Author Topic: Moderation Update  (Read 5870 times)

TimothyEllis

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Moderation Update
« on: November 17, 2018, 02:39:26 PM »
I thought it time for a moderation update.

Several weeks on from the last kerfuffle, all appears to be well.

I'm the only one moderating, and have had almost nothing to do, except attend to requests.

I use 3 usernames. Mine, Orbitalnuke, which is my moderator level access, and Forum_scout, which is my member level access. I keep the last 2 because when I change things, I need to check what everyone else sees, because my own access sees everything.

At the moment, the policy of splitting off derails and hijacks of threads seems to be working, with the people who used to do it not posting much now, or at all. All in all, the policy seems to be acting as a preventative.

We have 1 member on Moderator Review, who seems to have gone into a self-imposed silence as a result.

The result, admittedly with nothing much happening lately likely to cause arguments, is a smoothly purring forum which doesn't need any extra moderators. Consequently, I'm not looking for any at the moment. Subject to review in the future.

I'd like to say  :clap: to everyone for making this forum so easy to administer.
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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Vidya

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2018, 03:37:58 PM »
“We have 1 member on Moderator Review, who seems to have gone into a self-imposed silence as a result.”

The silence is a pity. He did have useful things to say and information to give. I didn't find him annoying but others clearly felt he was yanking their chains. Perhaps he’ll be back. If not...well forums do tend to have a lot of churn as people leave and new members enter.

As you said, I noticed new members are posting on KB. Is WS doing anything to attract new members? Is there anything any of us can do aside from posting about WS in other forums?
 

Post-Crisis D

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2018, 03:52:05 PM »
We need to attract readers as well as writers.
Mulder: "If you're distracted by fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."
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TimothyEllis

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2018, 04:00:14 PM »
We need to attract readers as well as writers.

That needs its own thread somewhere. How to attract them, and what we need to provide to do so, and keep them interested.


As you said, I noticed new members are posting on KB. Is WS doing anything to attract new members? Is there anything any of us can do aside from posting about WS in other forums?

I'm not doing anything at all from the forum end. I did mention it on a Quora post yesterday.

Maybe we need a thread about how we up the profile of WS as well.
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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Vidya

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2018, 04:22:15 PM »
“Maybe we need a thread about how we up the profile of WS as well.”

Yep. On the other hand, the larger a forum gets, the more unruly it gets. A flood of newcomers is also bound to lead to more flames.

It would be nice to attract readers but I wonder if anything can pull them away from Goodreads.
 

David VanDyke

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2018, 12:12:38 AM »
The 80/20 rule applies: 20% do 80% of the work, 20% cause 80% of the problems, etc. IMO the split-off policy does more to discourage bad behavior than trying to edit posts. It's like putting a kid in time-out vs. trying to hover and police their speech. Usually people like that crave attention most of all. Denying their out-of-line posts an audience takes away their incentive without either banning the poster outright, or having to constantly split verbal hairs.

I used to mention the other place (TOP) to other writers, especially new ones. Now I mention WriterSanctum. I suggest everyone else do the same.

And, maybe the handcuffing of the moderators in TOP will end up being a good thing for that forum. Different problems, messier, but more information flow. More caveat emptor, too, I expect, but there's a sucker born every minute, as someone never said.



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Tom Wood

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2018, 01:33:17 AM »
...

As you said, I noticed new members are posting on KB. Is WS doing anything to attract new members? Is there anything any of us can do aside from posting about WS in other forums?

I'm not doing anything at all from the forum end. I did mention it on a Quora post yesterday.

Maybe we need a thread about how we up the profile of WS as well.

Twitter is your friend:

https://twitter.com/agentsofdisrupt/status/1063812002571784192

Hashtags are particularly useful for this sort of goal. I only used three of the major ones related to writing. (#amwriting #writerslife #writingcommunity) There are several more, but the people who follow these three probably follow the others. Re-tweeted in less than ten minutes. It will be a slow build to reach a larger number of people.
 
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TimothyEllis

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2018, 06:28:47 PM »
“We have 1 member on Moderator Review, who seems to have gone into a self-imposed silence as a result.”

The silence is a pity.

It is up to him.

He isn't prevented from posting in any way.

It's just his posts will not be seen until after I ok them. Once he demonstrates this isn't necessary any more, this can be removed.

