TAO post waiting for mod. review?? - Page 2

[JustJamie]

Yeah, the 24 hour wait pretty much killed TAO for me too. Since that was the main forum I visited on this site, I'll just stick to other boards now.

[ewins24]

I too think it take the life out of TAO. It was my nightly laugh as my nights are rough w/ a DH deployed.

I think this is pretty crazy and we are going to lose some great people b/c who wants to be babysat as adults like this?.

I'm not trying to be rude but just stating how I feel. The makes me very sad.

[Mama Dragon]

Why not add on moderators just for TAO? Add more GAs to patrol for real off-topics...something.... it's killing the spirit of chatting with friends. It's like having to whisper to your principal at school what you want to say to your friends and have them relay it if they see fit.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Adding more mods is a good idea I bet there are more than a few who would be willing to do it no problem.

I will say that a week or so ago when I was having a major panic attack and I posted in TAO for some moral support till it passed had there been the wait on there I would have been all alone. I could have posted in Mental Health I guess but that area is not high traffic and who knows if it would have been spotted.

I am not the only one who has needed some moral support ASAP and posted in TAO and gotten the support they needed and it pains me to think that might happen to someone now who would be left alone because of the long wait for a thread to be posted. I am thinking that a mod. isnt on 24/7 though that may be the case?

[Ziggysmama]

OK, I know you guys are just trying new things out anf trying to make life a little easier but the more I thin about the new rules the more I think they suck.
What if I am lonely and I want to just chat with my friends?
It seems like anything goes in the DDC's...I'm not pregnant though...What do I do now?

[kmeyrick]

Originally Posted by Synthea™

Why not add on moderators just for TAO? Add more GAs to patrol for real off-topics...something.... it's killing the spirit of chatting with friends. It's like having to whisper to your principal at school what you want to say to your friends and have them relay it if they see fit.

Originally Posted by Ziggysmama

OK, I know you guys are just trying new things out anf trying to make life a little easier but the more I thin about the new rules the more I think they suck.
What if I am lonely and I want to just chat with my friends?
It seems like anything goes in the DDC's...I'm not pregnant though...What do I do now?

Yeah, both of these. And I can only imagine this new policy as making MORE work for the mods, not less. Usually threads start off just fine, totally innocent, with UA violations later. I don't see how it will work.

[MiaPia]

Originally Posted by boadhagh

(Mods, please don't think I'm a posting grumblesaur; I just want to share .)

Part of what I find difficult with the new posting guidelines is the stringency of the moderated off-topic posting because, for me, many posts are not only placed one place or another because of subject (or topic) but also because of tone and feeling.

For example, I love the slow and thoughtful threads in the Spirituality forum, but if I wanted to tell a funny story about my kid in church, I wouldn't post it in Spirituality because it would just be too frivolous and I wouldn't submit it to TOA for moderation because the "subject" wouldn't be appropriate.

I don't have any good suggestions for alternatives, though. Sorry; I just wanted to share.

I totally agree with this. For example, there was recently a lighthearted thread about bad sushi (made by a PA Dutchman) that was moved to Nutrition and Good Eating. What does bad sushi have to do with either nutrition OR good eating?

I am asking this in all seriousness (because I have never moderated a board), but is it really THAT big of a deal to have a thread posted in what you deem to be the "wrong" place?

[Canadianmommax3]

Originally Posted by MiaPia

I totally agree with this. For example, there was recently a lighthearted thread about bad sushi (made by a PA Dutchman) that was moved to Nutrition and Good Eating. What does bad sushi have to do with either nutrition OR good eating?

I am asking this in all seriousness (because I have never moderated a board), but is it really THAT big of a deal to have a thread posted in what you deem to be the "wrong" place?

[Cynthia Mosher]

TAO is dead now.

