then for moderators to point to these rules/guidelines when they perform moderator actions on threads ... that seemed quite sensible to me.
The idea that moderator guidelines are "private" makes no sense to me. I don't see any justification or valid reason for that. Saying, as BK did, that they have always been private up to now (I assume between the Creators and moderators) is no reason why they should remain so. What's the big secret? I say post guidelines and let the members of the community who care debate them in an appropriate forum for that purpose. This can only benefit everyone, and will make the job of moderation easier as it spreads to community members, in effect, what samara referred to as "self-policing." In other contexts, this is called "buy in" and is what happens when a community owns it's rules.
It's so weird to me that we seem to have on this site such contrasting modes - the comments section which is almost exclusively "self-policing" by users (with rare actions by the Creators and no layers of moderation between the two) ... and the forums which seems to rely too much on a few moderators rather than communally reinforced standards of conduct. What is lacking in BOTH sections is a good set of documented policies/guidelines for what is acceptable. So pick your poison.
Maybe the focus should be on posting rules/guidelines and inviting debate on those rules in some kind of organized way?
Edit:
Just to add that there are rules here:
"Forum Etiquette, Rules, and Policies (updated)"
http://lonelygirl15.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4841
These rules are a pretty good start, but there is one problem right off the bat:
If you have any questions or concerns about any of these rules, or if you have a suggestion for an additional one you would like to see employed, please post below.
... which sounds good, except the thread is locked and resides in "Forums Announcements." ... I think a new section for "Forum Usage and Questions for Moderators & Admins" (or some such) should be set up with these rules as a sticky post, and discussion threads kept there. Maybe this would replace the "Complaints" section?
I really do. I love it so much that I want it extended to apply to all forum members. That is, no one is to publicly post anything critical of any other forum member.
