Page 1 of Those pesky moderators! Maybe?

This might be a bit out of order maybe, and perhaps a bit unneccesary but I was just curious. Ok then.

Does anyone else here think that our beloved `mods` Mr and Mrs Clayts `n` Bates are a little heavy handed sometimes? I mean no disrespect to them in any way as they have done a great job of clearing up these threads and making them kid-safe but I just get the feeling sometimes that they use their super-powers when they aren`t really needed. Its really like when somebody starts a thread and they........

****************THREAD MOVED*****************

............do that that I think this way. Sometimes I get the feeling that they are scaring away people that don`t realise what they have done wrong. In some cases I can`t even quite see what has gone wrong either, so I get to thinking that maybe our (much respected) mods are a little strict sometimes?

Anyone catch my drift?

If our approach comes over as a bit heavy-handed, then I apologise.

The fact of the matter is that both Dan and myself moderate these forums in our spare time (and if Dan`s spare time is anything like mine, that`s fairly minimal as we both hold down full time jobs, and run various aspects of different websites).

It really does become a test of one`s patience when people fail to read the Forum Rules, one of which relates to posting subject matters in the wrong forum. The rules are there to make life easy for everyone, by ensuring that the forums don`t become higgledy-piggledy. By rights we have the power to completely delete wrongly posted threads, but we have both agreed to try to be as nice as possible, particularly when new visitors are concerned.

Another common practice employed by visitors is to post the same subject in different forums, again in breach of the Forum Rules.

I chose to adopt the ***********THREAD MOVED****** practice early on, because despite my best efforts to close down threads visitors persisted in disregarding my comments and posting regardless. The success rate of the blanket asterisks-and-capital-letters gag is pretty high, so it does work.

If there were no moderators, the forums would be a mess, and probably comprising solely of flame wars, which was the order of the day until Dan and me donned the jackboots :-)

Overall, the main duties that me and Dan get involved in is blocking people advertising products in clear breach of the Forum Rules.

I do accept your point that it can be infuriating to come across one of my trademark thread-closers, but it`s no where near as infuriating as having to do it in the first place.

There was a debate recently where visitors brought up the fact of misposting, not the Mods, so clearly other people find it annoying as well.

I think we are both very liberal in our interpretation of the Forum Rules, and we`ll try to be accommodating as possible, particularly where newbies are concerned.

But the fact of the matter is if people took the time out to read the Rules thoroughly, then threads like this, and my trademark thread-closers would be totalyy irrelevant.

I can think of another popular DVD Forum where they take a much more hardline approach to misposting. Consider yourselves lucky that we don`t delete and close threads in the same way they do.

Good point, Blazin`, and well made, matey...

At least they didn`t delete this thread..... that would smack of the old goose-stepping :D

Blazing - "scaring away people". I think this is the big risk. When a newbie gets their face bitten off b/c they didn`t read the forum rules. After all, what is a moderator or a forum without posters?

Having said that, I think the mods do a top job (not clayts though, he stinks :p). I come here for the top quality DVD info, not to get my arsed flamed off or trawl through thousands of irrelevant threads. If someone can`t tell the difference between a region hack and a retailer review they probably need help plugging in their DVD player to begin with.

May I remove my nose from your colons now lads? :D

"if people took the time out to read the Rules thoroughly"

reading the rules???, never going to happen!!.
You should put in the rules, you must pay clayts & Dan £10 per week!! see how many people actually notice, I bet not one!!

Please go here :

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=113&Thread=46031

We promise not to sulk and ban everyone and then have very interesting discussions about the weather amongst ourselves...

It`s important that these forums remain the property of the visitors, so all thoughts, opinions, criticisms and (especially) praise need to go here...thats

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=113&Thread=46031

Thanks for your lengthy reply there Clayts mate. Glad you didn`t take offence there or anything. I just felt I had to ask some questions. Aye.

Right well yeah my main concern was that total strangers, feeble minions who are lost and most probably scared, were getting pushed away by your super powers. Its the people that dont know a whole lot about the world of DVD and that accidentely post a message in the wrong forum, possibly because they dont know what the problem is that is making them ask the question in the first place. Its these people and these times that make me think that maybe you should have let them off and given them a gentle push in the right direction, rather than a slap on the ass and a banner in their face. I just get the feeling that they run off and cry in the corner when you do that sometimes. Thats all I was trying to say.

You two have done a stirling job though and made these forums brilliant for us regulars, I can say that for sure. Well done lads.

Aye!

Clearly this requires a bit of explanation, and I`m not going to break my own rules and double post :-p !!

In which case, I`m gonna post on the other thread.

See you there.

DanB
Moderator
DVD Reviewer