Captain Ewok - what in the world is going on?

[Captain Ewok 1,930]

Contact form updated with specific "review" line. Blackberry updated to flag such emails for immediate review. This may be overkill but I would like to best meet the community needs. Please do not abuse this as my phone now rings special for this specific email topic.

[Captain Ewok 1,930]

The ticketing system used to work. I used it a few times. But at some point he got bored with it I guess.

I altered the system where by before I had it set up that I had to reply to every ticket to close it. Quickly you can see the issue when every email takes lets say 3-5 minutes to address and then 2 minutes (if I am lucky) or more to reply. That means 100 emails a day * 2 minutes is 3 to 4 hours a day which given everything else I am working on it simply became too much. I read everything and reply as needed by I can not reply to every email (although I do read them). I can no close a ticket if action was taken but no direct reply may be sent.

[Captain Ewok 1,930]

I have just reviewed the Report Center - an automatic logging of all reports and all actions taken on every single report. There is NO report from you at all within the last 12 hours, nor within the last 24 hours. There is NO report of the above mentioned item. Please provide a link and we will 'address' the situation. Please note - the Report Center is a software feature over which no one of the moderation team has any control and we cannot do any sort of editing of its functions. If it has been reported, it is recorded in the Report Center.

To note, this Report Center "is" new in the last three months and I can say that ALL reported items using that system DO get looked at and closed. Nothing is left open for too long. This is separate from using the contact form (this is the little report buttons you find all over the site to report content). In the last several months the report center has gotten:

Total Reports 1481

Total Comments 1893 (meaning the mods made 1893 posts discussing things specifically about reports; they do take time and work on them). Not all tickets need replies (people request topics closed, etc.).

[Captain Ewok 1,930]

If you really *really* care about where I'm coming at this, then you need to go back through my posting history. I'm not trying to tell you that I have bunches of golden nuggets of wisdom, far from it. But back in the day I was also a bright eyed optimist just like you. I thought my concerns were listened to, and I thought the dialog I had with the current farm of moderators actually amounted to something. I'm sorry but I'm not going to spell it all out, but the nutshell version is that no actually, this crew doesn't give a damn about what you think or I think or anybody else.

So I'm sorry if I seem crass. This site helped me through a lot, and I had a bit more to go through than a lot of people here, although my sob story isn't near as bad as some others either. In any case, I *want* VJ to succeed. And that's why I'm so vocal. I've tried the other ways. I've tried talking it out, submitting tickets, etc etc. It doesn't work.

I will take you at your word. As a bit of advice if you are genuine.

Things that help me help you (this is in general):

Be specific

Be direct and to the point

Make well thought out statements with some backup if possible

Things that make me a bit frustrated:

Attack others to make your point

Sarcasm used to sneak "pokes"

Reporting mod decisions simply because you do not like the mod

Being rude

I do not mind if someone thinks I or the team can do better. But the best way to raise things is to be polite, illustrative and logical.

[Captain Ewok 1,930]

I actually think that a suggestion William made earlier (in the UK forum) is promising. Enforce the TOS rigorously in the upper forums. However, in the lower forums have a very basic one in place.

Racism, bigotry, extreme personal attacks, misogyny etc should be enforced and acted upon, but for everything else? I say let 'em fight it out amongst themselves. The worst profanities are filtered, so it can't get too bad on the whole. And we're all adults at the end of the day. Those big girl panties can be quite comfortable once you get used to them.

Place a warning at the top of the lower forms, just informing members that it is of adult content and they may read things that offend. Something like that.

It's a sad day in Chickenville.

This has been requested of me by the mods themself but I find myself having trouble "weeding out" things from the TOS "forums" areas. It is tough. Thoughts?

[Captain Ewok 1,930]

I want to note that in general, like the ACLU (article on this) in general I think that protecting all speech is important to the concept of freedom and to censor anything is often the wrong approach; fighting words with rational thought and education is always better than suppression and fighting. That said, this community is a place where people should feel protected to a degree against people or things that simply "tear" down a broad group of people.

This forum is not the US, it is VisaJourney -- a community of immigrants,their families and friends. Hate has no place here. Discussion "on hate" is certainly allowed but the active and knowing use of hate here of VJ against people is certainly prohibited. I have removed the link however I want to again draw a distinction in that "discussion of hate" as an educational opportunity is different than actively using or spreading "hate" against a broad group of people.

