I've been on both sides of this one. Moderating a web forum is mostly like being a janitor cleaning up the shit, piss, vomit, cum, and wads of chewing gum forum users fling (and the spoilt yogurt they hide) with glee all over the place. Meanwhile, to the participants, the moderator—no matter how quietly E does the job; no matter how high E's tolerance—is perceived by the users as a traffic cop with a bad attitude and short-man syndrome and a lifetime membership in the Nazi party. Things can grow heated quickly and easily stay that way, especially on forums where the subject is arcane and abstruse enough to attract high-level geeks and boffins and the attendant high-level pedants, trolls, and troublemakers.
That said, the moderation protocol you describe at the language board doesn't sound thoughtful or productive. "No discussion of moderator action" is several large notches too draconian. A rule that says "No complaining about the rules or their enforcement", is a much more reasonable tack to take. It sets a boundary the sharp cutoff of which is left (as it should be) to moderator discretion on a casewise basis, and it allows space for discussion which as a result is occasional and brief.
I have cut way back on my web forum participation, and I don't moderate any forums any more. The reasons run the gamut from overly authoritarian behavioural tendencies I didn't like in myself, to being sick to goddamn death of cleaning up other people's thoughtless-to-deliberate messes.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2014-12-09 05:57 am (UTC)That said, the moderation protocol you describe at the language board doesn't sound thoughtful or productive. "No discussion of moderator action" is several large notches too draconian. A rule that says "No complaining about the rules or their enforcement", is a much more reasonable tack to take. It sets a boundary the sharp cutoff of which is left (as it should be) to moderator discretion on a casewise basis, and it allows space for discussion which as a result is occasional and brief.
I have cut way back on my web forum participation, and I don't moderate any forums any more. The reasons run the gamut from overly authoritarian behavioural tendencies I didn't like in myself, to being sick to goddamn death of cleaning up other people's thoughtless-to-deliberate messes.
(update: Also what Bill said.)