Moderation in PPR

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• Graduated & confined disciplinary structures: Overall WP bans should really be only for jerkasses who like flaunting rules and teasing people just for the hell of it and spammers. I recall a discussion of whether a given member was banned from WP for offending religious people or for offending people at Haven. Given that nature of Haven (people there need a lot of support and, might very well respond quite poorly to harsh criticism), it makes sense to ban people from that particular board if they're overly confrontational, but not from more inherently confrontational boards (like PPR). Of course, if people do cross the line into outright jerkass territory on PPR or spam like hell, then banning them from all of WP makes sense. If people persist in bullying posters based on Haven posts via PM, then discontinuing PM privileges makes sense (I recall an earlier post where someone spoke of how their PM privileges had been discontinued, so it seems possible to do). There might be some software issues with board specific bans, but I'll let the programmers take care of those devilish details.
• PPR warning: Something like this should appear before you enter the PPR board:"Wrong Planet is, overall, meant to be an autistic spectrum support site. However, the subject matter and conduct on PPR will be much more confrontational than the rest of Wrong Planet. Rhetoric like "liberalism is a mental disorder", "conservatism is a depraved and disgusting ideology", "the bible is clear on the undeniable sinfulness of homosexuality and the Satanic nature of the homosexual agenda", and "Christianity is a filthy, homophobic, genocidal, misogynistic, death cult and delusion" may be used. You have been warned. Do you want to enter ==> [[Yes]], [[No]]
• Have a PPR specific mod, but have the Haven intensely moderated as well (to a degree, it might already be, I don't go on that board that often, so I couldn't tell).
• Given the amount of complaints from the religious, have a "spirituality" board created that deals with the sentimental aspects of religion to be conducted under a non-confrontational ethos.

Honestly, I personally need some guidance on how to block a user. I have Google Chrome, and I don't know how to get that to work with WP's forum to block somebody. I know there is a Firefox version of a solution, but I'd rather not switch to Firefox. I also had problems trying to download greasemonkey for Firefox as well.... and so I am not sure even how to implement this for Firefox.

I think that in the case of persistent problems between particular posters, I don't think pure rule enforcement is really meaningful. If both sides have it personal against the other, then once again, we just have Bismarck's cigar. The question then comes down to which person has a higher proclivity towards politeness and those other personality variables, not really a question of "Is mod enforcement of the rules making WP a better place?" because the real issue is the conflict, not that a poster is generally disrespectful.

As someone who's been to other web forums and taken a Public Admin course in University, I'm amazed at how well the typical average member-moderator tensions on this forum and others relates to general dilemma with Weberian bureaucracies. The "we don't make the rules, we administer them fairly and impartially, to the letter of the law, to all citizens (or netizens)". The process-centric perspective administrators take on resolving conflicts (or deciding who's in the right and who's in the wrong).

@M_P

Those are all good suggestions, I know that splitting spirituality off into it's own topic has been discussed before along with an "abandon all hope ye who enter here" type disclaimer for PPR.

I think they have actually changed the ban structure quite a bit, they now come in time out or permanent flavors and are appeal-able, which are MAJOR improvements from the old system of "screw up once and you're gone forever, even speaking your username is now a sin" that used to be practiced here.

That last part was particularly Orwellian, asking if someone had been banned might be against the rules, but you couldn't know without asking and thus possibly breaking the rule. I know that several people were concerned when a certain member with health issues disappeared suddenly, we only found out that he was alive but banned sometime later when he popped up on another forum to tell people what actually happened to him. His ban was actually reversed recently and he's active in PPR again, for which I for one am grateful as I like his style.

I also know that the Haven is pretty well monitored, I know I see Hyperlexian's byline in their often, mostly as a user of the forum, but that presence insures that people know the forum is being watched. That speaks again to why a PPR veteran mod would be helpful, just having regular posts with a moderator "tag" on them would be a subtle reminder that while things are relaxed in there, it's not the Wild West and someone is paying attention to the place.

You can also see something in AGs responses that's quite common in PPR; a sort of ignorance/indifference to the mods and ToS until someone makes a complaint about something that involves him, at which point he reacts with hostility (not meaning to treat you like a science project here or someone who's not in the room AG, just working with what I've got).

A lot of PPR users follow that pattern, they may have initially joined WP because they got diagnosed and were pointed here for info, but then they got sucked into PPR and primarily or even exclusively patronize that forum. That's certainly how it went for me, and until a thread I created was deleted without warning I too was largely ignorant of the goings on in the site at large, let alone the politics of WP itself. Feeling like you're minding your own business and then suddenly getting an often rudely worded warning (they may have improved since, I just know my one and only warning that I got in my first weeks here was downright nasty) doesn't tend to bring out the best in people, especially people who are often not even aware that they've done anything wrong. It's often a sort of cascading event, the initial contact leads to angry denials or rebuttals or accusations of bias or vendettas if the mod seems to have a stake in the argument or has tangled with that poster before, which cause more anger and make things personal with the mod. I've both done it and seen it happen to others, and it's a real problem on the site as a whole but PPR in particular because of the isolation from the rest of the site.

I don't agree with AG's aggressiveness towards 91 in particular, but some of them are indeed out of context (as AG has pointed out).

Best to examine the quotes within context first before making any judgement.

Perhaps 91 has been unpleasant enough to AG to warrant such a vile response... is this visible? Not immediately.

This obviously requires moderation. How can we fix AG and/or 91 so they aren't soiling the forums with this disgusting level of disrespect for each other, themselves and the rest of the forum members

I'm not especially interested in banning people.

So work with us... I'm listening.

AG seems content to ignore 91 in the future if someone can show him how to block his posts, that seems like a gimme from where I'm sitting. Anyone know how to block a user in Chrome?

Dammit, don't break up the 91/AG feud, its better than UFC for me

I think a PPR-exclusive mod might be a good idea, so long as it doesn't ruin the current setup of the PPR. Setting up the "Spirituality" forum might alleviate some of the complaints made by the religious members who want to talk about their inspirations in a non-debate context. Though in truth I don't see a problem with the setup now. Theists are free to ignore people who "intrude" on their threads if they so wish