New policies and clarification to forum operation

[otseng]

There has been considerable discussion recently, both publicly and privately, on the operation of the forum. I thank everyone for their honest input and it is time to put a closure to it. I have given some latitude in letting people air their opinions, but those discussions will now be closed. Further public discussions on moderating behavior or negative statements about any forum member will cease to be allowed. If anyone wishes to further vent, you may PM me or any moderator personally.

I would say that everyone here shares the common goals of making this forum a civil place and also that the rules be applied evenly and fairly. With these in mind, let me state the following:

The moderators are not above the rules. This has always been the case. However, it is acknowledged that the moderators are human. If you witness any moderators breaking the rules, please use the post report button. As with all rule violations, do not comment on them publicly.

We have instituted a formal policy on moderator rule violations:

- A moderator will PM the offender and try to resolve it. Any moderator or admin can initiate this. The moderating team needs to be totally honest with each other, otherwise the quality of the forum will degrade.
- If private exchanges do not resolve it, a thread will be started in the moderator subforum. If the majority of moderators agree that a rule has been broken, the offender should correct the situation by retracting and publicly apologizing.
- If the team cannot reach a consensus, otseng will make the final decision if it violates the rules or not.
- If it has been decided by either the team or otseng that a rule has been violated, and the offender does nothing about it within 48 hours, he/she will be immediately removed from the moderating team.
- Continual violation of the rules would result in a vote of the moderating team on whether that person can remain as a moderator. Otseng will be the judge of when such a vote should take place.

Rules violations are not the same as fallacies or other "debating errors." It is not a requirement for the moderators to correct fallacies from others. And for a moderator to commit a fallacious argument is not a justification for removing him/her from the moderating team.

Moderators are not expected to forego debating in order to be moderators. However, the moderator policy is that if a moderator participates in a thread, he/she should not use their moderating powers in the thread.

We have also formalized the Moderator Warnings, Comments, Clarifications, Interventions, and Actions. See here for more details.

We have solicited comments for an Independent review board, but it did not receive much support.

And we're in the process of giving more clarity for the guidelines in TD&D.

Hopefully these steps will address most of the issues that have been presented. Though I recognize that everything has not been addressed, I hope that these measures will move the forum towards greater civility and fairness.

[Cathar1950]

I for the most part think they do a pretty good almost thankless job.
When rules are broken and things get out of hand it is their responsibility to address it despite their biases and there is no reason why they could not refer to other mods to back them up. Especially if they are a participant in the thread.

I don't see where they have the time especially when they are participating in threads, I can hardly keep up with what I enjoy.
We do have a report system that should be of some value to even mods.