Forums

Re: So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Mon, Nov 9 2009 1:02 PM by naughty1. 43 replies.
  • Faterson Slovakia
    2,885 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 7:10 AM

    AlaCowboy:
    Why not appoint responsible moderators assigned to time blocks?

    Such strict divisions probably aren't necessary. It might make sense, though, to appoint a number of moderators from different time zones. The most recent forum abuse occurred late at night (American time) on Saturday, which would have been Sunday morning/early afternoon hours in Australia, and might have been efficiently handled by an Australian moderator.  

  • AlaCowboy United States
    838 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 7:23 AM

    nivlac:

    Faterson:
    and you can't expect any single person (including Nivlac) to handle all this

    Indeed.  A small team of 3 or 4 trustworthy & capable folks would be ideal.

    Seriously, I am now retired and have the time to do this. 1- or 2-hour time blocks assigned to sensible people (using restraint) could bring a sense of order to the forums. I can only fish so much, you know.

  • Faterson Slovakia
    2,885 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 8:21 AM

    AlaCowboy, I don't see this optimistically. Similar proposals have repeatedly been made before, and there was no specific reaction from WGT. If they're apparently not interested in appointing a veteran such as Nivlac to the post, they're unlikely to do so in relation to anyone else, especially (relative) newcomers.

    To their defence, it must be said that inexpert moderators can do lots of damage, mess up the forums database, etc. One must therefore be extremely careful as to who should be entrusted with moderator duties. I've had my share of troubles with this a couple of times when I (as forum admin) assigned moderator duties to persons who later, unfortunately, became overwhelmed by the task and started creating more havoc than order in the forums. All I could do was remove the moderator(s) and restore the forums database from a back-up.

    As to short 1 or 2-hour "time blocks", it probably wouldn't be the ideal way. An ideal moderator is someone who needs to be online a lot of the time throughout the day, because he/she is working on the PC. I monitor forums where I'm a moderator via email notifications. Whenever throughout the day these arrive & I happen to be online, I check the content of submissions.

    DISCLAIMER: I, as Faterson, cannot be a moderator here, due to past controversies. I'm therefore not lobbying on my behalf in posts submitted to this thread. I could, at most, be one of the pseudonymous mods. If there was a WGTmod2 operating in these forums, for example, and no one (except WGT) had an idea who that WGTmod2 was, everything would be fine. The only thing that would matter would be for WGTmod2 to perform his/her job well; if he/she didn't, forum members could always ask WGT to depose that particular moderator.

    I would estimate the probability of WGT installing forum moderators as a result of the discussions in this thread at about 2% or 3%.  

  • YankeeJim United States
    7,784 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 10:33 AM

    I, for one, got/get a kick out of snaike's dry wit. I LOL'd more at his comments than any other and not because of any verbal jousting but because of the wit involved. He's got one. The signature "Peace" was an obvious giveaway that all is ok.

    Sarcastic wit is a double edged sword-you wind up cutting yourself with it if the other party doesn't get it and from what I see in these forums, there are a few dim-wits that immediately take offense to just about anything (if the shoe fits-wear it. I'm not attacking anybody.) There happens to be a way to deal with it-take these forum comments with a grain of salt!  This is cyberspace, for crying out loud.

    The worst kind of dialogue is one that begins by drawing swords. Instead of rational give and take you get irrational attacking, defensive postures and total negative energy. I always saw snaike's views as tempered frustration at the idiocy of some posters. I could see what he meant but sometimes the way he would phrase it would cause a reaction. If this was intentional then shame on you, snaike. I never believed it was. The one time he was off base that I remember he immediately set the public record straight and no harm was done. Some of you may remember it too.

    There was a huge to-do here a short while ago with ridiculous flame wars going on all over the place. All in a single weekend it really came to a head. Posters were suspended, threads deleted and all sorts of upset was caused. The resulting change in these forums was sweet for a while. However, newbies showing up and creating the same cycle of negativity with nobody to say no-no to offensive comments/behavior is getting us right back in the soup.

