Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[value]

As it appears, forum moderation for new posts is causing a queue that lasts for weeks for some posts. Some of the posts that have been queued for almost 10 days are from prominent long term users such as Leontiskos (2021, 691 posts).

Such an experience might result in users leaving the forum.

Pattern-chaser is a super-user with the ability to approve posts and he is an active participant on the forum that is concerned with people on the forum. His decision to not approve posts may be indicative. I also decided to not approve posts and leave that to the official moderators, since I do not view myself as a moderator that should perform such a task, despite my willingness to be helpful for other users.

In the same time, while I currently have an advantage from the ability to edit posts and other moderation capabilities, for the quality of the discussions it might be better when my account would be as restricted as any other user. The in-ability to edit posts seems to have a certain effect on the quality of the discussions.

Pending since June 18th (9 days ago):

Moderation queue
Screenshot 2023-06-27 at 11-01-53 Online Philosophy Club.png (33.97 KiB) Viewed 3593 times

This message is not meant as a complaint. I have provided compliments for forum administration before. I just wanted to give notice of a potential problem that may cause users to leave.

[Pattern-chaser]

Pattern-chaser is a super-user with the ability to approve posts and he is an active participant on the forum that is concerned with people on the forum. His decision to not approve posts may be indicative. I also decided to not approve posts and leave that to the official moderators, since I do not view myself as a moderator that should perform such a task, despite my willingness to be helpful for other users.

In the same time, while I currently have an advantage from the ability to edit posts and other moderation capabilities, for the quality of the discussions it might be better when my account would be as restricted as any other user. The in-ability to edit posts seems to have a certain effect on the quality of the discussions.

I am just a premium member, like you and quite a few others. I discovered almost by accident that I could approve or disapprove those posts queued for it. As I am not a moderator, and anxious not to misuse the privileges I apparently have, I have only approved or disapproved a very few posts, where I could be confident that I was being helpful in doing so. I hope that this is of assistance to the moderators of this forum.

I am a Premium Member of the forum, as many of us are now. As far as I know, I have no privileges that others do not. I have no special knowledge with which to answer your other queries. For that, I think you need a response from Eckhart Aurelius Hughes, or from a moderator.

As it appears, forum moderation for new posts is causing a queue that lasts for weeks for some posts. Some of the posts that have been queued for almost 10 days are from prominent long term users such as Leontiskos (2021, 691 posts).

Such an experience might result in users leaving the forum.

This topic concerns the moderation of our forum. As far as I know, our moderators are just users of the forum, who have agreed to perform the role of moderator. I'm sure they are unpaid. And while it is possible that they are plied with sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll in return for their efforts, I strongly suspect that it is not so. They do it 'out of the goodness of their hearts', as the proverb goes.

I am not a moderator, to the benefit of all concerned. Balanced moderation has a strong social component, and my autistic sensibilities would not sit well with the role of moderator. The forum would empty in no time! And none of us would want that.

But our moderators are more balanced than I am — although Sy Borg is an autist too — and they perform their role admirably, IMO. Yes, I sometimes wish that this or that be done, when it is not, but that will always be the case, won't it?

In the case of post approval taking a while, perhaps our moderators are just busy with other things, such as living their lives in the real world? I, for one, would not want to be the one to decide that a poster is madder than a bucket of frogs, and disapprove their posts. As you observe, there is a balance between moderation and keeping the forum open to all shades of opinion, and so forth. If moderation is too heavy, or too lax, then users will drift away, as you fear they might. I don't know the answer to this, but luckily for all, I don't have to. There are those more responsible than me whose role it is to decide and balance these issues.

[Eckhart Aurelius Hughes]

Pattern-chaser is a super-user with the ability to approve posts and he is an active participant on the forum that is concerned with people on the forum. His decision to not approve posts may be indicative.

Pattern-chaser has no more privileges or responsibilities than you.

You and Pattern-chaser are both considered "premium members".

The main reason premium members like you are given the ability to approve (and disapprove) posts in the queue is so that, if you are conversing with another member, you can approve and respond to their posts without having to wait for a moderator. In other words, I figure it would be a convenience.

However, if it is causing confusion or worry, in making users think premium members like you are expected to also help volunteer to moderate the forum, than it might be best to remove that functionality.

I have just now made an official poll in the private "Contributors' and Administration Forum" to vote on this matter:

Official Poll: Shall premium members continue to be allowed to moderate posts in the queue?


Thank you,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
a.k.a. Scott

[value]

Hi!

I intend not to have an opinion on forum management. I merely intended to give notice of an issue (post queue piling up) that might cause valuable users to leave the forum.

It might be considered a privilege that some users are posting here. It might be best to make the forum experience 'usable' for the purpose that they joined the forum (participating in a time bound conversation with other users on diverse subjects). If posts might arrive only 10 days later in some occasions, it might cause a bad experience for them.

I will leave it up to you and the other admins/moderators to decide how to manage the forum. Other than this issue, I have perceived the management to be very good.

I recently replied the following with regard forum administration in the past 10+ years.

All of that to say, this forum holds a very special place in my heart.

Me too. I've looked at most of the online philosophy forums, over the years. This one is the most civilised one I've come across, which is why I'm still here. Nothing is perfect, but you can have worthwhile conversations here, and maybe even learn something. I have. Just the once, you understand...!

You would have to thank the admins for that and in specific Greta/Sy Borg. I've noticed her passionate comments in topics related to the meaning of life and in topics in which people might be struggling with the consideration of suicide.

When I shortly became an administrator to recover a domain expiration in January 2021, I noticed that quite an effort is made to administrate the forum, meanwhile with almost no conflicts about moderation and almost all users feeling welcome. It seems to be a great accomplishment that deserves gratitude from the users.

Greta/Sy Borg mentioned in a PM that she was provided with the admin role apparently randomly at some point in time. She is the only admin next to the founder. It seems that it has been a matter of great luck with regard the quality of forum administration in the past 10+ years!

[LuckyR]

It is my understanding that around the time the book of the month took off, that the moderators were requested to concentrate on approving new posts and not new topics. Perhaps that has changed.

[JackDaydream]

It is my understanding that around the time the book of the month took off, that the moderators were requested to concentrate on approving new posts and not new topics. Perhaps that has changed.

It has definitely changed because it used to be only new trial members who had to have their posts moderated. Now, apart from premium members, any new thread topic has to be approved. This must be a pain for moderators and it also means that threads are in such a queue that some only appear on the front for less than a day and some get lost and buried.

However, I guess that non-premium members can still write threads at all and the worse scenario would be if only premium members were allowed to write thread topics, but, hopefully, it won't come to that. But, it is horrible and anxiety-provoking to not be able to write thread topics all of a sudden. It also invokes the fear that no one will ever see them as worthy for approval. But, I will try not to grumble...