Looking at Forum Moderation Standards

[Kensagaku]

I know there have been threads like this previously, and I know that most of them got shut down pretty quickly. But at the same time, this is an important issue, and while I'm not one to whine and complain about every little bad thing I come across, enough is enough.

Now I have noticed an alarming phenomenon in a number of threads; the OP of the thread, by smashing the Report Button on everything that s/he dislikes, causes posts to get deleted quickly. This isn't a universal problem; after all, there is a reason that we have a report button, to report the posts that violate forum guidelines and cause trouble that is detrimental to the forums. These sorts of posts? I can see them getting deleted, it's all fair and well.

But that's not the problem. The problem is that this applies to any and all posts that (generally) the OP of a thread does not like. S/He hits report a few dozen times, and boom, the post with any disagreements is gone, and s/he can smile and be on his/her way with his/her own side of the argument intact, all opposition deleted away.

Moderators, this is a cry to you to actually... y'know, moderate. I'm not sure what the problem is here, but I'm sensing a very impersonal touch that is really starting to hurt the quality of these forums more and more by the day. Let me give you an example:

http://i51.tinypic.com/2cwwf9g.png

Now, let us look at the posts that were deleted. The one that's essentially "get out" is understandably deleted. That was an unfortunately rude and (although true) improper way of handling this situation. The one beneath it was that Starcade had a poor attitude, which was stating an obvious fact that most could see and did not need to be deleted.

However, look at Starcade's still intact post. It says, quite bluntly (and I apologize for my choice of wording, but I'm trying to remain accurate in my quoting), to "go screw yourself." This is an obviously rude and derogatory remark that only serves to hurt the forums, not help encourage people to post and enjoy their time here. I have reported it as is part of my responsibility as one of the members of the forum. Yet no action was taken (scratch that, now the whole thread has been nuked, I guess that's just what happens after X number of reports).

But you can see my point, mods. Are you really there, observing threads as needed, following up on those reported posts and actually looking at them before you delete them? Are you looking to see the context of the posts around it, to see what is going on? If so, why would you leave a clearly offensive post that trumps either of the ones surrounding it and delete the other two? It makes no sense.

So I ask you, mods: Can you give us some sort of sign you're even paying attention?

[Kindra]

I agree. I don't think that an attack right off the bat should be an ok thing.

[Randwolf]

Well, I understand the mods may be too busy to examine every report AND all the posts around it.

However, what will probably begin is that everyone will begin reporting everyone else's posts.

Looks like Starcade's thread got the nuke treatment anyway.

[GlobalVariable]

There has been a serious lack of consistency on the mods part from the beginning. Harmless posts deleted and atrocious ones and absurd accusations of other players get left up. And there is no method go over the forums staffs head when the post defending yourself from some nut deleted.

[Starcade]

Well, I understand the mods may be too busy to examine every report AND all the posts around it.

However, what will probably begin is that everyone will begin reporting everyone else's posts.

The only reason I don't is because of the fact that I want people to see their absurdity.

[Randwolf]

You have but one option then.

Ban me from both the forums and the game itself.

We have the vast majority of US players who, bluntly, are cheaters and completely have no regard for anyone but their own advancement.

This forum has turned into little more than the BluGartr cheater-fest I feared it would.

I told him to do it because that's exactly how I felt about him. And I think Square-Enix, in enforcing having to play with some of these "people" to feasibly advance in the game, is part and parcel of the problem.

There is NOTHING for me to look forward to in this update. Basically, Square-Enix is trying to enforce playing with a bunch of people who have no business in this game.

I'm surprised that hasn't happened yet.

[Starcade]

I'm surprised that hasn't happened yet.

Bluntly, so am I!!!

I think, frankly, the only reason I'm not thrown off of FFXI yet is because they know what that would mean (that they side with the cheaters and need them more than they need the legitimate players -- translation: there are not enough legitimate players to support FFXI, and, therefore, Square-Enix' MMO division).

It'd be like VanaFest 2010: Where they basically had to admit the only reason they had 32 servers was the proliferation of RMT across the game.

[Starcade]

Greatguardian: As long as I am part of this game, though, this conflict will continue. If it doesn't continue here, it will continue in-game. The facts are that the game has allowed and encouraged a course of conduct completely contrary to Square-Enix' rules and intent. And the enjoyment of the game by the majority of the English-speaking/US players relies on that contradiction.

[Pharaun]

Ken I think you really hit the nail on the head with your OP. Personally I think one of the biggest problems is that it seems like they are relying on the GM staff to moderate the forums, which is something that they probably have had little experience and training in. It would have been better if SE had hired a group of people specifically to moderate so that their attention wasn't divided between answering in game GM calls and responding to all the report post spam and could be properly trained on what to do.

I'd like to hope that as time passes the GMs will learn what it takes to properly moderate a forum, but unless there are one or two of them specifically assigned to the forums only then I doubt that will happen. Of course all of these problems would just go away if SE would do the smart thing and hire Isladar to be a professional moderator for the forums.

[Kensagaku]

Why must stuff always happen when I go to nap? Alright, to address a few things here.

First off, I'm sorry about removing the tags, but I want to keep this thread fairly serious. This was not an attempt at a troll thread nor was it meant to stir up controversy. Starcade, I apologize for directly pointing you out, but it was a recent and proper example. Blocking out your name wouldn't have done anything because of your... unique... personality. So if you felt dragged into this, my apologies. Truely.

Now that the mini-disclaimer-thingamajig is over with, let's get to the meat of this argument. I feel that this is a common issue, and a very important one to this forum's future. We need a moderation staff who can take the time and examine all aspects of the board. I know our team is strained already since most of the money is going towards the development of FFXIV, but you can't spare a little to get a team to actually look over these forums with a fair hand? Too many times we've found ourselves with deleted posts and nuked threads all because one idiot (though said idiot varies and/or is more than one person at times) decided that they were unhappy with someone else's ideas and started spamming the report button.

Without someone to actually look at the content, to fully examine the report and give us honest feedback as to why a post should get deleted. Before, we were getting posts edited at least by the community reps, and I thought that was a sincerely direct and personal approach that really helped in this forum. They looked and read posts and took out the unnecessary or things that were against the forum guidelines. What happened to this? When did we descend back to the point where "report = post/thread nuke" became the new equation? It doesn't do the forum any good, and it's more likely to drive away posters and restrict the information that is being passed along because one idiot doesn't like an informative thread and poof, there goes the thread.

How much good information has to be lost before you guys realize that you need some sort of personal touch, whether your own or a moderating crew's? How many blatantly rude posts go ignored while literally right above and below them you guys delete less offensive comments? We need to see this change, because otherwise, we're just hurting our ability to communicate with our community, which was the point of this forum in the first place.

So please, read this out and hopefully see what I'm getting at.