11 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

 

I does annoy me that the ignore function does not prevent notifications and still shows hidden posts as an unread post which requires me to check if someone who is not on my ignore list posted something.

 

and I think the confused emoticon should go. It has no purpose other than trolling. If people are genuinely confused they should say so.

 

I use "confused" a lot, because I am confused or astonished by a post, which to me sends a message without a verbal bash........😇

8 minutes ago, transam said:

I use "confused" a lot, because I am confused or astonished by a post, which to me sends a message without a verbal bash........😇

 

With the word "bashing" you just gave the game away. You've admitted using it to troll.

I have developed a completely different perception and understanding of the forum since becoming a moderator, let me share a few things with you:

 

Being a mod is at least 100 times more difficult than I previously imagined, it is seriously hard and complex work at times.

 

The site is a far more professional operation than I had previously thought, there are a number of very talented people who put in a lot of effort.

 

I cringe at least a dozen times a day when posters start bickering and fighting over absolutely nothing. I nearly always think that if they could observe their own behaviour from the outside, they too would cringe...did I really do that they would ask!

 

The temptation at times to simply ban somebody because they are stupid is soooo strong at times, I have a sign over my desktop that reads, "don't do it".  :))

 

The behind the scenes effort is substantial, issuing a warning can easily be a 10 minutes process once all the I's are dotted and T's crossed. The stats show we have hundreds of viewers every minute, many of them active. Spending 10 minutes on one person makes things difficult. 

 

My biggest gripe? Many people are simply not reasonable when they otherwise would be.

 

 

Just now, ozimoron said:

 

With the word "bashing" you just gave the game away. You've admitted using it to troll.

I did not say "bashing", oh dear, but if you want to interpret my word 'Bash' as troll, that's up to you, but it is exactly what I would expect from you...........................😂

Just now, Mike Lister said:

I have developed a completely different perception and understanding of the forum since becoming a moderator, let me share a few things with you:

 

Being a mod is at least 100 times more difficult than I previously imagined, it is seriously hard and complex work at times.

 

The site is a far more professional operation than I had previously thought, there are a number of very talented people who put in a lot of effort.

 

I cringe at least a dozen times a day when posters start bickering and fighting over absolutely nothing. I nearly always think that if they could observe their own behaviour from the outside, they too would cringe...did I really do that they would ask!

 

The temptation at times to simply ban somebody because they are stupid is soooo strong at times, I have a sign over my desktop that reads, "don't do it".  :))

 

The behind the scenes effort is substantial, issuing a warning can easily be a 10 minutes process once all the I's are dotted and T's crossed. The stats show we have hundreds of viewers every minute, many of them active. Spending 10 minutes on one person makes things difficult. 

 

My biggest gripe? Many people are simply not reasonable when they otherwise would be.

 

 

100% right..............

I forgot my favorite gripe:

 

I try where ever possible to send an informal PM before taking action, it's a sort of, please don't do that kinda note, instead of taking formal action.

 

The other mods said, don't do it, you'll regret it and they were right! 

 

What happens, at least 50% of the time is, I end up getting into an off forum discussion/argument about this or that, and am left wishing I'd never written in the first place! A few people have said, "why are you following me", to which I reply, "it's my job"! So there I am, trying to moderate posts, and having off screen arguments with posters too. It reminds me, no good deed shall go unpunished.

 

 

21 hours ago, BenStark said:

 

It is clear that he means a poster who had 3 usernames in as many months, and actually spams the forum with close to 100 posts a day.

 

Everyone on this forum will know who I have in mind, and if the admins don't know, then it is clear to me that they turn a blind eye to it, and prefer quantity to quality.

 

Then again, why the poster needed to switch usernames 3 times in as many months?

So when there is an exception and one person is abusing the system... let's make a brushed with the broadest brush rule for all... wonderful

On 2/4/2024 at 11:52 AM, Mike Lister said:

It's good that we ALL have different opinions and are allowed to express them, there is no right or wrong in that respect. 

I disagree.

2 minutes ago, sipi said:

I disagree.

I knew you would.

Actually, I'll tell you a couple of stories.

 

It was more fun when you knew who gave you the "likes". I'd get into a blue with someone, then go to their profile and give 50 of their posts a like. Then once they calmed down I'd go back and unlike them. Now we don't know who gives likes, so there's no fun in that.

 

Another interesting thing was how people responded to your posts from looking at your avatar. I had a kid licking a teapot as my avatar, and everyone thought I was insane. Then I changed to an old man in a rocking chair, and everyone was like "leave that old man alone".

On the subject of likes.....what is the difference between a blue heart and a red heart 'like'.

37 minutes ago, Wobblybob said:

On the subject of likes.....what is the difference between a blue heart and a red heart 'like'.

Like and love.

