So what ever happened to the transparency that era was founded upon?

[subpar spatula]

Tell me about it.

Which is why it hurt me, that the staff made that ban message with the little passive aggressive part at the end of it. For talking about me being on that bot.

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It does strike me as odd there's this whole hush hush thing about keeping a lid on all these websites and users that try to doxx and track Resetera members. If the staff want to make a safe environment for people, it seems counterproductive to try and hide this away as "cross forum drama". it's not drama, it's harassment and stalking. Like, I probably don't have stalkers out there, but I 100% know plenty of people here are being doxxed, harassed, and even called. It's kind of scary how much the staff doesn't want people to know this.

 

[Raonak]

Who moderates the mods???

 

[Deleted member 13496]

I agree with the idea that the mod that did The ban should be posted. You pulled the trigger at least have the courage to show your name.

I guarantee a few of my specific bans were from the same exact mod that has an enormous bias towards a certain community. Which is bullshit.

 

[Mahonay]

It does strike me as odd there's this whole hush hush thing about keeping a lid on all these websites and users that try to doxx and track Resetera members. If the staff want to make a safe environment for people, it seems counterproductive to try and hide this away as "cross forum drama". it's not drama, it's harassment and stalking. Like, I probably don't have stalkers out there, but I 100% know plenty of people here are being doxxed, harassed, and even called. It's kind of scary how much the staff doesn't want people to know this.

Click to shrink...

I've been hunted down on PSN from someone on NeoGAF that was reading my responses in a thread on this site.

Only happened once thankfully and was a while ago (close to the launch of ResetEra), but it was still creepy.

 

[subpar spatula]

I agree with the idea that the mod that did The ban should be posted. You pulled the trigger at least have the courage to show your name.

I guarantee a few of my specific bans were from the same exact mod that has an enormous bias towards a certain community. Which is bullshit.

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Mods don't ban alone. It's a group thing.

 

[Border]

This thread is so vague, and does seem like trying to co-opt a current serious issue. I don't think this helps anyone, when we already have megathreads about the lack of communication.

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I would point out that the vagueness is probably because discussing a specific incident is at the least grounds for a threadlock. Which of course contributes to the lack of transparency, because people feel like they cannot bring up their own grievances or point out unfairly applied standards of judgment.

To my knowledge there is no specific incident being referenced by this thread (other than probably the one you are thinking of already). Someone was banned and it took nothing short of a full-on revolt from a sub-community to get the matter reconsidered. Had that community not revolted then the matter would have been swept away quietly like any other ban that gets questioned (threadlock + "Email us if you have a problem, don't discuss this here").

There's a good many reasons to restrict discussion of moderation on the forum itself, but pushing everything to offsite email doesn't feel particularly transparent either.

 

[Alwayscrazybacon]

Who moderates the mods???

Click to shrink...

Mod captains.

 

[Mona]

It got so transparent that you can't even see it anymore

 

[Shy]

I've been hunted down on PSN from someone on NeoGAF that was reading my responses in a thread on this site.

Only happened once thankfully and was a while ago (close to the launch of ResetEra), but it was still creepy.

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That's awful. I'm sorry that happened to you.

 

[Raonak]

Mod captains.

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Who moderates the mod captains :O

 

[Vilix]

IRS avatar....

HMMMMMMMMM.....

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They call me Mr. V. And if you're reading this now it's too late.

 

[Deleted member 13496]

Mods don't ban alone. It's a group thing.

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I don't believe this. I'll fully admit to being wrong but there's no way this is true. At the very least it gets a handwave "yeah we trust you go for it" from the other mods. It's far too inconsistent to be a committee decision every single time.

 

[RedMercury]

I agree with the idea that the mod that did The ban should be posted. You pulled the trigger at least have the courage to show your name.

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It has nothing to do with courage, that's a complete false dichotomy. There's no reason a bunch of volunteers need to get witchhunted and harassed for just enforcing the rules that everyone agrees to when they join the forum.

I don't believe this. I'll fully admit to being wrong but there's no way this is true.

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You may *feel* that way, but reals > feels.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

Thousand page rule book? The rule already exists. I'm saying it should be applied evenly. And the underlined is the problem. Exactly. Less of that and more policy to encourage uniformity in moderation enforcement actions.

