hhmoore
tired & cranky shadow
I've seen a lot of comments over the years about the moderators doing their jobs, but I think it is time for a bit of a reminder about what our job is here.
First, and foremost, our job is to enforce the rules of the site. Please, read that again....our job is to enforce the rules of the site. That means we have some set guidelines within which we can operate. We have a bit of latitude, of course; but there are things that we will do, and things we will not do.
What we will do is pretty straightforward, honestly. We will interject if a situation is going "too far"...this may be done privately, or publicly. We will take action to end something that has already crossed lines. We will notify members when their posts are unacceptable - occasionally this is done in the form of a post, but more often it is in private (infractions are private, unless somebody opts to whine about them).
We may move threads that are incorrectly placed; but that is not a given because it requires that we make a decision on where to move them...and the obvious (to us) choice sometimes makes the OP unhappy. For example, if a topic is placed in the Herp Related Items category of the classifieds, there isn't a direct correlation in the discussion areas, so there could be 3-4 sections that would be a reasonable fit.
Now, here's what some people don't seem to grasp. What we won't do...
We won't edit your posts to remove parts that break the rules, or that you decide you shouldn't have put there.
We do not edit BOI threads - not even something as seemingly benign as the subject's name.
We won't close a thread, especially on the BOI, just because somebody (or a group) says it should be closed.
We won't remove a post or thread that reflects negatively on you or your business, or that causes you hardship.
We won't remove a thread because people disagree with it, feel that it is unwarranted, or think it is a bad idea.
We won't ban somebody because a bad guy thread is started about them.
We won't ban somebody unless they are breaking the rules of this site. We don't like scammers any more than the rest of you, but we simply cannot play judge and jury in those matters.
I understand that on some sites, the moderators DO remove parts of posts, change words, remove entire threads, etc as a matter of course...but that isn't how things work here, and it does sometimes make things more difficult/confusing. Us leaving a post that clearly violates the rules is not a sign of acceptance (so don't follow suit). To make it just a bit more confusing, there are times that we will remove threads - these are usually things that are incorrectly placed in the BOI, but there are other reasons.
A couple of other things we will do:
We will make mistakes. We aren't perfect, it happens. We're usually pretty good about admitting them, and correcting them, when appropriate.
We will miss things. This is a large, busy site; we can't possibly read every post. If you see something you feel we should be aware of, please, use the Report Post function - this is a better option than PMing a moderator.
I'm sure I've omitted some things, but it's been a long night.
**Oh - on the subject of editing BOI threads. One thing that we will do is remove a member's posts if they are violating the full name rule (including posting under a name which is not theirs). We don't delete the post, so it looks as if it wasn't made...we make it obvious, and replace their text with a message stating why.
First, and foremost, our job is to enforce the rules of the site. Please, read that again....our job is to enforce the rules of the site. That means we have some set guidelines within which we can operate. We have a bit of latitude, of course; but there are things that we will do, and things we will not do.
What we will do is pretty straightforward, honestly. We will interject if a situation is going "too far"...this may be done privately, or publicly. We will take action to end something that has already crossed lines. We will notify members when their posts are unacceptable - occasionally this is done in the form of a post, but more often it is in private (infractions are private, unless somebody opts to whine about them).
We may move threads that are incorrectly placed; but that is not a given because it requires that we make a decision on where to move them...and the obvious (to us) choice sometimes makes the OP unhappy. For example, if a topic is placed in the Herp Related Items category of the classifieds, there isn't a direct correlation in the discussion areas, so there could be 3-4 sections that would be a reasonable fit.
Now, here's what some people don't seem to grasp. What we won't do...
We won't edit your posts to remove parts that break the rules, or that you decide you shouldn't have put there.
We do not edit BOI threads - not even something as seemingly benign as the subject's name.
We won't close a thread, especially on the BOI, just because somebody (or a group) says it should be closed.
We won't remove a post or thread that reflects negatively on you or your business, or that causes you hardship.
We won't remove a thread because people disagree with it, feel that it is unwarranted, or think it is a bad idea.
We won't ban somebody because a bad guy thread is started about them.
We won't ban somebody unless they are breaking the rules of this site. We don't like scammers any more than the rest of you, but we simply cannot play judge and jury in those matters.
I understand that on some sites, the moderators DO remove parts of posts, change words, remove entire threads, etc as a matter of course...but that isn't how things work here, and it does sometimes make things more difficult/confusing. Us leaving a post that clearly violates the rules is not a sign of acceptance (so don't follow suit). To make it just a bit more confusing, there are times that we will remove threads - these are usually things that are incorrectly placed in the BOI, but there are other reasons.
A couple of other things we will do:
We will make mistakes. We aren't perfect, it happens. We're usually pretty good about admitting them, and correcting them, when appropriate.
We will miss things. This is a large, busy site; we can't possibly read every post. If you see something you feel we should be aware of, please, use the Report Post function - this is a better option than PMing a moderator.
I'm sure I've omitted some things, but it's been a long night.
**Oh - on the subject of editing BOI threads. One thing that we will do is remove a member's posts if they are violating the full name rule (including posting under a name which is not theirs). We don't delete the post, so it looks as if it wasn't made...we make it obvious, and replace their text with a message stating why.
- and I was never happy about it; so, overall, I'm happy with that policy. Sure, we could maintain that on the BOI, and edit things in the discussion areas and classifieds, but why do that? While it might eliminate some problems, we'd still be doing our members a disservice
