Pardon Our Dust - A Note from the Mods


#1

Hi! On behalf of the moderator team, we just wanted to say that despite the forums being very new, it’s been a really great time with very few wrinkles so far for us. Everyone’s been pretty well behaved and the forums feel like a fun, friendly place that’s inclusive to new people of all stripes.

We did want to bring up a few things though while we’re still in the process of nailing down formal rules and codes of conduct:

1.) Do not hesitate to use the flagging system - this is the easiest, fastest way to make sure that if anything feels off/weird to you on the forums (even if it’s not happening to you personally) that all of the mods see it. The forum software is very well integrated in terms of making sure mods and staff see flags and messages. We don’t want the flag to be seen as a “nuclear option” where it only gets used if something is say, spam, or wildly offensive. If something is just bothering you and you’re not sure it should be there or might be hurtful to other users, or you just want the moderation team to be aware of it, flag it! Anything that happens on the forums, any post that a mod catches or any flags filed goes up before our entire moderator team - no one mod is acting on their own. We run all decisions by our team, all posts get drafted and reviewed and we try very hard to make sure we have a variety of opinions about actions.

We’re here for you! We don’t want you folks to feel you can’t express yourself.

2.) It is possible to DM all of the moderation team at once - Messages > New Message > “Mods” brings up the group message route list for the entire moderation team.
In repetition of #1 of the list - no mod acts alone, and any decisions or posts made by one moderator is made by the team, so addressing a mod directly in DM about an adjudication decision is going to be turned over to the rest of the team. The exception to this rule is if you have an issue with a specific moderator, which will be handled, confidentially, on a case-by-case basis.
3.) Warnings or thread closures is not the end of your posting career - often it’s to get things back on track or to keep things off the forums we feel are not in the best interest of the forum. That being said, users with a track record of being gross or inappropriate are on our radar. Be awesome to eachother!

4.) We have a lot of people on this forum who come from different experiences, same with our mod team. A good thing to remember is - “is my voice needed in this discussion?”

Thank you all for your patience as we try to get things properly hashed out. :smiley:


#2

#4

#5

so addressing a mod directly in DM about an adjudication decision is going to be turned over to the rest of the team

I think I know what the intent is here, but this comes off as a little weird/uncomfortable. Something that comes up reasonable often in online communities (not saying that it’s likely to be a problem with this one!) is users having problems/issues/conflicts with specific mods, and this feels like saying “if you try to contact us in confidence about a specific moderator, we’re going to forward your post to them anyway”. I think this bit could do with a little rewording, to use more specific language targeting the situation in question (appealing a mod decision).


#6

Thank you for raising the issue, you’re right—we’ve made an edit to clarify our intent. Our code of conduct will also address this, which you all will see soon, when it’s published.


#7
https://forum.waypoint.vice.com/t/pardon-our-dust-a-note-from-the-mods/3583
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