Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Policy & Help >

Moderation and the Ignore Button

20:24 / 16.05.02

E. Randy Dupre asked if utilization of the ignore button would adversely affect one's ability to moderate in various forums. So I've started this thread for Moderators from different forums to discuss the issue for the benefit of everone at Barbelith. Is it possible to moderate and use the ignore function? Has anyone missed out on a problem or situation because they were ignoring someone?

My own experiences with moderation have shown any fears to be unfounded. Firstly, there are often enough moderators in a given forum that if there's a problem, one of them is bound to spot it and bring it to the attention of the others. In a Moderation request, there is often an option to show the post or thread being questioned, and I've seen posts of people that are on my ignore list. If a poster requests a modification or deletion of their post, I'll see the content of the post in a similar box to the Reply Post text box.

Also, the ignore function doesn't work when replying to a post – you automatically see the last few posts of a thread whther the posters are on your ignore list or not. So, ever so often in the Magick I'll check on the content status of a thread by hitting the reply button, scanning briefly, then hitting the back button on my browser and not actually replying.

It would be great to hear from other Moderators about how this is handled.

20:30 / 16.05.02

Well, I'm not ignoring anyone, but heck, as I've said elsewhere, it's not like one actually *does* all that much as a moderator. If there appears to be cluttery topics from someone on an ignore list, you can still see the topics there, right? And move them elsewhere as needed?

Murray Hamhandler

20:57 / 16.05.02

One possibility that could potentially arise is of someone being an ass in a forum, trolling or whatnot, and all of the moderators in that forum ignoring the person in question. It's not necessarily a matter of anything having already happened but rather being prepared for the eventuality in the future. I know that moderation isn't often a very big job, but we're given some measure of responsibility on the board and I think that ignoring people can potentially alleviate moderators of some of that responsibility, not to mention that it can alter the context of a given thread for the moderators. It doesn't personally matter to me how annoying someone is elsewhere on the board as long as I can be prepared to moderate his/her posts in Comics if they're posting inappropriately. Like I said, moderation usually isn't really that big of a deal, but we have to be able to deal w/things of this nature when and if they pop up. We're here to take up some of the slack for Tom, when all is said and done, and I think he'd appreciate our being prepared for these things rather than having to deal w/them himself.
Arthur Sudnam, II

01:44 / 17.05.02

I'll have to agree with avoiding the ignore button. If you're ignoring someone, chances are they are annoying to other people. As a moderator, you should be able to catch trolls and inappropriate threads so they can be deleted or moved elsewhere. If you block someone who is troublesome, you might miss those. Its not much that we do here, but I think ignoring posters will get in the way of it. I don't know, I don't want to say that mods shouldn't ever use it, but it certainly should be used more sparingly if possible, I suppose.

06:07 / 17.05.02

Well firstly I want to remind everyone that although we've recently had to be fairly savage to trolls, we're not generally in the business of policing everyone's behaviour. Clearly there is a small amount of that kind of stuff to be done, but certainly it's not the raison d'etre of Barbelith moderation. When we built in the ignore button there was concern that moderators would use it more than anyone else (since they were likely to be fairly long-term posters) and that that would interfere with their ability to see what was going on from an open perspective. But in my opinion to the large part that hasn't happened.

I would suggest that moderators should consider themselves more reserved in the use of the ignore button than everyone else. They should be aware that it's there, use it to avoid fighting with individuals who irritate them beyond measure, but generally should think slightly longer before clicking... Does that seem fair?

We're The Great Old Ones Now

09:42 / 17.05.02

I have one poster on 'ignore' at the moment, and as far as I've seen s/he doesn't post in either of the fora I moderate. It's also by way of being an experiment, because I don't generally use the button, on principle.

In my moderator shoes, I sort of feel I have to stay on top of things.

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:08 / 17.05.02

Put simply, I think that the number of moderators in a forum pretty much makes sure that there's at least one person that's hearing everyone. I don't use ignore (largely because I can't be arsed to) but I think that if I did, there's enough nous floating around with my co-mods to keep a handle on things.

17:13 / 17.05.02

My reasoning:

Moderators aren't just there to fix links, clear up mistakes or delete threads. We're there to instigate conversation, to ensure that the fora we're responsible for are lively, fair, entertaining and interesting, to help make them the best they can be*.

My problem is this:

If I choose to ignore someone, whether they're a regular contributor to Music or not, chances are that I'll end up missing out on opportunities to explore avenues for further discussion that could really benefit the forum. Say that I ignore Poster X. Now, one of X's replies to a topic contains a point of view or piece of information as a throwaway remark that could form the basis of another thread, but nobody else picks up on it. By ignoring X's contributions I'm increasing the chances that a potentially fantastic thread never gets created.

I've also been finding some of the current personal grudge-matches extremely petty, and can't shake the feeling that the Ignore function is simply making things worse in those cases, being a means of sticking fingers in ears and going 'Nah nah na-nah nah, can't hear you' rather than attempting to find common ground.

Basically, you (general 'you', not aimed at any specific suit) asked to be made a moderator of whatever forum because you're interested in the topic that is discussed there. If you're going to ignore somebody because you don't like their point of view then you really can't be all that interested in the subject. If you're ignoring somebody because you don't like the manner in which they express their opinions then there are far batter ways of solving the problem. Keep battling it through with them, whether you choose to do that within the forum itself or via private communication.

