Making it Better: The future of WP

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When you see such personal attacks of any kind, please send a PM to a mod with the link.

we aren't omniscient or omnipresent (although that would have its uses...WP software doesn't provide us with omniescience - pity).

More mods will certainly improve the situation. We're almost ready to submit a list and hopefully Admin will then respond speedily.

Re the new member posts - I personally never assume someone's a troll unless its pretty obvious, and we shouldn't assume anything. What someone here might define as a stupid or crazy question may be a perfectly valid one in the eyes of the asker.

Example: Someone is allowed be a flat earther yet is welcome to post as long as he doesn't try to recruit others to his way of thinking.

^That's quite OK - your English far exceeds my Polish. I had a Polish colleague a few years ago and she tried to teach me a few basics during tea and lunch breaks but we didn't get very far as too much work got in the way. All I can recall offhand is cezht (spelling? - an informal greeting) as I think I misplaced the little notebook.

I'd love to see what a Polish Scrabble set looks like!

You mean "Cześć"?
Polish scrabble set is neither interesting nor good for playing. "Ć" is definitely underrepresented and overpriced.

I reiterate what others have said.

Nobody, of whatever political persuasion, should be personally attacked.

Anytime I’m called a leftist, I feel attacked. I ain’t no commie.

Regarding the "dangers" of enforcing the rules: I certainly wasn't suggesting a dogmatic approach. What I meant is that we (or the mods) should be careful with cherry-picking who we make allowances for and who gets treated more harshly or taking a personal or ideological dislike to someone and either participate in or turn a blind eye when they're being bullied or insulted.

I also don't agree that autistic people can't understand and follow the rules, since it's not a problem on other autistic forums, especially when they get some guidance and assistance from the mods.

I don't see any rule against asking "stupid" questions and I don't agree with harassing people based on suspicion, particularly new members. With the former moderation team, I was encouraged by one of them to report suspicions privately since he had the means to make further investigations or at least to keep an eye on the person until he could make up his mind. As Isabella said, someone who has experience with that kind of stuff would be a great addition, as it happened quite frequently in the past for members to make public accusations of sock-puppetry or trolling and be wrong about it, while actual offenders managed to fly under the radar.

And I'm still a big fan of self-moderating and I agree with the post Isabella made a couple of pages ago (sorry, can't quote). People should stay out of the Haven if they don't have anything nice to say, as for the rest of the forum, people who can't stand each other or are incapable of engaging in a civil exchange (happens to all of us), should learn to stay away from each other instead of having the same fights over and over again. Leaving aside that cookie-cutter advice is generally bad as we often can't fully understand others' personal circumstances, this is also a pragmatical POV: no matter how valid your advice might be, nobody will ever change their ways or views because someone on the internet is pestering them or downright accuses them of being lazy, "wrong" or much worse. I also dislike seeing people leave or get banned because aggressive or argumentative members are allowed to follow them around or even bait them until they lose their cool. And while some do that kind of stuff because they seemingly can't help themselves, IMO others have been taking advantage of the situation to get rid of those they dislike or disagree with.

These last couple of weeks I've been irritable as hell due to the heatwave so I just stopped posting as I knew I can't fully trust myself to not take it out on some poor bugger. There are a couple of people here whom I never, ever engage since I know from experience it doesn't go well. Others, even if they obviously can't stand me will respond in a civilised manner and that's also fine: not everybody will like or agree with you and as far as I'm concerned, that's mostly a plus, not a minus.

I haven't experienced any of these things, but maybe it's because I'm new and being ignored out of suspicion
Actually, my time here has so far been pleasant, you all seem alright from where I stand. Hopefully adding moderators will help fix the problems that have been discussed.

That said, I am also all for self moderating. I know if I read something and have a 'What the *radio edit*' moment, then I should walk away. If I don't know if someone is trolling or being serious, I walk away. I also know enough about myself to know that I can suck when it comes to being supportive to people in a highly emotional state. It's not that I don't want to be supportive, I do, but I don't want to make things worse and I'm not known for my nurturing and intuitive tendencies. Nope. Best to leave that for someone more qualified.

Ok so far

-It's up to the new mod team to make the future of WP better.

-The rules need to be enforced consistently and fairly, including people who are friendly with the team, no exceptions.... I suggest a middle ground between the extremes of those sensitized and those hardened by lifes experiences. Neither should take precedence over the other. Both are a valid response to the environment.

-All forms of communication (including what the neurotypical community would call bluntness) should be seen as normal.

Some good progress, I believe we will need more for positive change to be sustainable, other solutions that dont involve software changes?

For self moderation: Everyone needs to familiarize themselves with the rules, especially veterans, any thoughts?

I am in favour of everyone checking their own behaviour. There is nothing more important than how we treat each other. This is fundamental for our well-being and for us to thrive. I think Steve 1963 is my "man of the week" for apologising to Fnord. This is manhood at it's very best.

For Steve's magnificent apology