Our 'Rules' + Moderator Defaults

[GrandOldTeam]

Blues,

We're busier than ever;



This has prompted us, over in our plush mod central - to discuss our moderating stance for the season ahead.

The crux of the discussion is - can we moderate GrandOldTeam a little more leniently? Have we as a moderating setup become a bit miserable? (don't answer that...).

Anyway - it would be good to have some feedback on the below.

• What should the moderating warning system be?

As in, how should the moderators of your Everton forum, moderate.

We last revised our community guidelines in 2008 - I think they're still applicable, but I think we could improve on how we ask and prompt the community to follow the guidelines.

Currently, if a moderator sees a post that goes against our guidelines - they hit 'warn' and have a predetermined setup like so;



These allocate warning points - as below;

Warning System
30 Points = Suspended for 2 Days.
60 points = Suspended For 7 Days.
80 points = Suspended For 14 Days.
100 points = Permanently Banned.

Inappropriate Language: 10 points
General Behaviour Warning: 20 points
Off Topic: 20 points
Minor Spamming: 20 points
Posting Abusive/Offensive Material: 60 points
Spammed Advertisements: 100 points
10 and 20 point infractions expire after 30 days, the rest after 45 days.

The lower value warnings can be issued as a warning (0 points) at the discretion of the staff member.

You will be automatically notified via private message if you receive a warning - meaning the points wont mount up without you realising.

So...
Can our system be better?

Is it easily understood?

Is it fair?

How do we keep GrandOldTeam 'sound' and civil, but don't go to far and lose the fun.

Above all - If you could setup the moderating structure for GOT, what would it be?

I know it's difficult blues, but serious suggestions/feedback please...

 

[kithnou]

There's far far worse said in previews.

Now I know for sure absolutely no one reads them.

flounces*

Being Greek, I like to focus on a good bumming.

 

[chicoazul]

Being Greek, I like to focus on a good bumming.

If you placed Lukaku's head over him and super imposed him at Goodison that's a week in the c for you rae.

 

[kithnou]

If you placed Lukaku's head over him and super imposed him at Goodison that's a week in the c for you rae.

What man in his right mind would do that in the Everton forum?

 

[Kiwi]

Since you asked for feedback.

Firstly the disclaimer: mod is an unpaid job and one which @GrandOldTeam will confirm I've swerved a few times as I couldn't be arsed handling dolts like me looking for cheap wind ups and the utter ringpieces that occasionally show up on here. I know a few of the mods, have drank a beer with them and they're good eggs.

However.

There's a chronic problem with the modding on here of late. Put simply, it's sucking all the fun out of the place.

GOT always had a sound community where the humour was sometimes near the knuckle but reigned in when needed. Instead now you get thread bans and actual bans and spoken to like you're a piece of shît when you try to have a bit of fun. Even if it's in the Everton forum there needs to be a reasonable amount of fun and off topic allowed because, well, that's just how forums are. It's how human conversation is. We're not sat with a fûcking agenda in front of us at work and not allowed to deviate it from it.

The approach to modding is too harsh. I've just had a week ban because I done, and I'll put it in simple terms, a clear parody of our players getting bummed in the centre circle. Sound. If you're offended by that then I hope you also ban all those referencing to the greenhouse scene in Scum. A week ban. You power hungry beauts. Where's the common sense modding approach in that? You're turning GOT sterile and into Everton's own version of RAWK by being too over the top.

The best threads on here that still get talked about are the ones with the wind ups and the mass fall outs where someone loses their head. Now as soon as any debate is triggered it's like a countdown to the thread being locked or you being thread banned, or banned outright.

Half the mods who used to mod aren't around anymore which is sad because they were ace but if they're not active mods then they need to be replaced, that's another problem.

The place used to self mod itself with the help of the rep system but that had to go understandable and it's got bigger by the month but it shouldn't lose it's ability to mod in a sound way. I don't feel the active mods get the balance or line right. There's also plenty of sound posters who can't be arsed on here because of it, we talk about it from time to time and they're of the same opinion: the fun is being sucked out of it.

There doesn't seem to be any cohesion with the mods and limited attempt to build rapport with the posters by some of the mods, resulting in the draconian approach to modding. It needs more sound mods who get the humour of the place and roll with it, like any time Danny remembers us and leaves Twitter to get involved in a thread. He engages posters, he can tell someone to turn it in.

