Moderation AMA

Author: David

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#1
David
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Greetings, everyone!

I would first like to thank everyone for their patience as we reorganize the moderation team and work to make DART a better place. I feel that now is a good time to throw up an AMA. 

The goal of this thread is for us, as a team, to sit down with the community and come to better understand each other. We want to make our process more transparent and get feedback from you guys on what you would like to see us do.

#2
RationalMadman
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I will actually support Speedrace being promoted to deputy mod instead of Ragnar. Speedrace has shown maturity, care and responsibility already in how he has handled situations that have arisen. Ragnar is a known cyberbully that is simply not fit for the role.

I ask to you, why did you promote Ragnar? Do not ban me for calling him a cyberbully, I will factually prove it is not an opinion but fact. I have links to his posts here. I just want to know why.

I also would support you demoting Ramshutu from voting moderation and replacing him with Ragnar, keeping Blamonkey. This will be a satisfactory albeit not entirely brilliant move.


#3
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Currently two of the moderators are well-known cyberbullies of this website.
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#4
David
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@RationalMadman
I ask to you, why did you promote Ragnar? Do not ban me for calling him a cyberbully, I will factually prove it is not an opinion but fact. I have links to his posts here. I just want to know why.

I also would support you demoting Ramshutu from voting moderation and replacing him with Ragnar, keeping Blamonkey. This will be a satisfactory albeit not entirely brilliant move.

As I mentioned in the welcome thread, I chose Ragnar because he is one of the deepest thinking members of the site and on DDO. He won more than 100 debates and lost none. Moreover, he is consistently one of the most in-depth voters on the site. Additionally, Ragnar has made significant contribution to DART/DDO. For example, he created a styling guide, a guide to voting, and debate templates, and fixed the unvoted debate backlog. 

I don't believe that Ragnar is a cyber bully. 

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#5
David
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@RationalMadman
That being said, I have been working with Ragnar and Speedrace for the past few days. They have put in a ton of effort and work and have been a huge help to me overall. I don't think I could have picked a better person for the forums than Speedrace. 
#6
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A couple relevant lead ups to this AMA...

First, the moderation team is as follows (I advise tagging them with questions):
Virtuoso, chief moderator
Ragnar, deputy moderator
Speedrace, forum moderator

blamonkey, voting moderator
ramshutu, voting moderator

SupaDudz, discord liaison
drafterman, discord liaison

Second, everyone has a pardon (I am building an issue tracking spreadsheet, and zero previous incidents are going into it):
My first official act as chief moderator is to give everyone a full amnesty with the expectation that you improve your behavior. Everyone will be starting over with a clean slate.
-Virt
#7
RationalMadman
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@Barney
You are not pardoned by me, just know that deep in your soul.
#8
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@Barney
As a moderator, what is your verdict on the validity and real existence of my 'professional voter' medal? Would you like a safe space to cope with the fact that I earned it before you? I will be happy to respect that, just let me know.

You should learn to respect me, treat me as a fucking valid competitor and human being and I will do the same to you. If you want to treat me as a lesser being in any shape or form, then don't expect me or anyone at all that you treat that way to simply sit still and take it.
#9
ResurgetExFavilla
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@David
The CoC is dangerously ambiguous on many points, allowing moderation significant leeway in interpreting it and potentially banning statements on an ideological basis. Why should conservative or traditionalist members trust a forum mod team composed entirely of progressives to be ideologically neutral?
#10
RationalMadman
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@ResurgetExFavilla
Progressivism is the correct stance to have, that is why.
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#11
David
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@ResurgetExFavilla
The CoC is dangerously ambiguous on many points, allowing moderation significant leeway in interpreting it and potentially banning statements on an ideological basis. Why should conservative or traditionalist members trust a forum mod team composed entirely of progressives to be ideologically neutral?

The moderation team will not ban someone for posting a conservative opinion. With that said, we are looking to clarify the COC and standardize the banning procedure. 
#12
coal
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@ResurgetExFavilla
I'm neither a conservative nor a traditionalist.  Would you expect me to remove content I disagreed with on a political basis? 
#13
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I love having RM unblocked. His compulsive need to tag me while rambling in a semi-comprehensible fashion is entertaining, especially in light of his having blocked me.
#14
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@ResurgetExFavilla
The reason it is semi-comprehensible is that you are semi-capable of comprehending it, amigo.
#15
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@coal
Not intentionally, no. But if everyone on your moderation team shared your views, I would think that discussions on where a line should be drawn would always shift leftward simply because you are having a closed conversation in which one side is not represented. Since this is a debate site, this would eventually lead to a narrowed scope of debate as members on that side got fed up and left. Which makes your site boring and unattractive, which leads to a circling-the-drain effect as far as membership quality goes (a feedback loop).

This is why I am glad to see that the CoC will be clarified. It is better to have these discussions in the open and set clear rules.
#16
A-R-O-S-E
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@David
Okay, now I believe u r copying RM's prof pic, can u be more lame?
#17
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@RationalMadman
PM me on discord before u change your pic again, if virtuoso has a similar one later, it will be solid proof of his mocking
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#18
David
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@A-R-O-S-E
Actually he's copying mine. 
#19
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#20
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@David
kk, same thing for you, PM me on discord before a change so I can verify you had it first
#21
RationalMadman
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@A-R-O-S-E
Discord is not what I associate myself with anymore. I am the conformist, status quo cuck who will bring normality and peace to DART... At any price.
#22
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@RationalMadman
Is email okay? I'll pm my old one
#23
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@A-R-O-S-E
Your old email is stored comfortably in the DART PM Database. Mike will be sure to read your PM'd email address to me and then shall email you on my behalf. Thank you Mike, in advance.
#24
Dr.Franklin
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This is a good mod team! Ciongrats
#25
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I will tell the good things in the mod team:

  1. All are progressives
  2. Virtuoso.
  3. Speedrace
I will think on the other infinite amount of good things about the mod team, but it may just have slipped my mind.
#26
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All are progressives

Why is Political Ideology involved in this?

  1. Virtuoso.
  2. Speedrace
Agree but also Ram and ragnar are good
#27
RationalMadman
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Agree but also Ram and ragnar are good

I forgot them. Perhaps I should also have put a period after point 1 and 3, like I did after 'Virtuoso' on point 2 or perhaps it was intentional.
#28
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Why is Political Ideology involved in this?

Sorry, let us delete that. They are not all progressives my mistake they are politically fluid demigods.
#29
Ramshutu
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@ResurgetExFavilla
To be honest I agree; but at the same time I think it’s probably more important to have a variety of different moderator attitudes than political. Having Captain BanHammer in the same mod team as someone who has a more hands off view generally leads to a much better discussion.
#30
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@Ramshutu
Both I think are important. My problem is that as the mod team increases in size and new members cycle in, they all happen to be on the same side, and it starts to look more like a feature than a bug. That said, I think the damage that ideological bias can wreak would be significantly reduced by a CoC which

1. Actually restricts the powers of mods

and

2. Establishes clear, easily understandable rules with community input

So I will wait to see what's going on with the CoC.