Get Yer Ya-Yas Out [FR Moderating Gripe Thread]

[I Am Not A Mod]

LM here.

It's been a while since we had a thread along these lines.

I can tell from comments I am seeing in threads, on abuse reports, and in Freepmail that some people are unhappy with various policies and their implementations by the staff here.

I've seen allegations that certain factions are picked on. I've seen allegations that the moderators have killed activism. I've heard rumors that we killed Kenny, and even that we killed the radio star. I see certain personality conflicts acting up, and know that one (or both) sides in it feel that we aren't doing what we should.

So let's open this can of worms.

This thread is for making your grievances heard. If you think something stinks or is wrong, make your case here. Back it up with facts. Let the audience at large weigh in on your evidence.

I'll read the thread. Jim will too in all likelihood. So will the other moderators. Depending upon how well you make your point, and depending on if you can convince Jim, me, the other moderators, and/or the world, maybe you can change things. And if you don't, then it might make you feel better to have vented, so it won't make this thread a total loss.

I'm not going to reply to this thread for quite a while. Rather, I am going to sit back and watch to try and get a feel for the general tenor. I encourage those who are both happy and unhappy with things to particpate in this thread.

Let's rock.

[Admin Moderator]

Everything you've ever wanted to know about sidebars but were afraid to ask!

The Ultimate Sidebar Management Thread

[rock58seg]

In addition to your suggestions, I would like to see some way to delete comments sent to me from ping lists, and special threads. All they do is clutter and resize the "my comments" section, and really add no information to my specific post, or comment. I do not mind specific answers, questions, rebuffs, or flames to my comments. I do however find the boilerplate ping or "thread welcome" useless. I would suffer them less, if not gladly, if I could at leastt delete them from my section.

[arasina]

If I recall, it wasn't comments that OWK made about the Constitution Party that got him banned or suspended. For one thing, OWK made comments way over the line in harrassing another FReeper.

[Neets]

I do have a series question.

Anyway I can delete my PrivateReplies?

I get lazy and don't delete on reply and was wondering if there was a lazy way to do it.

[Nataku X]

Methinks your energies would be better spent defending Jessica Lynch than defending someone who wished to have us all killed.

[deport]

Making them wait for 100 or some number of post doesn't really stop them... They can post their diatribe to any thread as a post and still get a response..... Granted it won't have the same effect as if it was a stand alone article.....

I do agree that the zotting lets their posted article accomplish what they set out to do and in more fervor, imo. If it was just yanked it would soon die off the latest post pages and not many would be the wiser....

[Lead Moderator]

You can't get an entire forum as one sidebar.

You can get any topic within any forum as a sidebar though.

Go to the latest posts page for the forum that contains the topic you want. Click the topics link at the top of the page. Click whatever topic you want as a sidebar. Directly above the first article listed, you will see the following:

"You do not subscribe to this topic. Click here to subscribe."

Click it, and you have a sidebar.

To get rid of a particular sidebar, use the same method to get to the topic. This time you will see the following:

"You subscribe to this topic. Click here to unsubscribe."

Click it, and it is no longer a sidebar.

When you have which topics you want as sidebars set up as sidebars, you can use this link, which you get to by clicking on your name in the upper right of the latest posts page and then on "My Subscriptions", to set the order in which they appear from top to bottom, how many articles are in each individual one, and what color they are.

Thanks, LM

[deport]

Anyway I can delete my PrivateReplies?

---

Yep one at a time... or at least marking them one at a time before hitting the cyber memory hole button.....

Once done it's wise to take some time and remove them periodically if you don't want the backlog to build back up.

[Neets]

Thanks D....I guess I'll have to block out a few days to get rid of the backlog :-(

[Lead Moderator]

I'll answer your questions a bit later.

In the interim, when you ask about "what made that (now nuked) thread", it would be helpful if you told me what thread it was. Thanks, LM

[Dog Gone]

This has nothing to do with the moderating, but it certainly would be nice to have a direct link to posting an article from the search results page. As it is, once you've searched for an article title you have to page back to post the new article.

C'mon, make it simple and rewarding to use the search function to prevent unnecessary duplicate article posts.

[optimistically_conservative]

You must insult them and tell them they are lazy, and show them how superior you are.

Catbert, is that you?

[Admin Moderator]

One problem we've had in the past regarding trolls: Other trolls jump on a thread like this and ask why so and so was banned. Turns out it was a troll asking about a troll. But the doubt seed was planted, and those disgrunted with FR jump on the troll bandwagon. Here's the facts and Jim overrides all "rules". Mods will ban newbie trolls without Jim's approval. Anyone here with a posting history will be banned from Jim if he believes it's warrarented. Anyone here a long time with few posts might be banned from a mod. Jim reviews everything we do, every day. The reason we were brought on was to give Jim an opportunity to have a life once in a while, like eat dinner, go on Freeps, have family time without having to moniter Free Republic 24/7. This is not 1997 any more with a couple hundred posters. FR generates a couple million hits per month.

[deport]

Yep it takes some time the first time you find you have several years of mail in the backlog...... I clean it out each day or even after each use, but then I don't have large numbers..... good luck.

[Admin Moderator]

C'mon, make it simple and rewarding to use the search function to prevent unnecessary duplicate article posts.

Do you use multiple browser windows? What your are suggesting is already available if you do

[NYC GOP Chick]

By the way, I can read everyone's Freepmail.

Hope no one minds, as I'm not complaining.

Will you be so kind as to remove the spams from Nigerian royalty for me? Thanks!

[Cinnamon Girl]

Is that for real?! How do you do that?

[deport]

I understand very well and think you all do a great job. JR needs the help no doubt because of the size of this forum in post, etc. It just seems the trolls get their cake and jerk the chains too. A simple statement of explaination on the page where the 'account banned or supsended' note is place would help, imo. That way anyone clicking on the account would see it was banned because of whatever reason..... disruptor, returning troll, ignoring rules, etc. Anyway, keep on keeping on... I'm not trying to stir your pot, just speculating about how to handle them in some other fashion.

[Amelia]

[HairOfTheDog]

If you have any ideas, i am all for giving them a try.

It is a really odd problem, and I don't have any answers... It would be silly to ask to base a rule about where a caption post belongs on your particular glitch.