Andrei.Hicks wrote on Nov 25
th, 2014 at 10:57pm:
ian wrote on Nov 25
th, 2014 at 10:50pm:
In my opinion the strength of this forum lies in the laxity of moderation.
Moderators should step in to keep a level of order to ensure free flowing opinions and that a level of social decorum is observed.
Everyone is entitled to make an opinion on here though free from being personally abused.
A lot of moderators time though can be sifting through endless reporting by some members of wild goose chases which aren't abuse at all.
The problem with that mate, is that it is entirely subjective. Both the complainer's "definition" of abuse and yours as a mod.
There in is the problem. Since no two people will necessarily see the same thing as abuse at times, it would be appropriate for the mods to put in a bit of time developing a clearly articulated definition of what they (the mods) deem as abuse. Otherwise, if someone is upset, they may/will cry foul and look for abuse, I am sure that is basically what you are alluding to. If you aren't prepared though to articulate a clear definition for ALL then this circle jerk style of arguing will stand as debate for as long as the place has a membership.
By the way, when I say this I mean ALL mods, including the site owner. This will further assist mods (I would respectfully suggest) in terms of having the appearance of consistency.
I understand the respect for privacy aspect precluding conversations about who does and doesn't have enforcement of rules applied to them. If your definitions are clear though, no discussion will be required, as FD is want of saying look over recent posting history. That is currently a rather trite or even stupid position to take, because what is deemed abuse is clearly on a sliding scale and to some degree dependent on a mods personal view of what constitutes abuse.
Clearly articulated definitions therefore will make the "look at the last few posts" comment self evident, currently that is just a smarmy non response though.