Or they could just take "civil discourse" out of the forum description and keep on truckin'.



If that's the policy then the mods should state it clearly as such. Problem is what's "fair" to insult another poster over shouldn't be up to interpretation.

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That is clearly the policy. Calling someone out for being a douchebag when they are actually being a douchebag about something serious is fine. Calling someone a douchebag because they like a different game than you is not.

 

[Deleted member 13496]

It has nothing to do with courage, that's a complete false dichotomy. There's no reason a bunch of volunteers need to get witchhunted and harassed for just enforcing the rules that everyone agrees to when they join the forum.

Click to shrink...

You've been fighting this fight in two threads and I don't get why. There are issues with this site and the moderation and you seem vehemently against any criticism towards the staff or the site itself.

And lol at witch hunted or harassed. If you wanna be a mod and flex that power you better have the balls to stand up for and be proud of your decision. All I'm suggesting is accountability on this site, I'm not asking the mods to give their full names and addresses.

 

[Mahonay]

It has nothing to do with courage, that's a complete false dichotomy. There's no reason a bunch of volunteers need to get witchhunted and harassed for just enforcing the rules that everyone agrees to when they join the forum.

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Pretty much boils down to this.

 

[RedMercury]

I've been hunted down on PSN from someone on NeoGAF that was reading my responses in a thread on this site.

Click to shrink...

What a bunch of losers, sorry you had that happen to you.

 

[Shy]

It has nothing to do with courage, that's a complete false dichotomy. There's no reason a bunch of volunteers need to get witchhunted and harassed for just enforcing the rules that everyone agrees to when they join the forum.

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I agree.

 

[RedMercury]

You've been fighting this fight in two threads and I don't get why. There are issues with this site and the moderation and you seem vehemently against any criticism towards the staff or the site itself.

Click to shrink...

Fighting what fight? I've offered both constructive criticism and have responded to things that in my experience as a mod elsewhere would not be viable. I'm not saying I have all the answers or anything but I've been doing it long enough to where I know that some things just aren't going to work out the way people think is all. Anyone else here that has been a mod here or elsewhere would tell you the same thing about why attaching usernames to bans or rotating out mods is a bad idea.

 

[Border]

I don't see how making that level of info public would improve the issues people have with moderation clarity/consistency.

More clarity on bans and a simple to understand appeal process would be an easy fix that doesn't involve opening a box of bullshit.

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I don't think anything good can come from showing which moderator carried out a particular ban.

That said, if "History of Infractions" is going to be leaned on to justify lengthy or perm-bans, then someone ought to be able to at least look up the banned user's history of moderated posts that were Warned/Banned. You ought to be able to see how many times other users have been banned and allowed to return. If there was a publicly-surfaced way to track stuff like that it would encourage consistency at the very least.

 

[Stat]

I mean, was there ever? And I mean that sincerely and I don't mean it in a bad way. I don't remember a large promise of transparency and even threads that were started by admins/mods for feedback ended up closed sometimes because they got messy and hard to cope with. I just don't feel like most bannings need to be publicly justified and if they do stuff that the community disagrees with, that community will leave. Look what happened to the Football Thread in the Old Place; they up and left and made their entire own forum after they were moderated in a way that rubbed them wrong.

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I kinda agree. I do find it a little funny or odd. Like we don't even know who owns reset era. But they sure did benefit from everyone leaving the old place (although seeing the old place now, its probably a good thing)

 

[VeryHighlander]

I feel like they're doing a fine job and there's tons of people here who are loving the drama and perpetuating it further just because. Sure, the mods aren't perfect and have fucked up in the past but they are overall doing a pretty good job IMO. fuck do i know

 

[Deleted member 13496]

Fighting what fight? I've offered both constructive criticism and have responded to things that in my experience as a mod elsewhere would not be viable. I'm not saying I have all the answers or anything but I've been doing it long enough to where I know that some things just aren't going to work out the way people think is all. Anyone else here that has been a mod here or elsewhere would tell you the same thing about why attaching usernames to bans or rotating out mods is a bad idea.

