Redditor u/dalegard's criticism of TTG ( it has now been removed or deleted ) but still on his profile (
https://www.reddit.com/user/Dalegard). Definitely worth a read
After recent threads like
this one and
that one, I have some new suggestions to make, which also happen to be more or less related to what I said earlier about further clarifying the rules.
Apparently, too many people (most of whom will be new members) were unaware that remembrance threads are not allowed here. They all knew that goodbye threads will be locked, but they didn't know that remembrance threads would get the same treatment, which resulted in a lot of misunderstandings and frustrations on their part. I believe that this may partially have to do with the fact that the mod post about farewell threads was pinned for only a short time, as I explained
right here. That post contains
crucial information for the community and as such it should be prominently featured or at least easily accessible - but it isn't. It's listed at the very bottom in the sidebar, which will cause many people to miss it. Yes, it's also listed on the
index pageof the Wiki, but that's not a very intuitive place when the "Rules" section is actually
the first place where people will look if they want to know about the do's and don't in this sub. As such, my recommendation is to put a reference to
this section in the "Rules" section. Also put a link to the
Reddiquette in it while you're at it, because people apparently don't know that things like rude behaviour is also against the rules here. It sucks, but apparently people need things spelled out to them as if they were 5 years old. <sigh>
Something else that should be included in the "Rules" section, is what measures the moderators will take when the rules are broken. For example, how many strikes will a person receive before they are banned? Tonya started mentioning strikes in the first thread that I listed in the first paragraph of this post, which was new and sudden. If you're going to introduce something like that, fine, but inform the userbase about it first, so that they know what they can expect. The way Tonya is going about it, makes things seem rather arbitrary and mismanaged, so I can rather sympathise with the userbase's frustrations right now. My recommendation is to lay out a clear policy on what moderators will do when rules are broken, so that both the moderators and the users know where they stand. Here is what I imagine the average user would want to know:
- Will the breaking of only certain rules lead to an immediate ban, or does that apply to all rules? In other words: what are bannable offences and what are not?
- How many strikes until I receive a ban?
- How long will a ban last? Does it depend on the circumstances, or is there a set system for bans? For example: first ban is 2 days, then after repeated rule-breaking the second ban will be 2 weeks, and if there is further rule-breaking after that, the third ban will be permanent. In other words: how many chances will a user get until they receive a permanent ban?
- Will the moderators always give me a chance to rewrite my post if at first it was deemed inappropriate?
Tonya finally started explaining things a little bit
here, but it's too little too late, kinda. Posts on the lacking moderation keep coming up now, such as
this one. Sometimes I wonder if it isn't actually a campaign started by
AITY with the intention of bringing this sub down so that people will flock to SanctionedSuicide.net instead, because it seems that
his thread is what made this trend start. After he left, someone with the brand new account of
Thick-Idiot wanted to ask questions about the moderation, then
war-is-lost (also a brand new account) started complaining about the moderation and now we have
Deadbytmr (another brand new account) asking questions about the moderation. It's either a coincidence or a conspiracy.
Either way, this is ruining the atmosphere in the sub and so I think it's best if the moderators make a sticky ASAP that outlines their exact policy on what they will do when the rules are broken or when they encounter otherwise inappropriate content. Users will ask a lot of questions in that sticky and be sure to answer all of them. But
make clear to them that after all of those questions have been answered, from this point onwards it is a rule that they should contact the moderators
in private about any questions that they might have about the moderation of this sub or about what the moderators did with their post. Threads about the moderation are off-topic and will only clutter the sub, so this should be actively discouraged after that sticky has been made. The same applies to other off-topic content as well, so no more irrelevant music videos such as the ones that Grinch has been posting.
With that said, I have to say that I agree with people's general opinion that Tonya and Viking are harsh, unfeeling and inconsistent. I liked it better when it was just you and Ad, because even in your position of authority as moderators, you two were human and relatable. I can't say the same for Tonya and Viking. I fully understand that being a moderator is a difficult job and that you
need Tonya and Viking as a result, but if they don't relax a little or at least become a little bit more consistent and transparent about what they're doing, I can see this sub dying pretty soon. But perhaps that's inevitable, even if only because the new and soon-to-be fully implemented Reddit design will turn a lot of people off from Reddit.
A final suggestion: you might want to specify in rule #4 what constitutes a minor to you. Is that anyone under the age of 18, or anyone under the age of 21? I saw a question about that in one of the recent threads and it's a valid question. Just because this sub is classed as NSFW (which Reddit defines as 18+ by default) doesn't automatically mean that the moderators of this sub believe that anyone under the age of 18 is a minor. It could easily be that they believe that 21 is the age of majority, but that they were unable to specify this as there is no such default Reddit setting. As such, better to specify in rule #4 what exactly makes someone a minor, so that there will no longer be any room for doubt and confusion.
zoomalian
My body, My choice. Right, lads?3 points·
12 hours ago
Hi Dale, I've read everything you've written. I'm a bit busy now so I will get back to you in a few days, if that's alright? Also I will be working on being more clear with the rules.
Dalegard
rotting away inside my flesh prison1 point·
7 hours ago
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly, despite the fact that you're swamped in real life at the moment. Of course, that's no problem at all - feel free to take all the time that you need! It doesn't matter to me if that means a few days from now or two weeks from now - I'll still be around on Reddit. :) I do have one question left for you though, which I will be sending you a PM about.
I apologise for the tone of my previous post, by the way - please don't mind it too much. I'm due for a break from this sub soon. x_x
