Dealing with members

[mindcry]

I am having a bit of a hard time from the user and moderator perspective. It seems that when the moderators say to a user hey can you take it easy it turns into a the moderators are nazis thread. The site has a little over 10k users so not everyone is going to be nice but I was just wondering how strict everyone is on their site and if you have like a good guideline on when to contact a user and tell them to knock it off.

[SaintDog]

One thing to keep in mind is that as an administrator or moderator, it is your community and you are responsible for taking care of it and taking action when needed. If that means not being as nice sometimes, it's simply a step you have to take.

I don't know of a single community where 100% of the memebers (staff included) get along 100% of the time. Rules are there for a reason. The same applies when you are at a place of business. The boss, ast. mgr or other are generall looked down on because they have to enforce certain guidelines.

Things happen, the best thing to do, however, is to stand your ground.

[Talisman]

Think of it like this, mindcry... If you decided to throw a party and invited a few [thousand] friends ... just how strict would you be if they started tearing up your home? How far would you let that go before they were no longer welcome? ... before you'd call the police to have them escorted away?

When you invite members to join your community, they are like guests in your home. You've put a lot of time and effort arranging the food, entertainment, and everything else for their enjoyment. It's one thing if they get silly and boisterous -- a few broken plates, some spilled wine on the carpet, someone dancing on the table wearing a lampshade .. maybe -- but these things are to be expected.

As site owner/admin, you get to set the limits in your forum that you feel are appropriate for the enjoyment of your entire membership ... exactly the way you would when playing host at a party with guests in your home.

[Rickie3]

If i have any probs with a member,I PM them,and all my staff have been informed to take the same action,I find it the best action as making statments in threads usually irritates the situation more and before you know it you have keyboard hero's coming from everywhere,I find a subtle but straight to the point PM works everytime for me,you gotta remember its your board your the admin and you pay the bills,and 9 times outta the offending member see's your point

[eD2K.biz]

If there a real pain and keep coming back, you have to be firm. Personally I would just ban there IP each time and remove accounts they create without saying a word about it. Silence is golden

[mholtum]

I have rules that no one is to question a Mod in public forum.

1: Warning
2: Warning
3: Ban

[mindcry]

I was doing one warning, then one day ban, then one week ban, then one month ban. Made it a little worse. But with the new warning system 10 points = a ban. But everytime I ban someone I have 5 others complaining that I am a nazi. Although at this point some of them have left and started their own site so hopefully things will calm down. I banned all of them too to prevent spamming.

[eD2K.biz]

Originally Posted by mholtum

I have rules that no one is to question a Mod in public forum.

1: Warning
2: Warning
3: Ban

Well I agree with MindCry on this one. The problem is it's OK putting military style forum rules in place. I did the same a few years ago and had much the same kind of response as Mindcry. People looked at it as some kind of joke. And said I was on a (power trip) just because I ran a board. And just took the piss basically. So I don't bother anymore!

I might also add, that I saw that rule on another site once about not "Questioning Mods" on public boards. And there was a massive outcry. Were people said if the mod makes a statement in public and he's totally wrong in what he's saying, how the hell can we reply back to say "sorry but your wrong". Meaning he's aways right and member can never answer back for fear of getting banned if they do. That caused a hell off a load of trouble on this big board I used to be a member off. And was frown upon greatly until it was removed as a rule. And I'm talking about an official game forum run by a manufacturer of a well known game.

[wtricks]

My rule: THIS IS MY PLACE!

I pay, I work on it, so no one will give me a hard time without being shown the door. Don't let anyone give you a hard time. My mods and myself are the ones in charge with everything, so we have all the duties and rights that come with this.

I have also stated some of this in my rules to make sure:

Warning and banning

The staff team at 'Webmaster Tips & Tricks' is trying to provide you with a safe and nice place to learn about development and share your experience. We delete any content we find unsuitable, edit links and signatures when we find them to break the rules. Signatures that don't comply with the rules will be edited with the text 'Please read the guidelines for signatures!'. This is a sign you put a smilie, or too many links, or a link we found to be breaking the guidelines.

Spam is deal with the most severely. If a member is being caught spamming the PM system or the forums or posting illegal content on the forums, he can lose his account instantly. For posts and threads that break the guidelines the member will receive a notification PM to find out what guidelines he broke.

Respect the staff and don't question the measures.

Since most of our members are educated webmasters and some even forum admins themselves we expect to have no problems with respect. The staff is chosen from the best members here, they are devoted to the forums, they know the community and they are spending their time to help this community grow. This is why respect towards them is mandatory and will be enforced. Should you think you were mistreated or fail to see what guidelines you broke, please send a polite PM to inquire about the issue. Being disrespectful towards the staff will cause instant account termination. As a general rule we don't explain why we take some of the administrative measures we take, but we are still willing to offer some input in private. Don't start threads in the forums about this. They will get deleted.

Account termination

As a member in the community you benefit from a lot of features. Your activity here must be within the guidelines. Your activity here is not mandatory and we understand that you might have other things to take care of and not only stay and post here. This is why we find the 'good-bye' threads to be inappropriate in this case. You are not required to be here day by day, you can return after weeks and months and find your posts and account as they were before. We treat the 'good-bye' threads as 'drama posts' and delete them on sight.

We don't delete accounts. Please don't ask us to remove your posts since we don't do this. As a member in the forums you participate in the discussion and also promote yourself. Your posts become the property of Wtricks.com as soon as they have been made. We have the right to edit, delete and keep them here, but we won't post them elsewhere. Should you wish to be no longer linked to the site, we'll edit your account with a general nickname and delete all your personal information. After being edited your account will have banned status and you won't be able to re-join the community in the future.

Aggressive Behaviour

Aggressive behaviour towards members, or staff will not be tolerated. We don't accept any forms or verbal aggression, foul language or flame wars. Please make sure you are using a common sense language and don't get involved in altercations with other members. Should you feel like a post was directed to you and you consider that to be offensive, please notify the Administrator through a PM. Replying to the offence in the thread makes you as guilty as the member who initiated the attack.

Seems like it's keeping them in a decent behaviour ...

[Ncturnal]

We make our best effort to handle everything via PM, and do so from a generic moderator account. Most members have no idea who the mods are, so there is no personality for the user to associate the authority with. Taking things to PM and being respectful works wonders.