TIGHAR
Forum FAQs, maintenance, how-to help => Forum FAQs and problem solving => Topic started by: Martin X. Moleski, SJ on April 02, 2011, 07:27:08 AM
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Freedom to post in the Forum is a privilege of membership in TIGHAR that you may enjoy so long as you adhere to the terms of service of the Forum as expressed and applied by the moderators of the Forum.
There is no moderation prior to posting.
The moderators read every new post.
Offensive posts will be removed and repeat offenders will lose the privilege of posting in the Forum. Losing posting privileges does not entail revocation of membership in TIGHAR and therefore dues will not be refunded to those who are subject to moderation.
Misspellings and poorly-formatted tags may be corrected at the whim of the moderators.
A link to "Report [this post] to moderator" is included in every post:
(http://tighar.org/aw/mediawiki/images/5/54/2012-04-28_0825.png)
Please do not try to moderate other members by nagging them directly and personally in a thread. Experience shows that this simply creates flame wars. The moderators have tools that are not available to other members, so please leave the task of moderating to the moderators.
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When posters refuse to comply with the policies of the Forum, they can be restricted in their access to the Forum.
One level is that all of their posts must be approved by a moderator before appearing in public.
The next level is to be banned from posting.
The final level is to be removed from the database altogether.
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Hi Marty,
Sorry to bother you, I don't envy your work load,
I can't seem to find a thread I was involved with earlier today, does this ... "forum moderated ? " thread involve Gary Lapook and is it possible I got caught up in that ?
Thank you for your time and all your efforts !
Bonne :)
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I can't seem to find a thread I was involved with earlier today, does this ... "forum moderated ? " thread involve Gary Lapook and is it possible I got caught up in that ?
Yes.
I removed the thread entirely.
Complaints about moderation policy are off-topic in the boards devoted to the discussion of the Niku hypothesis.
This is not a democracy.
The members of the Forum are guests in TIGHAR's house.
If they will not comply with the house rules, they may not post freely.
If they do not respect the idea of a moderated forum, their posting privileges will be curtailed or withdrawn altogether.
Anyone who does not like these policies is welcome to construct a website and host a no-holds-barred Forum of their own.
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Still seems awful stifled to me at the moment.
Maybe Democracy was the wrong word to use but we get a degree of freedom to post before 'censorship' and are/were fairly free to have some discussion.
This Forum has been moderated since it opened in 2009.
I started this thread to clarify this fact in the spring of 2011.
I was the sole moderator in the beginning. I have since recruited other moderators. All of us serve at the pleasure of TIGHAR's executive officers and the board of directors.
If you have something substantive to contribute to a thread, either by way of research you've done, by reasoning about data already in hand, or by exercising some authority that you have earned elsewhere in your life (e.g., the Ph.D. work done by the late Howard Alldred in oceanography or the late Kar Burns in pathology), your posts will probably remain in the Forum.
If you are simply passing the time of day with friends, the pleasantries will very likely end up on the cutting room floor in due course.
If you begin a new thread on a topic that already has a long history, your contribution will be merged with the old thread--if, in fact, it differs in some interesting, informative, or authoritative fashion from extant posts.
If you wish to complain about the moderation policies, you may write any of the moderators, the TIGHAR executives, or the board of directors. You may not create threads on this topic in boards devoted to TIGHAR's projects.
If you cannot abide the thought that posts in this Forum are reviewed for content and tone, then you may create your own Forum elsewhere on the internet. You may provide links to such free-for-all Forums in the Chatterbox (http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,928.0.html).
Until such time as you are appointed as a Forum moderator, you may not rewrite these rules. Take 'em or leave 'em.
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The members of the Forum are guests in TIGHAR's house.
And TIGHAR is an organisation made up of members and the forum is an extension and without members the organisation may wither. And an organisation also needs followers and critics to flourish.
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And TIGHAR is an organisation made up of members and the forum is an extension and without members the organisation may wither. And an organisation also needs followers and critics to flourish.
Your position with respect to the topic of this thread is unclear.
If you are suggesting that the Forum should become unmoderated, the answer is "no." This is a moderated forum. It has been moderated since it opened in 2009. It has accumulated 700+ members and 16,000+ posts as a moderated forum. I am morally certain that TIGHAR is committed to the policy that the Forum should be moderated.
If you accept the idea that the posts of both followers and critics should be reviewed by referees appointed by TIGHAR (i.e., the moderators), then we are in agreement.
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I was just pointing out that TIGHAR members and Forum members are TIGHAR.
