[Idea] Special Heavily Moderated Talk Theads / Flagging Messages Discussion

DMS General
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Hey Guys and Gals,

I had an idea after watching another discussion head off the rails. Could we offer the ability to do heavily moderated talk threads. The idea being we add to the title of the thread “Heavily Moderated” and if people get off topic, we have a moderator quickly hide their post. The fun thing is that we don’t need a moderator to try it, just three members willing to vigilantly flag posts on the topic.

How would people feel if I tried this in the near future. I would make sure to keep it clear as to what topic it would be on. My hope is to stop a flame war or over posting so that others could read the topic before it blows up and gets completely off the rails. I don’t think that we need this on all topics, but topics like the reorganization suffered from re-posts, off-topic statements, complaining, and too many posts to read.

Go ahead tell me how bad of an idea this is.

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Oppose. Who determines what are “off-topic statements, complaining, and too many posts to read”?

Flame wars eventually die out on their own.

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Nick,

Go ahead tell me how bad of an idea this is.

Very bad and no way in Hell.

I like you and your ideas / thinking in general, but I definitely don’t like this particular suggestion for dealing with discussions among members. It is too easy for a small group of people who happen to not like you and / or your input to try and shut you down.

Also the tangents that we sometimes go on are unexpectedly enlightening and helpful.

If you try to implement this, expect some significant pushback from me and others. It’s not personal, Nick, but I believe in free speech - up to a point. And the times when things REALLY start to go off the rails, a BoD will step in.

Oppose. Who determines what are “off-topic statements, complaining, and too many posts to read”? Flame wars eventually die out on their own.

Absolutely goddamned right, Zach.

JAG “Let’s Book Another Trip on the Hindenburg” MAN

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See below for how threads get moderated. :wink: :slight_smile:

HowToModerateThreads.PNG861×813 70.3 KB

Seriously though…

About time the moderators begin “heavily moderating” anything on TALK, it will not be a good day. :frowning:

Peers “flagging” posts on the other hand… Very effective! :slight_smile:

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Yep this is already done via the flagging system like Lisa said.

Click the Flag and then Click Off Topic and then flag post.

Sounds like people just need to flag more off topic topics. It’s easy to create a new topic with the relevant info.

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I think you guys got part of my message, but not all of it.

I don’t think the flagging system is being used enough in some threads, not all. Especially the ones trying to discuss the minutia of a topic. We are protecting the trolls with our system by leaving the flagging up to the quiet masses, instead of having a few good moderators keeping topics on point. All I’m talking about doing is having a few people actually use the flagging system on key topics to keep them on point. Again not all topics.

We will see how it goes.

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Just need to remind people that if they think a post is off topic they should click the little flag under the post to mark it as such, that’s what it is there for.

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From the horse’s mouth, so to speak…
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/where-are-the-talk-rules/4417/9

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That’s not what the board is here for. I don’t expect them to hang around moderating threads

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Pearce,

That’s not what the board is here for. I don’t expect them to hang around moderating threads

I don’t expect them to do that either and it seems that you misconstrued what I meant. Perhaps I should have phrased it as “a BoD could step in and has”.

I say this because I have observed more than one board member intervene on several occasions to counsel or redirect a topic that was getting out of hand. (which can be substantiated in online records) Are they not the ones contacted when the post is flagged? Or are Leaders such as yourself notified as well?

So Pearce, if a topic is flagged for attention, who is it supposed to go to? And who has the authority to tell a member to cool it or stand down?

And again, I used the qualifier REALLY go off the rails as when someone is being seriously disruptive enough to a thread that multiple and / or strong complaints are registered. And if it goes far enough, I guarantee that I have seen a BoD appear. I am not saying they should be babysitting, but that is what the end game looks like almost every time.

Personally, I think people need a thicker skin and to learn better conflict resolution skills so that ISN’T required at all.

At any rate, your input and experience in this area would be appreciated by us all!

JAG “Crazy Train” MAN

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Not Pearce here, but this very topic is covered in the link just above in the post where I say that Brandon’s assertion is truthful and tested. Flagging is automated and 3 flags for the same transgression gets your post hidden & you get notified.

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What do you care what someone else posts? If you don’t like what someone posts, ignore it.

