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Improvement of moderation system

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Me: July 26 at 9 PM

A certain mod wrote:
Since you have repeatedly ignored this you are being placed on moderation for a period of 1 month.

Me: August 29 at 9 PM

Still under moderation. So it would appear I broke the rules again. What did I do this time and why was I not notified that my period was extended? Or maybe my period wasn't extended and I'm getting loop-holed for whatever reason since you never specified the days, hours, minutes, seconds in that 1 month? I waited 3 days and nothing changed so I'm asking now.

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A certain mod wrote:
You can drop the attitude for starters. As for your moderation we've been discussing whether or not to extend your moderation. We were already doing that actually before you ever messaged [removed mod name]. However, we have jobs and personal lives outside of ANN, and we are not at your beck and call. We are not taking you off until we agree on exactly how to proceed with you and compare opinions. If that takes a few extra days because we have lives and can't discuss the topic immediately then so be it. We are volunteers, not paid staff. We're leaning towards taking you off moderation, but with some clear stipulations in regards to your posting. You'll have an answer soon.

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Not to sound rude (don't want you misinterpreting again), but your personal lives are irrelevant to this because I saw you post a comment on August 27th (and mainly because you are a mod). This goes to the other mods as well, btw. I'd sum this up as abuse of power. Is the mod job that easy to get and keep? So clearly you only had time to make that post, but for nothing else, right? lol

You notified a user that they were put on moderation with a time period of 1 month. If you were discussing with the other mods prior to the deadline of 1 month then there is no problem, but once that 1 month period is over and you all are still discussing, you or another mod should have notified the user. Why? Because there was a time limit given (which expired), and you (general) should know that it is common sense to follow up on it.

If you order for a pizza delivery (you also give them your number to call you) and they tell you they'll be there in 20 minutes and actually are on the dot, you wouldn't have a problem. If they tell you 20 minutes and that time period has passed, would you not start wondering what happened to your pizza? I want to assume that you're a nice person, but for the sake of this example, there isn't a choice. Knowing the nice person that you are, you decide to wait 5 more minutes since there might be traffic or something. After 5 minutes, you're left wondering what is happening. The pizza guy arrives 9 minutes after the time you were told, which ends up as 29 minutes (You can't say 29 without 20.). Common sense tells you to ask what happened and why didn't they use common sense to call and notify you that order would be late? The delivery guy tells you they have a job and that they are not at your beck and call. Are you telling me that you wouldn't find an issue there?

If our roles were switched, I wouldn't have made a pathetic excuse as having jobs and personal lives. Once I tell you a specified time and that time is close to expiring (or the day before it expires), I'd follow up on it and notify you on the updated situation because it is the right thing to do no matter if I'm getting paid or not. You would have been better off not telling me the time period from the start because I wouldn't have sent a message to the mods if you didn't.

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Thank you so much for updating me on the situation. A simple two sentence message before or on the expired date was all that was needed. I'm sure you typed that within 1 minute so that it wouldn't take time out of your job and personal life. lol

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A certain mod wrote:

I am informing you that after discussion the mods have decided to keep you on moderation. The reason we changed our minds was due to the belligerent PM response you sent last (The neutral and non-aggressive one with sound logic and factual evidence). In short you stuck your foot in your mouth and ruined your chance to get off moderation (Because I was the cause of lack of communication between mod and moderated user and how dare the moderated user accept such an excuse when it can be countered with evidence).

Do to this clearly antagonistic behavior...we are extending your moderation period. It is being extended by 2 more months for a total of 3 months. This period can be extended further if the mods feel that by the end of the period you have continued to show no improvement in your posts and attitude.

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You've given me another time period. Considering the issue which caused me to send messages to you mods to begin with (which you clearly haven't admitted that you were also at fault not notifying the user.), it would have been logical and ideal to just state the Month, day, hour, minute, second to when the moderation period would end in this message instead of that vague 2 months, which you've clearly shown is a loophole, but instead I have to take the bait once again and play find the mod and ask the question. What month, day, hour, minute, second are in those 2 months?

We're looking into ways to improve things in the future. Unfortunately, my presence was pretty much extinct for several months this year because I was dealing with personal issues. Other mod presences were reduced as well, which resulted in a few mods dealing with all the reports, warnings, moderations, and other duties, which can take up to a few hours a day to handle depending upon the level of activity. As you can imagine, this can get tiring and isn't fair for only a few people to handle, especially since they have their own life and personal issues. We're in discussions right now on how we can improve.

I can't directly speak to other issues you brought up, but I wanted to address what I could.

To be clear, moderation is never for a fixed amount of time. I apologize if you were told it was.

Moderation is not a punishment, but rather a way for us to monitor members that we don't quite trust to post properly. Without the option to moderate people, we'd just ban them.

Moderation is until you show that you should no longer be on moderation. It may be indefinite. Generally speaking, moderation should be for a minimum of 3 months, and it will be reviewed sometime after that 3 month period has elapsed. The discussion about whether a member should be removed from moderation could take a few hours, or a few weeks, depending on how strong the case is, and the availability of moderators who have interacted with the member.

Most of the time, if a member is moderated for more than 6 months, he should just be banned, however the moderators or admins may make a choice to allow someone to remain if we feel they have a lot to contribute to our forum with their "good posts" and the benefit of allowing them to remain outweighs the hassle of moderating them.

Every moderated member is extra work for our moderators, we would like you to be removed from moderation as fast as possible.

To address your questions directly:

1. Communication with moderated users.
Moderators should be informed that they are being put on moderation and why. This is a 1-way discussion with no appeal process.

2. Giving dates on moderation period and being specific (What month, day, minute, second) and follow up on it. You can't follow up on it? Then let them know.

No dates will be given. I apologize if they were given before.

3. Remembering moderated users (There might be some pettiness involved which makes forgetting so easy).

Best way to make sure we don't forget about you is to continue posting. Good posts are what get you out of moderation.

4. Allow evidence to be used on you. Do not acknowledge what went wrong then still punish the user for it.

Moderation is not a punishment. As stated above, there is no appeal process. The best way to "appeal" your moderation is with your subsequent posts. Good posts result in moderation being removed quicker.

5. Being accountable when you cause things to happen. Don't say 1 month or 3 months then not free the user. That becomes a lie.

Again, apologies, you should never have been given a date. The rest of this however is not applicable since there will be no dates given.

Christopher Macdonald

5. Being accountable when you cause things to happen. Don't say 1 month or 3 months then not free the user. That becomes a lie.

Again, apologies, you should never have been given a date. The rest of this however is not applicable since there will be no dates given.

Christopher Macdonald

Now if Tempest says don't do that anymore then so be it. He's the boss. That means however we're going back to simply saying "until you show improvement" which could be anywhere from 1 day until eternity.

that's usually an entire page and half of articles. that still ok?