Too many locked threads recently

krisnda

Yes.

It has been done in the past when people have PM'ed us regarding a thread that has been closed.

opkossy

MANray_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Oh, come on, I had a great (non-offensive) joke for the character sex change thread... But I also did have a legitimate answer since I don't believe the actual problem with the mechanic being discussed in there involved gender/orientation issues at all... What's with this automatically closing threads whenever YOU (the mods) consider a question has been sufficiently answered anyway? It really is getting out of control people, you do realize the overwhelming majority of threads involve questions by the OP...

If a topic runs its natural course, and there really is nothing more to add to it, it will simply get buried, there's no need to lock it.

Since Kris mentioned the +1 part... This one honestly depends on the mod. While the answer in the thread you mentioned wasn't the best, it was still kinda accurate and OP was satisfied with it. In some cases that's enough to warrant the close. Other times it wouldn't be. Whether or not it happens really depends on which mod gets to it first and whether or not you PM them and can convince them to reverse their decision.

Sagek - Sanctuary

OPKossy wrote: »

Since Kris mentioned the +1 part... This one honestly depends on the mod. While the answer in the thread you mentioned wasn't the best, it was still kinda accurate and OP was satisfied with it. In some cases that's enough to warrant the close. Other times it wouldn't be. Whether or not it happens really depends on which mod gets to it first and whether or not you PM them and can convince them to reverse their decision.

Poooowwwwweeeeerrrrrr posstttttttttt

/Flex b:nosebleed

MANray_ - Sanctuary

OPKossy wrote: »

Since Kris mentioned the +1 part... This one honestly depends on the mod. While the answer in the thread you mentioned wasn't the best, it was still kinda accurate and OP was satisfied with it. In some cases that's enough to warrant the close. Other times it wouldn't be. Whether or not it happens really depends on which mod gets to it first and whether or not you PM them and can convince them to reverse their decision.

Thanks for your answer and for actually addressing the point... sort of. It's not just that I disagree with threads being closed on the criteria that "kinda accurate" answers OPs are satisfed with have been provided (this is a discussion forum, not volunteer customer service) but that I do realize the purpose to this subjective decissions is to prevent forum violations. And once you start acting not on violations, but on the posibility they could arise, you've crossed the line from modding into policing.

And yes, policed forums don't just discourage active discussion but inhibit ouright participation. I shouldn't have to jump trough hoops to write a lame joke and this is esentially what you're asking us to do, because it's not just pm'ing a mod, it's convincing someone to go back on a decission they've already made. Further I CHOOSE not to become involved with this because I don't like an "open" forum in which you get the sense that a good part of the actual activity is going on behind a closed curtain. I've noticed you guys have been very active deleting posts, sometimes even harmless stuff is going to the memory hole, and at least one of you is doing such a choppy job there's a couple of threads with posts out of order regarding how they originally appeared.

Finally, I do realize the 1984 references may draw the ire of teenagers accostumed to not being required any real knowledge beyond internet meme culture, but I'm trying to make a not-so-subtle point with this. Because it is starting to feel that in this forums Big Brother is watching...

ovenusarmanio

It is actually impossible for us to put things in out of order. So if you have seen a thread with posts out of order, that's a forum glitch. Can you pm me which thread that you have seen with posts like that? Also, as a reminder. This is not the place to discuss specific threads and their moderation.

tweakz

First!

-this comment is out of order

zhen3r

i think many threads r useless thats probably the main reason



and sry but i must say theres only 1 mod here that deserve respect here and thats is mr.panda the rest...sry but some look like a kid with a magnifying glass burning ants , most of them are rude and they lack of politeness ijs b:shutup


b:bye

sithis010

lololololololololololol Fuzzy not polite! Fuzzy never here! And when he do here he close all the thread and is mean! At least new mod are here! I think they dun close enuff thread. I mean they leave dis thread open? http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1545501 U guy just scare them and now i gotta read r@pe!

tweakz

Canola used to be called by another name. They still use that old name on some things like a jar of peanut butter you can find at Freshen's. The name wasn't changed to eliminate the word for being an emotional agitator. While the word itself isn't bad and carries multiple meanings; bypassing of the word filter I believe is a violation of the ToS.

