Moderation feedback

Right, so, as I said,

Flagging is fine. I am just suggesting we do a bit more than that, as a community.

Agree, if someone does flag something it can be helpful for whoever flagged it to comment as to why they flagged, respectfully.

Some users that bristle if a Mod flags it may not be as defensive if they understand as a community we are working together to be better.

As someone who is no stranger to being flagged, I would appreciate and respect so much more if there was a reason why it was flagged. And not just something generic “Community violation”.

As Jack posted above, the forum software only has so many choices for auto-action, auto-notifications when flagging. So if someone flags it would be up to them to follow up with a more specific why as a courtesy.

By default the flag system is anonymous to the user being flagged, this is to prevent possible harassment by either party. If a user chooses to remain anonymous a Mod will need to follow up at a later time with the person flagged to hopefully clear up the situation.

The forums CoC is quite clear, we spent a lot of time refining it, I suggest all users read it:

https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/guidelines

I think part of the problem is that confidence that the system is good as it is. There’s a wild amount of room to make this forum better, it’s currently very average at best.

I am not saying I necessarily have the solutions to make it better, but at least I think we should strive for much better and examine any way to make this a place of excellence in discourse. Just as it is in the two forums I have linked above.

Take my post very recently hidden, same as mentioned a few posts above; do you want to tell me what CoC rule it was breaking? If Off-topic, would you dare say that it isn’t relevant anyway?

I’m not a Mod, and I didn’t flag it so can’t specify why you were flagged for that post. It seems pretty relevant to the thread to me.

Bring back vBulletin.

Also relevant to the moderation process:

@Dodger would you like to help us understand what has happened in this situation? I am assuming it was a very clear violation of the CoC, otherwise along with hiding my message, I suppose that I would have received a kind and respectful little note detailing the issue so I can improve my communication on this forum.

Oh, while we are here, I have flagged the following message as it clearly has no head or tails; yet it still is right here. Is that the kind of post quality you see as acceptable on this forum?

That’s not the way the system works. Anyone can flag anytime and depending on what button they press it sends an auto-reply to the user. As I said above:

Mods don’t always know why someone clicked the button. So it goes into the Mod que and sits, awaiting a decision.

In your specific comment case I can see it just fine, no evidence a flag even happened. So that tells me Dodger or Dan probably disagreed with the flag and left it as-is.

Shawn is correct.

More specifically, when a post is hidden as the result of being flagged by a community member, a message is sent to the post’s author (with subject line “Post hidden by community flags”, explaining why and what will happen next.

For example:

Your post was flagged as off-topic: the community feels it is not a good fit for the topic, as currently defined by the title and the first post.

This post was hidden due to flags from the community, so please consider how you might revise your post to reflect their feedback. You can edit your post after 10 minutes, and it will be automatically unhidden.

However, if the post is hidden by the community a second time, it will remain hidden until handled by staff.

You flagged that message as off-topic - i.e. “This post is not relevant to the current discussion as defined by the title and first post, and should probably be moved elsewhere.”

I reviewed your flag and I disagreed with you.

Thank you and @Shawn for taking the time to detail the mechanisms. It’s certainly a bit frustrating to have a legitimate post hidden, but I don’t have any suggestion for making this better in a convenient way.

Ok, this I see more as a moderation problem. I have flagged it as “off-topic” as I didn’t really know what flag was optimal for a post that was simply extremely low quality, too low to remain there. I now understand why you couldn’t accept the “off-topic” as is, and made you refuse my flagging.

However, now clearly aware of the existence of this post, you could have removed the thread yourself, given it was indeed clearly very low quality and is making the forum a bigger mess than it needs to be. But you didn’t, you made an editorial decision, and I don’t think you should be doing that.

Do I agree with @lawzec that more people should read Zcash whitepaper? Absolutely. But it’s not about whether I agree with him or not, it’s about keeping this place neutral. I won’t test you, but I am certain that if everyday I post a new thread with a different random article about Zcash, and say nothing relevant in there, you will eventually fold and get rid of those low quality posts.

We must raise the bar and make it enticing for smarter people to participate.

This will be even more critical when token holders become part of the decision making. If there isn’t a place known to have a neutral and extremely well moderated debate, instead of getting a collaboration critical to our success, we’ll get discord (not the software - “lack of agreement or harmony”).

I do:

is moderating this forum your principal duty as Foundation lead?

I would have enjoyed to have read those comments from @noamchom @zerodartz @lawzec @BrunchTime - all are regular positive contributors to the Forum. Does the “kind reminder” also include removal? Did you flag those posts or did other members of the community?

Excellent!

So, let’s take the example of the following beautiful thread: Serious consideration of changing the 21M cap

Do we:

1. Ban members asking questions lots of community members are scared to death about
   or
2. Improve the moderation so controversial matters can be discussed peacefully

Either create a dangerous precedent or prove me right, must be tough.

True, wording is important.

Is that the type of wording you suggest we adopt in here?

I have flagged @silentZcollector post for violating the forums CoC:

Examples of unacceptable behavior include:

• Trolling and insulting or derogatory comments.

ok, did not expect that…

i had a weak moment there, i and others too get tired of reading his/her topic on raising the supply cap, even more when he/she is spamming other topics with that.

i start to believe that he/she is doing that on purpose to spam and bring discomfort here, his/her intentions are not good.

sorry for my language

I’ve flagged and hidden a number of posts in this topic that I considered to be inappropriate or off-topic.

I recommend that everyone re-read the Code of Conduct and consider whether they are meeting the standard it sets forth:

Forum members should strive to be kind, respectful, and interesting. Ideally, your presence in the community should improve the experience for everyone.