Attention Forumosa moderators. It is not your job as a moderator to voice your PERSONAL views. I think there is a lack of professional behavior with certain moderators over certain threads and posts. Please understand I do not mean all posts and all threads.
Oh I am in no way connected to Glossika nor any of the Glossika drama. But I am very entertained. I just feel that the moderators are being far too personal. This is not a moderator’s role.
Everyone should have a voice even if it opposes the moderators.
Interesting, Cough. I didn’t know you were privy to our moderator policy meetings.
The moderators’ function is whatever we decide it to be. Sorry if you don’t like it. Why should we cease to be allowed to voice our opinions just because we’re moderators?
Yes, thanks coughing guest, for your comments. It would have been polite of you to just add your thoughts to this thread. Instead, you have to go and start a whole new one.
I’d just like to know why you think us moderators are not expected to voice our personal views. What do you think we are, a bunch of damn robots? Maybe we should just “robotically” refrain from posting altogether and start deleting posts and banning users for no known reason, like our little friends at tealit.
Yes Alien I thought of that but sorry I did not want to for my own personal reasons!!
Online moderators traditionally are suppose to consider the needs of the entire online community that the forum is catering to. Yes we all have our own personal views but that should not be entire basis for how a moderator makes decisions and reacts. If that was how all moderators acted then forums would always only present one side to all stories. I did not suggest that you should be robotic. But just to take into account all posters views as outrageous as some maybe. And yes sometimes there is a need for censure and the elimination of certain material i.e. racism and hate.
Please don’t become fascists like tealit. But keep an open mind even if it is not what you fully believe in. You have a role as a moderator and sometimes it might oppose your own personal views.
Are judges and arbitrators allowed to make decisions based own their own sensibilities and morality alone?
From the Webster online dictionary Moderator- one who arbitrates
I cannot seem to find “one who dictates” for moderator
Sorry for my flip response, Cough. You might be interested to know, however, that very little moderating goes on (by moderating, I refer to editing or deleting posts, warning or banning members, etc.) without extensive and exhaustive discussion among the moderators in our secret forum, where we also spend a fair amount of time bitching about and defaming Segue members (oh boy, if you could only SEE some the things written there!).
So, its really anything but a dictatorial situation.
As for moderators posting, I stand by my statement that we should be allowed to say as we like within the scope of the Segue guidelines, just as every other Segue member.
Sandman’s right that the moderator’s role is whatever they choose it to be as there is no higher law that governs the role of moderators on Segue. I can see some logic to Cough Cough’s point, though, that perhaps mods should facilitate as neutrally as possible. After all, that’s the role of a moderator in a debate. But this isn’t a debate – it’s just a bunch of irrelevant discussions between anonymous goofballs, so maybe moderator aloofness is less important.
I discovered some interesting scholarly discussion about the roles of mods in internet discussions, including their perceived roles of filter, firefighter, facilitator, editor, manager, discussion leader, content expert, helper, and marketer at the below site:
Actually, I believe the site I referenced includes some online Masters theses and dissertations on the subject. But, then, a friend of mine wrote her dissertation on bat guano.
Yes, Terry, you’re 100% correct!!!
I read this paperfor my Masters just a few weeks ago. My present research agenda however, is not related to Segue, but an academic forum-- a much more workable task than this monolithic ‘segue baby’ discussion group.
That paper is a brilliant read, and Feenberg proposes something called meta-commentary and weaving.
Metacommentary meaning that moderators of computer mediated discussion forums should make commentary to keep threads on track and sum up discussions. I don’t see this on segue too often, although it might be helpful, if not a bit weird.
And [quote]weaving comments supply a unifying overview, interpreting the discussion by drawing its various strands together in a momentary synthesis that can serve as a starting point for the next round of debate. Weaving comments allow on-line groups to achieve a sense of accomplishment and direction. Feenberg[/quote]
It does seem that gus is gifted in the art of “weaving”!
the idea that there is an orthedox concept of moderating that should be adhered too is ridiculous. this is not the united nations for jujubees sake. the internet is a big enough place for different concepts of moderating. i suggest that you start up a board and moderate it as you see fit, cough cough! i rather like this one and will be staying, but i’m rather used to activist moderating, just about every moderated internet mailing list i’ve been on has had a moderator right in the thick of it.
Sure, the creators have the right to do whatever they want with the forum and all that.
BUT it would be wise for participants to try and nail them down on the ground rules before making it their forum of choice for posting foreign-related Taiwan stuff. Or otherwise start a new forum while there is still time to do so conveniently. Internet history is full of cautionary examples. Hell, just look at tealit or Dave’s ESL Cafe.
The “ground rules”, as you put it, are pretty simple. Post ONCE, to the most appropriate forum. The most frequent cause of threads being moved or deleted is cross-posting, which is generally not welcome.
Reading the “terms and conditions” on the page where you signed up to use Segue might offer some enlightening facts, too! :shock:
If anyone doesnt like the way this forum is run, pack your fscking stuff n move out, or rent yourself a fscking server, get the free fscking phpBB, unpacking it in your fscking /var/www/your_fscking_url/ and start your own fscking community, sshle.
[quote=“jeepers”]If anyone doesnt like the way this forum is run, pack your fscking stuff n move out, or rent yourself a fscking server, get the free fscking phpBB, unpacking it in your fscking /var/www/your_fscking_url/ and start your own fscking community, sshle.