So, how familiar are the mods with the ToS? How much training and testing have they received? What disciplinary actions are taken on mods, and who polices them? What responsibilities do they have, and how much rights do they have in the context of closing threads for personal dislike?

Toomaga - Heavens Tear

tweakz wrote: »

Canola used to be called by another name. They still use that old name on some things like a jar of peanut butter you can find at Freshen's. The name wasn't changed to eliminate the word for being an emotional agitator. While the word itself isn't bad and carries multiple meanings; bypassing of the word filter I believe is a violation of the ToS.

So, how familiar are the mods with the ToS? How much training and testing have they received? What disciplinary actions are taken on mods, and who polices them? What responsibilities do they have, and how much rights do they have in the context of closing threads for personal dislike?

I can't answer about this forum, but in my experience as a Mod and Administrator for two other forums, I can say Mods don't have much power in the sense of closing threads. They simply follow the ToS as a guideline then use their own judgment based on where the thread is going and close/lock as they so see fit. They still follow under the authority of the Admin however if a general consensus cannot be reached by the mods/users as to the legitimacy of a closed thread.

As for training I don't think the mods on this forum receive any other than a few pointers,introductions etc. I think most operate under past mod experience/computer skills. But of course again I don't know what kind of things go on after a Mod is recruited on these forums so don't quote me on it xD.

MANray_ - Sanctuary

oVenusArmanio wrote: »

It is actually impossible for us to put things in out of order. So if you have seen a thread with posts out of order, that's a forum glitch. Can you pm me which thread that you have seen with posts like that? Also, as a reminder. This is not the place to discuss specific threads and their moderation.

Fair enough, I'll grant this may very well be a glitch, but it may at least point out to a large volume of edited/deleted posts as I had never seen such a thing before, and I've been posting on this forums for quite a bit now. I've already pm'd Mynx with what I know about it, which isn't much since I haven't been really tracking this...

On topic, it may very well be that the closing of threads is done following instructions, and if it is so I don't see why it would be a problem for mods to comunicate this directly to us. What I got from TruKossy's post was that there's certainly an element of subjective appreciation involved in this. I understand mods may be dealing with circumstances/rules we may not be aware of, but you've got to look at this from our side, we are seeing an active agenda of apparently shutting down as many convos as possible and it isn't just closing the minor threads, but depth'ing many others to the obscurity of rarely visited forum areas. Even now, it seems Fuzzy is lobbying for all NW threads to be sent into a new purpose made area, and with most other "QQ" threads or those dealing with complaints or suggestions getting locked or merged into confusing and difficult to follow long abandoned discussions it almost seems like the only type of thread now being encouraged, if any, are soft non-controversial topics that allow people the ilussion of participation by joining in a bandwagon of "me too"s...

Which is why I find surprising Krisnda so gingerly jumping to point even that's against ToS. This is suposed to be an adult forum, as technically anyone underage is posting/reading here under adult supervision, and trying to run it as a Victorian finishing school in which only neutral conversations on pleasant topics are allowed is simply unacceptable.

ovenusarmanio

tweakz wrote: »

So, how familiar are the mods with the ToS? How much training and testing have they received? What disciplinary actions are taken on mods, and who polices them? What responsibilities do they have, and how much rights do they have in the context of closing threads for personal dislike?

I can't go into all specifics but mods are supposed to read certain things before they mod including the ToS and forum rules. Disciplinary actions can be taken on mods and the person who would do that would be the Community Manager, V4liance. We are responsible for:

Locking threads that violate ToS including some rules that are open to interpretation, such as the rule on offensive material and trolling. So a mod may close a thread such as the one about gender change early because they know it's flamebait (which falls under trolling) and that the discussion cannot help but go somewhere political due to the reason that it won't happen, which is current Chinese law. No political discussion of any kind is appropriate according to the ToS. Due to this, sometimes you or even another mod may not consider it a thread that needed to be closed. Same thing with trolling vs silly but allowable. That really depends on the mod as there isn't a clear cut rule as to what is offensive and what is not. Besides things such as no sex, no religious discussion, no politics, no defamation of character. Mods don't close threads just because they personally dislike the subject usually, and if you feel that it has been closed for that reason then PM the mod in question to see if there is some rule that it is violating. You may get them to change their minds or you may get an understanding of why the mod felt it was violating the rules and closed and accept their answer. If you still are not satisfied with their answer you are fee to pm v4liance about the thread's closure.

