My sincere thoughts on #modtheear

[fightinfrenchman]

Hi, my name is FightinFrenchman, also known as ‘the Ear.’

Over the past couple weeks, and the last few days in particular, parts of the forums have exploded with activity related to moderation. I think it is important for us to step back and see what we can do to improve our community, instead of simply yelling over each other.

The solution is make the rules and the enforcement of them more consistent, for regular users and ESOC staff alike. In addition, we need one or more new moderators, who will be able to read the forums more often and deal with issues as they arise. But more important than doling out warnings and bans is communicating with the user base. Obviously, it can take a lot of time for moderators to talk one-on-one with users who have broken rules about what went wrong, but I believe that is the best way to deal with these issues and improve the forums for everybody.

I believe that I would be able to help ease tensions by becoming a moderator. And I’m not the only one who thinks so:

Personally I am still for (very) lenient moderation policies in off-topic, but it's hard to justify when there's this many trolls around. The thing with strict moderation though, as we've seen, is that the trolling only gets worse. As rules get stricter people increasingly try to get away with more. A solution would be to start a dialog with the trolls and weed out the ones who aren't willing to listen, rather than filtering out any discussion that may lead to friction.

But being effective at weeding out trolls is a very time-consuming task because as a mod it's important to keep in touch with users and, as mentioned, keep a civil discussion over PM with every community member that is on thin ice. Locking posts and warning is much easier, but I can imagine it will alienate users. What we need is someone who posts in off topic frequently, is neutral, and is able to stay objective in his/her judgment.

#modtheear

I agree with this, very much. A lot. Dialog, dialog, dialog. Though it's going to be very hard to remain objective in judgements, I think that with a little communication things should work out. "hey guys i locked this one, because of this reason. sorry about that, but we really can't have X on the forums for Y reason" or "hey man, i understand your frustration with X user, but doing that stuff is causing more problems for you than for that user. let us mods try to get some sense into X user, but don't try to do it yourself"

Just handing out warnings with a "u broke da rules" just doesn't cut it.

I would seriously consider modding someone of the basement crew. If things go awry, then you can boot them quickly on the grounds that things aren't working out. Then, find someone else. There are plenty of perfectly legitimate candidates for moderation.

Now incog and I have disagreed many times, but I respect him a lot. He was a former admin who stepped down from his position because he didn’t want his posts to reflect negatively on the ESOC Staff as a whole. Some of the other staff members still post in unprofessional ways, however (I will not be singling anyone out because this thread is not meant to be a witchhunt).

Despite what some people say, I really do care about the community, and I want it to continue to grow and prosper. That is why I believe in #modtheear. Please feel free to post any questions or concerns you may have regarding this.

[momuuu]

My opinion:
- the rules are very consistent for all staff members
- communication with forum users is absolutely fine. Every warning comes with a complete description of what is wrong. It is fine to respond to it if you don't understand via pm and very much so possible. I respond to all messages with regards to that and I am sure all other mods do. I don't know why people think communication is an issue if they aren't even reaching out to moderators via pm if they don't understand or don't agree with something. There's even the thread that h2o made in which he put a lot of effort
- incog didn't leave the forums because he didn't want his posts to reflect negatively on the ESOC Staff
- I think you are not behaving in a way that could convince anyone that you would make a decent mod
- If people would behave decently, there are plenty of moderators. Right now it seems the community as a whole is having issues adapting to a new set of rules that aim to make this place more peaceful.

Further more I would like to say that the people complaining about moderation right now might seem to be the only people that have an opinion on it, but I've heard from many people, and I think other team members have heard similair stories, that they don't visit the forums anymore or don't want to make posts because of the hostile environment. At the moment we are not ESO-Community. The forums is only attractive to a specific few (especially for people that enjoy spam and flame). This should be a generic forum where everyone can freely talk about aoe related topics without consistently being harassed. The new rules are very decent and not that complex. It's not hard to just not flame a person or create a completely nonsensical topic. Thats what we expect from you, a very small amount of decency. Why don't people concerned about "strict" moderation show us that we don't have to moderate by just following these very basic rules?

