Forums, in general.

[Doc Holliday]

After joining and trying to use a camping forum recently (as Mrs H and I getting in to camping), I had to throw in the towel after about 6 weeks. Other members were fine, it was just the admin and mods. I know you guys have standards to meet and it isn't a democracy, per se, but the forum in question was practically socialist in the way they redacted some posts and even delete whole posts, plus restricting ones ability to post replies and new threads. 

So, it led me thinking if anyone, outside of Teal and his crew of mods, have had any experience of starting up and running a forum or even just working within one moderating. 

[old'un]

what type of post were they deleting?

[Raja Clavata]

I used to be a moderator on a barbel fishing website - not sure what you're asking specifically though?

[Doc Holliday]

23 minutes ago, old'un said:

what type of post were they deleting?

Just things which didn't seem to directly relate to the topic header subject. A couple of posts got deleted when someone mentioned needing to be fully vaccinated to enter France, in spite it being dropped by the authorities at the beginning of the month. I happened to address the fact that they weren't actual bona-fide vaccines in the true sense of the word, you know, in the sense that some posts can meander. Anything that questioned or criticises the censorship from the powers that be. That kind of thing. Nothing radical, in the sense that it was emotional or a personal attack on anyone. 

6 minutes ago, Raja Clavata said:

I used to be a moderator on a barbel fishing website - not sure what you're asking specifically though?

Nothing specific, just in general. As you were a moderator how stringent were you instructed to be? What was permissible and tolerated? Obviously, hate speech and verbal attacks on an individuals personal beliefs should never come in to an intelligent debate. 

One for Teal, maybe. How long was the main website running before the decision to start a forum based around pigeon shooting and other country pursuits and how long to get it to a point where it became self sustaining, so to speak?

[Raja Clavata]

2 minutes ago, Doc Holliday said:

Nothing specific, just in general. As you were a moderator how stringent were you instructed to be? What was permissible and tolerated? Obviously, hate speech and verbal attacks on an individuals personal beliefs should never come in to an intelligent debate. 

The site owner was a pretty chill guy, the rules were pretty clear and as mods we tried to uphold the values of the owner whilst acting within the bounds of the rules. 

In the majority of cases, us mods were wanting to zap people, no pun intended, but the owner was a bit more easy going - plus there was the issue of repeat offenders getting banned and returning. We ended up blocking IP addresses in some cases.

I think there is a trade-off between poster bans and post removal. Unless the owner / mod team are a bunch of nut jobs, which I doubt is the case, then I suspect what you are experiencing is the result of some bad behaviour from posters in the past.

[Penelope]

1 hour ago, Raja Clavata said:

The site owner was a pretty chill guy, the rules were pretty clear and as mods we tried to uphold the values of the owner whilst acting within the bounds of the rules. 

In the majority of cases, us mods were wanting to zap people, no pun intended, but the owner was a bit more easy going - plus there was the issue of repeat offenders getting banned and returning. We ended up blocking IP addresses in some cases.

I think there is a trade-off between poster bans and post removal. Unless the owner / mod team are a bunch of nut jobs, which I doubt is the case, then I suspect what you are experiencing is the result of some bad behaviour from posters in the past.

BFW?

[Raja Clavata]

53 minutes ago, Penelope said:

BFW?

Yep.

[Penelope]

4 minutes ago, Raja Clavata said:

Yep.

We'll have a few things to jaw about then. Bring a cup or two for a brew.

[Raja Clavata]

20 minutes ago, Penelope said:

We'll have a few things to jaw about then. Bring a cup or two for a brew.

Great, looking forward to it 👍

[welsh1]

As a MOD on here a lot of the time is mostly spent moving things to the correct section within the forum so people will be able to easily find them, we try to let things amble along and only tend to step in when handbags are being drawn.
Please post your gun for sale in the for sale section not general topic lol
Please don't come on with a gun and say just trying to find out what it might be worth
Cats......don't go there.
there is a wanted section, if you want something, that believe it or not is the place to ask.

This forum on the whole ticks along nicely, i do admin a military site with 10,000 members,thank goodness for single malt.

