[Discuss] time to scrap the moderated list

[John P. Murphy]

On Dec 6, 2007, at 12:50 PM, Robert Croson, Jr wrote:

> On 6 Dec 2007 at 11:10, John P. Murphy wrote:
>
>> When I unpaused my characters and rejoined the game a while back, I
>> followed the advice on the site ("we very strongly suggest you choose
>> the moderated list"), and subscribed to the moderated list.  As a
>> result, I've only sporadically gotten messages, usually so late that
>> it's impossible to contribute to the discussions, and with many
>> messages missing that should not be.
>
> There are many reasons that a message may not make it to the modded  
> list.
> For example:
>
> <snipped examples>

OK, so why am I getting your message 5 days late?  You know, having  
written it, that it doesn't violate any of those rules.

>> Moderators often have other things to do.

I realize that.  If more moderators would fix the problem, then say  
so.  But the moderation system should take this into account.

> (You know, the whole RL thing and
> all.)  Not only that, but the mdoerators almost always follow the  
> policy of no
> self-moderation. This means that moderators should not mod their own
> messages, or moderate any thread in which they take part. This  
> means that if
> someone starts a thread (or a moderator starts it) and another  
> moderator
> replies to it, then that moderator(s) can never mod any further  
> messages in
> that thread. And since moderators also happen to be people that  
> like to discuss
> things...

This is a problem.  If your unwillingness to approve your own posts  
is crippling the moderated list, then you need to change your  
policy.  Or are you saying that you don't know whether your own posts  
follow the "fairly loose" guidelines?


> The moderated list serves a very important purpose. It filters out  
> all the
> garbage that Tom doesn't want to see: All the messages arguing back  
> and
> forth, the spam, the insults, the FAQs, the inane comments, etc. By  
> trimming
> out all this junk, Tom can actually read the list and see only the  
> relevant
> messages.

But it's obvious that Tom is reading the *un*moderated list -- I  
frequently get whole blocks of messages from Tom before I get the  
messages he's responding to.


> But if the modded list doesn't contain the posts you want, then  
> join the
> unmodded list. The mere presence of a modded list doesn't hurt anyone.

Except that the game strongly recommends people to use the moderated  
list.  The moderated list is plainly broken.  Ergo, it needs to  
either not be broken, or the game needs to not recommend it.  I don't  
actually care which at this point.

> Note that moderators do not filter posts based on what ideas they  
> personally
> like or dislike. So long as the post does meets the (fairly loose)  
> requirements, it
> will get passed through. It's not like the mods control access to  
> Tom. Anyone
> can contact him directly, if they want.

This is a straw man argument.  I'm not accusing the moderators of any  
wrongdoing or manipulation.  I'm saying that the moderation system is  
not working properly.  Based on your message, I am not convinced  
otherwise.

John


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