Greetings! I do not mean to criticize the dedicated moderators here at Grasscity, but recently I have had some concerns about the low visibility of moderators in some sections of the forums. Without getting into specific gripes, I've noticed several sections of the forum becoming populated by irrelevant and off-topic threads, frequent member disrespect, and blatant admissions of trolling. None of this is new on GC, but several years ago it seems that moderators were proactive in their reading of topics and maintained an active presence in these sections. It seems now that some sections of the forum are left in a complete state of lassiez-faire - unless one actively reports the behaviours. I understand that moderators are busy folks with real lives, and that these moderation resources are limited - no disrespect intended toward the moderator's efforts. In some cases, a moderator will actively and visibly address a complaint.... and then the members in question will promptly continue their behaviours without further repercussions. This is incredibly discouraging to other contributing members who obey the TOS. Constantly reporting members, and not receiving feedback from moderators is quite an alienating experience. It's sometimes hard to tell if anybody is reading the reports and weather or not they're relevant, much less worthy of further moderation efforts. I think GC can be a really great online community for cannabis-users around the world - that really excites me - which I why I am still an active member years later. I think we have a vast pool of experiences, and people of all different sorts of professional backgrounds to draw upon in forging the direction of that community. I worry that these reactionary moderating practices is actually counter-productive to that. If there is interest in this subject, I'd be happy to elaborate and be more specific in regards to my observations and recommendations. Otherwise I'll STFU and keep on doing what I do.
If they police it too much people will just be reluctant to speak their minds. I think they keep a neutral middle ground.
Cool, I feel that. Though, I think there is a difference between conciliation and inactivity. I would argue that this reflects rather the 'broken windows' approach to community policing that actually does more harm than good in the long run - and ONLY serves to make things look good in the immediacy. In some sections of the forum, there is seemingly zero moderator presence outside of reported violations of TOS. This is the exact inverse of being actively involved in the community they police. It is an even MORE top-down, authoritarian approach than proactive conflict resolution would be.
mods are short handed right now, but I can guarantee they read all "report this" citations, and investigate.
Well, I can appreciate the intensity of the requirements on such a large forum. At the same stroke, I know many intelligent and responsible members who are regulars that may be of interest to the moderation team. Since this thread, I've been making very liberal use of the "report this" button -- but often notice that no action is taken even when there are clear violations of TOA, and recieve zero feedback on the appropriateness of my report. What this inactivity does is discourages users from using the "report this" button when they should. If no tangible results come of pressing the button, then why should one bother at all? Inactivity on part of the mods is generating a culture of "who gives a fuck" among members, it is providing diminishing returns on the moderator's time investment. I've seen obvious and admitted trolls stick around for months, because they are repeatedly issused untracked verbal warnings. Their presence can seriously impact the prevailing culture of particular forum sections. I don't have enough fingers on my hands to count the number of long-time members and customers of Grasscity that have packs their bags in frustration; these impacts and tangible and real, I'm just not sure if management is aware of this.
I agree with you 100% OP as you can see in my topic about Off-topic thread in General. I love this site but many times I've taken breaks and even thought about leaving, which I never will, because of the cancerous decline in the community. I understand mods are busy but when rules are only enforced when reported and there's not much incentive to strictly moderate section that need it as a form of quality control and the whole sight suffers. Anytime you inform someone they're in the wrong section or demonstrating blatant disregard for etiquette, going as far to bait and troll in spite, you're told to suck mod dick. I strongly believe moderation needs for a short time to strictly enforce these issues for overall quality and to set a tone of what is allowed and is not. As I said in another thread, I remember when you couldn't post a single question in seasoned toker's because it belonged in apprentice and now made Q&A. 14/20 threads would be close at a time by Wild Will, a lot of people got pissed off but it worked and people began to listen. I love the moderation here, and I'm sure they are understaffed but if they don't begin inforcing this it would take a while but people would listen and the overall quality of the website's content will sky rocket. Just like when PB was close to other drugs. There is no reason off-top threads can't be enforced or moved.Either open up new mods or allow janitors to move and delete threads and nothing more.
As you know, we have been short staffed. We have new moderators chosen to become part of the team. We are bringing them on board one at a time for training. Our newest moderator is IgnorantFool, a long time and trusted member of this community. Moderators are brought on board by the administrators after review by the mod staff. We need to have 100% trust and confidence in the people we bring on board and I ask for your patience as we initiate this process. Meanwhile, we appreciate the dedicated members that report any TOU violations for our team to handle.
Could you address my question. Are you still accepting mod applications.. If you guys train one at a time how long does it take? Are you guys addressing the issues I mentioned or has moderation given up due to the extreme difficulty of managing it? What is the chance of bring back janitors (jr mods as they were called). The quality of this site is dropping exponentially. I reported a certain member who berated with insults including "weaksauce nigga, faggot" and many other shit tier meme trolling like 'do you even lift; you mad bro. Explicitly admitting he was baiting to piss off members. Hell, I saw a mod check the thread and nothing. I love you guys but what you doing? The site is a mess and mods should see this best. Again, I love this site but I've come close to leaving on multiple occasions due to the extreme drop in quality of the community, I will not leave but often I tend to be generally disgusted at the quality of content I see. A lot of which I blame on the mobile app, which I won't rant about but would happily explain how it's shitting on the website. This sight is booming in size and I believe we don't have the current staff to maintain the level of quality we once had, which is still achievable. Please don't let this site go down the drain because of understaffed and lack of quality control because of it. If anything I would love to see the mods be more stern but with the current number it is no optimal.
