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How do YOU admin?

edited September 2006 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
I had my first nasty day on the forum I run. Up to about 340 members now, but today was the first day where people were pissy and there was a generally unfriendly feel. People got upset, things were said. I tend to take as much of a hands off approach to admining as possible, but I had to stop in and close a few discussions. A few people asked me to ban other people. It's a very strange position to be in, especially since my forum is locally based and I see a decent amount of these people in real life (its a cycling community). So, I'm just curous how other people handle drama, what their approaches and thoughts to deleting posts, editing posts, banning people, closing/sinking threads are, etc. I've never done anything like this before and it's a strange position to be in. I feel like a school teacher with a few hundred little kids running up to me asking me to play disciplanarian.
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Comments

  • like this:

    BAN BAN BAN

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  •  Quote: onetwentyeight  ...I'm just curious how other people handle drama, what their approaches and thoughts to deleting posts...
    I casually send them a link pointing to the "rules of behaviour" and if they breach again it's like ithcy says, BAN!

    If you don't have a code of conduct, besides the agreement they view when registering, make one, even perhaps seek input from the members so they take ownership of it. Post it as a sticky for a period of time.
  • yea i just started drafting a sticky like that... does anyone have any example ones I could look at? anarchy seemed to have been working up till now. *sigh* got big enough where everyone didnt actually KNOW each other.
  • I casually send them a link pointing to the "rules of behaviour"…
    — Wanderer
    Ditto. I haven't had to ban yet. Just closing the thread (permanently, if the whole thread is bad from the start, or for about a week if the original topic was just fine but people went off on tangents) and smacking wrists tends to chill everyone out. :)
  • edited September 2006
    onetwentyeight - I have one that I've been using for a while that you can use. Just make sure you edit the appropriate parts to fit your board correctly.

    And I'm more of a wait until it gets out of control before banning. If a post is out of line, I usually edit it and leave a little note behind. If it becomes a problem, I contact the user and see if we can work it out. Last chance - then ban.
  • yea thats what ive been doing. unfortunately I have a full time job that doesnt keep me infront of the computer all day so things sometimes get out of hand when I'm not around. I've been watching trying to figure out which members would make good user admins but havent been able to find people I trust enough yet that are ready to take that role. thanks for the link!
  • No prob. Just a warning though - using people you don't actually know in reality sucks when it comes to letting user-admins run about. I would suggest only looking for maybe 1 other person to help out, and even then someone you could really, really trust.

    I mean - how bad is it over there? How active are all 340 users, and the percentage to drama-causing users?
  • edited September 2006
    Mu Mu Says

    I think a code of conduct is silly especially when the forum owner wants to allow every tom dick mary and lucy into their forums for an open slam festival which is what most forums end up being, consider in real life when you have 20-30 people in a room talking it just goes all over the place and in most cases nobody ever tries to control it, its just the way people talk, its no different online. You try to censor or moderate a real group discusson and see how fast the crowd burns you at the stake ;-) the best way to moderate a forum is have a target member audience and no outsiders, this way everyone is on the same page, if raising member numbers and stats so you can be crawed by the search engines is your main priority then you have no right to complain about the way people conduct themselves after all its a public forum not so different from a public bathroom