I've reflected on this over the past few days since my last post. The forum is a bit negative imho. But it is seems to be peopled by an older, and perhaps grumpier, generation in their 60s or 70s experiencing the joys of old age. So maybe that is why many of the comments are simply comments expressing a fault (in the poster's eye) why the previous poster is wrong, and a lot of these comments are trite and banal one liners. There are some experts at this, you can't miss them they never write a paragraph, only the one liner comment, always facetiously asking for a citation, are correcting a grammatical or spelling error and insinuation the poster was ignorant and ill-educated. I have of course been guilty of this myself.

 

I am not concerned at all about slightly off topic, to tangential  comments, if they are interesting. Personally I like to see interesting comments and points of view, that express viewpoint I hadn't considered. I don't see off topic comments as any sort of negative, it is g-often People,e thinking outside the box. 

 

Certain topics where people on both sides of an issue, have propaganda inspired hard opinions, tend to be unpleasant with some insults flying....but whoever said free speech was easy? 

 

The moderation does need to be standardised. As an observer, certain moderators seems to be rejecting comments for silly pedantic reasons....you give some people a uniform and they go crazy. Other, including some real exerts, it seems, rarely feel the need to see their name in print for having erased a post. 

 

Overall the forum doesn't seem to be much different that it was a few years ago....but then again, memory is a strange thing,.

7 minutes ago, retarius said:

I've reflected on this over the past few days since my last post. The forum is a bit negative imho. But it is seems to be peopled by an older, and perhaps grumpier, generation in their 60s or 70s experiencing the joys of old age. So maybe that is why many of the comments are simply comments expressing a fault (in the poster's eye) why the previous poster is wrong, and a lot of these comments are trite and banal one liners. There are some experts at this, you can't miss them they never write a paragraph, only the one liner comment, always facetiously asking for a citation, are correcting a grammatical or spelling error and insinuation the poster was ignorant and ill-educated. I have of course been guilty of this myself.

 

I am not concerned at all about slightly off topic, to tangential  comments, if they are interesting. Personally I like to see interesting comments and points of view, that express viewpoint I hadn't considered. I don't see off topic comments as any sort of negative, it is g-often People,e thinking outside the box. 

 

Certain topics where people on both sides of an issue, have propaganda inspired hard opinions, tend to be unpleasant with some insults flying....but whoever said free speech was easy? 

 

The moderation does need to be standardised. As an observer, certain moderators seems to be rejecting comments for silly pedantic reasons....you give some people a uniform and they go crazy. Other, including some real exerts, it seems, rarely feel the need to see their name in print for having erased a post. 

 

Overall the forum doesn't seem to be much different that it was a few years ago....but then again, memory is a strange thing,.

Tricky, this one. Some of us like to engage with posters and other members, others prefer to simply follow the rules, mostly because they have other duties that are very time consuming. TBH, engaging is often difficult and complicated because not all posters are able to clearly separate comments as being personal or official and this has caused problems. And then there are times when somebody does something that is so absurd or ridiculous that something has to be said, we are after all, human also. Dunno, I'm very certain that we're all trying top do the same thing and that is to make the forum a safe and enjoyable place, it's just that we' sometimes do it differently.

 

Now, about this uniform you mentioned: this wasn't discussed in the interview when I negotiated my salary and benefits package so I want to understand more, I feel I should have one also.

52 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

Tricky, this one. Some of us like to engage with posters and other members, others prefer to simply follow the rules, mostly because they have other duties that are very time consuming. TBH, engaging is often difficult and complicated because not all posters are able to clearly separate comments as being personal or official and this has caused problems. And then there are times when somebody does something that is so absurd or ridiculous that something has to be said, we are after all, human also. Dunno, I'm very certain that we're all trying top do the same thing and that is to make the forum a safe and enjoyable place, it's just that we' sometimes do it differently.

 

Now, about this uniform you mentioned: this wasn't discussed in the interview when I negotiated my salary and benefits package so I want to understand more, I feel I should have one also.

 Just to give a trivial example. Last week I complained about a headline on AN here saying that a 'Brit 'scum' had hit a Thai steward in the face and caused a ruckus. I felt the term "Brit scum' was inappropriate and commented and a few minutes later the headline was changed. Fair enough. No complaints. 

 

My next post (or a post soon after) was about a British motorcyclist who was injured or killed....I wrote something like "Was he wearing a helmet? Was he insured? Was he scum?" which was an ironic reference to previous "discussions" about motorcyclists (helmets/insurance), and to the headline I had just read and commented on. The post was deleted and I got a kind message, but not a suspension, from one of the moderators.....fair enough it didn't cause me any pain.  But if your editors pass 'Brit scum' as a headline, was my comment be seriously offensive? I just think it is a bit heavy handed. 