First let me say that I appreciate, from the majority of posters in the thread, the general tone of respect in regard to the job we do here. Let me also preface the rest of my comments by saying that any mod-bashing will cut the conversation short. I became a part of Grasscity in 2003. The ratio of regular members to moderators was roughly 10-1. All of the faces were familiar, and seasoned tokers was the place where everyone gathered. Where are we today? Well, as we speak, there are over half-a-million members. There can never be that ratio of members-to-moderators again. That's simply the nature of growth. What does that mean? Member contribution and assistance is increasingly important. I'm not sure where anyone gets the idea that any report is disregarded. I promise you every report is looked at, and action is always taken if warranted. If you see rule-breaking, it needs to be reported. In addition, people are given chances. You're not always going to see someone get banned on a first offense. The unfortunate reality is that there will never be enough moderators that we can check every new thread to make sure it's a quality post. We need help from members. If moderators were sterner, threads like this wouldn't exist and half of its contributors would likely be banned. I feel as if your questioning if we've "given up moderation" is a slap in the face to those who put in hours of their time volunteering to make Grasscity a better place to be. I understand frustration, and I agree that more moderators are needed. Continue reporting posts, and if they are violating rules, they will be taken care of. I've seen some reports that are simply someone not agreeing with the reporter. If there is anything I can stress it's this--reporting is not a tool for retribution. It's a tool to make the community better. And for the record, there are currently two reported posts, both of which already have moderator comments. The reality is that there are too many forums to check, we need the community's help. Feel free to elaborate if you would. I'm not sure that we can, ideally, PM someone on every post to let them know if there report was relevant (though I can say, for sure, that they are all appreciated). You should, in most cases, see some sort of action in a thread in regard to reporting users. If something is deemed not warning-worthy, or borderline, often a note will be added to a user. This isn't something that is visible to the memberbase.
I apologize if I offended you because I respect the job you guys do and would be honored to do it myself. Give up was a poor choice in words, really I should have asked do you guys actively lurk 'problematic' sections to close, move threads in the wrong section, delete dupe threads, deal with rule breaking posters considering many aren't reported? I was in no way questioning or complaining bout the competency or passion of the mods. I just assumed that, when I said given up, I meant that given all the other shit this isn't top priority and is overwhelming. Which brings me back to janitors, all the largest forums in the world (4chan, Reddit, SA, Bodybuilding, 2ch, etc) use a janitor system. This site has grown way beyond the size of what we currently have. I've seen the site boom since 06' and lurked years before that. If impenitent trust blades could be allowed to move threads, delete duplicate threads, rule breaking post, tag things, do the tedious things the mods don't really have time for at this point. It would increase the quality of the site 100 fold.assign people to limited specific boards they have proven themselves to be familiar with, chose them depending on board. Good jan could prove to be great mod candidates and would train them in the process. I'd be happy to write a legit essay to RJML if need be. Could this idea work? Why didn't it work with jr. mods? When will you guys be accepting applications for actual mods again? Another question for mods since this is a mod thread.When someone is banned are they informed of the offense and the duration of the ban? Are bans in any way 3 strike? I two of my warnings I would have even contented but that doesn't really matter, I'm just wondering how it all works, Will warnings ever go away? I feel like I'm wearing a three scarlet letter for something trivial from 1-2 years ago.
Can we at least get a sticky highlighting the off-topic ordeal? Most people aren't aware of basic etiquette. We have a rule thread, and etiquette one wouldn't hurt. Ya know. Post in proper section or it will be reported, post in existing threads, use the search function. Out of the many stickies on General, which would be nice the more time sensitive ones could be cleaned up. Like the new feature one which is a year old, or the origin of 420 which should really be in Story section. I think one explaining moderation would help tediously and maybe help some people understand what you guys are doing and why it's helping the community. To avoid things like this: http://forum.grasscity.com/general/1287008-why-my-thread-moved.html People post things in General because they want their thread to be seen. It's the root of the problem. The reason the proper section has low traffic is because people post in the wrong section for more views and likes. It's detrimental to the quality of the whole site and the sub-forums are suffering greatly.
You act like folks posting in the wrong section is a new situation. they don't read the rules what makes you think another thread will be read? the rules are posted in every forum yet they are not read, have no idea why you would think another thread that isn't read would help anything..
Great point, I over estimate people I guess. Either way, keep up the great work. You and your chick are great, this community is blessed to have you guys.
That's really not a decision I can make, in regard to having janitors. It's an idea that has pros and cons that have been discussed. I agree that the idea itself could have merit. Jr. mods worked, but many fizzled out and faded, as people often do on forums like this. And as far as warnings and infractions go, I'm not going to discuss individual's warning points, but do note that they fade over time. Any warning from a year ago is likely to hold no points today.
I was talking to Yoda in PM and it seems mine have glitched. I have no points and the warning is from over a year. He said he was going to remove them, and did, but for whatever reason the last one is stuck. Can you help a brother?
I think moderating a forum this big is a tough task. I do agree that the broader community should take an active role in reporting shite and help in any way it can.
they do.. and lemme tell you there are overwhelming amounts that come through each day, and overnight. if the few active mods were to login and just do reported posts, they wold probably be on for a few hours and unable to even lurk the forums and have fun posting a little on the boards. So they're forced to take care of the more urgent things like underage kids, hookup requests, spammers etc.. and not worry so much about off topic threads and stuff posted in the wrong forums. also adding mods on a forum with weed growers and weed smokers isn't the same as say a gardening forum. They need to be trusted with the IP addresses of people doing illegal things. ( i know a proxy should be used, but some don't) not all of that was directed at you wharf.. just a general statement lol..
With this being such an extreme problem how is it being addressed? Please bring back janitors. I could allow mods to do more urgent matters and allow proven competent blades designated to certain sections to move and close threads/ When will new mod applications be open or can one apply any time via ticket? Should I write a persuasive essay to RJML and superjoint? I can't speak for all users but the drop in quality is very disheartening to many of us OG's.