Just for interest there are 3.9m posts on here with 403k topics.

[team tractor]

I run The joinery bible . We’ve 13000 members now and I’ve had to add 3 more moderators . 
The amount of horrible comments it’s mental . 

[mel b3]

5 hours ago, team tractor said:

I run The joinery bible . We’ve 13000 members now and I’ve had to add 3 more moderators . 
The amount of horrible comments it’s mental . 

That's because you're xxxx at woodwork 😄😄😄.

[Bigbob]

I had my own site it was great for a while then the bickering started and inhouse fighting and in the end it was easier to run a chat room with a selected cliental  shall we say it certainly was a lot less stressful 

[mel b3]

14 minutes ago, Bigbob said:

I had my own site it was great for a while then the bickering started and inhouse fighting and in the end it was easier to run a chat room with a selected cliental  shall we say it certainly was a lot less stressful 

Selected clientele,  makes it sound like a brothel for rich businessmen 😁.

[Bigbob]

45 minutes ago, mel b3 said:

Selected clientele,  makes it sound like a brothel for rich businessmen 😁.

I was trying to watch how i worded it , we don't need any old guys trying to relive there lives , No photo mad pict poster who cant go to the toilet with out posting and picts and any nutters who seem to start a interwar with every post reply life's far too short 

[mel b3]

2 minutes ago, Bigbob said:

I was trying to watch how i worded it , we don't need any old guys trying to relive there lives , No photo mad pict poster who cant go to the toilet with out posting and picts and any nutters who seem to start a interwar with every post reply life's far too short 

That sounds like Facebook 😄.

[Bigbob]

1 minute ago, mel b3 said:

That sounds like Facebook 😄.

Great site during the week Friday to Sunday the drink kicked in LOL we where all supposed to be doing the same thing and i meet a lot of great guys when we when to the midlands game fair etc off that site but the internet warriors 

[mel b3]

38 minutes ago, Bigbob said:

Great site during the week Friday to Sunday the drink kicked in LOL we where all supposed to be doing the same thing and i meet a lot of great guys when we when to the midlands game fair etc off that site but the internet warriors 

I have to chuckle at some of the drunk posts here at times . Same thing , fri/sat night , and Sunday afternoon 😁

[team tractor]

8 hours ago, mel b3 said:

That's because you're xxxx at woodwork 😄😄😄.

😂😂😂

[Jim Neal]

If your forum is very small-scale one, for example only people who you know like a small club/association, then generally it needs very little moderation:  people converse with each other as they would in person, with respect.

However, forums open to the public with large memberships always descend into the same anarchy.  It's quite simply one of the laws of the universe.

You can choose to either moderate it like the Nazi party or do the opposite and let everyone just slog it out with each other.

I eventually packed in all the forums I was part of!

[ditchman]

im thinking of starting a Forum called "The Banned"..........its something im well qualified in so i thought it a good idea    KW is one of the Mods....and fat sarah does the admin

what can go wrong eh ? 

[Houseplant]

I'm a big forum user (long hours at work with very little actual work). I've seen a British forum literally tear itself apart over Brexit and the same for COVID on an NZ forum, while others have just fizzled as people move to Facebook. In my opinion, the biggest threat to a functional forum is under- rather than over-moderation, plus a no religion, no politics rule does seem to make the environment happier.

[nobbyathome]

19 hours ago, mel b3 said:

That's because you're xxxx at woodwork 😄😄😄.

I wouldn’t say he is xxx at woodwork Mel  he is just xxxx at getting his hands out of the way when working 😂😂😂😂

[ditchman]

5 hours ago, nobbyathome said:

I wouldn’t say he is xxx at woodwork Mel  he is just xxxx at getting his hands out of the way when working 😂😂😂😂

what hands ?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

16 hours ago, ditchman said:

im thinking of starting a Forum called "The Banned"..........its something im well qualified in so i thought it a good idea    KW is one of the Mods....and fat sarah does the admin

what can go wrong eh ? 

But you would even get banned from your own forum!