BLOG PIECE: Nexus moderation system overhaul, etiquette and ethos

[bben46]

For the forum lawyers posting here. The rules are a formality. if you act like a decent, reasonable human being you will not be breaking any rules. If you don't, the rules allow us to remove you. If the rules here are so restrictive, then how has the site - under various names as it grew, managed to last eleven years when so many other sites with supposedly more lax rules failed?

 

Use the golden rule when on the forum, treat others as you like to be treated. if you like to be flamed, cursed at, have your best effort trashed and in general treated like a spoiled kiddie - then you will be.

 

In my opinion, no one likes to be mistreated. But when some of these kiddies think they can get away with whatever they want because they do on other forums, they need to grow up a bit before being allowed on an adult forum. Adult means more than risque pics and mods. It means treating other people with respect. And being a forum kiddie has nothing to do with age.

 

We have zero tolerance for pirates - Why? because if we become known as a pirate friendly site then we could be sued by the game makers. They may not target a single pirate as it is not cost effective. However, a high profile game site is an easy target. A single lawsuit could shut us down. - The founder of that infamous pirate site is now in a Swedish jail and still has to pay a mutimillion dollar fine. Yes, his site is still around. He isn't.

[Serindas]

The rules are a formality. if you act like a decent, reasonable human being you will not be breaking any rules.

 

I've the same opinion, Bben http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif

[zimm4973]

I for one am happy to see more transparency in the way mods go about making decisions.

Keep up the good work!

[myrmaad]

@lordrichter:

 

Robin, and his staff have always been part of the community and we have as much right to participate in the discussion as everyone else, offering our own unique viewpoints with all our own attendant quirks of personality. We are not "above the fray", we are living participants in it.

 

Regardless of your opinion, it's the essence of what we love best about this community. The really cool thing you'd never know unless you've been here for a while observing, is that this site is about as open-source-participatory-and-collaborative as any I've ever seen. And that is all to Dark0ne's credit.

[Jaycefrancis]

Having recently parted ways (out of disgust, rather than a ban) with a site I'd been active on for almost a decade due to a newish moderator abusing his authority and then hiding his misdeeds behind the terms of service, (and an administrator who refused to tell anyone if anything had been done about it) I can't say how pleased I am to see this move towards transparency.

 

I've been a mod myself so know that dealing with people is a pretty thankless task. But it's nice to see a site where justice is going to be seen to be done and not handled behind closed doors with everyone else, especially the victim, left in the dark.

[Jaycefrancis]

@ myrmaad.

 

I suspect that was Lord Richter's point. As a moderator you always have to bear in mind that your powers are there for the good of the greater community and you need to demonstrate neutrality even when you don't feel it.

 

It's very easy to begin seeing mod authority as an entitlement, (a license to be an asshat) rather than a (pretty onerous) responsibility. I've seen enough otherwise stellar forumites fall pray to that attitude on becoming mods and wreck otherwise happy communities to know that it's all too easily done.

 

 

Edited November 24, 2012 by Jaycefrancis

[Proteus Draconis]

meh we'll see what happens... you're always gonna have people that disagree and communicate that disagreement on different levels. tbh banning people instantly then giving them a chance to be unbanned is a lazy but good system with little effort needed. they'll just tell you they didn't know (they probably didn't) and then you let them off and see if they behave. if they do, they were probably honest about not knowing and if they weren't then at least they won't do it anymore. so yea

[ringgold99]

Through your use of any Nexus site you agree that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening, related to piracy, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of UK law.

 

This statement applies whether or not you are aware that the material violates it. I am not saying that it will be abused, but it certainly can be abused. The statement is absolute, meaning that posting a false or inaccurate statement, or posting anything that is in violation of a UK law, even if you are completely unaware that it is false, inaccurate, or illegal (in the UK), is a violation of the Terms of Service. I, for one, am not an expert on UK law, and there is no way that I can tell whether something that I am not aware of makes a statement false or inaccurate, or even whether a mistake in typing or a misinterpretation made by the reader could result in the perception of a violation of this statement. In fact, the only prudent action for this very message would be to not post it since I cannot be absolutely sure that it does not violate this statement. Therefore, should you never see this post, you will know why. Of course, a reasonable interpretation would not hold someone accountable for information beyond their knowledge, but whether that holds true on Nexus goes back to the character of the person judging.

 

However, the reason that you are likely to see my post lies in these two Terms of Service items:

 

It is important to also acknowledge that there may well be rules and etiquette that may not be mentioned here but are still upheld by administrators and moderators of the site.

What Robin says goes irrespective of whether there has been a breach of the terms of service or not.

 

The first statement says that any undocumented etiquette can catch up the unwary poster. The second one says that Robin can toss anyone out just because he dislikes the cut of their jib. Both of these are entirely dependent upon the character of the people judging and any such ruling would appear to be completely arbitrary. Were this post to catch me up in some way, it would not matter because here would likely be a place I would not want to visit.

 

So, yeah, I welcome the changes in the blog for transparency and warnings. However, I am not under any illusion that it means anything. There is nothing in the terms of service that actually says that they have to follow said policy. Quite to the contrary, Robin can specifically decide not to on a mere whim. Not that I think he would, routinely, but then that comes from my reading of Robin's character, and all I know about that is what I read here on Nexus.

 

 

good points I have been making for a long time in private.

[ElCansado]

Wow, I haven't been on in a while, and the Nexus has finally gotten a new set of moderation procedures...

 

Personally, I like the entire concept, from the moderators being more open in their reasoning for bans and warnings to the compromise of giving mod authors some way to clean their threads without making them too corrupt in their comment-deleting ways. I know it's especially irritating that senior mod authors can't have their way because of the many bad apples, otherwise I'd also completely advocate authors moderating their own file's comments.

 

I'd like to see how this new system turns out. It looks like it'll do fine. :)

[jonas66]

An interesting read. Thank you for all the information, Dark0ne et. al.