WARNING MAY CONTAIN OFFENSIVE MATERIAL.
Please Be Aware. May not be Suitable for Kids
Here is another What Frosts My Muffin! Blog entry. A few months ago my friend was talking to me about some drama that was going on in a forum . A couple of days ago she has sent me this interesting article Mods, The bugs in the System. The overall synopsis of this article is that The 9-Dragons Forums has allot of bugs in it. When I says bugs it to flaws. The author of the blog entry states that the Moderators are the problem of the forums and that she is questioning the legality of their job and the moderators credentials.
First of all The blog article starts off with this…
With moderators using fake names as avatars, handles and screen names, you do not even know the source of the information they provide, or their credentials or experience levels or even they have the legal age to conduct a community. Also it is under suspicious the fact that, in Acclaim TOS, the voluntary are not mention and in rules of conduct the attributes they have are not written. If they are not even worth to mention, what is the reality ? Where they stand ?
Here is my opinion on that quote and the stupidity that is written down. Moderators, are people who are elected to help run a web community forum, bulletin board system or website to ensure that the end users are following the set rules of conduct for that particular system. If you think about it. They are the police of that site. They are there to assist the users when they need it and to ensure the safety of all the users in the system by using the special permissions granted to them by the website administrator and is dictated by the terms of service and common sense.
The phrase ” moderators using fake names as avatars, handles and screen names,” is bullshit. Everyone in the system has their own unique identity that is what a screen name is. The name that you use as a “Handle” to convey what you want to write down. An Avatar is a small picture, with a specified height and width, set by the system administrator that you can use to further identify your online name. Theoretically it give a screen name a face.
The next phrase “you do not even know the source of the information they provide, or their credentials or experience levels or even they have the legal age to conduct a community.” again is bullshit. Moderators are selected by the website admins to help ensure the site is running smoothly and make it safe for everyone. If the website admins choose a person to help them moderate the site, they have the credentials needed to do so. When you sign up for a forum. You have to specify your age by putting in your birthday or birth year. This is dictated by the COPAA (Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates. If you are under the age of 13. You need to have the consent of your parents to sign up and in some places you need to have paper work faxed in before the user name is even fully registered. Second, that system may be flawed and people can lye about their age. However, it is up to the parents to make sure what their kids are doing online to to make sure they are allowed to participate in the forums. (This part of the subject can be up to debate since some parents don’t care what their children do online). As for legal age of a person conducting a community, Again it is up to the website admin and their terms of service to do so. It is not a question of what you may like to see in a person to moderate the system. It is a question of what the website admins like.
Personally, A moderator is there to help the website admin. Just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean they don’t have what it takes to ensure the community is working properly.
Could forum owners be held liable if harassment from moderators occurred?
That is a hard question to answer. If the moderators are doing their jobs properly than there should be no harassment. Just because you posted something that was either a duplicate topic, post, perhaps something that has voilated the terms of service and the moderator has removed, edit, moved or closed any topic at any time should they see fit doesn’t count as harassment.
Harassment if yelling and screaming at a moderator that they deleted your post with out telling you becauase you are too fucking stupid to realize you broke the rules.
Why don’t you read the rules set by the website admin. If you don’t then you have no right to do what you are doing. It is pointless that if you don’t know what the rules are then how can you say that it is illegal for a moderator to do their jobs.
People Stop Bitching and moaning when you are on a forum. The moderators have a hard enough time as it is working to ensure the community is running smoothly for everyone. They Don’t need you breathing down their necks every minute of the day while you bitch and moan that shit isn’t happening . If you Don’t like it. Then get the fuck out of the forums. Because the forums will be a better place with out your drama.
I am for the moderators because I am a website owner/admin/moderator. I get alot of flack from people. But, I do my job. I do it efficiently. I don’t complain. I get complaints. I do what I can do. If you don’t like it. Then Tough LUCK. Stop Being an asshole. I say that from the bottom of my heart.
I fell that the people who whine, cry, bitch, moan, groan, claim that they are being harassed by the moderators don’t have the mental capacity to be on the forums. The moderators are more grown up that those little ass goblins who bitch about them.
But on that note. Please for the love of god. Please be Nice to your moderators. Because in the end. They make the online community a safer place. I thank all the moderators who are on my forums for a good job they are doing. Thank you.