*An area of moderation that I've been slack on, admittedly, but due to time constraints and infrequent 'Net access more than anything else.

18:00 / 17.05.02

I've also been finding some of the current personal grudge-matches extremely petty, and can't shake the feeling that the Ignore function is simply making things worse in those cases, being a means of sticking fingers in ears and going 'Nah nah na-nah nah, can't hear you' rather than attempting to find common ground. – E. Randy Dupre

That's your personal opinon, and you are more than entitled to it. However, I'm not sure it has bearing on how moderators do their jobs. If I am a moderator, I have certain responsibilities, and I make sure that within my forum those responsibilities are taken care of. I'm not convinced that utilizing the ignore button has any bearing on those responsibilities. And how I choose to approach other forums is my decision alone.

As I mentioned in my previous post, moderation functions either show all posts when a thread needs to be looked at, or will put the post in question in a text box for moderators to view. So my ignore list simply doesn't come into play. If someone on my list has entered the forum that I am moderating, I will check on them from time to time using the method I described in my previous post.

I seriously doubt that I am the only moderator on Barbelith that utilizes the ignore function, so it would be interesting to hear from others who do – in particular, how they deal with people on their list who enter the forum they moderate.

18:10 / 17.05.02

Originally posted by Ierne:
That's your personal opinon, and you are more than entitled to it. However, I'm not sure it has bearing on how moderators do their jobs.

It doesn't; I was just blowing off steam. It was off topic, so apologies.

You haven't addressed my main point, though. You've got certain people on your Ignore list. If others miss out on an opportunity to open discussion up that's presented in a post by one of your ignorees then surely that's to the detriment of your forum. I say again: moderator duties here should go beyond simple forum caretaking.

18:35 / 17.05.02

If others miss out on an opportunity to open discussion up that's presented in a post by one of your ignorees then surely that's to the detriment of your forum. – E. Randy Dupre

If I were the only moderator in my forum, you'd have a definite point. There are four other highly intelligent and committed people who also moderate my forum, and also have the responsibility to pick up on opening discussion based on what people post.

I'm not sure if my last two posts have made this clear, so I will restate:

I am fully capable of reading every post in my forum.

This includes those posted by people on my list.

I have ways of reading the posts of people on my ignore list without having to take them off the list, and I make use of those methods.

I make use of those methods to make sure
1) they are not causing a disturbance in my forum and
2) they are keeping to the topic and contributing to the forum in a positive way.

I can't say I've been in the particular situation you've described. If that were to happen, I may very well take such commentary and use it as a kernel to spark debate and communication in another thread. Or I may ask another moderator to do so if I feel that responding to that particular poster may do more harm than good. I won't really know until it happens.

I really hope that clarifies things for you E. Randy – I can only speak from experience, and your scenario isn't something I've experienced.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:52 / 17.05.02

Personally, this isn't really an issue... much as I like the ignore button's existence, I've never used it. Partly on princple, and partly because if there was someone who bugged me enough to want to ignore them, then I'd be paranoid enough to want to know what they were saying!
Moderation-wise... no-one's really fucked around in the Switchboard since I've been one of the moderators (or, for that matter, before)- other than the all-board spamming, which I think we're all familiar with. Having said that, if they did, and we were all ignoring them at once...
That wouldn't be good.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

11:08 / 18.05.02

I agree with Stoatie to some extent, it's just interesting that some of the arguments about why Moderators shouldn't be Ignoring were things I thought about as to why nobody should be allowed to Ignore.

15:56 / 18.05.02

To be honest, I've been growing more uneasy with the Ignore function in general recently, which is probably why I brought the subject up in the first place. In danger of derailing this thread, though, so I'll either take it somewhere else or shut up mithering about it.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

17:38 / 18.05.02

As a moderator, I don't feel I should ever use the ignore button, simply because I need to keep on top of things in my area. If someone's post's I feel strongly enough to ignore, I shoudl be watching those posts to see if they become trolling posts or personal attack posts.

I don't like ignoring anyway. I'm glad it's there for the people who want it, but this isn't Usenet where we gets tons of Spam in threads of people wanting to sell us HotTeensWithFarmAnimals and the like.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:18 / 18.05.02

I dunno... a lot of this seems to assume that someone employing the ignore button is never going to read an ignored member's posts. For me it's more like "Not in the mood now. I'll read it when I've had a cup of tea and a bikkie." I don't think I've ever left the ignore button on for more than a day or two at a time, and I really don't think I've missed anything much.

Nietzsch E. Coyote

21:47 / 18.05.02

Sounds like you(collective) have put enough thought into it that there isn't a problem. Potentially there is a slight chance of missing an opportunity but there is enough of you to catch most good thread ideas.

11:29 / 17.07.02

By the way, I am resuscitating this thread to ask about Prisoner # xxxx and his posts yesterday. Whatever anybody knows happened? Was this the perfect case to go and hit the ignore button, or to PM a moderator about it ws the choice?? Has anybody received further feedback from his part??? Did he escape????

11:37 / 17.07.02

Well - when a suit starts spamming every forum on the board with daft, offensive threads, the time for the ignore button has probably passed... I imagine what happened yesterday was that Tom suddenly got about ten thread deletion requests from moderators in every forum, saw what had happened and pulled the Prisoner suit, threads, and posts.