BLOG PIECE: Nexus moderation system overhaul, etiquette and ethos

[tiger8u2]

While I certainly appreciate all the Nexus sites as well as all of its moderators I recently experienced moderation of member comments on one of my mods that made it look like I had made a complaint, which I had not.

 

The comments were removed and a single line replaced them which stated, "The moderation team agreed with your moderation request and has hidden this post. It is no longer visible to visitors to your page."

 

In the interests of full disclosure of moderation efforts which is what I believe the Nexus is attempting to achieve, would it not be better to either identify the member who made the report OR if it was the moderator who took action themselves then shouldn't that be identified instead of a canned statement?

[Dark0ne]

Pretty sure only you can see that message; no one else can. And it only shows when you've "deleted" a comment and we've agreed with your opinion of the comment.

[tiger8u2]

Pretty sure only you can see that message; no one else can. And it only shows when you've "deleted" a comment and we've agreed with your opinion of the comment.

 

Thank you for your response but I can tell you that I did not delete any comments or even report them. I don't necessarily disagree with the moderation at all I was just wondering who complained if it wasn't me. Curiosity and all that. =)

[Dark0ne]

Odd then, I'll get one of the staff to look in to it in the new year.

[JimboUK]

I had the same thing here http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/images/39507

 

http://i.imgur.com/a8lQk.jpg

 

I didn't report it, I don't disagree with the moderation but that message seems to be appearing when others report posts.

[Hannibalektr]

Regarding "Mod author comment moderation tools" my feedback as an author (with over 1k unique dl) http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30861

 

When I received a message from the owner of this site saying mod authors with over 1k downloads would be given the ability to moderate their own thread, I thought to myself, now that makes sense. This way it moderates itself because, no one is going to get 1k downloads before you figure out there is something wrong and yank it.

 

Not letting the mod author edit his own thread is a big problem for me. My thread is so packed full of necro posts, and triple, even more posts with the same answer.

Or a spammer, or someone who brings up a slander, or support that should be googled, I dont support bethesda's game, I support my mod!

 

Most of all my thread is near worthless without the ability to moderate it myself because no one wants to read through 10 pages of old posts, trolls, mistakes, and edits.

 

You are worried that someone will abuse this power? I dont think this is an issue on the nexus because you have live support, and you have moderators like "thandal" who are on top of their job.

 

If someone were to post something they shouldn't, or steal, even if the thief tried to cover it up, those people not able to post would report to nexus moderators and the problem would be handled without spamming the thread with angry chatter, look more professional (as it's being handled behind the scenes as management should), and generally makes your site more pleasant to visit because you can actually read threads that pertain to the mod's content, and not all this garbage.

 

For me, this has been the only draw back to the nexus, it's threads are too filled, and the author needs control. We are adults, and like it is in free countries, we are given privilages until we abuse them. Innocent until proven guilty if you will. Not trusting me to moderate my own thread is a slap in the face as well. Makes me feel like a juvenile at 45 years of age.

 

Now go and look at my steam site, and see how clean and easily you can read through posts.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=129969995

 

Just my thoughts, I love nexus. I have been a patron for years, but have always thought this one thing was very over moderated. Thanks. Sincerely, Han

Edited April 10, 2013 by Hannibalektr

[Dark0ne]

I looked at both page's comment threads; they seem like much of a muchness to me...

 

I'm just going to copy and paste what I wrote yesterday on the same topic:

 

 

Above all it's about a simple matter of retaining some semblance of order and continuity in what people are and aren't allowed to talk about in file comments. We've set guidelines and rules to this end. If we allow mod authors to moderate their files however they see fit then these guidelines and rules amount for very little. Some mod authors will moderate with an iron-fist making different demands of people commenting than other more liberal mod authors who will allow for a lot more within their file comments.

You can try and argue services like YouTube, Steam Workshop et al provide moderating functionality to authors because they trust and want the authors to have the final say. More cynically I think they provide this functionality so they aren't tasked with moderating things themselves, so the work load is placed on the author rather than their staff to make it easier for them. Either way, it works for them. But I want this community to be moderated to community standards I have set because that's how I want this community (the Nexus community) to be shaped. You can't shape how you want a community to interact and talk to each other if different mod authors are allowing different levels of interaction.

Right now we're keeping up with moderation just fine. We've brought in functionality in the past 6 months to give mod authors more control over removing unwanted comments instantly, without having to wait for moderator approval. That's as far as we're taking things for the time being. But so long as we can keep up with it all we won't be providing mod authors complete moderation control over their comments. Because, simply put, I don't want to.

[adamsjv2552]

so how long does this moderation review last because its really holding up what i am trying to do.

[adamsjv2552]

Hey so I am trying to figure out how long this "moderation review" lasts... like on average. is it like a day? 3 days? weeks? someone throw me a bone here because i am stuck waiting for one mod to get off this moderation deal so i can use the texture pack combiner.