Forum Moderation Sub Team

[Jeroen]

3 minutes ago, Exodus said:

Edit: I feel bad for hijacking the thread. As it wasn't even about RPQM to begin with.

Don't feel bad for hijacking it, because I did. I mentioned RPQM and staff reports being backed up before you stepped in.

[Kari]

2 minutes ago, Exodus said:

 

I just finished raising something that should give more transparency on reports and keep the reporting party more in the loop. I'll see if it's something we can implement easily.

 

Edit: I feel bad for hijacking the thread. As it wasn't even about RPQM to begin with.

 It is about forums in general- and the discussion has and probably will twiiiiist back to player reports, but. This is good! 

To track back to forum moderation- perhaps some clauses for repeat offenders getting ingame sanctions could help with forum trolling. Otherwise it's really a clean slate to be an asshole and just not be allowed to partake in community discussion, which... doesn't really seem to be the incentive anyways. (Which is to say that punishing a person by removing their ability to exist in a space they don't want to exist in seems ineffective- whereas removing their game time may be an 'ok fine i'll knock it off'.) 

[Thekillergreece]

It would be great if forum warnings and forum bans were normalized. 

You got folks who make, sometimes controversial, threads and then you got so many folks who derrail them, troll, insult participants and so on.

And all the thread gets is a lock and archive. Maybe a few forum warnings too.

And the cycle repeats because the people responsible of derailing threads are somehow not forum moderated or something. This needs a fix. Threads shouldn't be archived at all, players should be strictly forum moderated if they cannot be civil on important matters.

 

Supports would be best suited to handle those matters as well if they already don't. 🙂

[DeadPlaya]

Welcome back Wuhtah.

[Perstephone]

3 hours ago, Pickle said:

I've had a RPQM report in place since August 7th. I inquired about it on the 3rd of September and was told ''Please be patient, these cases can take a very long while due their nature and the player's responsiveness.''

Don't feel bad, I've got one still sitting there that is from December last year.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Perstephone
Corrected typo

[Peak.]

20 minutes ago, Perstephone said:

Don't feel bad, I've got one still sitting there that is from December last year.

This thread isn't about RPQM?

[varthshenon]

1 hour ago, Peak. said:

This thread isn't about RPQM?

As far as I know, RPQM is still handled in forum. Please check the title of this topic again or read the first post from Wuhtah. CMIIW.

[Wuhtah]

8 hours ago, Kari said:

Only thing I could suggest is a potential split-off section for 'community discussion' versus 'general discussion'- maybe go as far as naming it 'community debates(?)'- though, that'd require Everett intervention, I figure. 

 

Definitely an Everett intervention, however - if you want to explain this more, I'd be all ears!

 

8 hours ago, Perstephone said:

What has the subteam been doing? That isn't a passive aggressive swipe, it's a genuine question. It's hard to say how we think they can improve when it's hard to see what they have been doing so far. 

 

Without any context or knowledge of if they have been active behind the scenes the only thing I can think of is to do the job the team was set up for in the first place. 

 

Perfectly reasonable question! So, from what I recall - forum moderation is just that - moderating the forums. Whether it's making sure threads stay on topic, making sure refund requests, asset transfers and player reports all get done in a timely manner, pushing suggestions through to the staff team to look at and then the developers, making sure old posts are archived, moderating the content reports, etc etc. The main forums that everyone rightfully complains about are player reports and refund requests. This is something I know needs to be worked on, but I wanted to see if anyone else had anything they wanted to add on for the 'job' of a forum moderator, or what they would like to see more of. Hopefully in the next month, you'll see more presence, at least from me, on the forums. 

 

8 hours ago, sico said:

Forum moderator sub team admins should be only allowed to pick one sub team to be part of.

 

There's admins involved in RPQM and forum moderation together. If forum moderation is that dead and inactive, I wonder what is happening to RPQM reports since they're all hidden.

 

Keep them into one sub team. That's the first thing that should change.

 

So! I believe forum moderation isn't really a sub team in itself, all admins should be doing it - however, there should be a team specifically designed to make sure the forums stay clean, up to date, and without lacking any old reports (I know there's still some - I'M WORKIN' ON IT! (:) RPQM is an entirely different subteam, where their work is almost entirely on the forums - it still is slightly different from forum moderation as it contains a lot more log searching and evidence gathering. One of the reasons it is hidden is because if a player can see a report on them, they will change their ways (you'd think that for the player reports they would - but most people think they are in the right). 

