Balancing Moderation for a Thriving Community

The rules on this site are pretty comprehensive. When I say they need to be specific I don’t mean calling out every situation exactly but they shouldn’t be open for interpretation. It should be clear what the rules are to everyone and what the consequences are of breaking them.

The recent name my puppy thread is a good example. The original post itself wasn’t directly political and didn’t violate the “Political/Religious discussions are prohibited” rule directly but many of the replies did and the thread went downhill from there. When the entire thread got deleted the original poster questioned why. If the original thread was not actually allowed then the rule should be changed from no political discussions to also include no discussions that are only intended to generate political charged responses. It should also be clear why the whole thread was deleted instead of just the political responses. It also needs to be clear for the responses that were against already standing rules it what the consequence is. Those consequences need to be applied evenly to every person who replied with a political response regardless of who the moderator is or how long the person has been here. Consistency and clarity are the only way to keep forums from self destructing.

I would also suggest putting the rules as a sticky at the top of every forum and sub forum. I had to actually go digging to try and find them for this site as it’s been years since I registered and read them.

It should be blatantly obvious to everyone what the rules are and if you can’t write them down then they aren’t actually a rule, they are just each moderators opinion.
 
I didn’t read the “puppy” thread because… well, I like puppies, but I’m here for planes. Was easy enough to just ignore the thread.
 
RyanB said:
This thread opens up a discussion that is worthwhile of having.


So please, provide us feedback, I want to hear from YOU!
Click to expand...
I'm new here. Not new to aviation, and not new to internet forums. I moderate several other forums, and as you said, it's a balancing job, and not always easy to find the right path. In the early Oct days, as things began to heat up in the US, we were allowing quite a bit of back and forth not directly related to the topical forum. That ended on Nov 7 and there were a dozen or so threads that, like Elvis, left the building. Threads of cultural, economic, or social significance have a place on a forum, but maybe not this one. It's difficult to have a discussion about cultural or idealistic subjects without them veering into a left/right or my guy, your guy protagonistic screaming match.

I would say the MC could open a forum for discussion of non-aviation related commentary, and strict content control of non-politic subject matter. However - and it's a big however, this is going to increase the moderation workload substantially. Moderating a non-av sub-forum would likely increase the moderation of threads by a huge factor. Do you want to take on that challenge to increase thread count? Quantity is not quality. Like the OP I have a few letters behind my name(I don't publish them for a reason). That doesn't mean my opinions or ideas have any greater merit, but it does mean that there is a value proposition in releasing the hounds and letting them chase the fox. Some threads, and some posts will cause me to question why some people are still alive, considering the remarkably stupid things I see posted elsewhere.

It's a minefield I would not want to admin. Modding is bad enough. :eek:
 
Last edited:
Barrett50 said:
I would say the MC could open a forum for discussion of non-aviation related commentary, and strict content control of non-politic subject matter. However - and it's a big however, this is going to increase the moderation workload substantially. Moderating a non-av sub-forum would likely increase the moderation of threads by a huge factor. Do you want to take on that challenge to increase thread count? Quantity is not quality. Like the OP I have a few letters behind my name(I don't publish them for a reason). That doesn't mean my opinions or ideas have any greater merit, but it does mean that there is a value proposition in releasing the hounds and letting them chase the fox. Some threads, and some posts will cause me to question why some people are still alive, considering the remarkably stupid things I see posted elsewhere.
Click to expand...
That is what the Hangar Talk sub-forum is for.
 
In my opinion, moderating a forum is similar to refereeing soccer: call every foul and there’s no flow to the game, call nothing and things get out of hand. So where do you draw the line? Somewhere in the reasonable middle. I might draw the line in a slightly different place than the next ref…I might even draw it in a slightly different place than I did last game. At the end of the day, the goal doesn’t change. Have I ever made a bad call? Who? Me? NEVER! Sure I have.

Overall, our mods do a pretty good job in my experience. I have participated in threads that were highly controversial (like firearms for self defense for instance) that were ultimately locked, but I felt were locked after an appropriate amount of discussion was allowed.

I think these are the salient points so far:
1. Mods are not perfect.
2. Overall forum participation is down, but not gone. This is tied to:
A. General decline of GA numbers
B. Other sites that may draw some people away.
C. COVID allowed many people additional time to contribute, which is waning.
3. In our society as a whole, civility and decorum are fading fast, making it increasingly difficult to engage in any kind of meaningful discussion on a controversial topic (religion and politics being the two that often find themselves on the chopping block).

I work in a field where many days, it’s just me and my partner spending the whole shift doing…not much. If you guys can’t tell by my username, what I believe (I don’t like the term religion) is very important to me. Within the last 2 months, I’ve talked to two former partners who both made similar comments: they don’t like talking about religion. I said, “We talked about it all the time - almost daily - when we worked together.” And they both said something to the effect of: “Yeah, but you didn’t shove it down my throat.”

We ought to apply that here, in our marriages, in our workplaces, in the grocery store……

I know that I would agree with some of you politically. I know that I would disagree with others of you. The same could be said about any number of topics. But what I can agree with all of you on is that flying is a special privilege and we certainly enjoy it. That’s what this forum is about and why I’m here. You all have been wonderful to share your knowledge, encouraging younger/less experienced pilots, keeping the humor going, commiserating with AOGs/deferred medical/etc. Keep it up!

To the mods: you’re the worst! Just kidding, you guys do great 99.9% of the time. We are over here barking about the .1%. Is there room for improvement? Sure. And there always will be.

I just want to point out how great this forum is: recently, a pilot shared that he was having a hard time sourcing a particular part. In about 3 weeks, he had the part in hand thanks to you guys. THAT, my friends, is what makes POA so awesome!
 
flyingpreacher said:
I just want to point out how great this forum is: recently, a pilot shared that he was having a hard time sourcing a particular part. In about 3 weeks, he had the part in hand thanks to you guys. THAT, my friends, is what makes POA so awesome!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the report!
 
There are a lot of pretty smart people here. I can always learn something from the experts in various fields, if not for the limits on what's discussed on the site. Economics, media, education, cultural differences, weapons, health, etc. I'm afraid to open those doors, in case it leads to the ban hammer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top