Moderation: why was my comment / account moderated?

Central Feedback
1

I think individual moderator Cannot make decisions about who to ban. Such decisions should be taken by a group of people. Because everyone thinks in their own way each has its own logic and perception. Sometimes the moderator simply does not fully understand what the participant of the forum wanted to say, this is why it’s supposed to be group decision to ban somebody.

Example.

Yesterday I replied to this post

//
artpi
Mar 21
Howdy! I don’t mean to be self-promotional, but I made an app that puts “Facebook” icon on your homescreen that looks like original app, but opens quality content (like pocket or kindle).
I made it so that I can drop that habit of having a “quick fix” to browse FB.

It’s on Product Hunt today.//

So I replied to this post with picture of VEGAN burgers.

So couple hours later I received email

Geo.
You have been silenced from the forum until March 26, 2018, 12:00pm.

Spam

Please don’t spam, even with vegan spam.

silenced_by_staff: ‘’ Spam.

So basically because moderator looks differently on irony, he silenced me.
But it was just irony and not a spam!

The guy created the app that looks like Facebook but not the real Facebook.
This is why I compare it to vegan Burger, it looks Like burgers bot not real Burger.

Question number 2.
Why moderator wrote this "Please don’t spam, EVEN WITH VEGAN spam.

Why he used the word “even”. Why vegans are better than rest of us, who eat meat. So if it was the regular meat burger spam, he going to silence me forever. But because it was a vegan spam, he(or she) going to give me a second chance?
This is one of the reason why we have Trump now, because minorities receiving more rights than majority’s.

2

Sounds frustrating! I’ll say that moderating is learned skill that has no exact science or standard usually so Misunderstandings happen easily.

The nature of a forum uses technology to communicate so it doesn’t afford a needed opportunity for face to face contact when clarification is needed. So it makes the moderator’s job hard and the people being moderated.

It would be nice have certain situations discussed on the phone so there are no miscommunications, clarifications can happen etc…

Conflict (or perceived but important too) usually needs a more sophisticated form of communication.

Good to see you have contact with the group now though!

3

And my account still on hold, even After All This explanation.:thinking::neutral_face:
This is my new account. That I created today specifically to discuss this matter

4

I would privately message the moderator with questions about why you were placed on a pause- and tell them what you have learned as well.

5

Well, since you want to publicly discuss this topic, please let me weigh in and provide you with some feedback. Note that I am not the mod that silenced you on the vegan burger, but I generally agree with the measure…

First on your last post: If someone posts a link to an open-source app that helps remind you not to open the FB app that you are addicted to (fully on-topic, legit post for CHT) and you reply with a picture of a vegan burger with no explanation and considered ‘just irony’, then I didn’t get the irony and certainly not the relevancy. I think most people would consider it a spam post.
So it was marked as spam and deleted. And I do get the joke of the mod on vegan spam - as spam is also a meat product popular in the UK. Nothing to do with being vegan/non-vegan and what that means…

Now how we mods cooperate: We try to make this forum inclusive for a broad range of people, technical and non-technical, well-versed and less so. The Discourse software offers extensive moderation tools. If posts are flagged or we notice inappropriate posts there is discussion amongst mods on the appropriate action to take. For some cases votes are raised and action only taken based on a majority of votes (currently 4 out of 7 mods).

If action is taken, then the users’ trust level is decreased, and if the user continues to misbehave we will be more inclined to take tougher measures. I think until now we have been quite thoughtful and forgiving. No user is silenced without reason.

In your case, your posts have received 4 flags, and 10 of your 21 posts have been deleted, because they were either:

  • off-topic, not adding to the discussion
  • inappropriate: attacking other users based on your opinion of how the forum should be run (e.g. “Shame on you… [for this and that]”, “Please don’t post… [because of this and that]”). In these cases please just flag the post and let the moderators handle the follow-up, or otherwise be polite in your response and provide arguments to your point.
  • inappropriate: political and incendiary, just like the last sentence of the post I am replying to now. Your opinion on Trump is of no relevancy to this community and you should take those discussions elsewhere, please.

Your posts that were not deleted were received with gratitude, and we hope in future you will continue to add value and regain our trust. Thank you!

6

I’m not “afraid” to discuss it publicly.
At first I tried to discuss privately I reply to email and I wrote a private message. But i didn’t get any response, if moderators need couple days to answer, then it’s useful to provide this information , so users will know how long they supposed to wait for answers.

7

One moderator “love” vegan minorities.
Another thinks that majority is always right.
So let’s create the world where everybody think the same way, have same sense of humor.
And the rest of us who thinks differently and have different sense of humor, “you” the majority its going to send on some Island so we will not bother you, with our “crazy” thoughts.

8

So basically you think greed is okay and fine and irony is really bad. Because more than half of post here, it’s people just self-promoting they own apps. Most of the product that people promote here, they’re not non-profit companies.
And when person start promoting her product in every topic I think it’s a shame, I’m still thinking it is.
Or you one of those people who thinks the company for examples that produce nicotine patch , really thinking how to help people stop smoking and not there for money and Big Profit

9

Thank you for your feedback @Georgy.

I think you are concluding a bit too much from our feedback, but I can assure you that we only volunteer our free time to try to make this forum productive and successful. But you are entitled to your own opinion, I am not banning you to an island for that :wink: :wink:

Besides the inappropriate response you make a valid point on advertisements by new users who otherwise do not contribute to the discussion. Other members have raised similar issues, like here and here amongst others, and we are thinking of ways to deal with this.

