Making it Better: The future of WP

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Do you mean all of those "Yeah, but whatabout Clinton/Obama?" replies to criticisms of Trump earlier this year?  I don't seem to see many of those recently.

Unfortunately, that would allow personal attacks and defamation of character to remain visible on a public forum.

That's the problem we're hoping to resolve. Many attacks have been visible far too long as it is.

On a Halifax pier?

How? I mean removing the actual personal attack but keeping a visible record that a personal attack (as judged by a given mod) has happened in this place, from this user.

If whataboutism was a crime sufficient to lock a thread, PPR would be empty

Then, I hope I understand. With all the support I received from you in my dark time... You've got a great heart

Oh I see. I misunderstood. I see what you're saying now. That would be a good idea I suppose, but I'll have to think about it a bit more to weigh the pros and cons. I wonder if it could be done retroactively as well? None of the egregious attacks that I reported in the past two months (PM and report button, with full documentation) were addressed at all. Some were reported in early June. I hope they'd be able to go back and fix those as well, if there isn't a statue of limitations on how quickly moderators respond.

I'd also like to remind the membership that not all rule breaks involve personal attacks. Lots of rules have nothing to do with personal attacks or conflict between two members. Perhaps in that case the comment would say "Content Removed by Moderator. Reason: Breaking WP Rules".

Other sites just delete comments which I think is preferable overall so that people don't gossip or speculate, but I sense that it's rare to delete posts here. They are usually just edited, with or without apologies given to the affected party.

Don't get me wrong though , I am no angel

I was referring to the linked thread by Magz you created. Someone posted "What about the discrimination men get?" and then it turned into "who has it worse."

The mod guidelines specifically say we shouldn’t do that because it might be embarrassing to users to have it publicly stated that they broke the rules. I personally think your approach would be better.

One half-solution I use is to avoid naming names, but just leave a comment saying something like “personal attacks are against WP rules, please keep it civil”. That way nobody is singled out but hopefully other users feel acknowledged.

On “why aren’t the mods participating more in this thread”: I can only speak for myself personally, but large sections of the thread have frankly been unpleasant, with personal attacks (veiled or otherwise) piling up on specific users. In particular, early on it was insinuated that certain users receive preferential treatment because moderators like them. I was concerned that intervening would make the situation worse and reinforce the idea that those users were being protected, so I took the easy route and didn’t do anything, telling myself I was letting the community have their say. I have no idea if that was the right decision... probably not.

For my part: I usually only really watch PPR unless something comes up in Mod Attention. I don’t often get PMs from users asking me to do anything anywhere else. I literally have no idea how things had supposedly got in places like Random and The Haven. I did check News in March and realised that a couple of users were basically using it like PPR, so I started checking there more often and gradually got it under control - although the steps I took were not always popular.

The s**t that people have been posting that was said to Sly - I honestly hadn’t seen any of that. It’s obviously unacceptable and the mangy dog thing should have resulted in a ban. My moderation style isn’t to check to report queue, which B19 has always been very good at. I liked Boo, and Ferris has serious strengths, but B19 did so much of the donkey work that makes this site usable. While there’s only 3.5 (or perhaps 3 and two halves) of us around, perhaps that style isn’t suitable, I need to be everywhere rather than just keeping one corner relatively tidy.

(Having said that, I really don’t want to be everywhere - I’d rather be nowhere at all! But at the end of the day as long as I’m a mod here and people are bullying each other then I’m partially responsible even if I don’t know it)

That's a bit harsh dude.

Well, depends on how much you beat yourself up over it. In an abstract way, I share some responsibility if a post isn’t dealt with properly. I don’t lie awake worrying about what is happening, thank God.

A Mod should be as politically objective as possible.

I feel you. WP has given me many sleepless nights even as a poster

I'm glad the Sly 'thing' will get sorted

Agrees. In principal . Do not be too hard on yourself , no one could be everywhere , if they even wanted to , but you could try ?

Last edited by Jakki on 19 Aug 2020, 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think the political aspect needs containment, specifically American politics, it seems like there isnt a platform for any other political definitions and topics except American ones. Yet there is a global membership.

Besides Autism is the main focus, rivalries and bad blood between members spilled over into the haven at one point.

The haven was used to discuss politics which invited responses that were more in line with where the topic should have been... PPR.