Click to shrink...

We'll have to disagree on this. I absolutely believe the mod that bans a user should have their RESETERA username associated with the ban. That's the definition of transparency. That's why many users have issues. You wanna play the game and flex the power then you're going to have to face the repercussions of your actions. If you feel you did the right the thing then there shouldn't be an issue. Hiding behind a general "staff" moniker is cowardly, end of story.

 

[Shy]

If there was a publicly-surfaced way to track stuff like that it would encourage consistency at the very least.

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The only thing that would encourage would be harrasment.

 

[Deleted member 4494]

Wouldn't adding a banner to every single post of every banned user make page counts alternatively skyrocket and then plummet once they're unbanned? Not to mention it wouldn't be very aesthetically pleasing.

Click to shrink...

The page counts wouldn't need to get any larger than they already are. At the end of a poster's post, you just place a link (think, like where the report / quote / reply options are) that includes a link to that poster's most recent post that got them banned. It's just a single link that takes you to that post, should that poster be banned. If they aren't banned, there's no link.

edit: You *could* on a poster's *profile* page include a history of all of their bans, including the offending post and the rationale for banning as well as the length of time for the ban, but that would probably necessitate more engineering effort than we'd otherwise need to get 95% of the functionality we *really* want right now, which is simply just knowing why someone is banned in the most recent instance.

 

[subpar spatula]

I kinda agree. I do find it a little funny or odd. Like we don't even know who owns reset era. But they sure did benefit from everyone leaving the old place (although seeing the old place now, its probably a good thing)

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I think Cerium owns the site.

 

[Border]

The only thing that would encourage would be harrasment.

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In what way?

 

[pigeon]

We'll have to disagree on this. I absolutely believe the mod that bans a user should have their RESETERA username associated with the ban. That's the definition of transparency. That's why many users have issues. You wanna play the game and flex the power then you're going to have to face the repercussions of your actions. If you feel you did the right the thing then there shouldn't be an issue. Hiding behind a general "staff" moniker is cowardly, end of story.

Click to shrink...

So in the event that a decision is actually made and signed off on by multiple mods, what would you expect them to do? Do you want every mod that weighed in to co-sign the post, like a Supreme Court opinion?

Your proposal seems based on the assumption that your unsubstantiated feeling that mods all act alone is true. And I don't mean driven by, I literally mean if it is true (and I see no reason why it wouldn't be) that mods discuss bans and decide as a group than your proposal is completely nonfunctional. It only works at all if your conspiracy theory is accurate.

 

[loquaciousJenny]

I'm just here exploring the optics of TransEra being mad about moderation being too soft and then y'all coming in like "actually it's too hard and I've been banned before and I want the name of the person who did it"

 

[sangreal]

well where is this person, this is an incident that needs managing

Click to shrink...

Banned

 

[subpar spatula]

So in the event that a decision is actually made and signed off on by multiple mods, what would you expect them to do? Do you want every mod that weighed in to co-sign the post, like a Supreme Court opinion?

Your proposal seems based on the assumption that your unsubstantiated feeling that mods all act alone is true. And I don't mean driven by, I literally mean if it is true (and I see no reason why it wouldn't be) that mods discuss bans and decide as a group than your proposal is completely nonfunctional. It only works at all if your conspiracy theory is accurate.

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I think if there's to be true transparency then we should see the reasoning behind each mod's reason for agreeing to a ban.

 

[Armaros]

In what way?

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So you want forum detectiving to become a feature and allowed activity?

When that is literally something that is currently not allowed?

 

[Shy]

The page counts wouldn't need to get any larger than they already are. At the end of a poster's post, you just place a link (think, like where the report / quote / reply options are) that includes a link to that poster's most recent post that got them banned. It's just a single link that takes you to that post, should that poster be banned. If they aren't banned, there's no link.

edit: You *could* on a poster's *profile* page include a history of all of their bans, including the offending post and the rationale for banning as well as the length of time for the ban, but that would probably necessitate more engineering effort than we'd otherwise need to get 95% of the functionality we *really* want right now, which is simply just knowing why someone is banned in the most recent instance.

Click to shrink...

