Thoughts on Anonymous Moderators

Hmmmm. I appreciate the fact that u r trying to make things better....i just dont see how this does that. In fact....I think it makes things worse. for starters...I think there should have been far more editing and far less deleting and closing. way to many good posts and threads are closed or deleted because some mod simply doesnt agree. Mods are anything but consistent in their actions and often times bias. What is deemed inappropriate by some mods seems to be just fine with others or even the same mods will delete/close one players post or thread while leaving another players post/thread that does the same thing.

Making mods anonymous does absolutely nothing to solve the problems...all it does is make them invisible to the players/members in which they sometimes wrong, so now they can no longer be held accountable by the players/ members themselves. Essentially all this does is help the mods who screw up and does nothing for the players. With the glaringly obvious misbehavior shown by mods in the past and the bias towards them by the devs.....this is just more of a slap in the face of the players/members of the community.


The plain and simple fact is that players can not be unbiased moderators, as long as mods have vested interest in the games and rivalries are a major aspect of the games....this will never change. Protecting the mods against retaliatory action by concealing their identities is 100% unfair as they will still know the identity of the players/members.

Complete and utter BS. Cant Kano just say it how it is now and again? Quit trying to candy coat a rat turd and sell it to us a raisinette


Since Wonderbread was so kind as to move this post to its own thread making it look completely random in an effort to deflect from this new policies true intent, I figure ide share the link to the post in which this post was in reply to.

http://forums.kanoapps.com/showthre...ous-Moderators&highlight=anonymous+moderators

 

Have to agree with Pimp on this one on all points.

 

Guys, I moved your posts to a separate thread, as I want to keep the announcement thread for questions about the new system, although I wanted you guys to have a thread to talk about what you think about it.

 

Well when a mod makes a post,it's still not hard to tell who's who.

Everyone has there own unique typing style,so that will give them away.

 

what ever....u just dont want everyone to see that we pointed out the BS. If u didnt want comments u could have closed the damn thread. But im sure posts that proclaim that this idea is the next best thing since sliced bread wont get moved to its own thread. You guys never cease to amaze me. You wonder why members act the way we sometimes do ....yet u see no problem with all the crap like this that u pull. There is nothing about that idea that benefits the community members except for the ones that happen to be mods. What an Fing joke!

 

(I originally posted this as an edit, but moved it to it's own post to show when it was written.)

I wanted to address some of Polish's thoughts on the matter, as I can appreciate where he's coming from.

I do agree that editing out offensive bits of posts can save an otherwise-good post, however it's the poster's job to post civilly and respectfully, not a moderator's. Everyone needs to take responsibility for ensuring that what they're posting jives with the Code of Conduct. The more effort we put into being civil and respectful, the less need there is for moderation in the first place, which is a win for everyone.

Also, moderators close or delete things according to our Code of Conduct or Terms of Use, and if you feel this isn't the case, you're welcome to send a message through Support. I will be updating our Moderator Policies to outline how players can report if they feel there's been Moderator abuse, but it's essentially a report through Support.

We are working on consistency, and this change will absolutely help with that. Again, this all falls back on our Code of Conduct and Moderator Policies, which everyone in the community can see and understand.

Your main issues seem to be with oversight, and, as I mentioned in my announcement, this system will still allow for players to report to me if they feel something was unfairly Moderated. Players have always had this ability, and will continue to be able to do so. As I mentioned in the announcement, I will still be able to see who moderated what, so if a moderator is abusing their abilities I can act appropriately.

 

@TP As mentioned in my announcement, Mod accounts won't be able to make posts or threads.

@Polish I moved your posts to allow you to share your thoughts, rather than delete them. As I mentioned in the announcement, I left it open for questions and clarification, however it was clear that you two weren't looking for clarification or explanation, but to share your opinions.

I'm sorry to hear you don't see the benefit, however there absolutely is one. The largest benefit will be allowing new Moderators who can volunteer without fear of reprisal or of dealing with negativity from members. Again, players can always send in a report if they feel something was Moderated incorrectly.

 

No doubt the onus is on the individual to be civil and respectful, but its the mods responsibility to be fair while remaining completely unbiased. As I pointed out....this is impossible as long as mods have a vested interest. As i also pointed out.......what seems to be ok/tolerated for some is not for others. Human nature dictates that a person can see and interpret things completely diff depending on whether they like a person or happen to disagree with the subject matter. The mods currently in place have a history of bias, lack of consistency and have been known to violate the TOU themselves. Masking who does what gives them the upper hand as they can still retaliate while not being retaliated against. Its kind of like increasing the range of levels a player can attack down while eliminating counter attacks.

 

Why would deleting them even be a consideration? what part of my post was not civil, disrespectful or against the TOU? It was simply my opinion. Will u be creating new threads for those that are silly enough to believe the reasoning's given for this new policy and post that they agree?