    In the absence of a proper moderator I don't see why this can't be self-policed by "gang mentality", for lack of a better way to say it. Negative only begets negative. Trolls/instigators need this to survive. I've seen it work right here. A certain poster burst onto the scene with all sorts of weirdness and immediately started trouble. Everybody reacted, some posted but one slight witty comment from snaike on a Friday afternoon stopped it in its tracks (for that weekend anyway.) His comment was "I see the weekend is here...." and had inserted the little "Don't feed the troll" smilie. There wasn't a single response except that to every post this guy made the rest of the weekend. It was a great move. I, myself dogged this character a few times and stopped stuff from happening. It can be done and we should unite and do it. I know there's a large bunch of you that I enjoy opining with so give it a thought.

    Thanks for at least reading this, it's just my view.

     

    YJ

     

     

  • GITrDONE United States
    701 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 11:01 AM

    YankeeJim:
    newbies showing up and creating the same cycle of negativity with nobody to say no-no to offensive comments/behavior is getting us right back in the soup.

    Thats right Yankee Jim,I responded to the troll last friday and Snaike immiedately informed me (in a more than respectable way)  that responding to the comments would only inflame the situation.I am not only a newbie to the WGT I am also new to the internet as well.(3months) I have ran into the same problem in every forum I have ever been in.I did not know that they even had such people as moderators.I can very well see the need for this as we sit and watch as one of the good guys set to leave the WGT, maybe for good.

    This site is a very respectable site with alot of respectable and eloquent forum users for the most part.I totally agree with YJ and his conclusion that the frequent forum users should be able to control the level of dignity and stamp out the rubbish and flamers.I'm willing to keep this site as respectable as possible.

    Like I said Yankee Jim, I am new to the place so just let me know what I can do to help with the cause.

    P>S> You better not be over at TWO Snaike...lol

    GrD

  • naughty1 United States
    104 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 11:07 AM

    YankeeJim:
    , there are a few dim-wits that immediately take offense to just about anything (if the shoe fits-wear it.

    And if I would have said that, a certain poster would be all over my back. Be interesting to see if he talks down to you

    One thing that should be noted. We are Americans, and we can be negative over our leaders, or any other being. It is called freedom of speech, and I do not want some European taking my freedom away. I shall continue to call them as I see them, and if WGT believes that I do not have freedom of speech, so be it  I had a life before WGt, and I will continue to live

  • EllisSpice United Kingdom
    871 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 11:34 AM

    You know what I said about 'We should all e-mail WGT about you-know-what and get him banned'? Well, I have a better idea...

    This thread has become more about mods than the flaming epidemic that is spreading across WGT (there are even a couple of examples of it on this very thread!). So, why don't as many of us as possible send an e-mail to WGT in, say, 40 minutes, requesting that they 'hire' some people (AKA Some legends of this game) to be mods. Sure they can ignore this thread, and a couple of e-mails, but not a few dozens e-mails!

    Who's with me!? (Waits for the silence)

    P.S. That was flaming Naughty1 (only my opinion, and you can't censor my opinion). And it isn't just America, it's the world, thus why the game is called 'World Golf Tour'.

  • WGTalex United States
    2,087 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 11:44 AM

    Thanks for the reports over the weekend, and staying positive. We are planning to have more weekend mod coverage soon.

  • EllisSpice United Kingdom
    871 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 11:48 AM

    Hm, could have sworn that this thread was about 3 or 4 posts longer before WGTAlex posted. Hm....

    P.S. Well done on the 1500th post Alex!

  • cobra4 United Kingdom
    359 Posts
    Mon, Nov 9 2009 11:48 AM

    So Alex...you obviously have removed my post...what was bad about it ? Please explain. Yes Ellisspice hmm indeed, always thought snaike had something to do with wgt

     

     

RSS