Murder over the poi/glowstringing culture/artform - Please read :(

 Written by: Naganootch


Some of HoPs guidlines.

Some of us were here before those guidelines so they "grandfather" out of them.

Not me of course... other people.

In all honesty, I've never found those guidelines very useful. If you can get two people to agree on what "fair" and "benificial to all concerned" means then they probably weren't argueing in the first place.

But that's just me.

 Written by: PK_


she had a point to make thats all. Or did i miss some thing completly

I think you did miss something
Anyway thats a moot point

 Written by: Wikipedia


Role

The roles of moderators can vary from forum to forum, just as the purposes of the forums themselves can vary. However, on boards intended to be public, moderators are generally accorded additional powers. This allows them to enforce forum rules and conduct administrative tasks that the forum owner does not trust ordinary users to perform.

Among a moderator's enforcement duties is often the duty to stop flaming and keep the board a friendly place, free of personal insults (but different boards have different standards, and what is acceptable on one will invariably be prohibited on another). Most boards also ban illegal material (such as warez) and outright pornography, and many also restrict the use of profanity and any violent or sexual images, however in other boards this is considered perfectly acceptable, or even the norm.

On some boards, moderators are expected to stay out of all contentious debates, or at least to use alternate accounts to engage in them unbeknownst to common members. On most boards, however, moderators may participate just as any normal member, provided they remain civil and generally obey the site rules. Some boards require moderators not to moderate any discussion or topic they're involved in, and many moderators on other boards take this upon themselves to avoid conflict of interest and bias.

As always, there are many exceptions. Many small boards are operated at the whim of the site operator and perhaps some of his or her friends, and moderators might be able to do whatever they feel like on such boards (provided they avoid crossing their colleagues and superiors). Of course, a board with overly harsh or capricious moderators will lose members, but this may not be a concern for those who operate boards for fun or as a tangential matter to their website's main content.It is also in many forums important for a moderator to be available at all times or close enough to all times.A moderator must be available when there is a crisis or some profanity is posted.It is a moderators role to keep the forums clean and used properly.

[edit] Powers

Moderators can have some or all of the following powers, depending on the specific forum. Some of the powers, where appropriate, may be restricted to a subsection of the board (see Division of power, below).

*

Moving conversations to a different section of the forum. Virtually all forums are organized into various sections by topic to allow users to more easily read what interests them without having to sort through many topics of discussion they find boring. Moderators of most forums are able to move a conversation to a section more suited to it. On most modern forum software packages, a notice may be left in the original section so that those who contributed to the conversation earlier will be able to find it where they left it, at least for a few days.

(Note: forum sections are often ambiguously referred to themselves as "boards" or "forums". For instance, "I posted in the Wikipedia forum on the MediaWiki board" would be unexceptional in most communities, meaning "I posted in the section of the MediaWiki forum devoted to Wikipedia". For the sake of clarity, this article uses section to refer to sections of a board and forum or board to refer to an entire board.)
* Closing/locking threads (which term is used varies from community to community and software package to software package). Postings to Internet forums are organized into topics or threads of postings, typically organized sequentially by time of posting to form a conversation of sorts (see Internet forum). Most forums allow their moderators to close a given thread to further posting, effectively ending the conversation. This allows the existing content to remain fully visible, so that readers can easily see the moderator's reasons for closing the thread (it's generally customary for the moderator to post an explanation immediately before or after closing a thread). Certain users, generally moderators and administrators, may be able to post in closed threads, depending on the specific software package and configuration, although of course allowing too many users to post in closed threads defeats the purpose of closing the thread in the first place.
*

Editing posts. In the event that a post is made that contains only some content that breaches forum rules, moderators are usually able to remove that content while still leaving any legitimate content. Even if an entire post is removed via editing, users will still be able to see who originally posted it and when it was originally posted, so that users who view the thread later won't be confused by any references to it. Usually this method is used to remove illegal or grossly offensive material that would remain visible in a closed thread, or else to stop a single post from derailing an entire thread.

Most forum software shows an edit notice whenever a post is edited, to prevent words from being put in a user's mouth (or to prevent a user from erasing evidence that he said something objectionable). This option can typically be made optional for certain categories of users if desired.
* Pinning/sticking threads (again, the term used varies). The threads in a section are usually displayed in reverse chronological order by last post. This means that the threads at the top of the listing for a section will be the ones in which someone has most recently posted, and therefore posting in a thread will "bump" it to the top of the listing. However, pinned threads remain above unpinned threads at all times, no matter how old. This may be used to, for instance, keep a copy of forum rules at the top of every section of the board.
*

Deleting posts and threads. There are different kinds of deletion, and different moderators on different forums may be empowered to use different kinds. In general, something that's deleted vanishes from public view, if it continues to exist at all.

