Serious thread about abuse of Mod powers.

Fair enough.

1. Define "abuse." Give us some hard numbers and timelines.

2, Define "false claim." What criteria will you use to separate good-faith false reports from maliciously false reports? Or will any false claim be punishable, even if the intent of the reporter was sincere?

The two of you are spamming in the helpdesk, posts reported.

"Abuse" would be using the reporting system for any purpose other than calling staff attention to a legitimate problem/concern.

Using the report system to send a "User XYZ is a crackhead" report would be abuse.

Only bad faith claims would be sanctioned, of course.

The police don't arrest/cite you if you call them to report what you believe to be a crime in progress, even if it turns out later not to be the case. But they do if you make up something just to get them to come running.

Oh holy fuck. I'm away for one goddam day and this is what happens?

Look at the actual rules as posted in the FAQ. There's nothing there about reporting posts. We all know that some of you report posts for no real reason other than trying to stir shit up. We also know that some posts get reported by accident because the "Report Post" and "Rep Post" buttons are right next to each other.

Tamar took care of the Ancalagon ban, which is good. Maybe it's time for a staff rotation. Maybe it's time for an owner rotation.

But which 'tard do I leave in charge of the asylum? Hmmmm . . . decisions, decisions . . .

What if we are trying to get medical help for said crackhead, in a similar situation as mentioned in Tuckerfan's post? The general membership doesn't necessarily have the contact info for everyone else, but the might be of assistance in saving a life.

Baba.

(reported for trolling)

Yes! More rules! That's the solution! Lock this place down!

Most of us have, actually. He really does look like Tim Robbins.

The ban was of course total BS.

I think he looks more like a younger Henry Winkler, or an older depending on which version of him you're famiiliar with (the Fonz or Barry Zuckerkorn).

It isn't very useful for us, but I've often wished that there was some kind of wiki/forum combination software.

If any actions such as edits were logged, then it would be possible to give most regular posts mod-like abilities with the ability to track use of those abilities to stop abuse of it. That would be ideal for me, half the posters on WF could be mods.

Yeah that will go real well.........

Well that's why it would have to be traceable. More a thought experiment anyway since I've never seen anything like it.

Good Lord, dude, you just channeled me there.

Damned spooky reading that.

It would be interesting to create a subforum in the Red Room for something like that, but I wouldn't want to see it board-wide.

I missed most of the original drama, but one note on possible future rules: Please resist the temptation to formulate a precise catalogue of criteria by which to judge 'legitimate' use of the report function. That way lies madness. If we have mods whose judgement we can't trust, more subparagraphs won't solve the problem; we have seen that over and over again.

Look these guys were being jerks and obviously hitting the report mod button on shit they knew wasn't real personal information. If they didn't know then they are retarded but since we know the actors in this little play are not retarded their excuse that they "weren't sure" doesn't hold shit.

A mod said stop doing that shit. They kept doing. The mod said "do it again and get banned" and one of them went and called the mods bluff. Except the mod wasn't bluffing.

There is no need for any new rules.

Oh and this whole argument about "chilling effect" is bullshit.

Me, me, me!

After I run the board for a few months, people will be glad to have you back.

Well, obviously. Sadly, I'm sure there's at least one or two that *would* report Baba for being teh baba.

(Post reported because Bick's a Mormon)

Just wanted to remind everybody that Wordforge is a self-moderating board, always has been. Yes some members have volunteered to move the occasional thread, edit a post, ban a spambot, or issue a warning...

And by some I mean most members have volunteered at one point or another to move the occasional thread, edit a post, ban a spambot, or issue a warning. More still declined the opportunity.

As for wanting Lanzman to pass the torch? No way. Gotta give credit where credit is due, Wordforge has run rather smoothly with Lanz at the helm. He's done a fine job.

Which is why he should give you the torch. We need some excitement in our lives on this board.

Clyde the Terrible would make the board drama much more interesting.

Smoothly!?

Well now that I think about it, apart from losing the first three months or so of posts because he didn't do a backup and the board shit the bed, half the board mutinying until he finally agreed to unban Hood (which was before the board shit the bed so there was a second, smaller effort to get him unbanned again), annoying the crap out of a large number of people over rep less than a year ago, and countless other frustrations, yes, the board has run very smoothly.

When you put it that way... Lanzman's actually done a decent job, all things considered.

I should sell it to you so that you can see what it's like from this side.

So Volpy's dream of his own board with posters could finally come true!

Bailey, Demuirge or even *gasp*

would be good ones as well. I think Nova could be a good admin, but doesn't have the funds to maintain it (no offense).

[edit]Ramen would also work I think.

There are actually a good amount of posters here who could step up and run it were you ever willing to give it up.

I would nominate myself but then I have to follow all the rules.

Oh come now. Running a board is a piece of cake and you should be able to do so perfectly.

Right?

Is that sound I hear the sound of your head banging against the wall slowly?

Few things:-

1) I do not recall any mass departure when the board "shit the bed".

2) Only a minority of you and your buddies were bothered about whether Hood came back or not. To most of us he was just another poster.

3) Again, only a minority of you and your buddies got upset about rep and ran away.

I would run this board, and it would grow under my leadership.