[fightinfrenchman]

My opinion:
- the rules are very consistent for all staff members
- communication with forum users is absolutely fine. Every warning comes with a complete description of what is wrong. It is fine to respond to it if you don't understand via pm and very much so possible. I respond to all messages with regards to that and I am sure all other mods do. I don't know why people think communication is an issue if they aren't even reaching out to moderators via pm if they don't understand or don't agree with something. There's even the thread that h2o made in which he put a lot of effort
- incog didn't leave the forums because he didn't want his posts to reflect negatively on the ESOC Staff
- I think you are not behaving in a way that could convince anyone that you would make a decent mod
- If people would behave decently, there are plenty of moderators. Right now it seems the community as a whole is having issues adapting to a new set of rules that aim to make this place more peaceful.

Further more I would like to say that the people complaining about moderation right now might seem to be the only people that have an opinion on it, but I've heard from many people, and I think other team members have heard similair stories, that they don't visit the forums anymore or don't want to make posts because of the hostile environment. At the moment we are not ESO-Community. The forums is only attractive to a specific few (especially for people that enjoy spam and flame). This should be a generic forum where everyone can freely talk about aoe related topics without consistently being harassed. The new rules are very decent and not that complex. It's not hard to just not flame a person or create a completely nonsensical topic. Thats what we expect from you, a very small amount of decency. Why don't people concerned about "strict" moderation show us that we don't have to moderate by just following these very basic rules?

It makes sense that a moderator would be the one saying that everything is fine. But you can't just ignore the complaints that people have by saying that they are trolls/flamers and only want to spam, when you know that isn't true. By the way, you can't just say communication is fine - communication is a two-way street, so if one party thinks there is an issue, it must be addressed.

People already do think I should become a moderator. You may not think so, but that doesn't mean nobody else does.

[momuuu]

Well everything is not fine if you'd want to post like you used to post. I believe the moderation reform is there because the old posting behaviour was unacceptable. This change seems to be what is upsetting people, which I can imagine. I personally fully support the direction we have taken and believe that in the end it will improve ESOC. The uproar that is has caused is unfortunately bigger than I had hoped, which has made me very sad actually. I had hoped people would be more understanding about the new rules.

If people consider there is an issue with communication I shall stress the solution: You can just pm moderators about things that are unclear about any interaction with the moderators or the rules, and they will respond. If you thought you could not, let that issue be sorted out then.

[DivineFire]

While I do agree that adding some fresh blood to the team would definitely be helpful, and also agree that having someone read the off topic forums and devote their time to chatting in depth with people that are causing problems; your current behavior is just not conducive to you being that person.

I agree with Jerom on all of his points:
-Warnings we issue come with a full description of the issue and if anything is unclear users are always welcome to respond to them and we will take the time to explain anything that isn't making sense.
-Rules are applied to ALL staff members, and many staff members have warnings associated with their accounts.
-He is also right when he says that there are plenty of moderators if people wouldn't have such a hard time adjusting to more generic forum rules instead of what we had before which was just flame and spam everywhere.

At the moment ESOC is an extremely hostile place to post just about anything and as a group the staff has decided to moderate the site for everyone and not just for the active users we already have.

[DivineFire]

If people consider there is an issue with communication I shall stress the solution: You can just pm moderators about things that are unclear about any interaction with the moderators or the rules, and they will respond. If you thought you could not, let that issue be sorted out then.

+1, communication on our end is perfectly fine tbh, it is just not our job to reach out to people causing a problem, only to moderate them. If they disagree then it is their job to reach out to us and we will be happy to respond and discuss the issue.

[fightinfrenchman]

While I do agree that adding some fresh blood to the team would definitely be helpful, and also agree that having someone read the off topic forums and devote their time to chatting in depth with people that are causing problems; your current behavior is just not conducive to you being that person.

In all fairness, I think locking threads for no reason is not behavior that mods should be exhibiting either. It's a bit ridiculous to have mods that don't actually read the forums or interact regularly in the off topic section.

[fightinfrenchman]

If people consider there is an issue with communication I shall stress the solution: You can just pm moderators about things that are unclear about any interaction with the moderators or the rules, and they will respond. If you thought you could not, let that issue be sorted out then.

