Our forum is self-moderated

[VLS]

Our forum is self-moderated now.

This means every topic starter now is the thread moderator and can delete posts from his/her thread.

@Productive members: be delighted. Now you are the first line of defense against disruption in your own threads.

@Disruptive members: Sorry for you. This forum caters to productive members and you are not allowed to post to disrupt otherwise productive threads. Now the discretion of the topic starter is the rule as to which messages stay on his/her thread(s).



Sadly, under the "right to free speech", "the disruptive" have shown to ruin entire threads, start flamewars and are overall detrimental to the fine level of debate we must foster in our board.

So, like it or not: There is PRODUCTIVE speech here, and not the heavily abused "free speech"; hence, we do not allow every type of discussion, we only cater to productive discussions.



If you want to voice your opinion against a system, you can do it at the dissenting section, where people can't delete messages from threads. There is also the right to dissent in a polite manner, but it must be done at the proper section destined to that.



I know the right people is already delighted of being able to clean their threads.

Here we aim to have the best place, and experience says that fine debate doesn't go with uncensored debate. Reality shows they are both different lines of discussion.

Here, we are glad to let our productive members maintain their topics in a good standing, and by this move they have the power to do so.

Regards.
Victor

[trebor]

Sadly I think this is a good move.

Freedom of speech can only work if it is used with discretion and respect which some people seem to lack.

I hope thread starters will not see this as carte blanche to remove polite  and constructive criticisms.

Trebor

[VLS]

People will still have access to their typed messages at the now-open forum's recycle bin, where each member can see his/her own deleted messages, so their typing time isn't lost and they can copy the contents on another thread (shall it deserve it).

[albalaha]

Dear Victor,
                 everybody know here that you are the most experienced, participating and democratic administrator. As a moderator all I can say is this action of yours can bring two results---1.All topics will be precise and to the point without much contradictions or,2. whatever a topic starter will write, whether right or wrong will become sticky. A topic starter will only keep positive comments upon his topics and negative comments will be erased.
                                         Victor, mind it that we are a discussion forum here, we are not essay writers. Everybody is not as experienced and it may lead to wrong path also. It may be like a blind man leading a troupe of soldiers.
                                    You should either moderate the forum yourself or get help from experienced members and assign them different sections to watch upon any negative stuff.
                        This is just my humble opinion and you are capable enough to handle all this.

[ThomasGrant]

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Fantastic news.

Any member that starts a topic.
Become MODS...

That way, they can delete posts.
And control the flow of the replies.

[ThomasGrant]

Only problem that I can see.
Is that it is not retroactive.
That is to say. It does not apply to older posts.

For instance.
Here is a post I did.
link:://rouletteforum.cc/tom%27s-place/if-it-ain%27t-in-a-bot-then-i-ain%27t-gonna-bother/

Notice however.
That I am not the mod of it.

Not sure if there is a way, to make all old posts by members, become Moderated by those members that started em.

Perhaps that is forum issue.

[VLS]

Albalaha, thanks for your response.

Remember, I am a person, like everyone else here. I have a family and friends and chores to make, and I can't be monitoring every thread 24 hours in the day.

It is in our best interest (mine and the forum) that members moderate their own threads. The most timely response can be given by the person to which the thread matters the most, namely its owner/starter.

This way those having something to say can rest assured they can start a thread and it won't be disrupted with off-topic comments or flame-wars and they can be able to act as soon as they spot a bad comment.

As with every assignation of power, some people can take extremes. But rest assured people won't lose their typing time, no, they can simply point their browser to the forum's recycle bin section where they are able to rescue what is worth about their message and start their own thread, where they too exercise their right to expose without off-topic interruptions.

I truly believe this will lead our forum to the right path. As an army of "able eyes" for the forum, every active member can care for their own threads, and I can also rest assured I can focus in developing and other activities in my personal life rather than having to monitor the topics.

There has been already complaints about me letting slip bad discussion inside the forum (read Winkel's thread) but: a) people just wouldn't report the misbehaving posts, and b) These days I am plain busy developing the services for our community to sustain and for helping my family and I am simply not able to read every thread in the forum all day long.

By this we can enjoy a more productive forum where people don't need to wait for me to read their threads to remove bad messages (read people simply won't report!) and I can also develop in productivity and greater peace, only caring for the big-time issues that people care to take to the community council, for the rest, I think this should be enough:

- The forum is expected to moderate itself.

