• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

A note about our moderators

ctenidae

Active member
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
8,959
Points
38
Location
SW Connecticut
As for walking on eggshells, I don't want to ever be accused of that. No, I tend to stomp on them, grinding little bits into the carpet.

I do try to stay on my side of the line, though.
 

JimG.

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
11,988
Points
113
Location
Hopewell Jct., NY
riverc0il said:
this isn't even about waters being calm. the mods have taken on extra responsibility to ensure the community and forum remains civil and enjoyable to all. even when we disagree with a decision, we owe each other and the mods respect on the decision. if a lot of people disagreed about over zealous mods, i am sure issues would be raised but rarely does any one cry foul and it is almost always the person causing trouble. i have seen other forums with iron handed mods, this forum is not one of them, so much respect to those making the decisions on keeping things civil.

I'll speak for all the mods...thanks Steve and everyone else who has posted about this.
 

kcyanks1

New member
Joined
Sep 3, 2005
Messages
1,555
Points
0
Location
New York, NY
I agree th mods do a good job here. There are never trolls, posts stay on-topic. I post in un-moderated newsgroups, and while there are advantages, you never see the trolls and spam on this site that you can in newsgroups. It also seems like it is pretty rare that they step in and edit posts or close threads. Though I guess I'm with Austin that locking is preferable to deleting, when action is necessary, unless the offending post is really extreme.
 

Vortex

Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2004
Messages
458
Points
18
Location
Canterbury NH, Bethel Me
I think our members do alot of the moderating. They self moderate. I get many pm's from members showing what they see and tell me what they did and ask for help. Most of the time when I jump in it cause I was asked by others to help unless its useless spam..
Its the community thing. If we step in its not a powere issue. We all make decisions some good some bad. I came here because of the mellow and safe feeling here. I stay for the same reason. Some nice words guys and thanks for those that have offered reasonable suggestions and ideas.
 

2knees

New member
Joined
Nov 17, 2004
Messages
8,330
Points
0
Location
Safe
I think you guys run this place fine. I definitely know you have a lot more restraint then I do in regards to putting up with junk on other boards. Heck, I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to pop off. Must fight it.....


Anyway it seems like a mostly thankless job but you do very well imo.
 

SilentCal

Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Messages
450
Points
16
Location
Western Mass
Greg is correct when he mentions that you can not please everyone. Try as much as you like, but there is always someone that will be upset with whatever decision is made. If your truly upset with a moderators decison then maybe the particular forum you are in is just not for you. 95% of the moderators that I've spoken to on various sites are volunteers who are quite sensible. Very very few are true jerks.

One of the best things to happen to this site was the removal of politcal topics. I'm sure it cut moderators work by 80%.
 

skiNEwhere

Active member
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
4,141
Points
38
Location
Dubai
honestly this forum is cool. the people here get along. skiing is a competitive sport, and so is snowboarding, and so it skiing VS. snowboarding. but its laid back, no power hungry mods, everything is in moderation (i know, not funny)
 

ERJ-145CA

Active member
Joined
May 6, 2007
Messages
2,012
Points
38
Location
Northwestern, NJ
honestly this forum is cool. the people here get along. skiing is a competitive sport, and so is snowboarding, and so it skiing VS. snowboarding. but its laid back, no power hungry mods, everything is in moderation (i know, not funny)

My how times have changed.
 

Nick

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
13,176
Points
48
Location
Bradenton, FL
Website
www.alpinezone.com
Hey ERJ-145CA

For what it's worth, I still agree with Greg's post at the top about this forum being minimally moderated. I'll explain some more... since many people don't have insight into what really occurred yesterday.

The only thing that was moderated yesterday were dozens of new threads that were started for the sole purpose of inflaming the board. Those were deleted, in part because some had titles like "Fuck the mods" and "Please Ban Me". In addition some posts that were directing people away from the site were moderated as well.

I'm more than happy to talk about it (and I have with several already in PM). Two users were banned for (3) days after being warned explicitly not to continue creating new threads or they would be banned.

The only other thing that was moderated was the GSS posts. The reason for that is the GSS thread with the poll went out of control. There was a lot of personal attacks in there, again that not everyone is aware of since they were deleted. Really over the top stuff. So as a result, we locked the thread - and I encouraged anyone who wanted to know why to send me a PM to discuss it.

So what happened yesterday was really unfortunate. I'm hoping the members who were temp banned can come back and be great contributors to the board again. They had great posts that I respect a lot, and I even said that to them in the process of temp banning them.

I'm writing up a post on the rule changes now, why we did them, what it means, and so on. It will be open for comment. I'm not for stifling opinion - the mods and I really care about what everyone on this forum has to say, but the GSS stuff yesterday went way out of control, more than many people realize. In retrospect, I probably should have first updated the rules, made people aware of them, and then doled out the warnings I had to give out. But it definitely wasn't arbitrary in any way.

