Are mods kept an eye on? How are they selected? Any vetting?

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"The Donald's" wall? LOL (Sorry, couldn't resist----I know it's Pink Floyd [GREAT song]!)

I think you'd be a GREAT moderator, as well, Dox!!

Only if you count repeated and public criticisms of Alex and any number of the people he's chosen to moderate over the years as "social failures".

I don't think Dox would enjoy being a moderator.

As soon as you put on the mod hat, and have the audacity to express an opinion on politics/culture/whatever, people who disagree with said opinion start screaming that you shouldn't be a moderator because you hold such views.

It renders it very difficult to have any sort of meaningful discussion on this site. Personally. and I realize this may sound selfish, but I enjoy Dox's posts enough that I feel he should be completely unfettered. He's one of the few self-professed libertarians I've met who hasn't struck me as someone who has completely lost the plot, so I prefer his opinions be bold, beautiful, and intact.

I think Dox would be a fine mod, I find him trustworthy and probably the most understanding of internet discourse of any other potential candidate I can think of on here if said position were to open up. I don't see why he'd have to or should have to change his views on anything because he's a mod, I don't think he'd use being a mod as leverage for his views. If anything I think Dox would bring some balance, I don't know who'd be against honestly.

Only about half of PPR and a goodly portion of the rest of the site who actually know who I am.

I would be for it so long as you leave me and my (major) problems alone,

Oh, for sure, everyone I've ever talked to has described it as an absolutely miserable job, no support, resentment from below, inadequate tools, outdated software, just generally not a lot of fun. That being said, I'd give it a shot if offered, as I do value having WP as a community that I can (sort of) fit into, and as a guy with some strong opinions about moderation over the years, it would be interesting to put my money where my mouth is.
Also, the lulz.



Heh, that already happens when I voice my opinions as a member. Does anything ever come of it, or is it just annoying? I remember a devout Christian fellow was a mod for about a week some years ago before Alex relieved him of duty, I was never sure if that happened because of his performance (some weird things happened around that time), or if it was because people didn't like the idea of a Christian mod and Alex was responding to that. I like The_Walrus's technique of putting any moderating posts in [mod]brackets[/mod] and then posting normally the rest of the time, though I'm not sure how effective it's been at preventing that annoying reaction you're describing.

Personally, I only care if it seems like a mod's ideology is affecting how they interpret or enforce the rules, as they're so broadly worded that nearly any opinion on anything could fall under "things likely to offend other members", which I've seen selectively enforced in the past.



Thank you, that means a lot coming from one of the more sane feminists on the board.

This is definitely the hardest part of the job, technological issues aside. What's a personal attack, and what's just a fair comment? Who started this month- or year-long feud and who just snapped back after several small jabs? Is this thread a fair discussion of a sociological issue, or an attack on a marginalised group (particularly thinking of LGBT+ threads)? Do I think it's worse than it is because I disagree with it? With the best will in the world, it's very hard to be measured and fair.

Second hardest is biting your tongue when confronted with post-truthers and finding ways of pointing out their stupidity without breaking or bending the rules.

Oh, but personal attacks are obviously not the only thing ever considered, apparently we all need to think of the 'baiting' of power-hungry little dictators.

And no Dox, 'lulz' isn't a valid reason, since everything you perceive is very apparently dealt with the symbol of a gun.

And oh, what a surprise Jacoby recommending him... who's next in line, Miss Trump?

I don't recall the mod dox is referring to but they wouldn't have been demodded for being Christian. I was raised Christian and grew up in a southern state and I prefer driving trucks although I'm not sure what that says about my biases.

Ahh, good to know, straight from the horse's mouth. I'm thinking of leejosepho (I think that's how he spelled it), we were having some issues with trolls from another AS board at the time harassing a particular member, and he was kind of flailing around as a new mod at the time. I remember his religion being brought up by some other members as a concern, but this was a long time ago, so I might be fuzzy on the specifics.

Yeah, I could see that, it's hard just responding to posts when you're not sure if the person just said something really dumb, or it was poorly phrased due to AS or English not being their primary language, or some other thing you didn't think of, especially with the written medium making tone hard to modulate. The really hard one, at least for me, is when someone is objectively being a jerk, but is obviously impaired; do you give them a pass for the bad behavior, even though it's impacting others who also might be impaired, or respond as if to a "normal" person, perhaps being unduly harsh in the process? I can think of more than a few members who fall into that category, and I don't have to look very far to find one.

The feud thing is also tough, as it's not realistic to expect a moderator to be aware of every simmering conflict on the board, but it also sucks to get a warning for finally smacking the guy who's been shooting spitballs at you for months and getting away with it, then being told it's all your fault for lashing out.

What I really worry about is the current social justice trend that attempts to brand discussion of certain topics as beyond the pale, where as I believe that anything can be discussed, and that it's healthy to do so. That guy exploring his own transphobia in PPR is a good example, and one I believe you helped facilitate, a good call in my opinion. A different mod with different sensibilities could just as easily have shut that discussion down using one of the many very broad rules we operate under, as well as any other discussion of anything even mildly controversial. That's one of the reasons I'd like to see a little more ideological diversity on the mod team, you have to admit that it's been pretty homogeneous for a while.



THE hardest thing for me to learn in PPR was to let obviously dumb statement stand on their own, and trust that most people wouldn't need my help in pointing out the stupidity. That, and internalizing an ignore function for certain members, helped a lot with my general mental state.

Yes. WrongPlanet has several rules and it is important to be familiar with them. You can read them here: viewtopic.php?t=73837

Some particularly relevant rules are highlighted below:

I would like to point out that the last post that a moderator edited from me had nothing to do with how the person that replied to me made it out to be. I respectfully disagree with the decision to modify my post and I don't understand why my post was placed in the same category as someone else.

Moderators can't "unedit" posts as there is no technology to do that here. A record of edited material is only kept if a post has led to the issuing of a formal warning. Keeping all edits of any kind would be unmanageable.

If you think yours was removed in error then your only option AFAIK is to recreate it on the thread, and if it is ok it is unlikely to removed.

Occasionally stuff does get moved or deleted in error, due to the legendary human error factor, though not as often as one might expect, given the volumes of posts being dealt with.

No its fine, it was... intense...

But I took care to not break any written rules but it probably broke a few social rules which is ironic cause that is exactly what the post was about. I am just annoyed more then anything and I am having to take a lot of care to not unload on some people tonight. Its kind of funny when you post about the flaws in some social rules to get attacked for going against social rules lol

I might need some fresh air cause I am pretty pissed to be honest, I can see why it was edited but its just annoying when its edited because of the very social flaw I was pointing out.