![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Forum Mods That Don't Get It
Oct. 21st, 2010 02:06 pmThis has been bothering me for a good year or so, and now I want to share it now because my eyes are more opened (as in, I'm better at noticing concerns when I see them) and I really need to get this off my chest. It's an unpopular opinion, especially if you, readers, are a fan of everything about this particular site. I'm going to tell you all anyway.
Well, once upon a time (like, a year ago) I was absolutely in love with this particular writing forum site. No name will be given because a) it's popular enough that you can guess what it is b) I'm not sure if being negative, even in ways you can justify, is against the rules and c) I don't want my experiences to become everyone's experience. And d) There are so many other things to like about the forum. It's one of the few writing forum websites that is aways somewhat active (you know you'll find new and interesting posts even in their "dead season") and it's a great way to get good writing advice. People don't think you're weird for asking about "fictional" supernatural creatures, for example. In fact, depending on the genre board, they welcome it. I loved it. I still love it.
Except when I don't, and the following example is only one example of those times.
See, usually the mods are fantabulous people, and I'm not saying that to suck up. Because as my future lament-thing will show, I'm also not afraid to call someone out when they need it. So anyway, these mods are what I think of as the best of the bunch. I tend to hate forum mods because they abuse their power and play favorites (such as, the rules are the rules unless you're the mod's friend, and then they don't apply) and really can't mod worth anything. These mods don't do any of this. They like/hate/are indifferent to (and it's not really like/hate/indifferent to...more like, they treat everyone the same) everyone and it's great.
But here's my concern with a post that happened within the past week and the head mod's response. She posted a copy of the forum rules and basically said "This is turning into a flame war and if you don't knock it off, I'm locking the thread." To me, a flame war is lots of baseless name-calling and everyone veers away from the topic just to do that (name-calling). In this case, it was two people felt strongly one way about an issue and two people felt strongly the other way about the same issue. To me, that's heated debate. Granted, one of the posters has a tendency to come off as rude when she's trying to inform you of something (she has a history of this, so I personally try to avoid interaction with her) and yes she was true to that, but all the discussion was on topic and relevent.
The present issue leads me into a past/present issue I've been observing.
This particular mod seems to have some issue (and I don't know what it is, so I refuse to guess...I'm just going by observation here) with heated debate in general.
For example, a year ago I suggested an off topic forum for news and politics discussion, because there have been other posts (put into the off topic forum) that went into news and politics territory. Not to mention that just because you're a writer doesn't mean you don't have other interests besides your writing. So I suggested it, and she essentially said "No, because we're a writing forum, not a news forum. *A fair point on her end. I can accept it* And people would just be rude and hurtful." Never mind that I as a user saw discussion of news/politics in the current off topic forum and that discussions got heated, yes, but never rude and hurtful. Heck, there was a writing discussion (one where the original poster was telling everyone to make their stories happy and peaceful with no violence or blood or gore or controversy) that ended much worse than any of the political discussion. Okay, so fair enough, no news and politics forum. I can live without that on that particular site.
My issue is that since then this mod seems to have gotten worse about her tolerance, or lack of, for any type of discussion other than "You're such a great writer! How do you do it?" or "Here's an idea!" or "If you have three choices for what you're writing, go with number three." And that's what brings me back to the present. I loved this site. I still love it in a lot of respects. And I hate to wrap things up with "She doesn't get it!" because that makes me sad to realize it might be true.
Well, once upon a time (like, a year ago) I was absolutely in love with this particular writing forum site. No name will be given because a) it's popular enough that you can guess what it is b) I'm not sure if being negative, even in ways you can justify, is against the rules and c) I don't want my experiences to become everyone's experience. And d) There are so many other things to like about the forum. It's one of the few writing forum websites that is aways somewhat active (you know you'll find new and interesting posts even in their "dead season") and it's a great way to get good writing advice. People don't think you're weird for asking about "fictional" supernatural creatures, for example. In fact, depending on the genre board, they welcome it. I loved it. I still love it.
Except when I don't, and the following example is only one example of those times.
See, usually the mods are fantabulous people, and I'm not saying that to suck up. Because as my future lament-thing will show, I'm also not afraid to call someone out when they need it. So anyway, these mods are what I think of as the best of the bunch. I tend to hate forum mods because they abuse their power and play favorites (such as, the rules are the rules unless you're the mod's friend, and then they don't apply) and really can't mod worth anything. These mods don't do any of this. They like/hate/are indifferent to (and it's not really like/hate/indifferent to...more like, they treat everyone the same) everyone and it's great.
But here's my concern with a post that happened within the past week and the head mod's response. She posted a copy of the forum rules and basically said "This is turning into a flame war and if you don't knock it off, I'm locking the thread." To me, a flame war is lots of baseless name-calling and everyone veers away from the topic just to do that (name-calling). In this case, it was two people felt strongly one way about an issue and two people felt strongly the other way about the same issue. To me, that's heated debate. Granted, one of the posters has a tendency to come off as rude when she's trying to inform you of something (she has a history of this, so I personally try to avoid interaction with her) and yes she was true to that, but all the discussion was on topic and relevent.
The present issue leads me into a past/present issue I've been observing.
This particular mod seems to have some issue (and I don't know what it is, so I refuse to guess...I'm just going by observation here) with heated debate in general.
For example, a year ago I suggested an off topic forum for news and politics discussion, because there have been other posts (put into the off topic forum) that went into news and politics territory. Not to mention that just because you're a writer doesn't mean you don't have other interests besides your writing. So I suggested it, and she essentially said "No, because we're a writing forum, not a news forum. *A fair point on her end. I can accept it* And people would just be rude and hurtful." Never mind that I as a user saw discussion of news/politics in the current off topic forum and that discussions got heated, yes, but never rude and hurtful. Heck, there was a writing discussion (one where the original poster was telling everyone to make their stories happy and peaceful with no violence or blood or gore or controversy) that ended much worse than any of the political discussion. Okay, so fair enough, no news and politics forum. I can live without that on that particular site.
My issue is that since then this mod seems to have gotten worse about her tolerance, or lack of, for any type of discussion other than "You're such a great writer! How do you do it?" or "Here's an idea!" or "If you have three choices for what you're writing, go with number three." And that's what brings me back to the present. I loved this site. I still love it in a lot of respects. And I hate to wrap things up with "She doesn't get it!" because that makes me sad to realize it might be true.