Again. It would just be another tool to be used for harassment.

The only people who should see their ban history, is the user themselves. And not anyone one else. You have (or anyone else) has no business looking at my ban history.

In what way?

Click to shrink...

Because that kind of stuff is already logged and archived. Don't need to make it easier for them.

 

[Deleted member 13496]

So in the event that a decision is actually made and signed off on by multiple mods, what would you expect them to do? Do you want every mod that weighed in to co-sign the post, like a Supreme Court opinion?

Your proposal seems based on the assumption that your unsubstantiated feeling that mods all act alone is true. And I don't mean driven by, I literally mean if it is true (and I see no reason why it wouldn't be) that mods discuss bans and decide as a group than your proposal is completely nonfunctional. It only works at all if your conspiracy theory is accurate.

Click to shrink...

You're telling me every single ban on this site involves a round table discussion from the mod staff about whether or not the ban is justified? Lol no fucking chance. Why are some of you so eager to be such sycophants to the staff here?

I get the mods are human, and volunteers, and generally try their best. All I want is some admittance and accountability, and CLEARLY I'm not the only one that feels this way

 

[Mammoth Jones]

That is clearly the policy. Calling someone out for being a douchebag when they are actually being a douchebag about something serious is fine. Calling someone a douchebag because they like a different game than you is not.

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Calling someone out and name calling are two different things.

Please point me to where it's stated it's ok to name all as long as you're right.

 

[RedMercury]

We'll have to disagree on this. I absolutely believe the mod that bans a user should have their RESETERA username associated with the ban. That's the definition of transparency. That's why many users have issues. You wanna play the game and flex the power then you're going to have to face the repercussions of your actions. If you feel you did the right the thing then there shouldn't be an issue. Hiding behind a general "staff" moniker is cowardly, end of story.

Click to shrink...

Okay, well don't take it from me with my years of experience or anyone else with similar or greater experience, take it from the person who has never done it yet has a strong feeling of what's best. The whole dichotomy you're setting up is super toxic, talking about "flexing the power" and shit. It's a video game internet forum, mods are volunteer janitors. It's not a war. You're not fighting the power by wanting to hold a bunch of volunteers "accountable" so you know who to target when you or someone else gets banned, which is exactly the reason people want access to that information: to use it, and it won't be used in a good or productive way. These are good people with careers, families, hobbies, all that stuff taking time out of their day away from that so you have a forum to enjoy and you're treating them like a goddamn police state.

 

[TheGhost]

I think mods are more effective when they only comment when shit gets escalated. They do this now with threadmarks. But I'm of the thought that "less is more"

When two sides are arguing and a mod comes in with a opinion speaking as a user of the forum and not as a mod, that gives the ok to one of those groups to triple down on that mods opinion and use it as a jumping off point. You might as well bail from the thread because there is nothing left to discuss. A mod has spoken in an unofficial capacity but people still read it as a cosign and official stance.

 

[Deleted member 4494]

Again. It would just be another tool to be used for harassment.

The only people who should see their ban history, is the user themselves.

Because that kind of stuff is already logged and archived. Don't need to make it easier for them.

Click to shrink...

You need to read the primary response I'm giving. I don't care about a ban history -- they could do it if they want, but that's not what I'm really replying to that user for -- I want to easily see what someone got banned for recently without having to dig through an entire thread to find it. This can be done with a relatively simple few lines of code, in a non-obtrusive way; it's literally just a link.

 

[Mahonay]

I'm glad some of y'all aren't the decision makers around here. Because some of these ideas are exactly the types of things that cause a forum to slowly degenerate until it slowly dwindles away under the crushing weight of never ending bullshit. (I've watched it happen on other forums I've been a part of)

At the end of the day, people are idiots. I'm an idiot. We're all idiot humans with our own egos, that have their own individual agendas, whether we want to admit it or not. There's some things we just shouldn't have access to, and when you have a such a large collection of impulse driven humans to wrangle on one website, you need stern moderation, and it's not always going to be perfect or in your favor.

 

[pigeon]

You're telling me every single ban on this site involves a round table discussion from the mod staff about whether or not the ban is justified? Lol no fucking chance. Why are some of you so eager to be such sycophants to the staff here?

