Too Strict

[Nebulous]

As an admin, do you intervene if your moderators are being overly strict or punishing members who AREN'T breaking the rules?

 

[David]

As an admin, do you intervene if your moderators are being overly strict or punishing members who AREN'T breaking the rules?

It should be a moral obligation for the administrator to step in and clarify the situation. Otherwise, those being over-strict get off scotch-free and those affected members will then have a bad impression of the forum. It all tumbles down and the general consensus may feel that forum may be bad.

 

[Nebulous]

I agree. I recently joined a (massively large) forum where the moderators were running wild. The admin never logs in. They are infraction and ban happy.

I suppose when a forum gets to be a certain size, you get different treatment. Smaller communities are more friendly and want to do things to hold on to their members.

 

[David]

Definitely true, the last part.

As the forum gets larger and larger, there are more and more people who may oppose a certain idea or change. It may get difficult for moderators and end up focusing their power on anyone possible, at the smallest of things (maybe a signature too large by a few pixels = ban button).

 

[MissTake]

To punish members who are not breaking rules is wrong so I think an admin should step in. Where members are breaking rules, when the rules are there in writing for all to see and mods do step in is not a crime. That's what the mods are there for, to keep peace and harmony and organisation.
Some moderators turn a blind eye to the little things and others get power crazy at the smallest things, that's how the internet world is. The admin should always be aware of what is going on on their sites and aware of how it's being run.

 

[Fergal]

...infraction and ban happy.

I suppose when a forum gets to be a certain size, you get different treatment. Smaller communities are more friendly and want to do things to hold on to their members.

Maybe it's actually the other way round. Perhaps the reason the forum got to be big and successful is because they are strict about enforcing the rules??

 

[rottenforums]

As an admin, do you intervene if your moderators are being overly strict or punishing members who AREN'T breaking the rules?

For internal corporate forums I've had to actually ban people from their own jobs forum for being too combative and foolish. Usually I did it to save them from themselves since I knew them most of the time and didn't want them getting fired over their anger to policy changes, etc. They hadn't broken any strict rules, but I also didn't want them having to go on monster.com the next week because they were mad over something stupid @ work.

Now doing a public off-topic style forum I have no mods yet, still under 100 posts a day so I can keep up on it alone and my rules are fairly lax. Once I add in some mods if they decide to get too overt with their actions to the point of effecting the user base, they'll be the first on the demotion line. Nothing is worse than a guy/girl on a fun site bringing the mood and tempo down by dropping the banhammer like mad and going on virtual powertrips.

 

[Nebulous]

Maybe it's actually the other way round. Perhaps the reason the forum got to be big and successful is because they are strict about enforcing the rules??

Many forums dont start out this way. They usually evolve into it. So many people bickering and breaking the rules that staff members lose all patience.

 

[Justin]

Of course,
everyone here wants to run the perfect forum so none of us would allow that, neither would I.

 

[Acorn]

As an admin, do you intervene if your moderators are being overly strict or punishing members who AREN'T breaking the rules?

Holy crap, yes I do. And if said mods continue to do things like this, they don't stay mods for long. We take "Nazi mods" pretty seriously. Of course it helps to hire mods who have been on the site at least a few months and so you and the other staff know them well already, and in turn the prospective new staff also have learnt what will fly and what won't. We make it especially clear that nobody is permitted to make up their own rules and enforce things that are not clearly stated as rules, or don't fall under any existing rules.

We are strict about enforcing our rules. If it's on the rules it will be firmly enforced. That doesn't mean we're a strict forum. If the rules themselves allow a comfortable amount of freedom, then you will be fine.

 

[Nuvella Crystallis]

To be honest I have never had that problem in all my years of administrating. My staff is smart enough to deal with anything that needs taken care of.

 

[AnAccount]

I have never had this problem on any of my forums, including my current one. However, I suppose if I did have this problem, I would probably have to step in and say, hey, you know what? You guys shouldn't be doing this. You need to step back and think about what you're doing before you do it.

 

[Jonathan]

I remember on ETF some of the mods were scaring the members away a little so I did have to step in and just talk to them several times. The problem was if I tell the user that the mod was wrong, they start to think they know better which causes more problems.

You really have to train the mods well 😛

 

[Hotspot]

I have never had a strict moderator, so no...
My staff doesn't do anything crazy, they even ask me if they aren't sure of something.

 

[DarkRaven]

I've never had this problem. I'm very careful selecting staff and most of them have had moderator experience elsewhere. If they punish a member for no reason, they can look forward to being fired very quickly

At the same time though, we are strict in our punishments. Every member is expected to have an IQ of at least 100 - or at least post like they do. Idiocy is not a defense.

I prefer strictly moderated forums to the laid back variety - I don't know about everyone else.

 

[David]

I prefer strictly moderated forums to the laid back variety - I don't know about everyone else.

I'd prefer my members being able to socially communicate with my moderators. If it was all strict, I doubt you'd get many members or posts, as anything could tick a moderator off with a strictly moderated forum.

 

[Rich Edmonds]

I'd prefer my members being able to socially communicate with my moderators. If it was all strict, I doubt you'd get many members or posts, as anything could tick a moderator off with a strictly moderated forum.

Agreed. :cheer:

 

[DarkRaven]

I prefer strictly moderated forums to the laid back variety - I don't know about everyone else.

I'd prefer my members being able to socially communicate with my moderators. If it was all strict, I doubt you'd get many members or posts, as anything could tick a moderator off with a strictly moderated forum.

Yes, on my forum members communicate socially with moderators. But if a member is making spam posts like ''LOL'' and ''Agreed'' with no other content they still get told off. That does not really detract from socially communicating with moderators. 😉

Pretty much: If you are not acting like an idiot, we're cool. It's worked on the two forums that I've ran so far.

 

[David]

Yes, on my forum members communicate socially with moderators. But if a member is making spam posts like ''LOL'' and ''Agreed'' with no other content they still get told off. That does not really detract from socially communicating with moderators. 😉

Pretty much: If you are not acting like an idiot, we're cool. It's worked on the two forums that I've ran so far.

That's not really "strictly moderated", more, common sense.

 

[upromotion]

I have never had this problem though if i did i suppose i would have to assess the situation