But as I said, he can post any time he wants. And I'll let through anything which doesn't require moderation.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2018, 11:28:00 PM by TimothyEllis »
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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TimothyEllis

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #8 on: November 18, 2018, 10:22:48 PM »
“We have 1 member on Moderator Review, who seems to have gone into a self-imposed silence as a result.”

The silence is a pity.

It is up to him.

He isn't prevented from posting in any way.

It's just his posts will not be seen until after I ok them. Once he demonstrates this isn't necessary any more, this can be removed.

But as I said, he can post any time he wants. And I'll let through anything which doesn't require moderation.

Correction. It turns out he cant post at all, but this doesn't show up at the admin end of things. I'm trying to find out why. But given the message he sent me, I think he wants to be banned. I'll see what I can do.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2018, 11:27:34 PM by TimothyEllis »
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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TimothyEllis

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #9 on: November 18, 2018, 11:04:25 PM »
Problem seems to be fixed now.
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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VanessaC

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2018, 11:53:01 PM »
We need to attract readers as well as writers.

That needs its own thread somewhere. How to attract them, and what we need to provide to do so, and keep them interested.


As you said, I noticed new members are posting on KB. Is WS doing anything to attract new members? Is there anything any of us can do aside from posting about WS in other forums?

I'm not doing anything at all from the forum end. I did mention it on a Quora post yesterday.

Maybe we need a thread about how we up the profile of WS as well.

Just picking up on the new members for Writer Sanctum point - the Other Place had been around for a very long time, and the reason I went there was through recommendations from more experienced writers.  So, as this place continues to flourish and grow, over time more people will find it through word of mouth. If a new writer asked me for somewhere to hang out now, this would be where I would send them, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 :ws
     



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rowanoak

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2018, 02:59:38 AM »
There hasn't been anything to fight about lately and therefore this place has been pretty quiet.
 

Tom Wood

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2018, 03:06:16 AM »
There hasn't been anything to fight about lately and therefore this place has been pretty quiet.

Them's fightin' words!
 

Post-Crisis D

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2018, 05:57:46 AM »
There hasn't been anything to fight about lately and therefore this place has been pretty quiet.

Them's fightin' words!

They would be if they hadn't been posted by a pseudonymous poster but since they were, they don't count.   :hehe
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She-la-te-da

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #14 on: November 24, 2018, 11:16:11 PM »
I'm going to be honest here, and ask why we want readers to be members? They don't seem to want to hang out where writers are, or to read about our issues (as evidenced by the paucity of them participating on TOP -- and thanks to David for that handy bit). It's nice to have opinions on some things, but there are other places for that.

But, that's what my brain threw at me this morning. It's raining, the dog needs to go out, and I'm dreading a house that smells of soaking wet dog. I could be way off on this. (Best bet, really.)
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TimothyEllis

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #15 on: November 25, 2018, 12:54:14 AM »
What is TOP?
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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Vidya

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #16 on: November 25, 2018, 01:08:31 AM »
TOP = The Other Place.
 

TimothyEllis

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #17 on: November 25, 2018, 01:15:32 AM »
They don't seem to want to hang out where writers are, or to read about our issues (as evidenced by the paucity of them participating on TOP

TOP = The Other Place.

Ah. But the reason so few interact with WC there is they were hounded out by authors who didn't want readers participating in the author area. For readers, WC is now considered a hostile environment for them. And has been for quite some time.

Its not they don't want to hang out with authors, but a group of authors convinced them not to. I don't know who the authors were though, but it wont be happening here if anyone tries.
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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Vidya

Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #18 on: November 25, 2018, 03:00:17 AM »
"Ah. But the reason so few interact with WC there is they were hounded out by authors who didn't want readers participating in the author area. For readers, WC is now considered a hostile environment for them. And has been for quite some time."

this is what i read, but I saw no signs of it myself. perhaps it was exaggerated?
 

dgcasey

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #19 on: November 25, 2018, 04:37:59 AM »
There hasn't been anything to fight about lately and therefore this place has been pretty quiet.

Them's fightin' words!

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David VanDyke

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Re: Moderation Update
« Reply #20 on: November 25, 2018, 06:44:11 AM »
Unfortunately, one aw sh*t cancels out ten attaboys, and it only takes one a-hole author to attack a clueless reader for all the readers to conclude the environment is hostile.
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