Uh, anyhow... Randy, I think the way you're planning on doing this sounds great. Moderation is always implemented with the best of intentions, but in reality suffers from the very reason moderators are deemed as necessary: Humans. So let's get on with talking about miles, arguing over meal quality and discussing the latest promo. Somewhere in there, someone's going to argue. My question: So what? Move on.
Moderation is a necessary evil, but I never did understand the point of FT's absolute silence rule. Sure, you don't want to overrun the bread and butter conversation of a forum with meta-mudslinging about how that forum should be run, but as violist says, most successful boards deal with this by having a separate forum for discussing site administration issues, including public review of moderator actions. I see no reason not to do this on MP as well. Also, Randy, I find your evasive non-answers worrisome. lax asked two very straightforward questions, why not answer them directly -- yes or no? Yes, there are no "moderators" by that name now, but lax (and I) are asking what will be the policy if (when) it's introduced in some form.
@ Axey - at various times I have put forward the suggestion that moderators/hosts/whatever be chosen from users who are committed to the community but disconnected from the forum they moderate. I've seen too much one-sided moderation on FT and would appreciate something more evenhanded.
I think that the reasons for members being visibly disciplined - no longer post in certain forums, no longer post - should be available to all members.
I believe that MP is working towards self-moderation, significantly better than FT's Ignore List, based on this nugget from Randy: If a "complete" Ignore System were to include a way to ignore users, including the elimination of all their posts, quoted posts, and other related detritus, then MP would provide a self-moderation option that would be quite sufficient for users like me.
I believe you'll find JonNYC on his own highly successful competing board "travelingbetter.com", where new members are routinely deleted. The internet is a wonderfully big place where there is room for everyone somewhere.
I am truly sorry that you appear to not be getting the answers you are looking for. My focus is trying to build great technology for the members of mIlepoint and work toward what makes for better organized and helpful information. I hope you can appreciate that. As for the notion that boards have forums for public discussion of suspensions? Honestly, I know this industry really wel spending hours a week looking for best practices. In travel, which is the category we are in, I just have never noticed any forum that has a forum for the discussion of public suspensions. For instance, is there any doubt that brands such as tripAdvisor, lonelyPlanet, Frommers, Fodors, IGoUGo are the leading forums for travel? As well, you can look here: http://www.big-boards.com/kw/travel/ to see the largest travel-related forums and I've audited them all over the years and while it may be that i might have missed something, I've never found anything which you or violist describe. These are the leading brands of forums and community in travel. Apologies, I really need to go as we are auditing content today for MilePoint for the use of wikis and the newbie forum. Can you please focus on what is on MilePoint as opposed to other websites and as well, is there information about miles, points and travel that is missing and what is your suggestion to help make that information east to find and navigate. Thanks ... i'm off running.
IMHO it is really not our call at this point in time. I think MP is trying to build a site where old and new frequent flyers can visit and learn about the business of earning miles/points and do so in a friendly, easy, and non-confrontational way. I applaud and support that.
The answers I am looking for are either "yes" or "no", and it sounds to me like you're leaning towards "yes", as in FT policies will continue and The Powers That Be will not be accountable for their actions. True or false? Those are all commercial companies with people paid to moderate them, and since they're all censored to varying degrees, you wouldn't see any complaints even if there were any. Kinda like reading North Korean news: since they say everything is shiny and happy, then everybody must actually be shiny and happy. (Or FT, for that matter.) If you want an example of a successful travel community that does embrace openness, look at Wikitravel, where all administrative actions are logged and subject to popular review. Seems to work quite well, although the site's been slowly going downhill ever since our mutual friends at Internet Brands took over and subjected it to their trademark mix of neglect and unaccountability.
It doesnt sound like you are going to get a yes or no answer because there doesnt seem to be one to give. This is not FT. So FT policies are of no concern here. There are also no moderators here, so it sounds to me like Randy is politely suggesting you spend less time dwelling or asking him to dwell on what might be the rules if moderation comes to fruition ....and instead get on with the business of building this community in a way that hopefully moderation won't be necessary. If however, you were hoping to use this as a venue to creatively bash moderation/moderators on FT, I can't imagine thats going to go over well with the guy who either created or approved the policies the moderator team work with.
Yeah, rather than dwelling on these questions I am willing to wait and see what MP is going to be, then choose where to spend my clicks. Competition is a GOOD thing! ^ My personal hope is that Randy learned a LOT from the FT evolution and will be putting those lessons to work here. I suspect he has and will. We shall see!
BINGO! I'll add that I hope the reality that mixed in with the majority of amazingly great MODs there are a few abusive ones over at FT will be a moot point at MP. If there are mods or similar process, I do hope there is a transparent forum to discuss their actions. In the meantime, lets hope things stay swell here and the MOD thing is a bridge that won't even need to be crossed.
Just by discussing this it means membership cares. By caring, it means you are likely to keep coming back. Please come back with iPads and Beer
Personally I am known to be immoderate so I like the MP way of doing things. As a serial entrepreneur myself I thing the second time is usually better than the first and so on. Randy has made himself clear and still is wiling to have us nervously debating censorship, self or otherwise. The old saw about free speech discusses "shouting fire in a crowded theatre". The problem is that there are some limits regarding crass commercialism (other than Randy's or MP approved ) and general civility. I do not know enough about the BB world to know the best solutions but I think the debate is healthy.
So I'm a bit confused. Are there moderators here? I think on the other forum the mods there have really controlled a lot of what people say in certain forums and have also removed quotes, links, etc as they claim it should not be released to the public in risk of it getting removed. What's the point of having something that can benefit people, but not be allowed to mention it? In addition the whole merged threads is just annoying. Merging threads to create a 100+ page thread with irreverent info from 10 years ago is pointless.
There are paid staff admins at the House of Miles in Colorado, they manage things here. Randy has indicated there will be volunteers, who will serve more as guides or concierge/ambassadors and will have very limited powers. Our understanding is that they won't be able to delete, suspend, or move, only to suggest and assist.
Since admin is done centrally by a professional staff who all work together in one location, the expectation is that moderation will be consistent and predictable, without as much variation due to personal interpretation.
I have just found that when some subject is maybe emotionally charged, you cannot replace it with face to face or real life. Even in VTC, you can't see all the body talk. Also on camera, these days people just behave differently. Collaboration is always a huge challenge, even in person (look at the divorce rate) Along the lines of operations. Secret sauce is important, Keeping some mystery of how things work can keep people curious. Changing it as necessary is even better. The privacy controls here are exceptional. Once could say FB lacked them as other sites for publicity. It was always known that privacy can be issue. M*P is exceptionally private