+1, communication on our end is perfectly fine tbh, it is just not our job to reach out to people causing a problem, only to moderate them. If they disagree then it is their job to reach out to us and we will be happy to respond and discuss the issue.

What I'm saying is that communication should be part of a moderator's job.

[momuuu]

If people consider there is an issue with communication I shall stress the solution: You can just pm moderators about things that are unclear about any interaction with the moderators or the rules, and they will respond. If you thought you could not, let that issue be sorted out then.

+1, communication on our end is perfectly fine tbh, it is just not our job to reach out to people causing a problem, only to moderate them. If they disagree then it is their job to reach out to us and we will be happy to respond and discuss the issue.

What I'm saying is that communication should be part of a moderator's job.

It is part of what we do aswell. When someone behaves poorly we reach out in the thread and through a warning (which includes a message) stating clearly what behaviour was wrong. We aren't mental coaches, and I dont think we can change the person you choose to be. We can only influence it by making clear what we consider faulty behaviour and what the consequences of such behaviour are. I don't understand what else we should communicate about.

[DivineFire]

While I do agree that adding some fresh blood to the team would definitely be helpful, and also agree that having someone read the off topic forums and devote their time to chatting in depth with people that are causing problems; your current behavior is just not conducive to you being that person.

In all fairness, I think locking threads for no reason is not behavior that mods should be exhibiting either. It's a bit ridiculous to have mods that don't actually read the forums or interact regularly in the off topic section.

You can't compare one poor behavior to another and hope that that improves your position. And "for no reason" is completely your opinion and not an actual fact.

[DivineFire]

If people consider there is an issue with communication I shall stress the solution: You can just pm moderators about things that are unclear about any interaction with the moderators or the rules, and they will respond. If you thought you could not, let that issue be sorted out then.

+1, communication on our end is perfectly fine tbh, it is just not our job to reach out to people causing a problem, only to moderate them. If they disagree then it is their job to reach out to us and we will be happy to respond and discuss the issue.

What I'm saying is that communication should be part of a moderator's job.

Which communications exactly would you have us improve?

[fightinfrenchman]

While I do agree that adding some fresh blood to the team would definitely be helpful, and also agree that having someone read the off topic forums and devote their time to chatting in depth with people that are causing problems; your current behavior is just not conducive to you being that person.

In all fairness, I think locking threads for no reason is not behavior that mods should be exhibiting either. It's a bit ridiculous to have mods that don't actually read the forums or interact regularly in the off topic section.

You can't compare one poor behavior to another and hope that that improves your position. And "for no reason" is completely your opinion and not an actual fact.

What exactly is wrong with my behavior?

Which communications exactly would you have us improve?

Talk to people more specifically about what rule they broke, if they broke any. Or offer an explanation for why a thread was locked that is actually justified.

[momuuu]

Show hidden quotes

While I do agree that adding some fresh blood to the team would definitely be helpful, and also agree that having someone read the off topic forums and devote their time to chatting in depth with people that are causing problems; your current behavior is just not conducive to you being that person.

In all fairness, I think locking threads for no reason is not behavior that mods should be exhibiting either. It's a bit ridiculous to have mods that don't actually read the forums or interact regularly in the off topic section.

You can't compare one poor behavior to another and hope that that improves your position. And "for no reason" is completely your opinion and not an actual fact.

What exactly is wrong with my behavior?

Which communications exactly would you have us improve?

Talk to people more specifically about what rule they broke, if they broke any. Or offer an explanation for why a thread was locked that is actually justified.

I looked through your warnings and all are very specific in what you did wrong, so at least on your end I don't see much reason to complain. I think almost any locked thread ends with a moderator replying to it explaining why it was locked aswell. If you do not agree that a thread was locked, you can send divinefire a personal message (as stated in the rules) or post in the civil moderation discussion once that is cleared up.

I honestly don't really understand where these issues you see are coming from. I don't see why someone would feel like the moderators are not communicating properly if they are providing information with literally every action they take.