Did I just phrase things correctly ...not in the form of question so as to ask for clarification?


What your pointing out as a benefit is precisely what is not a benefit to the community....it only benefits the mods who should be held accountable for their behavior while not continuing to have reataliation abilities no one else has. After all the BS that went down last time with the mods running Amok and receiving no punishment other than to choose one for themselves........This is just more of Kano saying screw you to its players. But thats just my opinion.

 

I appreciate your personal history with some of our Moderators, but unfortunately your assertions are inaccurate and based largely on your own personal bias. Players have always had the ability to report unfair moderation, and this system won't change that.

I have always appreciated your opinions and contributions to the community, and I appreciate that you feel that you're standing up for the community. The issue, however, is that you're thinking of the forums in terms of a game or contest. It isn't about upper hand or retaliation. You can't win the forums. It isn't players versus Moderators, or anyone versus anyone. The forums are about announcements and discussion about the games you all love, but they aren't the games themselves.

Moderators are simply volunteers who help keep the forums civil and respectful, but in an ideal world we wouldn't need moderators. Ideally, every player that came to the forum would read all of our policies, and post accordingly. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen, especially in particularly headed discussions. And, because we need them, it's important they're able to keep the forums civil and respectful without worrying about baseless negativity directed at them, which this new system will help with.

 

The following is not civil or respectful, and is, in fact, quite rude.

 

I happen to agree that this thread belong as a reply to to announcement. Its rather manipulative to push all the negative feedback to the side,

but I also see why its done. Threads like that are posted in TGIF, and read by a lot of people that are not on thees forums, just passing by and reading up on the news. It does not make us look like an inviting community to join with all the lashing back.

as far as thees mod new mod policies go. It should help new mods, but the current ones are already labeled. They wont be able to appear in a thread and then moderate it without the assumtion that it was them that closed/deleted it.

Ive never had problems with the mods here, but Ive also never went to blow and personal attack either. I agree 100 percent it would be better to have paid mods that dont play the games and keep our highly opinionated players, just that. but hey times are tough everybody is cutting budgets.

Maybe it will be good for the future, but it really doesnt do didly now.

 

As always, if you have an issue with moderation that occurred, please let us know through Support. The situation you're referring to wasn't an issue with moderation, but with an argument between two players.

 

it sounds like its a cover up for moderators ...

 

With all due respect WB. Kanos history of dealing with rouge moderators is questionable at best. In addition....Im not saying the forums is some type of competition and I fully understand what mods are supposed to be and why they are there. But whether its competition or not....it does carry over to the games and bias is ever present in the moderators. Im not saying all are bad or even that everything some do is bad. Just that it exists and this new policy not only doesnt address it but it actually makes it completely one sided.

As far as moving my rely/opinion to another thread.....this just makes it even worse. I just dont see you moving any positive opinion posts to their own thread. you tried to sell this as a good thing for the community and the fact is....its only good for the mods, u should have been more forth coming and not tried to sell us ocean front property in Arizona.

 

As mentioned in my announcement, players will continue to have the ability to write in to Support if they feel they've been moderated unjustly.

 

LOL....r u kidding me....I thought that was funny as hell! I guess that goes to show as another example how people interpret things completely differently. For example......my opinion although civil and respectful did not show your new policy in a positive light....there fore nothing I might have said would be funny to u at the time, but Im sure others who didnt have quite as vested an interest as you would find it to be quite funny. Now apply that logic to moderators.

 

write into the same support that is already overburdened? It often time takes days to even hear back let alone get resolved.....by that time the engine would/could have lost steam, another win win for Kano and its mods.....greaaaat

 

(I only mention this because it made me chuckle, but you posted "rouge" moderators, which made me picture Vikings or Pirates in ridiculous lipstick. I'm assuming you meant "rogue", and will respond as such.)

As you know, I wasn't around for the situations I believe you're referring to, although I am aware of them. It's partially because of the difficulties we've had with moderators in the past that we're making this change, as it will allow the same level of oversight while removing any game-related bias players may have against moderators.

I do absolutely appreciate your concern with moderators being biased, but again, players can report if they feel they've been unfairly moderated, and I will still be able to see what specific moderators have done. If, for example, we get a report that Melanie has moderated unfairly, and I take a look at the logs and see she's deleted the same player's posts 20 times despite them not being against the code of conduct, Melanie won't be a moderator anymore (for what it's worth, Melanie is our Support person and not a moderator, but the example stands.)

I agree that this change won't stop moderators from having personal biases, however I am absolutely willing to take action on unfair moderation, and will absolutely do so if it occurs. This change doesn't make anything one-sided, as players will continue to have the ability to report moderation.

 

That's a valid concern, one that our Support person expressed to me when I informed her of what I was doing, however I will be handling all forum-related Support inquiries. We decided to have them go through Support to have a unified communication channel, rather than the pm/email system we were using before.