Moderation

If Admin thinks this is good idea, I am confident that they will find a solution. My experience is that some mods really provide useful, instructive contributions, so yes, by all means they should contribute :-) (just testing the smiley!).

I found moderation in DPreview to be over zealous particularly in the Z forum.

It is like censorship where you do not want to allow dissenting opinions, or mention or comparison with another brand.

IMO personal attacks, or language that is derogatory to any group of people should be disallowed, but debate and dissent should not be censored.

Regards

It doesn't even make any sense. We're running around looking for a refugee camp, what does it matter to Amazon, Dpr, and most especially the non paid mods who are out of a moderation position in 10 days. Let it slide.

I asked Thierry if it was okay to put up a link to a petition to go to Amazon to keep the forum open. Wasn't my petition, but I saw the link buried in 4000+ comments to the "we are closing" news Thierry said okay so I put it in the Zee forum. Next day it was gone. I asked Thierry about it, he put it back up and left a note to the other mods to leave it there. A day or two goes by and a member asked me for the link as he didn't want to scroll through 4000+ replies to find it. I tell him I thought it was in the post, but I posted the link in my reply to him. Next day thread gone again.

If some of those fellows get a mod position here, they'll be here but some of us won't be. Anyone can be a mod. And if that's not true, point it out and part ways.

:-) :-) Lol thats to funny , that mod is the worst on the forums. at least you got a message, he wouldn't even message me or give and explanation and the ban/sandbagging would not have an end date :-)

i did take a screen shot but cant seem to post it. there was 6 of them but 2 have resigned LOL i wont say who the 2 are as they were.

Had lots of run in's with that mako guy, a waste of space.

Yeah I'd rather stick pins into my eyes than be around any of those clowns ever again. So little power went to their head...

You know what has alluded me until now but I feel is very true. The one quality which is overlooked is that if we really need a moderator, we need one who does not want to be a moderator. A reluctant moderator if you will. This applies in many walks of life and it often just works. Someone that does not want the role, but does it anyway because they will be good at it. It really applies in management. The best managers' are the specialists in their own roles, who have years' of experience, enjoy what they do and are respected in their field. They have zero want or will to manage, but they do it because they are the only one's that are going to do it right. They step up with that knowledge.

The reason for doing so is not for the power trip. This caveat is one of the top way's they will not intervene for stupid stuff, will allow active discussion without bias, and have zero agenda. Someone that is desperate to moderate here is more likely to go too far (not always, but more likely). What will these clown moderators at dpreview do with their lives. Just look at how that mako2011 banned Maoby in this thread for posting about this site. Do people get any more sad, pathetic and childish than that? Sum's up years of what I've seen there. Good riddance Dpreview.com

There are a few sites popping up now. The one that wins, is going to be the one with none of the original mods. I promise you that.

It did not for me, except in the cases where it carried negative gravitas.

I would be a reluctant moderator :-)

Same. As an admin for multiple FB pages in the multi thousands , I do find it can be a challenge and rewarding at the same time

Although I joined dpreview in 2008, I have been an infrequent poster, especially over the last few years. However I have continued to follow a number of the forums. Having followed this thread with interest, I would like to offer the following to the ongoing debate.

With a forum the size it already is and in the hope that it will grow, moderation of some kind is going to be needed.

Good moderation is not easy, it is time consuming, the larger and more diverse the membership, including those for whom English is not their first language, the more difficult it can become. It therefore follows that there will need to be a number of moderators. Perhaps a question that needs to be addressed is, who is watching the moderators?

If we go down the route of this forum being owned by the users, could/should the task of moderation be partly our corporate responsibility? In one of the forums I participate in, after being a member for a while and having made a number of posts, a report post button becomes available, if 5 members report the same post it is automatically removed from the thread for admin to review. Although this is most often used to report spam posts, it could used to remove a post that at least 5 people (or any other number believed to be appropriate) found unacceptable and passed to a moderator.

As a final point, I have noticed a number of posts advocating light touch moderation allowing for robust debate. I have some personal sympathy for that point of view. However in the same way that I hope people of different genders, races and beliefs are welcome here, I would like to think that people who, as one poster described it, are less “thick skinned” are also welcome and feel encouraged to participate.

David