[fightinfrenchman]

I looked through your warnings and all are very specific in what you did wrong, so at least on your end I don't see much reason to complain. I think almost any locked thread ends with a moderator replying to it explaining why it was locked aswell. If you do not agree that a thread was locked, you can send divinefire a personal message (as stated in the rules) or post in the civil moderation discussion once that is cleared up.

I honestly don't really understand where these issues you see are coming from. I don't see why someone would feel like the moderators are not communicating properly if they are providing information with literally every action they take.

You don't think it's odd that there are a bunch of users who are frustrated with the way things are going, yet you constantly say that nothing is wrong and you don't see where the issues are?

[gibson]

As divinefire stated, ESOC is not a very nice place to be around at the moment. Working in retail has made me realize that excpecting people to act politely and rationally is not reasonable, and recently this has become apparent on the forums as well. Instead of a nice place for people to discuss a game they enjoy, this forum has become a very hostile environment. I think a few small tweaks would get things back in order. Some new blood on the moderation team would be appreciated by the community. Give the Frenchman the most basic admin rights possible. The worst that could happen is he goes berserk and completely abuses them. If this happens, remove his powers, ban him, and spend a few minutes fixing what he screwed up. The better and more probable thing that would happen is that he takes them seriously and actually contributes. He's on the forums quite a bit and reads almost all the off topic posts, which definitely need some cleaning up. A few other changes that I would like to suggest. Make the rules more accessible, preferably through a shortened version that appears on one of the sides, or in a link either on the side or the bottom of the forums. Also, makes warnings more public. If someone has been warned, flag the post in some way so that the public can see that such behavior is not acceptable. Anytime a thread is closed or someone receives a warning, be sure that they receive an explanation. Have a 0 tolerance policy for public complaints about warnings and locked threads. The person with the complaint can private message any of the mods if he wishes to and if other mods agree that the warning was unfair they can settle it internally. Public complaints about warnings and thread closures only cause trouble. However, civil discussion about moderation policy as a whole should be allowed. #modtheear

[momuuu]

I looked through your warnings and all are very specific in what you did wrong, so at least on your end I don't see much reason to complain. I think almost any locked thread ends with a moderator replying to it explaining why it was locked aswell. If you do not agree that a thread was locked, you can send divinefire a personal message (as stated in the rules) or post in the civil moderation discussion once that is cleared up.

I honestly don't really understand where these issues you see are coming from. I don't see why someone would feel like the moderators are not communicating properly if they are providing information with literally every action they take.

You don't think it's odd that there are a bunch of users who are frustrated with the way things are going, yet you constantly say that nothing is wrong and you don't see where the issues are?

I don't see it because nobody is showing me what I should see. If you feel like there is an issue somewhere with communication, be helpful and actually give specific examples. Ive spend the last ten minutes looking at warnings and moderator logs and don't see any missing communication in any of those. Thats why I don't understand why you think there isn't enough communication. I'd love to hear you out on it, and Ive posted a few times in this topic now why I think the communication is fine at the moment, or at least why I dont see a problem. If it's actually a problem, there surely have to be specific examples right?

[fightinfrenchman]

I looked through your warnings and all are very specific in what you did wrong, so at least on your end I don't see much reason to complain. I think almost any locked thread ends with a moderator replying to it explaining why it was locked aswell. If you do not agree that a thread was locked, you can send divinefire a personal message (as stated in the rules) or post in the civil moderation discussion once that is cleared up.

I honestly don't really understand where these issues you see are coming from. I don't see why someone would feel like the moderators are not communicating properly if they are providing information with literally every action they take.

You don't think it's odd that there are a bunch of users who are frustrated with the way things are going, yet you constantly say that nothing is wrong and you don't see where the issues are?

I don't see it because nobody is showing me what I should see. If you feel like there is an issue somewhere with communication, be helpful and actually give specific examples. Ive spend the last ten minutes looking at warnings and moderator logs and don't see any missing communication in any of those. Thats why I don't understand why you think there isn't enough communication. I'd love to hear you out on it, and Ive posted a few times in this topic now why I think the communication is fine at the moment, or at least why I dont see a problem. If it's actually a problem, there surely have to be specific examples right?

