Regarding "The Controversy"

[Friendbot2000]

I know that I am new here, but I have been a mod on many different forums in my lifetime and I would be honored to serve a great community like this in the capacity of a moderator.

I only join forums after I lurk for a year or so. If during that year I become disinterested or disgusted then I don't sign up for membership. I am really happy with this community and I think that the community is very helpful and accepting towards all manner of things that normally cause a lot of controversy. Lemma is right that admins can't be everywhere all the time, but a solution would be to hire on more moderators.

Just a thought

[Suikama]

Oh, and I see this thread has turned to gratuitous sax.

I guess you could say the thread has fallen...



...to bandservice.

[Alera]

^
LOL CSI!

This is getting totally off-topic, but at least the mood is awesome. XD

[Blue Lemma]

About the subject of more moderators, I am very open to the idea. The forum is large enough that it could really use them. Also I am considering stepping down as a moderator for the simple fact that it's extra responsibility, time, stress, and an invitation to be caught in the middle of people's internet disputes without really getting anything in return. Okay, there's a warm fuzzy feeling once in a while seeing the collaboration on the board, but it's a job with many negatives and few positives. My life is busy enough :p So that's at least one more needed!

If you're still committed to wanting to help mod the board and have been around here enough to develop some kind of rep (or you have experience from another board we can see), please PM or email me, PyTom, or sake-bento. It would actually be nice to have extra diversity in the mod group so that things like "this" don't get out of hand so easily and everyone can have an easier time feeling that they are represented and heard.

By the way, I haven't run any of this by the other mods yet, so I don't know what they'll say. I'm just one of three, after all. But I suspect they'll be for it.

[Alera]

@Blue Lemma - I've always wondered how just the 3 of you manage everything around. O.o You're doing a great job in my opinion!!!

For what I've seen usually forums have quite a larger team than yours, plus helpers and so on.
But I don't think many people playing as mods is a that good idea actually. Depends on the situation and needs of the community. ^^

[Snowflower]

Oh, and I see this thread has turned to gratuitous sax.

I guess you could say the thread has fallen...



...to bandservice.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Horatio gets on my nerve with his sunglasses... He wears them everywhere... day or night... sunny or rainy.

[Suikama]

Oh, and I see this thread has turned to gratuitous sax.

I guess you could say the thread has fallen...



...to bandservice.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Horatio gets on my nerve with his sunglasses... He wears them everywhere... day or night... sunny or rainy.

Don't forget his one-liners

And not to harp on you guys, but you're going to be in treble if you keep going off topic like that.

Oh no, I can only sing bass! D:

er I mean sorry ._.

[sake-bento]

Well, "not enough mods" was definitely not the problem with recent events. XD That being said, I would not be opposed to having a team to do tasks like move threads and delete spam posts with admins stepping in to make decisions like issuing warnings or locking threads.

There are other changes I think should be made as well, but I need to think about them a little longer before trying to haphazardly implement a "fix" that doesn't serve any purpose.

And not to harp on you guys, but you're going to be in treble if you keep going off topic like that. You're not behaving accordion to the rules. <-This is a joke. ;^;

[Snowflower]

Oops, sorry. I didn't see your comment.

I won't go off topic... I just wanted to keep the mood light

[sake-bento]

I was joking. o.o Hence the harp, treble, and accordion puns.

[Snowflower]

O.o now I see the puns.... I am rather terrible when it comes to puns.

[DaFool]

And out goes yet another one of the people I was working with. Fuck. Now I have to find a replacement for the umpteenth time.

Get rid of the 12-hour posting rule. It feels like a gag order and is a halfway attempt at moderation. Either referee people properly or just let them duke it out.

One thing I noticed was that everytime there was a flamewar here, it was between people who are way more talented than I am and people I admire and respect for their various skills. It saddens me when they leave the community and I can no longer learn from their examples. And without skilled people, this place will forever remain a circle of amateurs.

I'd hate it to come to the point where I only drop by and post when I have something to sell.

Also, PyTom may show his faults, but come on being the source of the lifeblood of this forum (Ren'Py) is tough as hell. Give him a break. I personally don't like his very Republican stance (admiring Reagan especially) and his preferences does show clearly, namely in traditional BxG visual novels. But I've known him for years and he's not one to actively shun people. If there were troll posts they were probably from chan-tards following the twitters from Katawa Shoujo devs spotting new victims to escalate the situation.

[Suikama]

Hmm I kinda agree about removing the 12 hour rule. I imagine it's to stop things from becoming a rapid fire back and forth spitfires, but even at it's worst I don't think the topics in question ever came to that. There were misunderstandings and a few members were upset enough to leave the site, but it wasn't really an insultfest and I think when PyTom brought in the rule without much of an explaination, it sorta gave the impression that he was trying to restrict discussion rather than try to cool people down.

[sake-bento]

I've had a little bit of time to condense my thoughts, so here goes. There's probably definitely some preaching in this post.

This isn't a simple matter of adding more mods or rearranging a couple forums or rules (although those changes will help move us in the right direction). This is a matter of changing ourselves so that something like this never happens again. It's something all of us have to work towards.

As I wrote earlier, offensive things can be vastly different for different people. I have been subject to racism in the form of racial prejudice and even some physical abuse. However, my grandparents (who lived through World War II), were subject to violence, rape, and watching loved ones murdered all because of their race. If someone accidentally says something racist, it won't take much for me to shrug it off. My grandparents, however, will be furious, and it is absolutely not my place to tell them they shouldn't feel that way. Our experiences are different, and I cannot understand what they went through. In the same way, something that might seem completely harmless to you (or even a compliment) can be horribly hurtful to someone else, and we need to understand that.

You don't have to like every single thing everyone is doing. You don't have to agree with everyone else here. I'm sure that we range the political and religious spectrum, and I love it that way, but we must respect others.

We admins do our best to encourage a community that welcomes everyone, but we're only human. Humans are, by their very nature, imperfect, and there's certainly not enough room on this forum to list all of my own mistakes. We need your help as well. This community is about the individuals in it. All of you bring something to LSF, and without you, this board would be a different place. Please make your influence on the boards a positive one. I don't want anything like this to ever happen again. We're a community. Let's behave like one.

[Blue Lemma]

I talked to sake about the mod situation, and we think it would be a good idea for there to be a small group of admins to take care of the forum additions/maintenance/etc and a larger group of mods to take care of spammers, warning people who are breaking rules, raising the alert on major issues, and keeping a general eye on the posts. (Of course admins would do some mod-work too.)

To go along with this, it would be good for us to have some sort of set moderation policy so people know exactly what is expected of them and what kind of action they can expect if they violate the rules. We've been sort of winging it so far, but with three different people and no set policy, it makes for an inconsistent, sometimes confusing, handling of issues.

12-hour rule: I don't think that's any sort of overall forum policy, but rather an attempt by PyTom to make people cool themselves between posts in certain explosive threads. Given its, uh, "popularity" I'm guessing it won't be in the mod policy. But I don't know; it's not up to me.