Click to shrink...

Today I learned not assuming reflexively that people are lying to me is sycophancy

 

[Deleted member 13496]

Okay, well don't take it from me with my years of experience or anyone else with similar or greater experience, take it from the person who has never done it yet has a strong feeling of what's best. The whole dichotomy you're setting up is super toxic, talking about "flexing the power" and shit. It's a video game internet forum, mods are volunteer janitors. It's not a war. You're not fighting the power by wanting to hold a bunch of volunteers "accountable" so you know who to target when you or someone else gets banned, which is exactly the reason people want access to that information: to use it, and it won't be used in a good or productive way. These are good people with careers, families, hobbies, all that stuff taking time out of their day away from that so you have a forum to enjoy and you're treating them like a goddamn police state.

Click to shrink...

Implying I'm advocating the mods posting personal info so they can doxxed, give me a break. It's a fucking anonymous username. That's it. I'd like to know which one pulled the trigger and why, is that so much to ask? Especially after all the bullshit recently? Police state lol get over yourself.

 

[TheGhost]

I agree with the idea that the mod that did The ban should be posted. You pulled the trigger at least have the courage to show your name.

Click to shrink...

See like.....wtf is this?
So they can get harrassed by the userbase and forced to hang up their mos duties. Thanks to the other thread we know how it works. They council up and decide on a ban, whomever pulls the trigger does not matter they decide as a team.


I don't like putting mods in a position where they are putting a Target on them. At least with the language you used. That sounds very confrontational.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Knowing the reason (even if it is not the reason you would think) for a person's ban is 100x better than how GAF was.

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Yeah, they didn't even tell you before. I know (or I should say know of) people who got permabanned and never knew why.

 

[Mobius]

Calling someone out and name calling are two different things.

Please point me to where it's stated it's ok to name all as long as you're right.

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Never said I was right, 3 week ban for name calling (tbh more of a joke) because some other kid wants to be toxic af imo is justifiable, especially since I didn't go further than that. A warning or day ban would have been enough.

 

[Armaros]

Implying I'm advocating the mods posting personal info so they can doxxed, give me a break. It's a fucking anonymous username. That's it. I'd like to know which one pulled the trigger and why, is that so much to ask? Especially after all the bullshit recently? Police state lol get over yourself.

Click to shrink...

for someone who self-admittedly doesn't actually know how moderation around here works.

you are getting pretty hostile.

 

[Mobius]

Take a step back and don't engage. If anyone personally attacks me or gets hostile I'm out. No discussion is that critical that you need to continue throwing mud at each other. Don't start name calling and then get pissed the other person didn't get a ban. Report them if you want but don't behave like them. Look out for yourself and be sensible.

I should add that warnings maybe could be used more as I think they are probably very effective and if they aren't for a single person then follow with a ban. A lot of new users might find it difficult here. Not always because they are shit people but because they might be used to letting it fly.

Click to shrink...

Yea you're 100% right. Learned my lesson even tho I disagree with the ban.

 

[Deleted member 13496]

You guys are ridiculous. Asking for simple accountability on a forum notorious for doing the opposite is apparently too much to ask.

I'm out.

 

[Fanto]

I feel like there are points to be made about communication between staff and members regarding legitimate concerns and how best to go about that in the future, like how they are going to talk to the trans community about their recent concerns, but this just feels like a lot of people complaining about bans tbh.

 

[Einbroch]

Just don't give your opinion on anything controversial, stick to hangouts, and don't treat a for-profit message board as anything but that.

This place should be used to read news and develop communities that move to Discord after a month. That's how you ERA.

 

[subpar spatula]

See like.....wtf is this?
So they can get harrassed by the userbase and forced to hang up their mos duties. Thanks to the other thread we know how it works. They council up and decide on a ban, whomever pulls the trigger does not matter they decide as a team.


I don't like putting mods in a position where they are putting a Target on them. At least with the language you used. That sounds very confrontational.

Click to shrink...

I think the harassment NEEDS to be acknowledged by the staff and prevented through measures. We can't just go, "Well, we can't do that, they'll be harassed even more!"