  • that's great and all, except that it's not always a public forum
  • I tell them to take the drama elsewhere (there are other forums around).
    Then if they persist, I use my Insta-Ban-ulator 9000+ on their candy arses.
  • edited September 2006
    errisiva - my forum is specific to san francisco so fortunately, a lot of the members I *do* know in reality. Theres 340 members, and I'd say about half post on a semi regular basis with about 75 core members.
  • with a 50,000 member online virtual community what can one expect ? you want more control you say ? it always kills me when I see forums with 3000+ members,
    of course yours is only in the 300 range but still, keep the numbers down or you're asking for trouble lol, its simple really the smaller forums dont' have these kinds of trouble, small being around 50+ members and if they do its because its a public bathroom,
    a private one should be more geared towards the prefered audience, If I had a party on my front porch there's no way i'm inviting 300+ people, a lot of people is a lot of people there's no controlling huge member organizatons,
    its ok to use the ban-ulator 9000 but make sure the criteria you use for banning someone is justified and not based on some petty emotion "he hurt my feelings wa wa he offended me wa wa" make sure its for a damn good reason otherwise your ban policy is bias and not valid. But then you say "but i'm the forum owner wa wa i'm in charge wa wa", being a owner means jack, be a community leader and deal with the mess you started ;-)
    take mark here on lussumo a great example of leadership, you rarely see him complaining without a drink in his hand and when you do he says "clean up your own fracken neighorhood" lol that's what makes Lussmo excellent everyone chips in and makes it great - less is more - less moderating and more communication ;-)
  • You do know that the Lussumo forums have well over 3000 registed users, right? :)
  • I say just delete or hide the offending threads (or convert it to a whisper ?)--that way new users don't see that behavior and then whisper a stern warning to those who participated.

    IMHO, members may take out their differences in private, but public discussion is not the place for flame wars.
  • MarkMark Vanilla Staff
    edited September 2006
    Ever notice how there aren't any trolls on this forum?

    It's not because none got in. It's because they were banned almost immediately and their threads were deleted hidden.

    I love this community forum - it's the best I've ever run OR been a part of - and it's because I am absolutely strict about who gets in and who stays in. Everyone here is respectful of each other and friendly and helpful. We disagree from time to time, but we're not jerks about it.

    If there are jerks or trolls in your forum, get rid of them. You don't need shit disturbers and you don't need to apologize for your actions as an admin.

    My favourite button on this forum is the "decline for membership" button, and I use it every day.
  • now when you ban on vanilla does it automatically delete the users posts and comments ? come to think of it there's no ban button just a ban user role are they the same ?
  • no it doesnt delete their posts it just removes all their privelidges.
  • this is one of the best moderated forums that I have ever been in. I think the sign of good moderation, is not being aware of the moderator.....stealth moderation! I have seen some awful moderators across the years. And I could give loads of examples. I have been very lucky in my own forums. I don't have big numbers, and they all tend to be close friends. I suppose with more folks joining that there will be disagrements at some point. But I am pretty sure what I will do in that case ie there will be no dramatics, or ultimatums, I'll just ban troublemakers/delete threads. I have dealt with the public (in my job) for a fair few years, and first impressions are very important. If someone comes in and starts rows/aggro, then just send them on theiur way quickly. 'Never give a sucker an even break' is the Van Morrison lyric that seems appropriate. And those who row want an audience - they won't keep such rows going in private email.......no, they need an audience. And you want to deprive them of that, if you wanna hurt them. :) PS - reminds me, would there be a use for a Cooling Off Extension, I wonder....ie able to ban someone say for a period of time eg a week/month.
  • edited September 2006
    This extension would need:
    • a Post Back Control that change the role to banned and set number of day to keep user away;
    • Links to this page on every comment and on the account page;
    • When someone visit his account page (does banned users still have an account page?) or when he tried to login:
      • Remaining number of days banned is displayed
      • Or change the role back member if the ban should be over
  • i think it's very healthy to have disagreements, to ban someone because they disagree is stupid ;-)

    you really have to be very sure that a person is a trouble maker intentionally or they are only stating their belief, there is a difference,

    this is what I find distrubing in terms of moderation on many forums, they are so quick to boot out anyone who appears to not fit into their way of thinking, some would refer to this as religious cult lol nobody should have to agree with what someone else said and if a little debate springs forth its all good, if everyone is friends its even ok to get into some scruffle (in fun),

    what are grounds for dismissle would be the intentional want to funk with people to do them harm or to turn a discussion into crap just to disrupt the talk, calling people names as a way of funking with them, a good moderator should understand the difference bewteen intentional and simply personality or the way people communicate,

    if you open a forum to people from all over the world, you have to understand the culture differences on the way people communicate with each other, contrary to popular religous forum belief, not everyone is a troll ;-)
This discussion has been closed.