I have and always do abide by the rules.
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Damn! I've had one soaking with your name on it for weeks ;D
Still members are life blood even if they are hearded through the subject :D
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Damn! I've had one soaking with your name on it for weeks ;D
Still members are life blood even if they are hearded through the subject :D
Though it may seem so, there are no sheep herders in the mix here. It is for the benefit of all members that this forum is moderated. You don't see it from the outside because you don't see what we see. This forum is civil because the Admins and Mods keep it that way. None that I know of has deleted or changed any of your comments though you seem to have a bit of an edge on. Trust me on this Chris, you wouldn't want it any other way.
Cheers mate,
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Not suggesting anyone has appart from the odd sepeling error. Neither do I have a beef, just a mid life grumble and the ear of some people who feel a little 'censored'
IF (thats shouting) I seem a little negative or un gratefull don't worry its nothing personal and i'm still here for the long run. Every dairy needs some spilled milk but not churns full of curdled milk.
Anyway i'm off to the shops to find a suitable fruit to name 'Doc' to put with 'Jeff'
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Please do not try to moderate other members by nagging them directly and personally in a thread. Experience shows that this simply creates flame wars. The moderators have tools that are not available to other members, so please leave the task of moderating to the moderators.
Posts about negativity fall under the general guideline given above.
Being negative about negativity is self-defeating. It simply invites more off-topic discussion of who is and is not "negative."
It is in the nature of discussion that criticism of another person's position is necessarily negative. While it is true that there may be an unfortunate tendency to add an unnecessary tone of hostility, insult, and ridicule to disagreement, it is not possible to "ban negativity" without banning discussion itself.
If you feel that someone is being excessively negative, please report it to the moderators, as explained in the first post in this thread. Please do not take it upon yourself to nag others out of their negativity. It doesn't work, and it only increases the problem instead of solving it.
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Please do not try to moderate other members by nagging them directly and personally in a thread. Experience shows that this simply creates flame wars. The moderators have tools that are not available to other members, so please leave the task of moderating to the moderators.
Marty, well said. If indeed, "confession is good for the soul," then mea culpa. I've found myself doing just that. :-[ I'll behave better.
LTM, who taught her boy to respect others.
dp
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Marty, well said. If indeed, "confession is good for the soul," then mea culpa. I've found myself doing just that. :-[ I'll behave better.
Thanks, Dave. Very much appreciated! ;)
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Hi Marty -
Curious - do the mods/admins have access to members' private messages?
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Curious - do the mods/admins have access to members' private messages?
No.
I do have the necessary skills to do a "core hack" or create a mod to make that possible. It's even conceivable that such modifications already exist. It would only take a few lines of code to send blind carbon copies of all private messages to the moderators.
You'll have to take my word that private messages are private.
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I do have the necessary skills to do a "core hack" or create a mod to make that possible. It's even conceivable that such modifications already exist. It would only take a few lines of code to send blind carbon copies of all private messages to the moderators.
This procedure would cause a collection of all occuring communication. But for an individual check, it would seem to me that since all in/out mail is recorded in each member's message file - mods would only need to go into that file. Nothing to set up.
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For an individual check, it would seem to me that since all in/out mail is recorded in each member's message file - mods would only need to go into that file. Nothing to set up.
There is no route in the administration area that lead's to another member's private messages.
I haven't looked into the database directly--and I won't, unless someone provides a court order which requires me to do so. ???
I imagine the material in the database is transient, too. If people delete the material in their mailboxes, it is deleted in the database.
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OK, Marty. Also, I hope I wasn't coming across being critical. I can't recall that I had that option when I was a mod on another forum. I could monitor member activity in real time - what threads reading, when "typing" entries. I suppose the way the forum format is set up varies from forum to forum. Anyway, personally I wouldn't care if you could read mine. ;D
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There is no hard-and-fast definition of trolling.
In one sense, it is like obscenity: "I know what it is when I see it."
In another sense, like beauty, trolling "is in the eye of the beholder."
Trolls do not admit that they are trolls. They are filled with passive aggression, and they love nothing better than to fill post after post with exquisite explanations of why they do not deserve to be thought badly of.
It is not possible to end an argument with a troll. Arguing endlessly is their bread and butter. At some point, the right course to take with them is to put them on hand-moderation or ban them altogether.
The moderators decide who is and who is not a troll. We call 'em as we see 'em. Our decisions are not subject to appeal within the Forum. Please don't feed the trolls. (https://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,400.msg4632.html#msg4632)