Should Forum Moderators Close Polls Arbitrarily?

Moderation can be very good. I used to follow Elitist Jerks closely and it's a great example. But more to the point: we don't need that kind of moderation on VEKN.net at this time.

Dorrinal wrote:

Moderation can be very good. I used to follow Elitist Jerks closely and it's a great example. But more to the point: we don't need that kind of moderation on VEKN.net at this time.

Well, Elitist jerk is the most newcomers unfriendly forum I know how. Do we want to scare new people ?

Dorrinal wrote:

Moderation can be very good. I used to follow Elitist Jerks closely and it's a great example. But more to the point: we don't need that kind of moderation on VEKN.net at this time.

My aim here isn't to trash the current forum and/or the current moderators, and I'd like that to be clear. For what it's worth, I think the forum works as intended. It's quite nice here, and from that point of view I agree that harder moderation isn't needed. Also, reporting is as much needed as moderating to make for a good forum.

Personally I don't believe that hard moderation is most useful as a "counterattack" to spam, trolls or stuff like that. I believe it's most useful as a way of making room for good discussions, by removing as much unneeded noise as possible. I also believe that moderator's reporting their locks, post deletions, infractions, warnings etc is almost as important as the moderating itself.

So if we (community wise) want a place where serious discussions about VtES can take place (regarding balance, rules etc) I actually think harder rulesets and moderation would be needed. And I think that would be a good way to go, given that most of the players are, as stated, grown ups.

Ohlmann wrote:

Well, Elitist jerk is the most newcomers unfriendly forum I know how. Do we want to scare new people ?

Now you're off-topic. EJ was brought up as an exaample to counter bakija's argument that moderation stifles discussion. We don't need that kind of strict moderation here, and we won't have it.

Dorrinal wrote:

Now you're off-topic. EJ was brought up as an exaample to counter bakija's argument that moderation stifles discussion. We don't need that kind of strict moderation here, and we won't have it.

It's not that offtopic. Newcomer, that can bring new ideas, and a generally desireable for VEKN, are the most sensible to various amount of moderation, especially because theirs ideas are not alway expressed in the right way, or simply because they aren't accustomated to the local climate.

Also, EJ can stifle strong opinions and require only cold logic and data because of the subject they talk about. You can simulate DPS, show data from boss down, and such.

On VEKN, about every discussions are very subjectives, because deck success can't be quantified. And subjectives opinions require more freedom than cold data.

The point being, if we want to talk balance and deck theory, we need the moderation not to be too hard. Elitist jerk is an intersting example, but I believe VEKN is not adapted to it.

(if you want to put it another way, EJ's moderation is not strict because it must ; it is strict because it can)

bakija wrote:

I am endlessly, constantly baffled by people who open up a thread, read a thread, and then get irritated that said thread exists and complains about it being there. If you don't want to read them, just don't read them. There are tons and tons of threads and discussions that, for example, I find needless and boring. Which is fine. As I just don't read them. How is that difficult?

Amen, brother.

"If you don't want to read them, just don't read them." -- Peter Bakija