Enforce ToS appropriately. For example, duplicate threads on the same subject at a time they are already been discussed numerously is considered power posting. Power posting is unique in that a thread may be in fact legitimate in it's own rights, but not in the context of what the poster has already posted or what numerous other posters have already posted. A good example would be the merging of the nation wars threads when it first came out (the amount of threads have come down to an allowable level and is no longer merged) or whenever a server goes down. One of the rigid rules for closure is necro posting. Necroing is any thread that hasn't been posted in 30 or more days. So that makes it automatically subject to closure. There are exceptions made for exceedingly popular threads (like the sanct battlefront report), stickies (which cannot be necroed) guides, screenshot/signature collections (makes no sense to have someone make a new signature thread every time they take a break or get a lull in requests), archives, community tools, that kind of thing.

Moving threads to their appropriate sub-forum. This one is the same thing as necro posting. It is not a reflection of the mods personal opinion. For example, petitions go to the suggestion box.

Giving infractions/warnings to posters who repeatedly violate forum rules and alerting GMs if someone is particularly bad. The GMs then decide whether that person should be banned or not.

Making GMs aware of any emergencies or important things that they may not have realized. For example, a server going down. And on that end, relaying any messages a GM may have to the community that they themselves aren't able to post in a timely manner. For example, when V4liance told me that the limited quantity promotion from mmobomb for free platinum charms was in fact legitimate. Hardly an emergency for him to come back to the office.

Stickying threads and unstickying them as necessary. We must get permission from the community manager to sticky anything in general discussion as this usually only for official announcements by the GM team.

Remove posts from the forum entirely if the moderator sees the post as a violation of the ToS.

We are not allowed to slander the company or give misinformation about it. (Make up lies about it) In times of huge disagreements our primary responsibility is to keep the forums clean not to rant and rave with you guys. We can let them know directly how mad me we are so there really is no point in us doing so anyway.

Remove spam bots.


What we are not responsible for:

We cannot unban or ban people. We can highlight or bring something to a GMs attention, but it is ultimately the GM that decides whether or not someone is banned. This is why you may see a thread with a lot of troll replies by the usual suspects closed rather than muting the people involved. The GMs are the ones that make the ultimate decision on whether or not someone is banned.

Holding back our opinions. Mods cannot violate forum rules such as insulting someone. But we are players such as yourselves and allowed to have opinions on things. Even if that means we end up disagreeing with you. Or in some cases, strongly disagreeing. For example, if some mod (not naming a particular person or opinion) thinks that the whole idea that this game is P2W is nothing more than QQ and wants to say that people should just suck it up and find better friends and factions, they can say that. They wouldn't get into any trouble for it. We are also allowed to participate in any forum games (or not participate) if we want to do so. We're still players such as yourselves.

Answer questions that are better resolved by tickets. Such as why a person was banned. We're not GMs.

Again, this is not an exhaustive list so please do not quote this as such. The official rules list is found in my signature. I just wanted to answer the question about what a mod even does. As Kossy and I have said there are somethings that call for a bit of subjectivity on the part of the mod.

Deceptistar - Sanctuary

tweakz wrote: »

So, how familiar are the mods with the ToS? How much training and testing have they received? What disciplinary actions are taken on mods, and who polices them? What responsibilities do they have, and how much rights do they have in the context of closing threads for personal dislike?

i dont think they receive any special 'training' per se
if at all, their given a list of guidelines to follow after they are chosen, and as of current, they are chosen based on their prior contribution to the forum and whether or not they have the patience and common sense to dish whatever is needed at troubled times.

basically they choose someone who already has a decent talent of being one.

MANray_ - Sanctuary

Thanks for your post VenusArmani, especially for expressing in such a clear, well written post what the criteria you guys use actually is, and how it may differ amongst various moderators. I'll be honest in saying that I don't quite agree with some of the finer points in your interpretations, which doesn't mean I don't respect them or the work you, and most other moderators, volunteer for our community.

Just be cool guys, that's all I'm really asking, chill.

krisnda

MANray_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Just be cool guys, that's all I'm really asking, chill.

We'll try .