Although I just posted a page of posts myself (trying to address everyone), I would ask that for the sake of "clarity" any replies by direct and on topic. Thank you.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I reported that thread at what would have been about 2am PST, so the middle of the night. I don't know what the interface looks like for reports but I definitely hit the button, which is something I have done maybe less than 5 times in the past year.

It's interesting that although that topic (with the word porn in the title)received no moderator interest in spite of the fact it referred to that website, bukkake, was at the top of Off Topic's most popular threads and a regional moderator was posting in it (and commenting on the website), YET a thread in the UK subforum which was significantly less offensive (though maybe a bit colorful) was visited by 3 mods and Captain Ewok in the same period. The UK thread is now closed while the other remains open.

It's hard not to look at that and feel that some moderating are driven by personal agendas, and, as ever, pretty inconsistent.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Trompe le Monde

[Captain Ewok 1,930]

First, thank you for the honest feedback. I appreciate the time you and others have taken to express your concerns.

As to your concern, I can not personally speak to the mods and what threads they visit outside their moderation duties, however I can say that I personally respond directly to reports vs. randomly hunting for problems. For that reason I would ask that people use the report system when they spot a problem. If there is a "no issue" then the report may be closed however we may not know about a true issue unless it is reported.

Regarding the UK thread: it is closed right now for review. It may indeed be re-opened or if found, some content removed for TOS issues and then re-opened. I am directing mods to take a closer look there pending my review.

As a final note, if you still feel a moderation decision needs reviewed then please use the following form (having and option for this):

http://www.visajourney.com/contact/

You can use that to contact me directly.

I know that we all (here at VJ) have the best interests for the welfare of the community in mind. If the general response time is too slow then that may be a sign we need more moderators to cover items or potentially more defined "guides". Both of these are my responsibility. For the record, I will be adding one additional moderator and also refining some guidelines at a meeting this week with the moderation team.

[Captain Ewok 1,930]

Re: why the topic referenced in this topic is "open" while the other is closed pending review.... namely that topic was less than 10 posts long and the offending post was already removed. As such it was left open. The UK topic is many pages and will require longer to review. I know myself and all the mods are not online 24/7 so sometimes that may take longer than I know you may like. If you wish to restart the topic then you can do that with my permission. Please no TOS issues . If the OT is re-opened we can re-merge the two .

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I really don't understand why the UK thread required so much moderator attention - yet a few other threads at the top of OT with "sex" or "porn" in the thread were untouched during the same period. I've found a few more "offensive" posts, including a personal attack, but I'm not wasting my time reporting them to prove a point - they aren't exactly hard to find.

I'm personally of the "we are all adults here" approach except in more extreme situations, but the modding of the UK thread appears completely inconsistent with the much worse stuff you regularly find in OT and I am calling it out. It appears to be motivated by something other than keeping VJ a family-friendly site free from sexually explicit language.

[SMOKE 1,426]

You quoted the hundreds of tickets you have to deal with, and yet a suggestion that's been made over and over is to get at least another admin (not moderator) to help you out with these chores.

oh oh me me me ewok. lemme do it! you know i'd be fair. just tell me where the IP permaban button is.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I find it noteworthy that the other week when there was a flurry of threads about sexual issues (including several in which VJ men admitted to using prostitutes, not minding if their daughters were prostitutes, and said some truly gut-wrenching things about women in general) there was little to no modding.

[SMOKE 1,426]

I find it noteworthy that the other week when there was a flurry of threads about sexual issues (including several in which VJ men admitted to using prostitutes, not minding if their daughters were prostitutes, and said some truly gut-wrenching things about women in general) there was little to no modding.

what do you think should have been done? inviso'd posts? locked & deleted? suspensions?

if you pick suspension...who? the person making the remarks that offended you, or the OP that knew those remarks were a matter of time?

[The_Dude 1,142]

There were 3 global mods and 2 junior woodchuck moderators in the UK forum at one point and they all seemed to be micromanaging every single post. Have we reached that level of censorship on this board where I can't be snide? Are the mods going to start editing posts because someone has a condescending tenor to their posts? The moderating in that UK forum is both insipid and petty.

[SMOKE 1,426]

The moderating in that UK forum is both insipid and petty.

could be a 'when in Rome' thing...idk just a thought.