Anyway - keep tuned for a post in this forum about the rule changes and what they actually mean. I hope it will help explain it to everyone. Myself and the mods have been talking a lot about this and trying to find a way to balance out discussion in the boards. It will never be perfect - but really with the GSS thing, for example, that decision was made a long time ago and it was truly derailing the entire forum in almost all threads.

I'm sorry I can't make everyone happy - I really wish I could. I do want everyone to feel comfortable talking here. No one will ever be banned, even temporarily, without a very clear warning first that the banning is the next step, and I will give as many opportunities to respond over PM as they would like about those decisions.

Let me be very clear, I am 100% on board with people dissenting. Differing opinions make the place fun and exciting. What I'm not on board with is personal attacks and creating this Mods vs. Members thing that was really damaging to the community. The entire thing is a gray line and I think most members of AlpineZone understand that. I don't care about small jabs, virulent disagreements on ski resort policy, etc. But I can't have six-month tail discussions on every moderation decision, particularly one that was made almost two years ago. We all know not everyone is going to be happy with all the decisions that are made... that's just the way it is, unfortunately, because we are all human at the end of the day.

Anyway. Look for the other thread a bit later. Again, in retrospect I should have posted it sooner..... to give the opportunity for comment in a centralized place (not in the Miscellaneous forum). I'm truly sorry about handling it backwards in that regards.
 

andyzee

New member
Joined
Sep 14, 2004
Messages
10,884
Points
0
Location
Home
Website
www.nsmountainsports.com
Nick,
Don't mean to imflame or start trouble, but was looking at your rules and to bring it up the GSS item one last time. Was he given the temporary bans as outlined in the board policies? I for one don't remember that happening.
 

ERJ-145CA

Active member
Joined
May 6, 2007
Messages
2,012
Points
38
Location
Northwestern, NJ
Nick,

About my above post that was just my feelings after logging on late last night, after being away from my computer all day, and seeing two frequent contributors banned and all kinds of locked threads. Two years ago the GSS banning left a sour taste in my mouth. I found his posts entertaining and I felt that a permanent banning was undeserved and made this board less interesting. I used to be a much more frequent visitor during the off-season before GSS was banned mainly because, frankly, there were interesting threads with funny posts from him leading to funny or entertaining posts from others.

I didn't see what happened during the day but when I saw a new round of bannings and such it seemed to me that this site was suddenly being over-moderated overnight. I'm not one to start flame wars or troll but I will and have responded with my feelings in threads when I feel a need to comment, even if it is a "controversial" thread about GSS or any other subject (except politics as I have been a member of a board where every thread devoloved into a political argument and it was very annoying). I respect your right to run the board as you see fit and wish you luck with it but I hope yesterday is not an indication of future heavy handed moderation.
 

Nick

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
13,176
Points
48
Location
Bradenton, FL
Website
www.alpinezone.com
Nick,

About my above post that was just my feelings after logging on late last night, after being away from my computer all day, and seeing two frequent contributors banned and all kinds of locked threads. Two years ago the GSS banning left a sour taste in my mouth. I found his posts entertaining and I felt that a permanent banning was undeserved and made this board less interesting. I used to be a much more frequent visitor during the off-season before GSS was banned mainly because, frankly, there were interesting threads with funny posts from him leading to funny or entertaining posts from others.

I didn't see what happened during the day but when I saw a new round of bannings and such it seemed to me that this site was suddenly being over-moderated overnight. I'm not one to start flame wars or troll but I will and have responded with my feelings in threads when I feel a need to comment, even if it is a "controversial" thread about GSS or any other subject (except politics as I have been a member of a board where every thread devoloved into a political argument and it was very annoying). I respect your right to run the board as you see fit and wish you luck with it but I hope yesterday is not an indication of future heavy handed moderation.

Thanks for the feedback. I hope my comments above gave some more context around the events of the day...

I am not looking to over-moderate the site, at all. I think in some ways the way the GSS threads had gone reminded me of a "political" thread as you said in some ways. Even here we can talk about it - I don't care if it's controversial or not - but at some point when a decision is final it has to be final. I know the GSS thing is polarizing and I've had strong arguments from both sides. I just made my decision based on my earlier post, and the problem in the other threads (which I let run for a long time..) was that they got out of hand and had to be locked.

I'd rather have a thread about banning policies or whatever than spend eons discussing the decision of one person many years ago, even as loved / hated as he apparently was.

IN any event - my goal is the opposite of "heavy handed moderation". The members are what makes the community, and myself and the mods serve (as Greg mentioned in the original post above) to help the greater good of the community. In this particular case I tried to do what I thought was best for the community.

Actually in re-reading Greg's original post, it's almost the identical situation as what was happening here, and I stand by the comments I made earlier that anyone can contact me anytime.

Call me. Send me a PM and I'll give you my number and we can talk on the phone.

Email me. Nick@alpinezone.com. I'll talk to you

PM me.

Whatever, but I'm open for talking about anything and everything. Or at least I will try to be.

Thanks again... - Nick :beer:

:snow: bring on the snow :snow:
 
Top