The simplest form of deletion is variously called hard-deletion, physical removal, or (on forums that don't support other deletion options) simply deletion. Essentially, content deleted in this way is not recoverable through the forum software. It may be stored in backups, and some data recovery methods may work, but such methods are usually difficult. Many forums restrict hard-deletion to only a handful of individuals, requiring lower-level moderators to use more reversible methods.

Other deletion methods can be collectively referred to as soft-deletion. The most basic of these is to move the content in question to a hidden section of the forum, so that only authorized users can view it. Anyone with the proper powers can then move the content back just as easily. One or two software packages, as of October 2005, have inbuilt support for soft-deletion—specific groups of users can be allowed to view a deletion notice but not the deleted content, or to view and undelete the deleted content. This allows more convenient soft-deletion of individual posts, which would otherwise have to be split from the thread (thereby obscuring their connection to their original context).
* Splitting and merging threads. If two threads exist on similar topics, or multiple topics are being discussed in one thread, the threads can be merged or the thread can be split.
* Banning users. Some forums allow some or all moderators to restrict or eliminate a troublesome user's posting or even viewing rights. Other boards restrict this ability to administrators. Of course, suspension of a user's account doesn't prevent the user from signing up under a different name, and for this reason a few forums also allow moderators to ban IP addresses. (Many boards that allow moderators to ban restrict the ability to IP-ban to administrators, however. Indeed, on vBulletin moderators can't be assigned the ability to ban an IP address.)
* Changing user account information. Moderators in some cases may alter certain aspects of a user's account, such as the avatar or signature, in a case of profanity or other circumstances.
* Viewing IP addresses. An IP address is the way Internet-enabled computers communicate with each other, and most forums log the IP address that all postings are made from. In general, this serves to aid identification of users, in combination with less technological means such as writing style, but it is by no means foolproof (see Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and proxy server for two main ways in which it can be thwarted). IP addresses can therefore assist in stopping ban evasion, for instance. In general, ordinary users are prohibited from seeing others' IP addresses for reasons of privacy and security—if a hacker or otherwise technologically-savvy individual knows an IP address, it's possible for him to "attack" it in various ways, possibly taking revenge for the expression of views he disagrees with or the like.

Many other powers can be allocated to moderators, but the above are all the most important ones. In general, all moderator actions will be logged for administrators to refer to later, so moderators can't take any special actions without their superiors being able to determine that they were the ones who did it.

[edit] Division of power

Most boards are owned and ultimately controlled by a single individual or corporation, which may run them personally, or delegate this function to others. In general, most mid-sized to large boards have a hierarchy of some sort, with owners at the top, forum administrators below, and one or more levels of moderator below that. Smaller boards might not have any dedicated moderators at all, with the site owner personally dealing with any problems.

On most boards, some or all moderators have powers in only certain sections of the site. One moderator might be empowered to act in the sports section, another in the general discussion section, still another in the movie section. These local moderators may be augmented by Global moderator with powers over the entire forum, or perhaps all or no moderators will be global. Administrators typically have global moderator powers in addition to their more broad-ranging powers to change the board settings, layout, etc.

[edit] Choosing a moderator

Different boards choose moderators in different ways. As noted, on some boards moderators are just friends of the owner. In others, moderators are elected by the users. On more serious boards, administrators and senior staff generally choose moderators from among long-time, respected, level-headed members. On boards belonging to large corporations, moderators will still usually be selected from among the forum membership, but may be required to go through some form of training, sign non-disclosure agreements, or the like. The Others choose kind moderators because some moderators can get very rude to people.

There are generally sufficient volunteers for moderator positions that it's unnecessary for even large, professional boards to pay them, but a few grant their staff small stipends. Boards with paid subscriptions may waive them for staff.

In Slashcode sites like Slashdot, moderators are semi-randomly selected by the software among registered users within a certain posting frequence range (not obsessed posters nor non-contributors). Their task is limited to five evaluations ("points") that they can distribute among any recent comment. Their work is subjected to an open meta-moderation system.

When Pele makes a post, it is a personal post (so i assume) she is not making it on behalf of HoP, or as a Moderator (In a "i have powers type of way")... BUT as a person, an indevidual.. just like me and you! i just dont understand any of this beef with her

Im just sorry that this thread just turned out to be yet another slanging match and a waste of time.


