TOPIC CONTROL: ENFORCE DISCUSSION?

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I wondered if there could be a serious board where discussion on a topic would be welcome and enforced not by the moderators, but by the person posting the thread.

Right now there's no real control over who/what gets posted, so snarky one-liners and irrelevant side-fights derail threads faster than any outstanding, solid discussion can grow.

One of the cornerstones of user-managed content is how proper internal moderation can work around the haters, trolls, and people who think they're funny.

My suggestion: If the person who posted a topic could remove posts that they feel are off topic or unnecessary, I think discussion would be more productive.

Yes, this is HIGHLY abusable; but that abuse will weed itself out. If "Anaryu" constantly deleted posts because they didn't agree with him, that discussion would only be interesting to the shallow types of people who thrive on that; the people who are actually serious and interested will avoid it and eventually future threads by that same user.

Conversely the removal of the snarky lines and internal side-battles that emerge keep a post clean and takes away that temptation to respond to their nasty little call-outs that take even the more productive people and involve them in said flame war.

Thoughts?
This is actually a really good idea. Highly abusable, but like you said, it would be obvious if people were abusing it. Maybe have the ability for Mods to remove a user's privilege to do this if they abuse it?
author=Lennon
This is actually a really good idea. Highly abusable, but like you said, it would be obvious if people were abusing it. Maybe have the ability for Mods to remove a user's privilege to do this if they abuse it?


I think a mod just throwing those topics into Moronic and warning them and taking action if it continues (ie. what we do now!) would work. So basically the same moderation we're already using!
tardis
is it too late for ironhide facepalm
308
i think discussion is something that evolves on its own, snark, one liners, and side battles all included. not really sure discussion fascism is something we need.

and i wouldn't trust this community to self-moderate, considering the amount of hissyfits that go on here. i can already foresee completely relevant posts getting removed for irrational reasons, which i think only promotes more pointless flamewars and garbage- "YOU DELETED MY POST YOU ASSHOLE"

tl;dr- i think this idea sucks, and not just because i am (very) guilty of my share of snarky one liners.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Maybe if the posts were just hidden and could be reopened, like how Youtube and other sites deal with comments flagged as spam?
I'm against OPs having any sort of deletion powers in a thread. I've seen good threads with great information go up in smoke because the OP had a
attack. Stricter moderation could be in order but let the mods do that not anybody with the brain power to push the "New Topic" button and fill in a captcha.

(also posts can't be deleted due to the system, just edited out)
@tardis/GRS:
1. Could easily be put on a test forum and not put on all the currently active ones.

2. If "Anaryu" has the power to ruin my thread, why can't I have the power to do something about it? The power to remove threads is there, it's just in the wrong hands.

3. Derailed/trolled threads are not the kind of 'evolution' of discussion that is going to draw in new people - it's a vet system that rewards those who enjoy playing the trolling game with each other.

@Craze:
1. I like the idea but it doesn't work when the general community won't flag things because it's the "in thing" to join in on the "fun," it would also become a new way for topics to be ruined as people who don't like the idea abuse it in groups to get it removed.
How about a 'flag/report' button and a bigger moderating staff (or allowing the current staff to moderate?).

Honestly something like this could extend to not only the forums, but comments across the site, blogs, and userpages as a whole, and Karsuman shouldn't have to be the only one dealing with this if he isn't already; he's not omniscient.

A vigilant, active, and fair mod staff is really all we need.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
ana you said in your OP that a DELETION SYSTEM would wind up moderating itself, but you think a flagging system wouldn't?
@Feld:
A flag/report button requires a moderator to look at it and decide; I don't want to speak for them but that's a lot of effort and they would need to read longer threads sometimes to decide if something was relevant, not to mention then the complaints stack on them.

If someone keeps being a jerk and deleting comments, people won't comment on their threads. The punishment for stupidity is applied to the OP or the posting person (respectively) instead of the moderators. (And consistent abuse would be easy for a moderator to catch and warn/ban as appropriate.)

@Craze:
If the flagging system was just to let a Moderator know, then see above.

If it's a threshold system where "X" flags means it gets hidden and a moderator is warned, see above and then consider that you're putting the power right back into the hands of the people posting.

If people abuse power by making a thread and destroying it themselves, they'll get ignored and it's easy for moderators to warn/ban that person since the history is pretty clear. (Especially if posts are "hidden" when deleted.)

---------------------
I mean ideally a way for people to flag a thread because the OP is being a jerk would be nice, but that's a lot of functionality that could be added if things start to pan out.
Yeah, it would be much easier to have a flagging system, be it user or mod based, or whatever. We disagree a lot but I'm sure the whole of us can decide what does and doesn't belong in a topic.
author=Anaryu
@Feld:A flag/report button requires a moderator to look at it and decide; I don't want to speak for them but that's a lot of effort and they would need to read longer threads sometimes to decide if something was relevant, not to mention then the complaints stack on them.

Oh man, having a moderating system/staff and having them moderating like literally the other 99% of the internet has (with sites several orders of magnitude bigger than ours with tens of thousands of active users on at a time) is 'too much effort'.

Jesus Christ.
I actually didn't know the Mods couldn't do those things... That's a little ridiculous in all honesty. If they can't ban/warn people or whatever, then why are there even Mods to being with?
I don't really want to speak for the moderators, but I would assume they have their hands full QAing all the entries that come into the site.

Maybe there's a reason the normal threads aren't moderated, I assumed because of the level of context and our general "self managed" community (I've seen this referenced multiple times) - if they're supposed to be moderating the actual discussion before it devolves into something to move to the Moronic I've never really seen that done.
Then perhaps the way things are done could stand to be reexamined and possibly changed. An active mod team divided into areas of responsibility should be enough to handle everything the site needs, such as game approval (which Magi already does), moderating userpages, and moderating the forum.

It's really not a revolutionary thing. I hope someone in Staff responds to this as well, honestly.
I read (or at least skim) nearly every post on RMN. I also occasionally look at the submission queue.

We have a global moderator (SFLavalle), admins like Karsuman and Ankylo naturally have mod powers, and because I am special I have mod powers. Our rule of thumb, however, is to be hands off as best we can and only intervene with those powers if something flagrant happens, or a serious topic goes wayy offtopic. Also, threads that are moved to moronic are moved almost immediately after being created (because it is usually pretty obvious from the get-go). Legitimate threads that go legitimately out of hand usually just get sent to the city dump. (However, that is something we are loathe to do on a regular basis)

It's not as big as a job as you'd expect, since 90% of the topics here are civil, and 8% are moronic.
tardis
is it too late for ironhide facepalm
308
author=Anaryu
I mean ideally a way for people to flag a thread because the OP is being a jerk would be nice, but that's a lot of functionality that could be added if things start to pan out.

dude, our forum community is tiny.

the mods read this shit, as kentona has shown.
I never really saw this stuff as a huge problem. Most of the out of hand topics are dumped or having Kentona/Karsuman stepping in and say "drop it" I guess there could be a little more improvement but not enough for a flag system overhaul. Look at latest game design topics, look at this topic, don't see any trolls preventing discussion. Yes there is going to be that one drama storm where people call each other out and show their harsh honesty, but it's proof people actually give a shit about what goes on.

In the past, some of the biggest trouble makers were PM'd and reasoned with before getting banned to prevent them from getting worse. There's a lot that goes on behind the curtains...
Well, I guess that's that, then, haha.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Yeah, karsu personally tells me to stop being a douche fairly often.
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