Contrary View RE: Moderation

[av84fun]

This was posted in the Jeff resignation thread but will probably be buried under the pile of well deserved cudos to Jeff re: his fine job as a moderator so I'm posting it here as well.

I think that sites like this can be largely "self-moderated." What I mean by that is if a post is objectionable in any way, one can just ignore it and go on with life. If such a post draws indignant replies, who cares? Ignore them too.

Foul language? So what. Most of the world hears and uses it evey day in normal conversation (c'mon, admit it) but when reduces to print, all of a sudden we need our dignity protected by a moderator.

Self-moderation would involve members hitting the alert button if they feel the need to and the moderators' jobs would be limited to acting with respect to the alerts but would not need to peruse every single post.

I don't know how you have time.

I just don't think that we members need to quite so "protected" as is the case given fulltime moderation.

Just my view.
Regards

[rtriez]

Just bear in mind - MANY of our members are young - some as young as 12 or 13. In respect to them and their parents, don't you feel fs.com has an obligation to "protect" them from obscenities ? I know it's all around us, but if parents can't trust a site, they may not let their children come here.....


Best Regards,

Bob :-wave

[link:www.neumanflight.com/yabbse/index.php|http://www.neumanflight.com/new/comevisitnew.jpg]

[Jeff S KDTW]

I have to disagree. :-)

Before I became a moderator here, Lou was primarily doing the job by himself. He did not have the time to monitor the forums closely, so for all intent and purposes the forum was "self-moderated." Some of you may remember that time--I personally felt this place was a bit vicious. Not only was language and attitude a bit foul, but the constant solicitation of illegal software trading was prevalent.

The straw that broke the proverbial horse's back was an attack where the poster posted some 20+ pornographic images across all of the boards.

That stuff is uncalled for here.

Although you may not realize it, the moderators here receive a fair number of alerts. Some of the alerts are great help. However, some are also over controlling. There were many times that we received alerts and did not feel the need to intervene at that time. Moderators are there to make that call.

I personally, now as merely a forum participant ;-), do not believe that foul language or any other conduct should be allowed to freely progress nor do I believe that we should let the dynamics of the forum sort it out, because, quite simply, it won't.

A fundamental understanding of the forum is that it is private property. Although you may hear foul language all day long, Nels doesn't have to allow it here.

In the end it comes down to this--we WON'T gain valued contributors to this forum if Nels allows it to be "self-moderating"; however, I'm almost positive that we WOULD lose valued contributors if it were "self-moderating."

Regards,

http://home.earthlink.net/~snyders2000/name.jpg

[mdklatt]

As far as obscenities go there's an automatic bleep function. I did not type a bunch of pounds signs here: #####. That doesn't require any intervention. Anyway, that can be part of the self-moderation. I think most of us try to watch our langugage, and if someone doesn't that's what the Alert function is for. I don't see the need for full-time monitoring in light of the ability for us to alert a moderator about a post. I do wonder how often the Alert function is used now. Some people are so sensitive and devoid of humor that dealing with all the alerts might be a full time job anyway. (I bet I just generated a few alerts with that.)

[Jeff S KDTW]

Despite the automatic feature, it is easily circumvented. ;-)

Anyway, all of this discussion is really just academic, since Nels is not about to expose himself to liability from rampant forums.

Regards,

http://home.earthlink.net/~snyders2000/name.jpg

[Cpt_Breitling]

tattuuu tattuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!! la cavallerie arrive!!!!!!
:-lol :-lol :-lol :-jumpy:-jumpy:-jumpy :-lol :-lol :-lol
Drobson on more to lock!!!!! :-lol :-lol :-lol

[av84fun]

Fair enough. In any event, you did a great job and it has been much appreciated.

But re: some of your points, such as posting porn shots, that is certainly the kind of thing that would generate an alert. Remember by "self-moderated" I just meant that the workload for moderators could be hugely reduced...and we would be able to keep good guys like you...if the moderators needed only to respond to alerts generated by a concerned membership.

As for foul language, while I don't use it on public forums, I am nevertheless of the opinion that if the worst thing people did was cuss, this would be a MUCH better world. I know of no study that suggests that exposure to swearwords ruins an otherwise righteous person.

Anyway enough said.
Best regards,
Jim

[piano]

The fact that foul language is not used here is refreshing. Hard as it may be to believe, some people don't use it and are not around it much. It was a bit of a shock to find it on another sim site.

Al

[drobson]

The forum software here does a pretty good job, and what does manage to get through, certainly doesn't last long.
Darrell

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FORUM CONTACT
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[rtriez]

Personally, just because "people are exposed to it all the time" in NOT an excuse to use foul language - kind of parallels the proverbial " if everyone was going to jump off a bridge - would you do it too ? " saying. Now, before anyone dubs me as "self righteous", I'd just like to reiterate the fact that there are some young members here - and if their parents aren't comfortable allowing their children to participate in a forum where foul language is allowed or not moderated, we could loose some valuable members. Not to mention those of us who are offended by it regardless of our age. My feelings are - what purpose does swearing prove in making your point anyway ? I seem to get my points across without poor language, and since this is an aviation discussion forum and not an argument forum, well - kinda proves my point doesn't it ?
Call me old fashioned, call me a prude, but I think Matthew 5:10 sums it up quite well in you choose to call me names, so call me what you want !


- Bob