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Clarification of Moderation Issues

Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 03, 2004 at 23:13

ExplorOz Team - Michelle

Some of you may be reading a few snide comments in recent days about moderation. It is true that we have decided to be a little more active in regards to site moderation in an effort to "tidy up" the Forum a little. Unfortunately, there is some confusion over what this is all about so I shall explain...

Firstly - nothing really has changed, only that we are appealing to everyone to restrict their posts to proper qns, answers, advice, statements etc and to avoid posting replies, or followups that are so cryptic that only a select few people might understand what's going on. Over recent months there has been a slight trend by some to take liberty with our previous policy of only very slight moderation, however things have become too out of hand to the degree that we receive a lot of complaints from people who feel "left out", "alienated" etc. The Forum is meant to be read and understood by all who read it - not just a group of people who may have actually had the good fortune to also meet in person.

We are very conscious that many people have found great enjoyment out of some of the lighter side of this Forum and there is no reason this has to change! Not at all - its just that posts such as "I'm bored...." is not appropriate in our view. Posts like "I'm bored... talk to me..." have flooded in recent months - the problem is they have initiated lots of responses, but this is starting to take a toll on our site operating costs to the degree that we have decided to be less tolerant of this kind of post and I have already started deleting them as at 31st July. Surely, you can all still have fun, be friendly, helpful, polite, etc in your regular usual posts but leave out the "dribble" as I call it.

Some people over the last few days have mistakenly taken the view that we only want posts that are strictly "4WD or Travel" related. That is NOT what I said.

What I did say was that posts had to have a purpose and not just be dribble. There are so many topics that float around the side of our "travel related site" however, this is NOT a chat room with an open policy on content either and to some degree the posts should be relevant to the topic of this site as a whole. If you require more entertainment than that, then please use other sites in the meantime for your daily dosage of entertainment and return here for your ExplorOz style discussion.

The main issue we have and that we are taking action upon is that too many responses and followups are appearing in posts after the original post is answered - and these followups/replies denegrate to simple remarks and private chit-chat.

When we first identified a problem with the number of chit-chat posts, we setup and offered "Member Messaging" in the hope that people would use that system for the more private kind of correspondence however we are disappointed to see that many people still wish to "chit chat" in the public forum. We DO receive complaints that this alienates those not in the "click" and that is certainly not what the EO "community" is all about.

Mostly, the ExplorOz forum self-moderates which is ideal and I'm sure we can all work to that again with some guidance as to our ideal "code of conduct" if you want to call it that. I don't get enjoyment out of deleting posts and then getting invovled in debates over it.

I trust that explaination helps you all to understand our wishes for how you are invited to use this resource and that the snide comments you might read on the issue in some posts below are quite incorrect.
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Michelle Martin
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ThreadID: 15275 Replies: 10
Views: 920 FollowUps: 8
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Thread Summary
Thread Watch Back To Forum Alert Moderator FAQ
AnswerID: 71173   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 03, 2004 at 23:27

Truckster (Vic) replied:

Works for me.

ISIB4

Its your show..

Have you thought about a chatroom style page, maybe hosted on one of the freeby server systems somewhere.??
Reply 1 of 10
FollowupID: 331387   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 03, 2004 at 23:40

Big Kidz (Andrew & Jen) posted:

I would be happy for our Yahoo chat to roll into an Exploroz chat but I am sure that Michelle and David would have to sit down and think about the ramifications for their business - might not add anything
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FollowUp 1 of 1
AnswerID: 71179   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 03, 2004 at 23:37

Big Kidz (Andrew & Jen) replied:

Thanks Michelle for clarifying the situation for us. I do agree that some of the chit chat type posts would work better on a chat forum or chat line and quite a few of us have been chatting through a Yahoo group that I have previously written about. We even have been able to use voice to chat and that opportunity should help reduce the chat on the forum.

I would like to thank you and David for what Exploroz is to many of us. It has been a wonderful thing for likeminded people to come together and form friendships and to talk and meet and go away together. It is natural that when this occurs we would want to respond to each others writing and it tends to become chatty. I am not unhappy that you want to reign it in as I can see that this forum is not really the ideal thing for chat and casual users may be deterred by too much chit chat.

I really hope that we can all move forward now and get back to that mateship spirit makes reading the forum so much fun. I would love for you and David to have a chat to us online one evening down the track as we really do appreciate what exploroz is. I for one will reign in my 'crap' (Willems words) but sometimes I just can't resist and have to say something rediculous. At least I can do it and know that I am not being naughty. haha

Andrew
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Reply 2 of 10
AnswerID: 71185   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 00:23

GO_OFFROAD replied:

Only thing missing now is Jimbob, posting about how he has had his freedom of speech stifled, and when he is treated rudely, he will leave.........again..... or just threaten too.....