So these locked threads, thread bans, bans and generally turning the place into Everton's version of RAWK need addressing. Fresh blood needs to be brought into the mod team, new rules for the mods not for the site need drawing up so everyone knows where the line is and what the tone of the forum should be.

Bring the fun back to GOT and the soundness it used to have. It's what made it popular and grow in the first place. Let some debates flow, stop being so stuck up.

People come on here for leisure rather than obligation, the mods need to be less like impotent prison guards and more part of the community themselves.

Over and out.

It's become like the mods are the fun police.

 

[bizzaro]

I think the mods 8/10 time do a sound job.

I would like to add that having a chat with a moderator in a thread is a good thing

I've been doing this and one or two moderators were taking this as some sort of challenge and infracting me rather than just what it was. Chatting.

Chatting is not a challenge. It's just chat.

It's what we're here for isn't it?

But otherwise enjoy seeing @GrandOldTeam and others like @Bruce Wayne or @The Esk and so on actually chatting in the forum. Often brings sanity to the place.

 

[bizzaro]

I just want to also state what azul said, ive met most of the mods, ive shared a beer with them, ive spent time with them and they are all good people, I consider a few of them Friends, not just internet Friends, but actual Friends.

The marines we lose hits the forum harder than anything IMO, the boy Daveks name rang out, he should be here, enjoying the ride, instead hes prolly had to join a Wigan forum or something. Then theres the cats like Derek, the boy BMG, the boy Ghost, who came at the king and missed, I know the reasons for all the bans and im not for 1 second saying that according to the rules they didnt need a time out, but the forum misses certain people.

Like you, the forum missed you for the last week, you got banned for suggesting that Everton players should be bummed on the centre circle, I personally have no issue with this king of thing, I dont mind the gays me, so I still dont know why you got banned for a week? The forum was built on giving another man a bloody good bumming.

The thread bans I dont have an issue with, im an utter trumpet and @micknick does a good job in keeping me in line, but the thread closures do get a little tiresome, again the place was built on people getting their mental on and giving the forum a show, most of the time threads are knocked on the head before people get it out their system and things appear to just drag on and infect other threads.

So whats the answer? Do we need a change? Do we need fresh blood? Could things been done differently and still maintain law and order? I personally think so, give us more freedom, give us more rope, but not to hang on, but to skip along the forum like the utter mutants we are, never forget tho, the king stay the king.

*sheds forum tear

 

[summerisle]

*sheds forum tear

Mythic times apparently

 

[Eggs]

...it's difficult for the Moderators and I tend to agree with others that they get the balance about right. I do think the responsibility of tolerance and respect falls upon the posters and we need to be reminded of that at times.

One small gripe is the recent trend of staff posting new threads on reported transfer targets or even (in one case) an aspirational wish for us to sign a certain goalkeeper. As a backbencher, I try to do my bit to ensure good housekeeping and posting comments in existing threads. We don't want a 'do as I say but not as I do' governance.

Keep up the good work.

 

[allezlesbleus]

The moderating is very good. Well done for the time and effort put in. Keeps GOT a decent place for people to join in Everton chat etc.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Since you asked for feedback.

Firstly the disclaimer: mod is an unpaid job and one which @GrandOldTeam will confirm I've swerved a few times as I couldn't be arsed handling dolts like me looking for cheap wind ups and the utter ringpieces that occasionally show up on here. I know a few of the mods, have drank a beer with them and they're good eggs.

However.

There's a chronic problem with the modding on here of late. Put simply, it's sucking all the fun out of the place.

GOT always had a sound community where the humour was sometimes near the knuckle but reigned in when needed. Instead now you get thread bans and actual bans and spoken to like you're a piece of shît when you try to have a bit of fun. Even if it's in the Everton forum there needs to be a reasonable amount of fun and off topic allowed because, well, that's just how forums are. It's how human conversation is. We're not sat with a fûcking agenda in front of us at work and not allowed to deviate it from it.

The approach to modding is too harsh. I've just had a week ban because I done, and I'll put it in simple terms, a clear parody of our players getting bummed in the centre circle. Sound. If you're offended by that then I hope you also ban all those referencing to the greenhouse scene in Scum. A week ban. You power hungry beauts. Where's the common sense modding approach in that? You're turning GOT sterile and into Everton's own version of RAWK by being too over the top.

