Moderation

[Hellbore]

Where should users post complaints about moderators?  Is there any accountability at all for moderators?  Can they just do whatever they want with no consequences?  There should be some kind of venue for feedback so Lenovo knows if a particular moderator is behaving unfairly or unreasonably.

If moderators abuse their power you will lose a lot of forum users and then your forum will be useless.  That's why I think there needs to be oversight and accountability for the moderators.

[TrishaK]

Well said Hellbore!

Moderators on this forum are given far too much freedom. Look at Dell and Apple - that is how it should be! The moderators here think they own Lenovo! In reality, some of them just antagonize customers, which costs Lenovo needed business.

I should point out that there are some really good MODs on this site too - and they deserve recognition -

i think MODs should be rated by users by way of stars - i.e a 5 star MOD is the highest status in the community and a 1 star MOD is someone who needs to keep at it!

- But it should be the USERS that award the points to the MODs - which will ultimately eliminate the bad ones!

[tfflivemb2]

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TrishaK wrote:

i think MODs should be rated by users by way of stars - i.e a 5 star MOD is the highest status in the community and a 1 star MOD is someone who needs to keep at it!

- But it should be the USERS that award the points to the MODs - which will ultimately eliminate the bad ones!

The best thing to do if you have a problem with a specific Moderator, is to communicate with an Admin, siting specific examples. 

The rating scenario might get a little sticky, because I can tell you for a fact that while moderating at TPF, I have had some negative feedback for doing regular every day moderating...such as locking duplicate posts.  There have been moderators that were retalliated against for the same type of simple thing.  One instance led to a long time member posting thread after thread about the moderator, until the member ended up being banned.

I can promise you that everything I do, I generally try to keep an open mind while doing so.  I will generally ask my fellow moderators for input on anything that might be considered borderline.

[TrishaK]

tfflivemb2,

and from reviewing your posts in this forum - i would certainly say that you deserve to be a 5 star MOD!

Maybe there could be a system of approval when users award the stars?

any way, in my book, youre a 5 star!

[carbon_unit]

I think all the moderators are trying to help people here, but remember we are people too. Also remember, we are volunteers. We get no pay or other compensation for doing this, just the satisfaction of helping some people.
Now when someone starts screaming, yelling and pointing fingers we tend to react like other humans do. I know that as moderator we are held to a higher standard, and we try to keep that in spite of the negative comments we receive every day. I don't want to be screamed at or accused of being oppressive. I don't owe anyone an answer to any question. I answer the ones I think i can help with. When I see someone pushing the limit I try to tone them down before somebody else spanks them, doesn't always work.

Here are some helpful hints I have gathered from 8 years on technical forums and 4 years of moderating:

If you are here to get some help from other users then state your problem and wait until someone that can help comes along to help. Keep on topic and you will get responses. Writing long winded inflammatory posts will only attract the attention of other flamers, not helpers.

Pushing the limits of the rules will only result in editing, locking or deleting of posts by the moderation crew. Screaming about the moderation will do no good. It will only attract more flamers, not helpers.

Writing long winded posts generally results in helpers losing interest because most people don't want to read 25 minute post. They will skip through it or skip over it.

This is not an official support channel. Don't expect that Mark or Tim or anyone else here is required to answer anyones questions.

Take my advice or not. I am just trying to help.

[Hellbore]

Thanks for the replies, I have not personally had problems with any of the moderators here but I think hypothetically it's a topic worth discussing, as I have seen other people complain about particular instances of moderation that they thought were unfair. 

[carbon_unit]

If any one of the mods gets out of control I'm sure Mark will take care of the situation. So far everything I have seen is within the guidelines set for us by Lenovo.
Our job is to help people and try to keep the flames down low enough that problems can get aired and resolved without this forum degrading into a screaming match. A near impossible task. If people would remain calm it would be much easier to resolve problems. Screaming at the people trying to help will not get good results.
These comments are not directed and anyone in particular, just a generalization. (Before anyone jumps me about it.)
If you guys seen some of the ridiculous stuff we have to put up with...........................................oh, nevermind.

[jasonhockeyguy]

I think the mods here do a great job at keeping the balance and peace on these forums. Its difficult keeping a balance of opinions and judgement equal to all users.

[amace]

tfflivemb2,

and from reviewing your posts in this forum - i would certainly say that you deserve to be a 5 star MOD!

Maybe there could be a system of approval when users award the stars?

any way, in my book, youre a 5 star!

Think of a mod like a vice-principal of a school.   Mods do all the dirty work, like locking threads (handing out detention), warnings for violation of rules, banning users(suspending students) etc.   A good Vice prinicipal would keep his school in order, but often is not very popular amongst students.  It would be the same thing here.  If a mod closes a thread, deletes a duplicate, or starts banning bad members/trollers, he may not become very popular amongst users, but he is doing his job, which is why a user rating system could end up giving good Mod's a bad rep.

Having said that, I think the Mod's are doing an excellent job.  And I do like the fact that they're not all Lenovo employees, so they don't try to push Lenovo products on us, or convince us that we should only use the newest available (eg. Vista), rather than sticking to the tried and true products (XP). 

Although i've only been here a few weeks, If I were to rate the mods here, I think I would give all of them 5 stars, however I don't know each one individually well enough to give a good rating.  I especially would rate Tim and Mark Lenovo well, as they do work for Lenovo, but are more than willing to help out anyone here with whatever problem they can.  I'm sure they have helped MANY users avoiod major headaches, especially with that shipping crisis earlier.

Great job to all of you, and keep up the great work, we really appreciate what you do for us here.

[JaneL Community SuperMod]

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amace wrote:

Great job to all of you, and keep up the great work, we really appreciate what you do for us here.

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Thanks!