Just read the off topic section. As a moderator, you shouldn't be ignoring it, or at least hire a new one who will actually read it.

[momuuu]

As divinefire stated, ESOC is not a very nice place to be around at the moment. Working in retail has made me realize that excpecting people to act politely and rationally is not reasonable, and recently this has become apparent on the forums as well. Instead of a nice place for people to discuss a game they enjoy, this forum has become a very hostile environment. I think a few small tweaks would get things back in order. Some new blood on the moderation team would be appreciated by the community. Give the Frenchman the most basic admin rights possible. The worst that could happen is he goes berserk and completely abuses them. If this happens, remove his powers, ban him, and spend a few minutes fixing what he screwed up. The better and more probable thing that would happen is that he takes them seriously and actually contributes. He's on the forums quite a bit and reads almost all the off topic posts, which definitely need some cleaning up. A few other changes that I would like to suggest. Make the rules more accessible, preferably through a shortened version that appears on one of the sides, or in a link either on the side or the bottom of the forums. Also, makes warnings more public. If someone has been warned, flag the post in some way so that the public can see that such behavior is not acceptable. Anytime a thread is closed or someone receives a warning, be sure that they receive an explanation. Have a 0 tolerance policy for public complaints about warnings and locked threads. The person with the complaint can private message any of the mods if he wishes to and if other mods agree that the warning was unfair they can settle it internally. Public complaints about warnings and thread closures only cause trouble. However, civil discussion about moderation policy as a whole should be allowed. #modtheear

I actually read all posts including off topic posts on a daily basis. It seems off to me to make someone a mod that has been failing to follow the rules consistently. If the ear were to show that he can post like he is expected to post, then he made make a candidate for moderator. Right now I don't see a reason to make him specifically a moderator.

On your other points: I agree the forums have become hostile. That is why we changed the way we moderate, but that seems to have caused a shockeffect. That is fine, I am sure things will calm down and then eventually the new moderation policies will pay off.
I don't know if the rules are inaccesible. My experience with forum rules is that I generally don't read them and then behave like I normally do which seems completely fine (that is when visiting other forums, I read them here of course). Maybe every section can have the rules sticked (thats how many other forums work I think). I don't know if that will improve things much but if it does help even a little bit its worth it.
I think I agree on making clear someone has been warned for a post. I shall bring that up with the rest so that we all do that consistently (I started out doing it but noticed others were not necessarily doing it so stopped it to align my moderationstyle with the rest).
I am pretty sure every warning is accompanied by a short but clear explanation on what was done wrong, usually both in the thread and in the warning message itself.
I also agree that discussion about moderation decisions are fine. I think a peaceful discussion like this has been is completely fine too. Your post is a great example of what peaceful discussion means. Its unfortunate that many topics like these quickly detoriate into an abominable state forcing us to lock them.

[momuuu]

Show hidden quotes

I looked through your warnings and all are very specific in what you did wrong, so at least on your end I don't see much reason to complain. I think almost any locked thread ends with a moderator replying to it explaining why it was locked aswell. If you do not agree that a thread was locked, you can send divinefire a personal message (as stated in the rules) or post in the civil moderation discussion once that is cleared up.

I honestly don't really understand where these issues you see are coming from. I don't see why someone would feel like the moderators are not communicating properly if they are providing information with literally every action they take.

You don't think it's odd that there are a bunch of users who are frustrated with the way things are going, yet you constantly say that nothing is wrong and you don't see where the issues are?

I don't see it because nobody is showing me what I should see. If you feel like there is an issue somewhere with communication, be helpful and actually give specific examples. Ive spend the last ten minutes looking at warnings and moderator logs and don't see any missing communication in any of those. Thats why I don't understand why you think there isn't enough communication. I'd love to hear you out on it, and Ive posted a few times in this topic now why I think the communication is fine at the moment, or at least why I dont see a problem. If it's actually a problem, there surely have to be specific examples right?

Just read the off topic section. As a moderator, you shouldn't be ignoring it, or at least hire a new one who will actually read it.

as stated above, I actually read almost all of off topic and at least skim through all posts. If you think there is an issue with a topic you can actually help out the moderators by reporting it so that it gets checked as quickly as possible.