The best threads on here that still get talked about are the ones with the wind ups and the mass fall outs where someone loses their head. Now as soon as any debate is triggered it's like a countdown to the thread being locked or you being thread banned, or banned outright.

Half the mods who used to mod aren't around anymore which is sad because they were ace but if they're not active mods then they need to be replaced, that's another problem.

The place used to self mod itself with the help of the rep system but that had to go understandable and it's got bigger by the month but it shouldn't lose it's ability to mod in a sound way. I don't feel the active mods get the balance or line right. There's also plenty of sound posters who can't be arsed on here because of it, we talk about it from time to time and they're of the same opinion: the fun is being sucked out of it.

There doesn't seem to be any cohesion with the mods and limited attempt to build rapport with the posters by some of the mods, resulting in the draconian approach to modding. It needs more sound mods who get the humour of the place and roll with it, like any time Danny remembers us and leaves Twitter to get involved in a thread. He engages posters, he can tell someone to turn it in.

So these locked threads, thread bans, bans and generally turning the place into Everton's version of RAWK need addressing. Fresh blood needs to be brought into the mod team, new rules for the mods not for the site need drawing up so everyone knows where the line is and what the tone of the forum should be.

Bring the fun back to GOT and the soundness it used to have. It's what made it popular and grow in the first place. Let some debates flow, stop being so stuck up.

People come on here for leisure rather than obligation, the mods need to be less like impotent prison guards and more part of the community themselves.

Over and out.

*checks time of posting - discounts for probably being drunk*

 

[Bruce Wayne]

...it's difficult for the Moderators and I tend to agree with others that they get the balance about right. I do think the responsibility of tolerance and respect falls upon the posters and we need to be reminded of that at times.

One small gripe is the recent trend of staff posting new threads on reported transfer targets or even (in one case) an aspirational wish for us to sign a certain goalkeeper. As a backbencher, I try to do my bit to ensure good housekeeping and posting comments in existing threads. We don't want a 'do as I say but not as I do' governance.

Keep up the good work.

 

[magicjuan]

The mods are like supervisors at a nursery. So many children in here, whinging, whining, rattles constantly thrown from virtual prams, incessant dribbling and soiling of underwear, finger pointing and cries of 'it was him' and 'he started it', major huffties, tantrums and flounces, the occasional barfing on the carpet, infantile profanities and immature, uneducated and inexperienced opinion.

You need to bring back the cane.

As it is, their tolerance and understanding as well as their time, is appreciated. Carry on. Oh, and I think @chicoazul needs changing again

 

[jal123]

Please remove sh.te from the swear filter.

 

[1966efc]

Modding is a thankless job & one accomplished by and large with good grace.

If there's one aspect I think needs addressing, it's the difficult one of consistency. The Ale House is the worst for this, in my view. If you don't want political threads, close the lot. If you are prepared to allow some, don't close the ones you happen to dislike or fear might just degenerate into a poisonous squabble. You never know, there may be more light than heat!

 

[kev]

The mods are like supervisors at a nursery. So many children in here, whinging, whining, rattles constantly thrown from virtual prams, incessant dribbling and soiling of underwear, finger pointing and cries of 'it was him' and 'he started it', major huffties, tantrums and flounces, the occasional barfing on the carpet, infantile profanities and immature, uneducated and inexperienced opinion.

You need to bring back the cane.

As it is, their tolerance and understanding as well as their time, is appreciated. Carry on. Oh, and I think @chicoazul needs changing again

This is exactly what makes GOT what it is.
Apart from the bits and pieces of togger news and views and the occasional ITK (both real and jarg) the main reason for logging into the forum is the points in bold above.
The place is full of deluded bell ends, and I love it! I have lost count of the times that I've embarrassed myself by laughing out loud (and believe me that's nothing to do with the 'jokes' thread)
It CAN get a little annoying when 2 members dominate a thread by bickering at each other thus derailing said thread, but as I mentioned a while back, some of the petty arguments, huffs and fumes are often the most entertaining part of the various threads.
Rather than knocking it on the head, why not just redirect the miscreants to a special 'handbags' thread, where they can continue to slap each other for the amusement of voyeurs such as my good self.