It's not a bad idea but it makes the site even more of a pain to moderate than it already is. Trust me, it's by and large a thankless task.
The moderation policy here is fairly relaxed, but when a warning is given to a member and not heeded then action is taken. As the bottom line reads "We almost always give warnings, but never to the same person twice."
Moderators already are accountable to the site admin, who ultimately lays down the rules. There is a mailing list to which all reported posts go that all moderators have visibility of. Furthermore, deleted posts leave an audit. As part of being accountable, deleted posts remain visible to admins and moderators, along with who deleted it, when and why.
We don't simply delete posts and ban people on a whim.
Don't suppose this post will last long before it gets mysteriously deleted or gets me banned (again) under the guise that it's a personal attack, which it is not and is simply something that needs to be said in regard to the way this site is moderated and needs to be said publicly in response to others questions and posts in this thread, of which some are "misleading" or just totally wrong...
As most know by now I call a spade a spade and am quite forthright when it comes to saying what I have to say, so with that being said and for the benefit of those of you who have never had the experience of being banned (and I've had plenty in my short time here I assure you) let me explain here why Karlos in his above statement is not quite telling the truth here...
When you get banned it simply comes out of the blue, no warnings of any kind, you can be in the middle of typing a post and when you click on submit you will find yourself locked out with a simple message telling you that you have been banned, with no option to respond or ask why and no reason for why you were banned...
Or you can simply try to go to the site one day to discover you have been banned, with no reason and again no recourse to even ask why...
My latest ban was the first one to actually give me a reason (hooray progress at last) and this has never been the case before, however it still gives you no option to respond to the ban as some mods lock you out of the site totally and don't allow you to even view the site or contact the Admins or site owner like happened with my latest ban... (You can of course email the site owner or admin directly if you know how)...
As for not deleting posts and banning people on whim, well once again that's simply stretching the truth a little, certain mods here are a power unto themselves who do delete certain posts on what most certainly seems like a "whim" and without explanation....
Numerous folk have noticed this in recent months and posted on the site saying so. Same goes for banning, RedRumLoa was the worst mod for doing so, no warnings, no reasons, no recourse to even ask why you have been banned...
I know many of you will think Karlos can do no wrong and is a great asset to this site, while I agree with the second part of that comment I can't agree with the first. I suppose it's human nature but Karlos from my own personal experience can be very biased and blinkered in his views in certain situations and as such can and does make some very poor and highly unfair "moderation" decisions at times...
So to blindly believe that the actions of the moderators is all fair and above board is foolish, very foolish. If they have no public accountability for their actions and the only way you will discover this is if you fall foul of one them yourself one day, well by then it's too late as you will find yourself locked out with no reason given and no recourse to even simply ask why, let alone plead your case...
For those who will say this is a privately owned site and you must have read the TOS that comes with that, then yes I know it's privately owned and yes I have read the TOS too but here's where that fails big time on this site (as most folk never actually bother to read these things)...
The TOS if you've never read read them were written by the former owner (who has now left for good) and are bizarre and worrying in the extreme, they concentrate mainly on users not being a "Neo-Nazi" and "Anti Semitism " !!!. Two very bizarre and strange subjects for what is after all a forum for an old obsolete computer system to have it's TOS based upon... :rolleyes:
Also the TOS and the occasional post by the powers that be claiming this is a "family friendly site" in regard to the use of langauge, well that's a shambles for a start. Yes they may have introduced a language filter recently to filter out what are considered to be swear words and the mods censor certain words directly that they don't like... BUT WHO CENSORS THE MODS !!!, as a certain mod even in recent days has proven it's all right for him to use certain words and language while he censors others for using the same type of language, something very, very wrong there I think...
Now private site or not the owners here still (if you choose to do so) take subscription fees and I am one of those who pays these fees. So if the site wishes to be seen as just simply being fair & reasonable then for those who actually pay for the privilege of using it, some sort of accountability desperately needs introduced here so that all can see the site is being run in a fair and reasonable manner...
While this is still the greatest Amiga forum on the web, it is not perfect by any means and really needs a total re-write of the TOS and some degree of accountability to it's subscribed users. Otherwise despite being the greatest site around it will remain tarnished by all I have mentioned above that is wrong with it, which is a great shame indeed...
So to sum it all up this site needs a good shake up and slap across the coupon with a large wet fish... consistency, fairness and accountability to it's paying members need to be introduced ASAP (those who are too mean and miserly to pay for a subscription, well bugger them, they can't really complain as they get things here for free)...
PS: Could someone for gawds sake please change the questions for submitting a search or contacting the site when something goes wrong, to questions that are relevant and easy to answer instead of the current ones that even with 26 years of experience I can't friggin answer correctly...
Example: "Who Is The Current CEO Of Amiga inc" & "Who Is The Current CTO Of Amiga inc" !!! It would be easier to tell you Medhi Ali's ruddy shoe size than correctly answer either one of those... :rolleyes:
PPS: Here's a forum that uses VBulltein and posts daily a list of banned users and the reasons they were banned (mind you not much good if your the one who's banned and can't even view the site while your banned) but it's a start of an idea... :rolleyes:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/banlist.phpPPPS: My own idea I posted way back last year of a "Virtual Car Park" somewhere in the depth of the coffee house still seems to me to be a perfectly good one for members to sort out their differences and not distract or disrupt other threads or members...