I personally think some level of advertisement is okay, if the app aligns to humane tech vision and purposes - regardless if it concerns for-profit or open-source - and the user has other constructive input for the community. If this is not the case the user is notified and the post may be deleted (this already happened), and a user is also notified if posting the same advertisement to multiple topics repeatedly.

Another option is moving all advertisements to a separate topic that is especially made for this purpose, such as Please give me feedback on my App! (list) but this is not clear to new users and requires a lot of moderation. An option nonetheless.

On the other hand a certain ‘messiness’ - with little moderation - to the forum might be allright if we have additional tools to follow-up on and elaborate valuable ideas that arise in the forums. Additional tooling is another aspect we are thinking about. @metasj will create a discussion topic on that issue soon.

2 Likes
10

Thanks for your work, I understand that most of you work for free.
This is just my IMHO.
This movement received a lot of PR couple months ago it was in the newspaper and on TV.
And what we see now maybe like 4000 user on Facebook page, and a couple thousands here. And Probably half of the user just here to advertise they own apps.
Why so small response from society?
I think because people just don’t understand what are your goals.
Let’s start with the name -Time well spent.
Like I see it it looks like the Titanic is going to the bottom, and some passengers agitate others for not having to spend a lot of time in the cabins. Spend more time in the fresh air.
I think first you need to save the ship and make sure that it does not sink, and only then, agitate for not spending too much time in cabins.

Someone wrote very correctly, that this movement needs iconic product.
I think maybe we need the movement inside the movement.
Like for example I wrote on “your” Facebook page that 5G internet is going to be much worse It going to bring much more problems than we having now with technology.
We are just not ready for it a lot of people going to lose their jobs when 5 G it’s out, and everything going to be in clouds we will not have any privacy. You’re in this business you understand how many problems it’s will bring to society, Society not ready for it.
So maybe we need to create The Movement Like #Me-too movement, but we can call our Movement #postpone 5 G. Until we’re ready for it.
Or maybe any other iconic movment or product. Because right now it looks like this Movement not going anywhere.:pensive:

1 Like
11

Just to clarify.
Maybe I am wrong but like I understand, this app just pretended to be Facebook but when you press it it will not open Facebook but will open something else.

//I don’t mean to be self-promotional, but I made an app that puts “Facebook” icon on your homescreen that looks like original app, but opens quality content (like pocket or kindle).//

So if I understand this correctly then it’s totally appropriate to put vegan Burger, because it’s also looks like burger, but not real Burger.
Or maybe you’re right and I don’t understand correctly how this app is work.

PS. I don’t want to offend vegans. :blush:

12

I saw the image when you posted it, and didn’t understand it. Irony doesn’t carry well in condensed form…

Feel free to start a topic or hashtags about postponing 5G; but don’t derail other conversations with such topics. You have a tendency to do this; we also have a community member who likes to turn any conversation into one about time-based currency… We try to prevent derailing, and will move or delete posts that try to make all topics about some pet-peeve or pet-project.

We do encourage people to post their own ideas about how to fix things: including their own apps, campaigns, or community advocacy groups. That’s part of what this forum is for.

And while it’s important to keep the ship from sinking (urgent, unsolved), it’s also important for people to learn how lifeboats work and to leave their cabins (important, solved).

PS: Please consolidate responses into a single post in a topic.

13

Thanks for the response, can you remind me please in what topics I inappropriately mention 5G?

14

Mentioned as an example that you brought up in this thread, but seemed only marginally relevant.

16

It’s probably my fault because I don’t fully understand what you’re trying to accomplish with your “movement”.
What you want to achieve. What are your goals.
I asked this question couple times and I never get a response.
I will really appreciate if you find a free time to respond to me.
Thanks

17

that’s me. Some of my off topic posts have received specific mentions and were rated as time well spent for reading. Can you make the argument that post in a topic that another reader says thank you for posting is off topic? I guess so, if you want and I have no strong objection to moving my comments to separate post or sandboxing my ideas into one area. I’d do it myself if you gave me a little guidance on how. Reddit does this thing where individual discussions have individual mods and if you start a discussion you are the mod and get to decide if it’s on topic or off topic. That works maybe?

As for me turning every discussion into one about “personal time based currencies”. I would say that is mostly fair, but point out that it takes two people to turn a discussion and if it’s really off topic no one would reply. Personally, I do see this as a solution to a lot of problems and game changer technology innovation that will affect a lot of conversations (but not all of them, only the ones I comment on). But that’s just my sincere opinion, and I can accept if you feel sincerely the idea is a dead end or of limited interest to you personally.

Anyway, this is your forum as I understand it and your the mod, so sorry for the inconvenience. let me know what you’d like from me specifically and I’ll try to do that? I’m not that interested in most other solutions, but sometimes I comment on them and discuss them when I think I have something to contribute. Since you’re mod, I’ll give you a free, no questions asked opportunity to say goodbye if you think my goals and yours just won’t work. I’ll voluntarily go away if you don’t personally think I’m contributing to your personal goals for this discussion forum. Just say the word and save us both trouble if you feel I’m just trouble, I’ll go away and find somewhere else that thinks reading my comments is time well spent. No hard feelings, it’s your board, you should only have people who contribute to your personal goals on it and that’s fine with me but best to know now before I spend more time on this forum myself. My time is well spent promoting my project IMO, but if you or others think I’m degrading the quality of your time then please say so and I’ll try changing my behavior or else go somewhere else that it’s welcomed.

I’m not going to advance my project goals here if the people here think reading what I write is not time well spent.