Pele to you.

 Written by: Loki_the_trickster

 Written by: PK_


she had a point to make thats all. Or did i miss some thing completly

I think you did miss something
Anyway thats a moot point

care to be specific?.....

E anke chi e un "moot point"? tu parla inglese vero?... io penso te capisco un cazzo di questi qui, pero, quello e il mio punto. Secondo me!

 Written by: Antti_Everything



This sums up my thoughts on the subject perfectly. I find Peles post to be very offensive and disrespectful to the people involved and who personally know them. And so I have no problem understanding Naganootch for getting upset and calling names.

 Written by: PK_

 Written by: Loki_the_trickster

 Written by: PK_


she had a point to make thats all. Or did i miss some thing completly

I think you did miss something
Anyway thats a moot point

care to be specific?.....

E anke chi e un "moot point"? tu parla inglese vero?... io penso te capisco un cazzo di questi qui, pero, quello e il mio punto. Secondo me!

 Written by: PK

Im just sorry that this thread just turned out to be yet another slanging match and a waste of time.

OK I'll play i guess...............

First thanks for the definition, I didn't need it but it helps my case in oh so many ways.

 Written by: wiki

Among a moderator's enforcement duties is often the duty to stop flaming and keep the board a friendly place, free of personal insults

FAILED

 Written by: wiki

moderators are expected to stay out of all contentious debates, or at least to use alternate accounts to engage in them unbeknownst to common members.

FAILED
Might be a good idea though because I know that for me personally I look at mods as representatives of the site. Even though it is thier personal opinion they are expressing they have a responsibility to hold because they are just that representatives of the site.

 Written by: PK

When Pele makes a post, it is a personal post (so i assume) she is not making it on behalf of HoP, or as a Moderator

it says "moderater of steel" right under her name........go figure

Anyway I think the way this was handeled is horrible. Weather you believe it or not should never have been the debate here. But then again its HoP social discussion I guess its to be expected. Now I remember why I avoided comming into discussion for so long. Anytime I open my mouth here it gets me into long typing matches that go nowhere.

 Written by: NYC

And Pele, count yourself lucky that people actually believed your whole Fire Breathing accident without all the proof you demanded in your post.

This rings so true......now I never said I don't beleive this horrible story that happened to pele. I beleive it is true and it is a horrible thing, but I could go through it bit by bit and pick it apart and find holes in the story that could easily call it into question as being real. I would never do that mind you but I could and that is exactly what pele did here.

 Written by: PK

E anke chi e un "moot point"? tu parla inglese vero?... io penso te capisco un cazzo di questi qui, pero, quello e il mio punto. Secondo me

I pluged that into a translater and got this
"And anke who and “moot point”? you it speaks English true? … I task you understand I haul here of these, pear tree, that one and my point. According to me"
Can you explain that? Pear tree?

 Written by: Loki_the_trickster



Oh and for those of you questioning the quickness of the Texas law system........well this is a state mind you that if you murder someone and three or more credible witnesses see you do it you dont just sit on death row for years and years like most states with the death penalty......oh no.....in Texas you go straight to the front of the line and will be exicuted within days or weeks of being sentenced. So in a case like this where the offenders in question admit guilt, I see no reason that in a state like Texas that they wouldn't get sentenced quickly. In all honesty when I read how quickly the sentencing came down I questioned it for a second, and then I remembered that this happened in Texas and it made sense that it was so quick.

 Written by: PK_


E anke chi e un "moot point"? tu parla inglese vero?... io penso te capisco un cazzo di questi qui, pero, quello e il mio punto. Secondo me!

 Written by: NYC


In fact, I'm surprised this thread hasn't been locked or deleted.

Straight after this I'll lock the thread. Seems to me that some people need some "time out".

Info - when you "notify Mods" the notification goes to all the moderators and Malcolm and I. If anyone has an issue with a moderator, reporting them to the mods will still work.

The extent of my opinion on this particular thread - HoP is not about personal attacks. If you believe you have been subjected to a personal attack please refrain from blasting the person "in public" - take it offline or notify someone. The world would be a better place if this "rule" was widely practised.
It is always HoP's intent to keep these forums safe for everyone. While Malcolm and I are usually far too busy to spend as much time as we would like to keep an eye on the boards, we care about them and more importantly we care about all of you. We even care about people we have to ban (on those thankfully rare occasions) for the good of everyone else.
So now I'm invoking the "time out" rule and ending with a message of support for all - especailly all of you who have had your feelings hurt over this thread.

George