Should moderators actions be publicly discussed?

[steveyboy]

I see plenty of mods who bans are questionable and seem to just say "lulz you trolling".

I believe this would happen a lot less if there was a public discussion if the bans were worthy.

Thoughts?

[Catta]

It will just end up like the usual "im a victim because im a man/white/whatever"

[ComputerNerd]

It would turn into a mess very quickly.
Many opinions would be less than constructive.
There are proper channels for discussing moderator actions, and that is where they should stay.

[Deleted]

This isn't the place to publicly discuss the fairness of a ban or not, since all the people that where previously banned will call the moderater a nazi etc.. Same reason there aren't any public discussions on court rulings, it is all a intern thing that we, the public, never ever should have a wording in, until it reaches a unacceptable level. MMOC is far from a unacceptable level, and all bans should be discussed internally or based on a number of reports of a certain moderater.

[Tastyfish]

Sure why not? half of this site just says the opposite of the OT just to be contrary anyhow. There should be room for constructive criticism, without fear of reprisal.

[ddsad2212]

Everyone with an infaction would end up posting, if there was a dedicated sub forum to it maybe, but then it would be people just acting the victim.

[juzalol]

Considering I have 1200 posts and 1 infraction here and on Teamliquid I have 5 posts and 3 bans I'd say there
aren't any pointless infractions been thrown around. I mean if you don't go calling every other poster an
idiot I don't see you getting infracted, at least enough to ever get really punished for it.

You can always discuss infractions privately with the moderators if you think it was undeserved. I don't think putting
them out on the public will do any good. It would just create more work for the moderators and would not benefit anyone
in any way except let people vent after getting punished.

[Ethes]

Not sure what kind of bans you're talking about. You mean on this forum on at the actual Blizzard forums or somewhere esle completely?

If you do mean these forums I'm not sure which posts/bans you're talking about. But even if it does happen the way you say I think it's a bad idea. I don't see how anything constructive will come from that discussion.

[Tastyfish]

Everyone with an infaction would end up posting, if there was a dedicated sub forum to it maybe, but then it would be people just acting the victim.

And Victim blaming too. But thats part of public discussion. How would it be any different then anything posted now? Lots of QQ, lots of QQ against the inital QQ...

Edit: the difference would be having the ablity to call out something someone did that is reachable, as opposed to some unreachable politician.

[Bakis]

I could list a whole list of for and against arguments, most of them against but I will simply stick to the fact that we are allowed here as members at the discretion of the owners and thus we accept the rules given by them.

Long story short, this is a privately run forum. Accept the rules or dont be here (not talking about you but in general terms).

[zephid]

Same reason there aren't any public discussions on court rulings

Except that you are actually free to discuss any court ruling without risk of repercussions. There is nothing stopping you from writing blog-posts, newspaper articles etc. to discuss recent court rulings.

[Monstercloud]

We've been down this road.

Should they? Sure. Would anything productive come of it? No.

How rules are interpreted and enforced heavily depend mod-by-mod basis. Not everyone will get punished for doing the same thing, and that practice is so ingrained here that it's accepted. Call out the hypocrisy and you'll get the standard "If you have a problem, PM blah blah.." response, even though some of the infractions are so inane/hypocritical, that it's not even worth contesting. I have to compare it to Kotaku's community, just without as many sensationalist driven topics.

[Tobedeleted123]

I think yes, but mods won't allow it of course. This board is one of the most strictly moderated forums I have ever seen, freedom of speech is non-existant here. If you dare to have an opinion or a view on some matter that is not politically correct or just mod doesn't like it (and will call it trolling, "hate-speech" or sth like that), it's not really a forum you'll like. That's why I try to avoid using it to anything else than WoW - related matters. And I just broke my rule :P

[Bakis]

Except that you are actually free to discuss any court ruling without risk of repercussions. There is nothing stopping you from writing blog-posts, newspaper articles etc. to discuss recent court rulings.

MMO Champ is a privately own entity, nothing legal force them to enable posters to discuss how it is moderated.
I know you did not say that and just corrected the poster you quoted but it is important not to think it is a proper comparison

[chazus]

If someone has a problem with a ban or action, contact them about it. I've contacted Mods about other people getting infractions/bans that I felt were unnecessary. They either explain why it was, or agree with me and undo it.

[Deleted]

Except that you are actually free to discuss any court ruling without risk of repercussions. There is nothing stopping you from writing blog-posts, newspaper articles etc. to discuss recent court rulings.

You can also discuss a ban on MMOC on pretty much any other forum or IRL, what I meant was the court ruling is not publicly discussed in the court itself

[Deleted]

Public discussions of mod actions don't work. I'm helping as a mod on a pretty big fansite dedicated to another game and so I can tell you: flinging shit around in public is never a good idea. That's what PMs are for. And if you've got the feeling that the mod you're communicating with hates you and treats you unfair... go and talk to another. But remember to always be polite and reasonable.

At our board every mod action is logged in an internal board and up for discussion. If a mod is unsure on how to react to something he puts it up for discussion etc. We communicate a lot to prevent emotional involvement of single persons in a matter to affect the action/lack of action. I'm pretty sure this board also has some internal boards where the staff is able to communicate and puts up some guidelines to help their members decide and judge on what and how to do it.

What I personally encourage tho is the option for general feedback and discussion, not tied to single cases and actions. You know, where users can tell the staff things they don't like on the board. This could be a multitude of things: "That ad-banner is bugged", "I've got a feeling that mods are very harsh lately", "Could we allow this kind of discussion?", "Generaly quality of discussions and threads is on the decline" etc. This kind of feedback can be valuable for the team in raising awareness for a problem without raising some useless drama.

[Adam Jensen]

Either use the feedback forum (if it's a general critique) or PM the mod or Sunshine for a personal complaint.

No need to start allowing hissy fits over moderation. Sometimes the mods are heavy handed, but overall, if we let people complain in public about moderation, it turns into "WAAAH THIS WASN'T FAIRRRRR!!!!" when it really was fair.

[Deleted]

Oh wait this a trick of the moderaters to see who of us opposes them so they can ban us all!

All I said was under the influence of alcohol and should not be taken as truth and I have several witnesses to back this statement up. Ha' take that moderaters you ain't catching me today

[dennisdkramer]

Same reason there aren't any public discussions on court rulings,

You mean like trial by a jury of peers? Sure, the jury deliberation isnt public, but its still better than one dickhole mod throwing out bans and cleaning up forums the way they see fit. Thats by far the most annoying thing to me on this site, the CONSTANT closing of threads with a message "theres already a thread for this". Either that thread is old and not 100% relevant, or its so cluttered as to no longer be useful, or maybe it is the right place for the post but who fucking cares, if the post doesn't have merit of its own it'll fall to the back of the pages anyway. That, and short bans do NOT work as deterrents, and even if they did normally, they probably wouldn't here on a forum where identity isn't tied to anything important.

I've PM'd mods about bans before (usually others' to express my discontent, I've deserved the infractions I've got) and while I appreciate their willingness to discuss matters in private, the fact remains that the policies used to justify some of the bans I've seen are absolutely idiotic. If I wanted rules against expressing my opinion, I would go join a KKK forum.