Consistency in the admins and mods?

[Kol Saresk]

I think this seems straightforward enough. Basically, it just seems like there is no consistency in the admins sometimes. Like for example, a**hole will be edited to :cusshole and a warning given out while b*tch and f*ck will be left alone and the only difference will be that a**hole was posted in the News and Rumors while b*tch and f*ck were posted in Amicus Aedes. Or one was reported and the rest weren't. Or Admin A was on today where Mod B is usually on and doesn't mind it as long as the words are partially censured. Or so on so forth.

 

Another example would be Topic A has one post that is slightly off-topic. Immediate warning to get back on topic. Meanwhile, Topic B is making a runaway train look calm and tame, but nothing is done about it. And Topic C is just segueing onto a different point of the same topic, but is closed down with no warning involved. And all three were monitored by the same mod, but his personal preference got in the way. Or someone whose twisting of facts got shot down in Topic C so they reported the topic as wildly out of control.

 

Basically, just asking for consistency. Not leeway. Not mercy, or anything else. Just that it seems like depending on the forum, the topic, the day of the week, which mods are on and which mods are off, it can go from being very consistent to being not so consistent.

[Brother Tyler]

The issue isn't consistency. It's whether or not we catch it. When we catch it (as in your case), we deal with it.

 

If you see an instance where someone has posted profanity, including something concealed through asterisks and such, that doesn't mean that we have allowed it. It merely means that we haven't caught that post yet.

 

Profanity isn't allowed.

[Kurgan the Lurker]

You don't see warnings for other people Kol so you have no idea if/when warnings were issued. It isn't your business that Frater X got warned anymore than it is theirs that you were warned.

Editing posts is up to the mod who gets the report at the time. I get the impression you are just sore that you broke the rules and got busted for it today. Something that you know you shouldn't have done cause you've been around long enough.

It is 100% impossible to say X, Y, Z is OT and A, B, C isn't. So yes, there is some personal bias involved in the initial discussions of a thread being closed or taken to warnings or verbal nudges to get back on topic. Rarely is it spur of the moment. The mods have their own forum to discuss actions being taken on threads/warnings of members. In your case today alone, 2 mods and then myself were involved before action was taken.

It is impossible for 1 mod to manage a forum, which is why we have multiple mods to a forum, so there is at least some coverage throughout the day. There is a longer, better worded post in regards to this by Argos but I've not got the time to dig out for you. The mods have a set of guidelines to follow and it is at their discretion within their forums how far to take it. This is a forum with around 10,000 active members, we can't possibly have some flow chart for every eventuality of someone breaking forum rules.

In your case of getting warned for cursing, that is plain and simple in the rules to not do it, you've been here for 2 years and should have known better. You got caught, you got warned. 1 warning point is nothing. It drops off in 90 days. Deal with it.

This happens every few years. Someone gets busted for breaking the rules and suddenly "oh the mods are Nazis!" or "mods aren't strict enough!". The folks who break the rules regularly will reply about the mods being tyrants and the folks who don't break the rules will reply with how they like how the board is run because it isn't a giant crap-hole of OT and nonsense (mostly).

I'd gladly go back to the early day of the B&C when we had 4 forums and any infraction was mercilessly put down with the meltas. A lot of people I consider to be a headache on this site would have been spaced a long time ago if it was still like that. Somewhere we decided to ease up a tad -- but not too much -- cause we don't mind silly on occassions, just when it starts to be a problem.

[Kol Saresk]

I'm not asking to know if they got warned. But right now I can see thirty four topics containing one cuss word. And no, I am not sore. Look through the rest of my post. It's not just editing and cussing. I don't mind having a warning against me. Nowhere have I asked that warning being removed, nowhere have I asked to be forgiven or anything else. And because I had seen other people do things like I described above, I thought it was okay for a word to be partially censored because frankly a**hole and :cusshole make almost no difference. If you know the word, you know the word.

