Motorbicycling.com Moderators What They Do.

GoldenMotor.com

Crazy Horse

Dealer
Feb 20, 2009
1,153
3
36
USA
Some forum members may want to know what are the Motorbicycling.com's Moderator's and what they do for our forum.

Here's my take on what is a Moderator.

What Is a Forum Moderator?

A forum moderator oversees the communication activity of an Internet forum. He monitors the interchange of contributors and makes decisions regarding content and the direction of threads. Moving discussions from one section to another to keep topics organized is also a common job for a forum moderator.

If the tone of a forum becomes hostile or starts to move in the direction of personal attacks, the forum moderator usually has the discretion to lock the discussion to prevent heated, interchanges. He may also be able to hide discussions he deems unworthy of further discussion. Conversely, topics he feels deserve further examination can be posted indefinitely by the moderator even if they garner no comments.

Moderator duties are as diverse as the forum topics themselves. Some moderators are virtually invisible; they surface only when situations arise that do not seem likely to resolve themselves. Other forum moderators are always there, ready to intercede at the smallest hint of discourse. Public forum moderators often have to enforce many rules of conduct and decorum, as public contributors tend to communicate without abandon, which can sometimes upset other commenters.

Private forums linked to a website or group often operate a bit differently. The forum moderator is likely to be familiar with the members, and may be more lax in enforcing rules if he is aware of bantering members and their tones. Standards differ greatly in forums, and newcomers are advised to post with caution until they get the general feel of the forum's atmosphere. Regardless of the forum topic or ambiance, most prohibit the exchange of illegal or copyrighted materials and pornography and many shun swearing or using inappropriate language or images.

Moderators are sometimes encouraged to join in discussions, especially if they have expert experience or advice to contribute. Other forums prefer their moderators to remain totally objective and mainly serve as impartial enforcers. Occasionally a forum moderator will pose as a contributor to steer a discussion in another direction or offer input without fear of posing a conflict of interest.

In addition to acting as the parent or guardian of forum content, forum moderators are also responsible for maintaining the integrity of the forum in other ways. This requires knowledge of HTML and acuity at moving, merging, adding, and deleting text, graphics, and links. Contributors will often ask moderators to assist them with technical problems with site access and posting.

Supplementary duties of a forum moderator may include relocating discussions to more appropriate sections, closing or locking threads based on dwindling interest or lack of recent activity, editing posts for clarity or content, and deleting threads. Thread deletion can either be temporary or permanent, depending on the wishes of the forum moderator / Founder Administrator.

If an abusive contributor refuses to cease unacceptable behavior, the forum moderator usually has the discretion to ban the user. If the offender continues to post and eludes the ban, the moderator may opt to access the user's IP address. This enables the moderator to ban the address instead of banning the user by name or email address.

What is Forum Etiquette?

The Internet has become a world-wide community and in the process, innumerable forums on every subject under the sun are available where people can express their opinions. Some forums are closely moderated -- that is, someone checks every post for suitability before it is uploaded to the forum. Some forums have minimal or no moderation, only Terms of Service (TOS) that members are expected to follow. Most forums do have some sort of reporting feature for obscene or harassing posts. Still, even with a minimally-moderated forum, is there a standard of behavior? Is there actually something called forum etiquette? The answer is an unqualified yes.

Forum etiquette means maintaining a standard of posting behavior that is acceptable and appropriate. Forum etiquette can be flexible, according to the subject of the forum, but there are certain standards most people expect others to maintain. Some lines must be drawn for the safety of all posting on the forum.

One of the staunchest rules of forum etiquette is not posting personal information about another poster. Even if that poster has all but drawn a map to his house, posting a real name or address is considered grounds for a permanent ISP ban on most forums. This could compromise someone's safety. This is probably the most serious breach of forum etiquette and most moderators take it very seriously.

You can disagree with someone's opinions, but calling that person an idiot or a profane name is a violation of forum etiquette. Some forums are more liberal about this than others, but keeping it civil is never the wrong thing to do. Posting the same thing over and over again is called scrolling, and is also a banning offense. It is annoying in the extreme and uses up bandwidth, which someone is paying for. It is entirely unnecessary and makes the poster look immature and childish.

Trolls are always in flagrant violation of forum etiquette and enjoy disturbing the peace at any forum where they post. Trolls tend to scroll, call names, gossip about other posters, post things that are deliberately provocative and usually that violate the forum's rules about posting. Most moderators hasten to get them banned as soon as possible, but they can sometimes do a lot of damage before this happens.

Another violation of forum etiquette is posting in ALL CAPS. This is considered shouting and is very rude, in addition to being hard on the eyes. Something may be in caps for emphasis (e.g. I did NOT want to go!), but no post should be entirely in all caps.

Flaming, or deliberate insults or personal rants, is also against forum etiquette. Flaming is often employed by people who are losing arguments on a forum. Their response is to personally insult the poster disagreeing with them, usually in a long, nasty post.

This kind of behavior is why so many forums have a list of posting rules and consequences for breaking them. Some may say this behavior is more prominent among immature teens, but that is in no way the case. Many of the worst offenders are adults who should know better. The veil of anonymity seems to bring out the worst in these people, and any bullying tendencies they have tend to become magnified in the semi-protection of an anonymous forum.

Most of the rest of forum etiquette involves using the Golden Rule: treat others as you would like to be treated. Behaving as a reasonable adult, even in the face of being flamed, is always the best course of action. If a poster becomes harassing, obscene or personal, do not retaliate. Instead, cut and paste the offensive post(s) into an e-mail and quickly report it to the moderator or forum administrator.

I'd hope that some of our forum Moderators would add to this description, of the why, what, and how they specifically moderate in our forum.

Peace Crazy Horse a Motorbicycling.com forum member!
 

scotto-

Custom 4-Stroke Bike Builder
Jun 3, 2010
6,505
24
38
Ridin' inSane Diego, CA.
That is just crazy....and very well said, would be nice if everybody thought this way....a Moderators dream! Seriously, good job Crazy Horse....now let's ride!.wee.