 

It's also not dead and inactive - there are tons of regular admins who are part of subteams or who are not part of subteams constantly monitoring the forums and reported content. Selena being one of them!

 

6 hours ago, thekillergreece said:

I believe Supports should be permitted to join this subteam with the authority of moving archiving lackluster forum reports (ie. no evidences, no format) or not meeting guidelines standards (exceeding permitted word count). In my opinion, oldest reports should take priority over newest reports.

 

As @Peak. mentioned, they do! I'm working on getting them more things to do as senior supports as well that will help/benefit admins which might make the 'burn out' a little less burn out.

 

5 hours ago, sico said:

Sugestions / feedback for what? Do we have to tell them what their role means now? They should know it better.

 

Moreso what you want the team to be more involved in - I already know the jist, but if there's anything else - reorganizing suggestions into a better way, re-formating different things, etc - this is how a sub team improves whilst cleaning up the old reports as well. 

 

@Exodus - you can hijack my thread any time (; - but definitely to @Kari - transparency and updates every 2-3 days would go a LONG way in my opinion! "Hey, this is what I'm doing, hey this is what's being done, hey this is why it's taking so long" etc!

 

3 hours ago, Kari said:

To track back to forum moderation- perhaps some clauses for repeat offenders getting ingame sanctions could help with forum trolling. Otherwise it's really a clean slate to be an asshole and just not be allowed to partake in community discussion, which... doesn't really seem to be the incentive anyways. (Which is to say that punishing a person by removing their ability to exist in a space they don't want to exist in seems ineffective- whereas removing their game time may be an 'ok fine i'll knock it off'.) 

 

Normalizing content moderation would be a good start. It restricts their access to stop from posting and it has to be approved by an administrator first. However, report those people, so we can get on top of it! I know you guys already do this, but hmm, maybe after so many warnings on the forums - it affects their UCP server record - which in turn can affect other things: gaining houses, businesses, faction, faction status, etc. That's a good idea! I'll raise it up to staff management.

 

3 hours ago, thekillergreece said:

It would be great if forum warnings and forum bans were normalized. 

You got folks who make, sometimes controversial, threads and then you got so many folks who derrail them, troll, insult participants and so on.

And all the thread gets is a lock and archive. Maybe a few forum warnings too.

And the cycle repeats because the people responsible of derailing threads are somehow not forum moderated or something. This needs a fix. Threads shouldn't be archived at all, players should be strictly forum moderated if they cannot be civil on important matters.

 

Supports would be best suited to handle those matters as well if they already don't. 🙂

 

Controversial threads I think are okay if handled properly. If they are attacking, then that's bad. Derailing threads will always be a thing - but as long as it's generally good feedback/discussion, I will allow it. Someone who tries to derail with trolls, of course it will be hidden and if needed, punishments taken. I will express to the rest of the staff team to try not to lock and archive threads, but just send them forum mod's way, or even hide/warn the users who are turning the post toxic. Sometimes. there are 5-6 and locking it would just be needed to 'calm it down'. 

 

1 hour ago, varthshenon said:

As far as I know, RPQM is still handled in forum. Please check the title of this topic again or read the first post from Wuhtah. CMIIW.

 

It is! You are right! However, it is it's own sub team and I am not part of that sub team. This is mostly geared towards the overall forums!

 

 

Thank you guys so far for the thoughts and communication here so far!

Edited September 29, 2022 by Wuhtah

[Kari]

5 minutes ago, Wuhtah said:

 

Definitely an Everett intervention, however - if you want to explain this more, I'd be all ears!

 

 

Perfectly reasonable question! So, from what I recall - forum moderation is just that - moderating the forums. Whether it's making sure threads stay on topic, making sure refund requests, asset transfers and player reports all get done in a timely manner, pushing suggestions through to the staff team to look at and then the developers, making sure old posts are archived, moderating the content reports, etc etc. The main forums that everyone rightfully complains about are player reports and refund requests. This is something I know needs to be worked on, but I wanted to see if anyone else had anything they wanted to add on for the 'job' of a forum moderator, or what they would like to see more of. Hopefully in the next month, you'll see more presence, at least from me, on the forums. 