And this isn't a "The mods are Nazis" topics. Actually its the opposite because to me, it looks like a lot of people are getting away with things and because I don't know if anything was or was not done, I think its okay to partially censor a word since that apparently nothing was done, it must be rules compliant but then it turns out it isn't okay to censure using the * but it is okay to use the emoticon.

I am not asking for a warning point to be removed or anything else. Actually nowhere have I mentioned a warning point. But because some mods just message Frater X and don't edit the post, when Frater Y comes along and can see several posts of cuss words being partially censored or certain other actions being done and nothing obvious being done about it, it looks completely different than in my case where everyone can see "okay, partially censoring a word is not okay. You have to censor all of it."

I'm okay with the warning point. It's my own stupidity. You're right, I should have known better. I even went back and changed the entire sentence so even the isn't there or anything else that can be misconstrued as a cuss word.

But as you pointed out, depending on the mod or admin, the situation can be handled in a variety of ways. I'm just asking that they be handled the same. Or at least in a similar manner so those of us who don't know if a warning point was given out, can at least see the edit band that says "no partial censoring is okay, use the emoticon only".

[Kol Saresk]

Also, I realize that I was dealt with lightly since my post was supposed to have been deleted, not edited.

 

If all I am is just overeacting in asking that everyone be dealt with equally, than please, by all means delete this entire thread and do whatever you feel is necessary.

[Deus de Mortalis]

I honestly think that the forum is moderated pretty well, far above the internet average. Just because they don't catch every self-censored swear word doesn't mean that they aren't consistent when they do.

[Artemid]

I do wonder about putting in an automated filter that turns most things and censored forms into :cuss, aside from *** and **** etc which might be used as extra characters in fluff messages (a la the extra ++++ --==-- stuff)

[Kurgan the Lurker]

There is a filter but it is an actual filter. Meaning in order to filter all every variation, we have to drop every variation into the filter. For some reason it doesn't quite work right either.

It should do this when someone uses a filtered word, but instead puts it in as

:cuss:

[Bryan Blaire]

I think that may be because of the second colon at the end. It shouldn't have it to make it place the little .gif

 

": cuss" (without the space) makes the Censored face, ": cuss:" doesn't, although it should make the icon with a : after it.

[Conn Eremon]

I know when I use it, or any other of such, I need a space on the other end for it to work. Otherwise, it doesn't seem to register where the triggering keys end.

 

:cussing as opposed to :cuss ing.

 

:). as opposed to :) .

Edit: Okay, not all I guess.

 

:pas opposed to :p .

[Kales]

not sure how the IPB admin system works, but if its as iffy as PHBB can be for blocking out stuff like :cuss and t**t etc... then I can sympaphise with the admins and mods, I gave up with PHBB for gaming sites and turned to enjin, mainly due to issues with the complicated admin systems. (here is hoping the profanity filter has worked on this post, if not mods I hope you can edit it)

 

Edit:

 

DOH profanity filter didnt work, sry, but atleast this shows how annoying this can me (will manualy alter them)

[Grey Mage]

I'm not asking to know if they got warned. But right now I can see thirty four topics containing one cuss word. And no, I am not sore. Look through the rest of my post. It's not just editing and cussing. I don't mind having a warning against me. Nowhere have I asked that warning being removed, nowhere have I asked to be forgiven or anything else. And because I had seen other people do things like I described above, I thought it was okay for a word to be partially censored because frankly a**hole and :cusshole make almost no difference. If you know the word, you know the word.

 

Then report them citizen.

 

We cant be everywhere, were not paid, and we have lives- so were going to miss things. Some of us are better at catching that kind of infraction than others. Just like some cops will bust you for jaywalking and others will be looking for the guy whos speeding through the intersection, enforcement is largely a matter of how and when.

 

If theres some rampant wave of swearing hidden around, well appreciate the help. If this is just posturing because a few posts fell through the cracks of our busiest forums then honestly the matter just should be dropped on the grounds of courtesy and sense.

[Kales]

Well Said Grey Mage, I think people just need to understand that themods are just the same as us, have just as busy lives, so they cant be on here all the time, heck I rely on my forums and the systems built in to let me know when stuff happens, so its not an easy task.