- People can recover their text at the forum's recycle bin ( link:://rouletteforum.cc/recycle-bin/ ), so no complaints of "lost typing time". All the text typed by the members remains there. Nothing is missing.

- Each topic starter gets to be happy knowing they can do something about thread disruptions.

- Readers get more quality and more on-topic threads.

- I can have more development and family time-

WE ALL WIN*



*: Except disruptive members

[VLS]

Only problem that I can see.
Is that it is not retroactive.
That is to say. It does not apply to older posts.

For instance.
Here is a post I did.
link:://rouletteforum.cc/tom%27s-place/if-it-ain%27t-in-a-bot-then-i-ain%27t-gonna-bother/

Notice however.
That I am not the mod of it.

Yes, that's an issue I have yet to solve with the displaying of stars for section mods and me as admin. The new assignations of power from the admin/mods to the people took our displayed stars' in a spaguetty of if/else loops!... but that's the display of them only, the actual moderating functionality is still there.

So Thomas, since you are a section mod, stars won't show inside your section, I still have to tweak the new code...

[ThomasGrant]

Yes, that's an issue I have yet to solve with the displaying of stars for section mods and me as admin. The new assignations of power took our displayed stars!... but the functionality is still there.

So Thomas, since you are a section mod, stars won't show inside your section, I still have to tweak the new code...

Thanks Victor.
It's nice to know that my input is getting acted on.

PS: Thanks for the vote in my poll.
Looks like your the only person to bother so far.

[albalaha]

Dear Victor,
         let us try this concept of yours and let's hope for the best.

[ADulay]

Our forum is self-moderated now.

Regards.
Victor

Hmm, this could be a very good idea.   

A topic that stays on topic and doesn't drift off into a neighorhood brawl over semantics, stupidity or bruised egos!!

Excellent!

AD

[Bayes]

Great idea Victor.  

This could be a killer forum feature, I haven't seen it implemented in other forums. Didn't you have the same scheme at VLSroulette for a while? for some reason it wasn't kept.

Of course, it doesn't stop members being a$$holes in their own threads, but in that case it will just be ignored. The main thing is that the subject of your thread will remain on topic, assuming the author wants to keep it that way.

One question, I think you mentioned elsewhere that once a post is written, it stays (there is no delete function), is this still the case for thread owners?

[VLS]

A topic that stays on topic and doesn't drift off into a neighorhood brawl over semantics, stupidity or bruised egos!!

Excellent!

AD

Yep, this is the idea!

Thanks for participating of the topic dear Adulay. Hey, I wasn't on the chat yesterday (was idle, doing a session with Thomas Grant, who i've met in the chat and asked me to go to skype).

Then when I came around I saw your chat comments about image insertion and others.

[VLS]

for some reason it wasn't kept.

Reason was some people complained HARD about their right to free speech (say what they want, in whatever thread they want)... But as proven over and over, free speech didn't work out too well

We have an opportunity here by enforcing "Productive speech" in our forum instead  

Of course, it doesn't stop members being a$$holes in their own threads, but in that case it will just be ignored.

Ideally, it would be reported to the community council by the fellow members.

Thread owners or not, still forum rules are there and people must check things like "Being an arsehole" at the door, so to speak.

The main thing is that the subject of your thread will remain on topic, assuming the author wants to keep it that way.

Ahhh! A breathe of fresh air for those tortured souls who want to actually debate about the topic inside their own threads. I'm being THANKED for this self-moderating move by those who matter to me the most now.

I know people like to think things like "All posters are equal"; but real-life has proven this is not the case: there ARE productive posters and also people who enter a forum for the detriment of it.  They choose to be that way.

The curious thing in the other forums has been that the detrimental ones have been the ones who shout the hardest about their rights (free speech, equality) but haven't put a proper behavior on the table; enjoying being treated the same as more rule-abiding members. Not anymore, not in our place. The disruption stops here.

One question, I think you mentioned elsewhere that once a post is written, it stays (there is no delete function), is this still the case for thread owners?

Our forum has a recycle bin section ( link:://rouletteforum.cc/recycle-bin/ ), it has been open to forum members for them to see their removed messages.

And yes, our "no delete from forum's database" still applies.

In reality, once you input something to our board, it stays somewhere, either in the thread or in the recycle bin. This serve the purpose of making people think before hitting that submit button... (ah... if that was always the case!)



Thanks for your participation and interesting points dear Bayes.

[WannaWin]

Good move.

Now this forum can be one of the best in the world providing users who publish threads uninterrupted debate for their topic.

I applaud this decision.

WannaWin