Moderation Proposition

[Misskermie]

Thank you for creating a forum for muppet fans everywhere to come together and talk. We have been lucky that we have not had many spammers or trolls harassing other members. However, there seems to be, while still rather small, an increase in spammers who have escaped notice and now it is too late to do anything about them.

As it stands now, only new members can be deleted due to spam, but once they reach a certain point, it seems as though they can get away with anything because the mods no longer have the tools to take care of the situation. This issue needs to be addressed before it escalates. Ed does an excellent job of keeping spammers at bay, but sometimes they do escape his notice. Other times, members do not seem like spammers at first, but after it is too late to do anything, they start posting one and two word replies.

What we need is an improved system for mods to take care of spammers. Mods need to be able to deal with spammers at any time during their membership. If possible, perhaps some sort of warning system can be implemented. Many forums have a system where a "warn percentage" is tracked and can only be seen by individual users and the mods. As the member breaks the rules, the mod can change this percentage based on the offense. After a set amount of time of behaving, a mod will reset or lower the percentage by a set amount. If the user continues to misbehave, after their percentage meter fills, a mod can choose to ban them for a set amount of time depending on what the offense was, or permanently ban them.

Mods should be allowed to ban members for a set amount of time to allow them to cool off. Many arguments on the forum get very heated. If a mod was able to step in and warn members, or temporarily ban members who cause the most trouble, perhaps these arguments would be less severe and fewer in quantity.

Of course, members can block people, but that does not solve the problem. Perhaps MC could use another mod to ease the pressure of controlling an entire forum.



-Miss Kermie, Sgt. Floyd, Hubert, Yuna Leonheart, Vincent Liu, And CaseytheMuppet

 

[D'Snowth]

I've been saying it for years that MC could use a little extra assistance with moderation around here: Phil's obviously got a life, as does Kev, which limits their involvement with MC, meanwhile, Ed can't do every thing by himself... I think it's past time that some new recruits in the moderating staff were implemented.

I used to think that Beau and Prawnie would make for most excellent mods around here, but I have noticed in recent times that both of them haven't been nearly as active here as they used to (I know Beau has been popping in on occasion, but I can't remember the last time I've seen Prawnie); what we would need is someone who is relatively active on MC (say at least a weekly basis), someone who perhaps has been here for a while and therefore has an understanding of the rules and regulations that's expected of members, someone who is firm and can dish our discipline fairly and as needed, and most importantly someone who can be trusted so people who need help or guidance can go to in confidence if there's a personal problem arising between a small number of members.

Not sure who would fit the bill at this point, but again, I think since MC is an evergrowing community, that it's moderating staff needs to grow with it... like with daycares and schools, when you've got more and more kids, you're going to need more and more teachers.

 

[Vincent L]

Reporting spammers in the Spam thread isn't fun when members can't be deleted.

 

[CaseytheMuppet]

Forums can't have just ONE admin. People have outside lives. I think it would be great to get another admin or two.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

I have seen this problem growing lately, which is why I had to take a stand (I was the one who actually wrote all that with the help of others, Jaz just posted it). The forum has been through rough patches that could have been avoided if there was a better way to deal with members. We desperately need at the least, a second mod and a way to deal with ALL members, not just newbies...

We have been lucky we don't have a huge troll and spammer problem, but with the increase in popularity of the muppets...it might get to that point. We need to be prepared in advance to be able to stop the issue before it starts.

 

[Misskermie]

Yeah. Another admin could make the site completely worry-free.

 

[Hubert]

And also on the subject of administration, as sad as it might be to say, having a limited number of staff can be troublesome, since all that really even has to happen is that something happens that one doesn't have access to the site for an extended period of time, and then we're pretty much stuck with an even more limited staff manning everything. Plus, with life and such, things can get in the way, and with only a small staff, if one or even both became busier for a period of time and couldn't get on MC as much, we could easily be left with an overflow of spammers and such.

And adding on to the spammer subject, I think that we would find it easier to keep people in check this way. If a spammer is past the time when Ed could delete them, then they would just keep on going their way without knowing there was any trouble. Sure, Ed could still give him a warning in a PM, but a warning isn't any good if the warner doesn't have the tools to take action if the person continues their ways.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Jaz, you should have signed my name to that post too. I'm all for this, when did I miss this meeting?

First of all, I see no reason why Ed shouldn't have the ability to delete/block accounts. I don't think he's even able to close threads anymore.
Ed is definitely the most dedicated, hard-working mod here, plus, Phillip isn't even here as much, which is kinda crazy, since we kinda have to wait for him to come back to close a thread or whatever. It also doesn't help as much that Phillip seems to be busy a lot and isn't up-to date and responding to his emails/alerts.

I like the idea of another mod. We have three that I know of (were there originally more?) Cindy is just as busy as Phillip, Kevin is I dunno where, most probably also very busy, which leaves it all onto Ed.

I really don't know how Ed does it. Ed is taken for granted here, he's the one who does all the hard work around here, moving and changing threads and deleting Spammers all around the clock.

I think if he will get another mod, I'm thinking maybe it'll be good to have someone who lives on the other side of the world, so they can also moderate at normal times for them, and also be able to mod at times when most of us are asleep, which is an easy time for spammers to join and..well, spam.

Signed,
-Mitchell.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

To all lurkers, please, do not just like people's posts. Make a post of your own, even if it's a simple "I agree" or something. It doesn't have to be long or detailed, we just need support.

 

[D'Snowth]

Ironically though, if we did that, that would be hypocritical on our part, as most of us, throughout the years, have expressed our disdain for people posting for the sake of posting, and contributing nothing relevent to discussions, other than simple, "Yeah, I agree" posts.