 

 

So! I believe forum moderation isn't really a sub team in itself, all admins should be doing it - however, there should be a team specifically designed to make sure the forums stay clean, up to date, and without lacking any old reports (I know there's still some - I'M WORKIN' ON IT! (:) RPQM is an entirely different subteam, where their work is almost entirely on the forums - it still is slightly different from forum moderation as it contains a lot more log searching and evidence gathering. One of the reasons it is hidden is because if a player can see a report on them, they will change their ways (you'd think that for the player reports they would - but most people think they are in the right). 

 

It's also not dead and inactive - there are tons of regular admins who are part of subteams or who are not part of subteams constantly monitoring the forums and reported content. Selena being one of them!

 

 

As @Peak. mentioned, they do! I'm working on getting them more things to do as senior supports as well that will help/benefit admins which might make the 'burn out' a little less burn out.

 

 

Moreso what you want the team to be more involved in - I already know the jist, but if there's anything else - reorganizing suggestions into a better way, re-formating different things, etc - this is how a sub team improves whilst cleaning up the old reports as well. 

 

@Exodus - you can hijack my thread any time (; - but definitely to @Kari - transparency and updates every 2-3 days would go a LONG way in my opinion! "Hey, this is what I'm doing, hey this is what's being done, hey this is why it's taking so long" etc!

 

 

Normalizing content moderation would be a good start. It restricts their access to stop from posting and it has to be approved by an administrator first. However, report those people, so we can get on top of it! I know you guys already do this, but hmm, maybe after so many warnings on the forums - it affects their UCP server record - which in turn can affect other things: gaining houses, businesses, faction, faction status, etc. That's a good idea! I'll raise it up to staff management.

 

 

Controversial threads I think are okay if handled properly. If they are attacking, then that's bad. Derailing threads will always be a thing - but as long as it's generally good feedback/discussion, I will allow it. Someone who tries to derail with trolls, of course it will be hidden and if needed, punishments taken. I will express to the rest of the staff team to try not to lock and archive threads, but just send them forum mod's way, or even hide/warn the users who are turning the post toxic. Sometimes. there are 5-6 and locking it would just be needed to 'calm it down'. 

 

 

It is! You are right! However, it is it's own sub team and I am not part of that sub team. This is mostly geared towards the overall forums!

 

 

Thank you guys so far for the thoughts and communication here so far!

Hits the nail on the head with the frequent update stuff. There doesn't need to be /progress/ for communication. I know it feels better to update people when something's been done, but. Being kept in the dark on these spooOOoooOky secret processes is a bit worse- the occasional 'hey we're still waiting on' or 'hey no progress has been made' does, really, go miles. 

[sico]

15 minutes ago, Wuhtah said:

So! I believe forum moderation isn't really a sub team in itself, all admins should be doing it - however, there should be a team specifically designed to make sure the forums stay clean, up to date, and without lacking any old reports (I know there's still some - I'M WORKIN' ON IT! (:) RPQM is an entirely different subteam, where their work is almost entirely on the forums - it still is slightly different from forum moderation as it contains a lot more log searching and evidence gathering. One of the reasons it is hidden is because if a player can see a report on them, they will change their ways (you'd think that for the player reports they would - but most people think they are in the right). 

 

It's also not dead and inactive - there are tons of regular admins who are part of subteams or who are not part of subteams constantly monitoring the forums and reported content. Selena being one of them!

 

If all admins should be doing it, there is no need for forum mods sub team, but since there is this team, the lead should be taking care of it. I haven't seen their plan or anything else about it, complete darkness.

 

If there is a specialized team for this, they should be doing better than any admin. But in this case, they're doing nothing.

16 minutes ago, Wuhtah said:

Moreso what you want the team to be more involved in - I already know the jist, but if there's anything else - reorganizing suggestions into a better way, re-formating different things, etc - this is how a sub team improves whilst cleaning up the old reports as well. 

 

Two months or three ago, they introduced formatting for the the reports. Explanation words were nerfed a lot and players had to explain everything with X words limit. This cleared a lot of unnecessary text that cluttered the report. But again, this made them only pick reports that seemed easy to tackle with easy explanations of the situation with minimum words used.

 

Anything more for them? I can we can just limit the words to 10 max.

 

We want to hear from the forum moderators why they aren't able to keep up with the reports? What's holding them back? We the players followed whatever changes they did to the report formatting, all the word limits and that stuff. That was supposed to fix the reports being stacked.

 

The changes happened, what we got in return? The same old pages of months old reports.

 

Why?