How a moderator can ruin a good site for users

[MOWOG]

I have been sitting on the sidelines , sorta watching this train wreck develop, and here is what I have to say:

I too am an owner of a forum and have been a moderator at others. Moderators are there because the owner can't always be. They are chosen because they reflect the values of the owner. If the owner is unhappy with a moderator, he or she can replace the offender.

Not only has that not happened, but now the owner has weighed in on this subject. He didn't exactly throw Flyboy under the bus, now did he?

In my own opinion, Flyboy's actions have been measured and responsible. There is a tendency hereabouts for threads on various topics to descend into puerile name calling, punctuated by such drivel as "Oh yeah? Sez you!" and "Nyah, nyah, nyah". Neither of which are all that helpful or promote the vision that the owner seems to have for this site. Flyboy has acted to slow the spread of this silliness, which is a good thing, I believe.

And so, the message is this. If you want to spend your days attacking other people or engaging in outright sophistry, that's fine. But you will have to do it someplace else from now on.

I'm comfortable with that.

Carry on!

[flyboy2160]

Part 1

If I recall correctly, Moxie and Strad are complaining because I deleted posts which were just one line with ~ +1 or with an emoticon. As explained to me when I started as a moderator, this site isn't like others in that it doesn't want those one line +1 emoticon posts. It wants discussions. I explained that to them and posed the example of everybody who likes Stefan's pictures adding a single line post with +1 or an emoticon right after the pictures. We'd have pages of 1 line posts with thumbs up emoticons to Stefan.

But they just want the site to be they way they want it, not the way the Owner wants it.

[flyboy2160]

Part 2

I volunteered to moderate here only because the Car Threads were so out of control that I was about to give up on the site completely.

I first started reading here about 3/4 of the way through a season (2008 or 2009?). At that time, the car threads ranged from several pages to 20 some pages long. I got fully caught up for the season to date by completely reading one or two car threads a day for about a week. The posts had some original pictures, but a substantial portion were a reposting of the technical illustrations on the F1 site. The comments were almost always purely technical, with no fanboy rants and raves.

They've grown enormously over the years. Much, but not all, of this growth has been good.

Last year and early this year, the car threads became, for those just interested in the technology on the cars, a chore-to-follow conglomerate of fanboy flame wars, personal arguments, comments about drivers, lap times, paint schemes, and update speculations. But the guidelines for the car threads are: only discuss actual parts on the car that can be weighed or touched.

I volunteered to try to have the car threads return to those guidelines. As expected, some of you don't like this and prefer the free-for-all stream of consciousness style the car threads had become. (And some of the old timers have complimented me on the return to form. Thank you.) Yes, this site is different from other social media and sports blogs in that some threads are closely monitored and personal attacks aren't allowed. There are plenty of other threads here that are much more loosely moderated than the car threads.

[SectorOne]

I´m just glad there´s more moderators now. People that in my opinion know what they are doing.

[turbof1]

I´m just glad there´s more moderators now. People that in my opinion know what they are doing.

Just before posting *holds gun at SectorOne's head* "And now you type that we know what we are doing. Good boy."

Thanks for the recognition. We'll try to keep this up in order to lessen the rapid greying on Richard's head.

[SectorOne]

Oh sorry Turbo, i was talking about FlyBoy

nah jk, you and flyboy, excellent mods, the grey haired one, umm not so much.

[strad]

I was lead here by a link from another topic and since obviously the problem still exists it is imo still a timely topic. But thank you for your input

[djos]

Hmmm WB complaining about something he doesn't like, wow!

I've been around here a fairly long time (2006) and mainly read a lot as I'm not an engineer (but like to learn) and I haven't seen this over-moderation WB is complaining about.

[DaveKillens]

It is a shame that WB has issues with a moderator. But going public with a grievance will not resolve issues. WB, if you read this, please try to work it out in private.

Over the years I have been granted access to what happens behind the scenes. All I will say is that every moderator takes their responsibilities very seriously, and work very hard at it. IMO this is a web site that is moderated with conscience and careful thought.

Additionally, Steven had made himself accessible, and there is a method to submit suggestions on how to improve this place.

[flyboy2160]

Dave, I've sent you a PM about the recent WB events I guess you've missed. Please, let's not bring up that mess again.

[strad]

Dave.. There's such a thing as too seriously. thus the reference to Barney Fife.

[Kai]

I preferred the car threads how they used to be. I find I visit the site less often now and when I see a flyboy post it reminds me why.

[Constructr]

Agreed. And God forbid you should say anything negative about LH.

[turbof1]

I preferred the car threads how they used to be. I find I visit the site less often now and when I see a flyboy post it reminds me why.

They ARE as they used to be. Back in 2009 a moderator never had to step in because the discussion was from itself strictly technical. Those were 20 pages at most full with technical relevancy.

You joined here at a point when f1technical suddenly to deal with a popularity boom. We went from an average of 5 pages a thread to easily over the 100. And with all those new members, a lot of irrelevant discussion was introduced in the car threads. Back then only 2 people were handling the threads, impossible odds, so very often off topic jibber jabber was continueing because those 2 couldn't handle that much at once.

Since then the moderator group has been expanded and things actually have gone back to normal. Most people that complain take this period of strictly moderating into isolation, without thinking or even knowing about that we are returning back to the situation a few years ago. Well, the same situation but with a double digit activity multiplier.

This isn't some sort of fantasy elder scrolls forums. We discuss things that are real, thus the quality of the discussions have to reflect that. This is a community that has technical aspects of the sports at its core. Members are free to join, but are also expected to follow the values our group stands for.

[George-Jung]

I just posted something in the F14T topic about Haas Automation being a new sponsor on the Ferrari sidepods for the remaining races.. and it got deleted without any reason.. and no PM..?

Strange