[fightinfrenchman]

As divinefire stated, ESOC is not a very nice place to be around at the moment. Working in retail has made me realize that excpecting people to act politely and rationally is not reasonable, and recently this has become apparent on the forums as well. Instead of a nice place for people to discuss a game they enjoy, this forum has become a very hostile environment. I think a few small tweaks would get things back in order. Some new blood on the moderation team would be appreciated by the community. Give the Frenchman the most basic admin rights possible. The worst that could happen is he goes berserk and completely abuses them. If this happens, remove his powers, ban him, and spend a few minutes fixing what he screwed up. The better and more probable thing that would happen is that he takes them seriously and actually contributes. He's on the forums quite a bit and reads almost all the off topic posts, which definitely need some cleaning up. A few other changes that I would like to suggest. Make the rules more accessible, preferably through a shortened version that appears on one of the sides, or in a link either on the side or the bottom of the forums. Also, makes warnings more public. If someone has been warned, flag the post in some way so that the public can see that such behavior is not acceptable. Anytime a thread is closed or someone receives a warning, be sure that they receive an explanation. Have a 0 tolerance policy for public complaints about warnings and locked threads. The person with the complaint can private message any of the mods if he wishes to and if other mods agree that the warning was unfair they can settle it internally. Public complaints about warnings and thread closures only cause trouble. However, civil discussion about moderation policy as a whole should be allowed. #modtheear

I actually read all posts including off topic posts on a daily basis. It seems off to me to make someone a mod that has been failing to follow the rules consistently. If the ear were to show that he can post like he is expected to post, then he made make a candidate for moderator. Right now I don't see a reason to make him specifically a moderator.

On your other points: I agree the forums have become hostile. That is why we changed the way we moderate, but that seems to have caused a shockeffect. That is fine, I am sure things will calm down and then eventually the new moderation policies will pay off.
I don't know if the rules are inaccesible. My experience with forum rules is that I generally don't read them and then behave like I normally do which seems completely fine (that is when visiting other forums, I read them here of course). Maybe every section can have the rules sticked (thats how many other forums work I think). I don't know if that will improve things much but if it does help even a little bit its worth it.
I think I agree on making clear someone has been warned for a post. I shall bring that up with the rest so that we all do that consistently (I started out doing it but noticed others were not necessarily doing it so stopped it to align my moderationstyle with the rest).
I am pretty sure every warning is accompanied by a short but clear explanation on what was done wrong, usually both in the thread and in the warning message itself.
I also agree that discussion about moderation decisions are fine. I think a peaceful discussion like this has been is completely fine too. Your post is a great example of what peaceful discussion means. Its unfortunate that many topics like these quickly detoriate into an abominable state forcing us to lock them.

You are never "forced" to lock a topic. If someone derails a discussion and it turns into a flamewar, just delete those posts, or warn them and tell them to stop.

[fightinfrenchman]

as stated above, I actually read almost all of off topic and at least skim through all posts. If you think there is an issue with a topic you can actually help out the moderators by reporting it so that it gets checked as quickly as possible.

It can get dealt with even faster if I was made a mod. You can't say that you don't need new mods but also complain about how much time moderation takes up.

[DivineFire]

As divinefire stated, ESOC is not a very nice place to be around at the moment. Working in retail has made me realize that excpecting people to act politely and rationally is not reasonable, and recently this has become apparent on the forums as well. Instead of a nice place for people to discuss a game they enjoy, this forum has become a very hostile environment. I think a few small tweaks would get things back in order. Some new blood on the moderation team would be appreciated by the community. Give the Frenchman the most basic admin rights possible. The worst that could happen is he goes berserk and completely abuses them. If this happens, remove his powers, ban him, and spend a few minutes fixing what he screwed up. The better and more probable thing that would happen is that he takes them seriously and actually contributes. He's on the forums quite a bit and reads almost all the off topic posts, which definitely need some cleaning up. A few other changes that I would like to suggest. Make the rules more accessible, preferably through a shortened version that appears on one of the sides, or in a link either on the side or the bottom of the forums. Also, makes warnings more public. If someone has been warned, flag the post in some way so that the public can see that such behavior is not acceptable. Anytime a thread is closed or someone receives a warning, be sure that they receive an explanation. Have a 0 tolerance policy for public complaints about warnings and locked threads. The person with the complaint can private message any of the mods if he wishes to and if other mods agree that the warning was unfair they can settle it internally. Public complaints about warnings and thread closures only cause trouble. However, civil discussion about moderation policy as a whole should be allowed. #modtheear