6 minutes ago, retarius said:

 Just to give a trivial example. Last week I complained about a headline on AN here saying that a 'Brit 'scum' had hit a Thai steward in the face and caused a ruckus. I felt the term "Brit scum' was inappropriate and commented and a few minutes later the headline was changed. Fair enough. No complaints. 

 

My next post (or a post soon after) was about a British motorcyclist who was injured or killed....I wrote something like "Was he wearing a helmet? Was he insured? Was he scum?" which was an ironic reference to previous "discussions" about motorcyclists (helmets/insurance), and to the headline I had just read and commented on. The post was deleted and I got a kind message, but not a suspension, from one of the moderators.....fair enough it didn't cause me any pain.  But if your editors pass 'Brit scum' as a headline, was my comment be seriously offensive? I just think it is a bit heavy handed. 

Something like that wouldn't get picked up by the editor, it's a manual process that depends on what we see and when. FWIW steps have been taken to reduce the amount of negative reference to British people in posts, which were becoming excessive and is against the rules..

On 2/24/2024 at 11:29 PM, simon43 said:

I see childish bickering but no fights or shocking posts. But I do see (time after time) inane posts from the same forum member who simply trolls. Quite why he is still a member of the forum is beyond my comprehension. ..

It's just as well membership of the forum is not down to other members as if it was the numbers posting would be significantly lower.

 

BTW, you do know that you are not compelled to click on threads from posters you dislike, don't you?

On 2/26/2024 at 3:00 PM, retarius said:

Overall the forum doesn't seem to be much different that it was a few years ago....but then again, memory is a strange thing,.

I disagree. If one goes back before 2016 ( a significant year if one thinks about it ) the forum was a lot better for interesting threads to comment on.

Since 2016, IMO the forum has become much less user friendly, for reasons I am unable to comment on.

IMO the jury is out on whether the changes will save the forum.

29 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I disagree. If one goes back before 2016 ( a significant year if one thinks about it ) the forum was a lot better for interesting threads to comment on.

Since 2016, IMO the forum has become much less user friendly, for reasons I am unable to comment on.

IMO the jury is out on whether the changes will save the forum.

I have a different recollection, back from 2013 the forum was much stiffer along with the posters, writing style has changed

3 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

I have a different recollection, back from 2013 the forum was much stiffer along with the posters, writing style has changed

If so, please explain why there are so few interesting posts now that I spend a lot less time on the forum than prior to 2016. It even got to the stage that I stopped posting at all for many months, till the US election and the anti Trumpers made it worth going back on. The Gaza conflict revved things up, but even that has died down a lot.

37 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

If so, please explain why there are so few interesting posts now that I spend a lot less time on the forum than prior to 2016. It even got to the stage that I stopped posting at all for many months, till the US election and the anti Trumpers made it worth going back on. The Gaza conflict revved things up, but even that has died down a lot.

It's always ebbed and flowed with posts, I'd guess at less posts now but like i said the style has changed, i used to find it too stiff, preferred a different forum, anyway no reason you can't dip in and out of different forums and facebook to get what you're looking for 

When I haven't checked in for a while, I go straight to the locked threads.

That spices my visit up a bit.

8 hours ago, ozimoron said:

It's my opinion that off topic posts are huge problem and this is often (usually) because of confusion. In any topic there are posts which are arguably off topic. What's off topic is very subjective. This is compounded by the current software issues where older posts become quickly invisible. For example, "threads that I have posted in" currently shows two (2) threads.

 

I would use the thread "helicopters above kiev" to illustrate my point. 2 years and thousands of posts later we have seen no russian helicopters above kiev.

 

The solution is simple. There should be one and only one topic each of the US elections, the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza (as a start). New developments can easily be posted there instead of creating a new thread and then disposing of half the threads as off topic.

 

edit:

The frequency at which topic titles are changed illustrates my point.

 

Look at how many posts contain mixed content with some comments being wildly off topic and some on topic?

 

Members don't like having their time wasted by having posts they have spent valuable time researching being taken down for being off topic and not because of other rule violations. The topic titles should be as broad as possible and related posts should be in a single thread.

So that no one can bring up Biden stuff in get-Trump thread? 

On 2/24/2024 at 2:43 AM, simon43 said:

I agree.  Furthermore, while the Lounge is meant to be more relaxed in rules about posts, I would be too scared of getting banned/suspended to post anything controversial in the Lounge.  For example, is it OK in the Lounge to directly call a certain AN member a d*ckhead?

Don't be scared, you're a big boy now. "I won't belong to a club that accepts me as a member - Oscar Wilde

On 2/18/2024 at 11:27 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

Can't say that I notice much difference except certain mods are no longer with us (  unless under a different username ) and I didn't get suspended so far.

Crikey, another fallen one  - must have been quite a scene backstage !

Derogatory posts removed, 

 

Also, lengthy trolling post removed that attempted to discuss Kiev.

Lets call it a day on this topic.

 

CLOSED