Guybrush

With a PM, you send a message to that user. With a moderation notice like that, you send a message to the whole community.

I don't think it matters so much that you wouldn't like it because I don't think you'd do anything that would warrant such moderation. Neither do I think it's a punishment's requirement that you would like it done to you before it's a valid strategy. I wouldn't like to be publicly moderated either or to go to prison for that matter. That doesn't mean I can't see the value of these things as consequences for rulebreaking.

If people on these forums are aware of the consequences for breaking rules, but choose to break them anyways, then I generally don't feel sorry for them when they suffer those consequences. Getting moderated in public is not such a gruesome punishment for namecalling in public. In my opinion, the punishment fits the crime.

edit :

I also think it would be effective; people would soon learn not to do it. Which of course would be the point of doing it this way in the first place.

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Something Completely Different

Paedantic Basterd

Fair enough, though I would like to see some discussion on what a fair way to moderate a subjective experience is.

(It was edited in to my post on the last page after posting it).

Urban Hat€monger ?

In my experience laying the law down in a public way like a schoolteacher just makes people more irate if anything.

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Guybrush

Laying down the law in public requires that those who do so do it in a professional manner. If mods go around gloating f.ex while dishing out punishment for everyone to see, I'm sure the mod-members relations could sour quickly.

In my experience, when mods are able to moderate publicly in a proper way, it promotes respect for the rules and the moderators. I think it's a good way to nurture an environment where people treat others friendly and with respect.

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Something Completely Different

sopsych

This is getting interesting.

My concern wasn't just based on me being insulted in my thread and feeling hassled across the forum for it - although I think there shouldn't be much tolerance of that.

I do not endorse public moderation of individuals except for blatant violations (like calling someone a dirty word). I think deletions and private warnings would work better in most cases, plus sometimes telling people to, for example, "Please play nice, or this thread will be closed." (I think "play nice" or something similar should be an explicit guideline for behavior here, as the forum appears to exist for fun discussion of music.)

I would like for sometimes closure notices to be posted, such as "Thread closed at original poster's request" or "Thread closed because it's circular and argumentative."

Many people dislike reporting others or aren't even aware of how to report posts. With that, I suggest that moderators be assigned in sub-forums (probably based on the genres they like) to follow fast-moving threads to make sure nothing bad is happening. Again, if that feels like a burden, add moderators, please? Maybe "hall monitors" as opposed to full-fledged moderators.

Urban Hat€monger ?

To be honest it isn't that big of a problem to warrant it.

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sopsych

I think "General Music" has enough activity and strife for special monitoring.

Rjinn

I'm pretty sure all the mods visit general music.

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last.fm

Urban Hat€monger ?

Well I respectfully disagree.

We're here to step in when things get out of hand, not check every single post for something that someone 'might' consider offensive. I've seen people report posts just because they take someone disagreeing with them as a personal insult.

We want to treat people like adults, not children. We give you a chance to express yourself, if you can't manage to do that the first time we'll give you a second chance, if you screw that up then you're gone.
It's that simple.

This forum has always had a relaxed atmosphere and it will continue to do so as long as I am doing the job I am. I'm not here to hold someone's hand and guide them away from all the bad things that might happen. My job is to treat people like adults and say enough is enough when things get out of hand.

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Trollheart

I agree. A quick "cut it out" or "watch it", perhaps even with a "no no" smiley will do a lot more to rein me in personally than a long PM or worse, post in that thread by a mod. I would use the old football analogy (talking about soccer here, not sure if this goes on in American Football), where a ref, though having the power (and perhaps enough of a reason) to issue a yellow card would prefer instead to just give a player a verbal warning, letting him know that next time he WILL be getting carded.

If refs gave cards for every small infringement that took place on the pitch most matches would finish with about half the players. Similarly here, if every word out of place is slapped down, soon no-one will say anything, or worse, people will move away from the forum as they'll see it as being stifling. People should know when they've crossed a line, and in most cases I believe a short but at least sincere apology and an effort not to reoffend should be all that's needed.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018