There's a lot of good points in here:
-As I said before while new blood is a great idea, Frenchmans behavior is just not conducive to him being a moderator, he's stacked up 5 warnings and has just returned from a one day ban
-We'll look into making the forum rules more accessible, I've started that already by posting them in the off topic section as well. It's easy to read through them by just reading the bold section of each rule.
-I'm going to go through all of our past warning's and edit the posts that were involved to display that the user was warned for the post in question, this also gives people a good indicator that mod actions were actually taken.
-There is already 0 tolerance for publicly complaining about mod actions, all threads and posts of that sort should be deleted, if you see any lying around please let me know
-People do always receive an explanation concerning locked threads/warnings
-People are always welcome to refute mod actions privately through pm's and the issue will be raised with the entire moderation staff

[momuuu]

Initially the guidelines were to not censor people's posts by removing whatever you don't like. That's my main complaint against deleting the posts when a thread gets derailed. There's very little threads that get locked when they are derailed. The only instances has been threads that mostly started out as moderation flame in the first place.

[fightinfrenchman]

As divinefire stated, ESOC is not a very nice place to be around at the moment. Working in retail has made me realize that excpecting people to act politely and rationally is not reasonable, and recently this has become apparent on the forums as well. Instead of a nice place for people to discuss a game they enjoy, this forum has become a very hostile environment. I think a few small tweaks would get things back in order. Some new blood on the moderation team would be appreciated by the community. Give the Frenchman the most basic admin rights possible. The worst that could happen is he goes berserk and completely abuses them. If this happens, remove his powers, ban him, and spend a few minutes fixing what he screwed up. The better and more probable thing that would happen is that he takes them seriously and actually contributes. He's on the forums quite a bit and reads almost all the off topic posts, which definitely need some cleaning up. A few other changes that I would like to suggest. Make the rules more accessible, preferably through a shortened version that appears on one of the sides, or in a link either on the side or the bottom of the forums. Also, makes warnings more public. If someone has been warned, flag the post in some way so that the public can see that such behavior is not acceptable. Anytime a thread is closed or someone receives a warning, be sure that they receive an explanation. Have a 0 tolerance policy for public complaints about warnings and locked threads. The person with the complaint can private message any of the mods if he wishes to and if other mods agree that the warning was unfair they can settle it internally. Public complaints about warnings and thread closures only cause trouble. However, civil discussion about moderation policy as a whole should be allowed. #modtheear

There's a lot of good points in here:
-As I said before while new blood is a great idea, Frenchmans behavior is just not conducive to him being a moderator, he's stacked up 5 warnings and has just returned from a one day ban
-We'll look into making the forum rules more accessible, I've started that already by posting them in the off topic section as well. It's easy to read through them by just reading the bold section of each rule.
-I'm going to go through all of our past warning's and edit the posts that were involved to display that the user was warned for the post in question, this also gives people a good indicator that mod actions were actually taken.
-There is already 0 tolerance for publicly complaining about mod actions, all threads and posts of that sort should be deleted, if you see any lying around please let me know
-People do always receive an explanation concerning locked threads/warnings
-People are always welcome to refute mod actions privately through pm's and the issue will be raised with the entire moderation staff

My behavior is conducive to being a moderator, in that I am active on the forums and willing to listen to the entire community.

[DivineFire]

My behavior is conducive to being a moderator, in that I am active on the forums and willing to listen to the entire community.

If those were the only things we require each moderator to be then there would be a LOT more moderators. There's at least a dozen people that meet that criteria that aren't moderators.