Nice move though Michelle, I think you will find some of the most experienced, and knowledgable people will gravitate to the list with the least amount of signal to noise ratio, making the place they prefer, the place with the best information, and the least amount of frustrations.
Reply 3 of 10
FollowupID: 331403   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 07:09

Brew69(SA) posted:

You are one nasty piece of work mate.........grow up and keep your personal attacks to yourself.
Beer is evil.........And i am an evil man.
FollowUp 1 of 6
FollowupID: 331408   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 08:22

GO_OFFROAD posted:

Brew69, I do not know what you are thinking, but my post is fact, not a personal attack.

Unless of course there is something in there you think is untrue, before you found yourself guilty of doing what you accused me of...... a personal attack, .....

Hello pot, calling kettle, come in kettle.........
FollowUp 2 of 6
FollowupID: 331484   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 15:53

Utemad posted:

I would deem a "personal attack" has been committed as soon as you mention someone elses name (or screen name) in a negative manner on an open forum (such as ExploreOz).

GO_OFFROAD I would think that you could still have got your point across without mentioning any names.

Utemad
FollowUp 3 of 6
FollowupID: 331498   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 17:50

GO_OFFROAD posted:

Thank you for that Capt'n Obvious...... ;-)
FollowUp 4 of 6
FollowupID: 331505   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 18:41

Member - Jimbo (VIC) posted:

Thanks Brew,

I think posts 15049, 12470, 12438, 12265, 12009, and 11888, to mention just a few support your statement.

Interesting reading.
FollowUp 5 of 6
FollowupID: 331535   Submitted: Thursday, Aug 05, 2004 at 00:46

GO_OFFROAD posted:

I was going to mention afew of threads of yours as well jimbob...... but they all seem to be gone, they must delete "graffiti" from this site, unlike those posts you have mentioned ;-)
FollowUp 6 of 6
AnswerID: 71188   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 01:27

Member - Jiarna (SA) replied:

Hear hear. This is a great site, not just the forum but the whole ExplorOz website. Keep up the good work :-)))
Cheers
John
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Reply 4 of 10
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AnswerID: 71199   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 08:34

Member - Woodsy replied:

Well said Michelle.

ExplorOz is a great site with excellent information for all of us who like to travel 'Oz'.

The Forum is a wealth of info and a good starting point for those strange and unusual queries as well as the more mundane daily questions.

Even though I am a supporter of free speech I fully support your work in removing the irrelevant posts. This is not about removing free speech but about expecting the contributors to stick to what this site is about.

The site needs as few rules as possible and I hope that the contributors act responsibily and maturely from now on. Don't let ExplorOz go down the path of some of the other sites that have descended into bickering and childishness.

C'mon guys & gals, let's all stick together and make this site better & better.

May the strength be with you Michelle & David.

Happy 4 wheeling

Woodsy
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Reply 5 of 10
AnswerID: 71206   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 09:07

Member - John R. W (NSW) replied:

Well done Michelle, your message said it all.
Regards

Reply 6 of 10
AnswerID: 71228   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 10:30

Camp replied:

10/10 Michelle. Your explanation spells out the expectations placed on forum users most succinctly.
Reply 7 of 10
AnswerID: 71316   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004 at 20:38

Member - John C (QLD) replied:

Thanks Michelle - well put.
This is exactly how I see this site to be.

Keeps it professional yet light and in the right sprirt.

A code of conduct can be quickly forgotten and a reminder now and then useful.

Keep up the good work, my wife and I really enjoy the site and it has been an excellent source of help and info to date.

John C

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Reply 8 of 10
AnswerID: 71414   Submitted: Thursday, Aug 05, 2004 at 17:34

rolande replied:

Michelle,
Sent you an E-Mail so I wouldn't clog up the system about a post which i asked certain parts of be moderated due to unfair and unfounded personal attacks by an anonymous person/persons, post still not been touched. what is the best way for us not-yet members to contact you?
rolande
Reply 9 of 10
FollowupID: 331598   Submitted: Thursday, Aug 05, 2004 at 18:17

ExplorOz Team - Michelle posted:

Rolande - yes I did get it, and I checked the post id you gave me and although there was a "debate" going on there for sure, I couldn't actually find (maybe I am blind or skim reading too fast) anthing precise that warranted deletion and I was getting confused as to who was who and who said what as the sentence structure was getting too mixed up and there was too much alluding to other posts that I hadn't read - so reading it on face value as a stand alone post I decided not to delete it at the time. Maybe you think differently as you've read something I missed? If so pls send me a copy of the bits that are the issue - its such a long winded post that I admit I didn't read it all!
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Michelle Martin
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FollowUp 1 of 1
AnswerID: 71428   Submitted: Thursday, Aug 05, 2004 at 20:07

TheUndertaker replied:

Moderation ????where ???? when ????? personaly would like a refund of my membership,,site has turned to be a forum of abuse.
Reply 10 of 10