Board members are appropriate when a question is raised that they could answer, such as a rules dispute.

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Andrew,

Flagging is automated and 3 flags for the same transgression gets your post hidden & you get notified.

Thank you for providing and directing me to the link, but that is not the whole story of how the system works from that single sentence above.

If you look at a post from Alex Rhodes on that thread he explicitly states:

"Like Nick said the mods tend not to intervene unless requested "

So the mods (which I take it are the BoD, but someone correct me here if there is a larger pool) WILL intervene if requested to do so which is essentially my point. If the fire gets bad enough, they are alerted. When I said they will step in, I guess I should have qualified that statement by saying it is not automatic from flagging, or just because their spider sense is tingling, or that they are reading every post, but typically as a consequence of a member sending up the Batsignal.

But I have seen instances where they were following a thread and made appropriate comments without anyone else flagging. Ben for instance telling us to focus when we were drifting off topic last Friday night regarding the July Spending Summary thread.

What do you care what someone else posts? If you don’t like what someone posts, ignore it.

Hence, my comment about getting a thicker skin.

Board members are appropriate when a question is raised that they could answer, such as a rules dispute.

That is generally true, but there was a recent example where someone was repeatedly flagged and didn’t shut the hell up until LeCody said something.

And Nick: @Nick

I don’t think the flagging system is being used enough in some threads, not all. Especially the ones trying to discuss the minutia of a topic. We are protecting the trolls with our system by leaving the flagging up to the quiet masses, instead of having a few good moderators keeping topics on point.

Okay, I think I have a better idea of what you are saying here - the flag system is not being used quite enough? Perhaps, but that is a bit subjective and I don’t agree that the trolls are protected entirely. It is one thing for someone to step a bit out of line or bring up a tangent (which I find revealing) but quite another when a member is being actively abusive or disruptive. My concern is when morale gets impacted or there is a much larger issue about to blindside us and people are too busy with their egos to notice.

Every time I have seen a troll draw a bit too much attention, they get shut down pretty quick. If you have examples you would care to privately share with me as specific concerns, I am open to talk.

JAG “Court Is In Recess” MAN

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The mods are enumerated in the thread i quoted and are andrew lecody playing the part of admin with Alex and someone else who eludes me presently as moderators. Other than the coincidence that they are on the BOD, it had nothing to do with the BOD.

Also, my response was specific to how flagging works, not to what causes intervention by BOD members. Predicting their behaviour is like trying guess which way squirrels will run from my car: just not worth it.

EDIT: re read my linked thread and re discovered the other moderator is. …
Lisa Selk.

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youve been flagged, it wont notify you until you get hidden or a mod sees the flag and tells you how to correct the behavior. a user can only flag it once. we can all see that it has previously been flagged

i think nick is having the same problem i have with some of the larger threads - 5 or 6 posts about some tangential idea triggered by misreading another post.

I wish people would use the “reply in new topic” function for that junk.

@Nick anyone willing to implement this idea can do it, just flag the posts and point an admin at the thread when it starts to get off track.

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I wish I could see the flag. I have no indication I’ve been flagged as of now.

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You have been flagged three times, and the post has been automatically hidden as a result.

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@PearceDunlap, you got my point. Hopefully this will serve as another good thread to increase the awareness and acceptance of flagging in our group. I don’t want to censor, but I would like to see better posts and discussions. In forums moderation has proven this successful, but had also been abused. So it is a fine line to walk.

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It sounds like there is something approaching consensus that awareness and use of proper flagging behavior could help when topics get seriously derailed (i.e., it’s not just a censoring mechanism). Could somebody post a new topic with a relevant title (like “How and When to Flag Posts” … or “Flagging Off-Topic Posts” or similar) with a couple sentences about how and when to flag a post, when it gets hidden, etc. This could raise general awareness and acceptance of flagging.

Chris

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Hey Chris,
+1 on your idea.

I updated the title of the thread to better represent the discussion as it stands.

I agree with your idea. But I think the format should be different. A talk thread would lead to some good guideline, but we would need to consolidate to make them easy to follow. Maybe we should start this thread and once we have some good guidelines post them to the Talk introduction page.