Not really. 35 new threads approved since it was reopened and it hasn't been 24 hours yet.

i'm also wondering about people who post in toa about things they want to keep out of google-searchable forums; often women will post in toa when a subject is too personally revealing in parents as partners but not appropriate in surviving abuse

That's not the purpose of TAO and their threads would get moved anyway. They can request use of our guest account and not post personally revealing information.

Um, yeah. As a repeat off topic offender (for which I really do try to be good about) I'd MUCH rather get warings, or possibly be banned, then have to wait 24 hours to see a silly thread go up.

And that is a big part of the problem we had. Some members choose to ignore the guidelines and make work for the moderation team anyway just to get what they want. Which led us to this new approach.

And this isn't about approving or denying silly topic threads.

Why not just have a policy that if you post off topic your thread gets moved. No explanation, no pretty little note, no response if you PM saying 'where did my thread go omg i'm freaking out!!!!' That must be the most time consuming element no? Just moving a thread only takes a few seconds. If you move them, people can see where they've gone and they can follow them to the appropriate forum. Institute a 'no complaining if your thread gets moved' rule. MUCH better than approving every single thread that gets posted to TAO, and waaaay less life sucking for the forum.

Just moving threads to the correct forum was what we used to do. As the community grew it served to fuel the desire of members to post in TAO, knowing a mod would move it for them. They got the TAO attention they wanted their thread to get for the brief period of time before a mod saw it and moved it. TAO became Little MDC and there were mass numbers of threads to be moved every day. Yeah. That didn't work. It made things worse.

And, as much as MDC is always touting on about moderator work, and the time spent doing things, and how everyone is working as volunteers, it BAFFLES me that the administration would want to take on the responsibility of weeding through off topic posts

And I can only imagine this new policy as making MORE work for the mods, not less. Usually threads start off just fine, totally innocent, with UA violations later. I don't see how it will work.

That's because you are not aware of the back end moderation work that TAO carries with the open forum. Off topic posting requires a lot of work for the moderators. We tried to handle that by alerting and warning off topic posters and suspending their TAO posting privileges. That increased the work for everyone because members do not heed the guidelines or alerts (see above). So we're trying this approach as a last ditch effort before we consider closing the forum altogether. So far, just looking at less than 24 hours of the new setup, the workload is drastically reduced.

The moderation of threads is not to catch UA violations. It is to control the off topic posting. UA violations will be dealt with as they occur in discussions.

What if I am lonely and I want to just chat with my friends?
It seems like anything goes in the DDC's...I'm not pregnant though...What do I do now?

Try live chat rather than posting a thread. Invite your friends to join you. We do have a chat feature on our list of things to consider so this may bump it up the list.

I totally agree with this. For example, there was recently a lighthearted thread about bad sushi (made by a PA Dutchman) that was moved to Nutrition and Good Eating. What does bad sushi have to do with either nutrition OR good eating?
I am asking this in all seriousness (because I have never moderated a board), but is it really THAT big of a deal to have a thread posted in what you deem to be the "wrong" place?

It can be a rather arbitrary decision for some thread topics. But we are in the position to make that decision. Yes, you will disagree sometimes, just as we do as a mod team. We will try to improve on the decision process.

Yes, it is a big deal. For all the reasons I stated above.

Why not add on moderators just for TAO? Add more GAs to patrol for real off-topics...something.... it's killing the spirit of chatting with friends. It's like having to whisper to your principal at school what you want to say to your friends and have them relay it if they see fit.

When we have moderators getting burned out in TAO and the solution is to put even more moderators to help spread the work around to more people to lessen the burden of work, we have to look at the cause and try to stem that, not throw more mods at it. TAO is meant to be a fun, casual place for members to hang out but it is not a core forum. It was placed for the benefit of the community but should not be where moderator time and energy is heavily spent because people cannot or refuse to follow the guidelines of the forum. We won't invest more resources into an extraneous forum because members refuse to heed rules.

Now that I've addressed the main points of complaint raised I'm closing this thread so we can set this aside for now and get to work on other forum needs. We will try this approach for a month and then revisit it. Any other input can be sent to [e-mail].