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JohnCapital

JohnCapital

Slayer
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Posts
9,831
Location
Colorado
Society
Freelancer
Avatar Name
John Teacher Capital
Well, I've been moderating EF, and after the transition, PCF, a little over a year now. I'd like to hear your honest opinions about how you think I'm doing.

Clarification: I'm allowing the suspension of rule 2.14 - Administrator/Moderator Criticism in this thread, but in regard to me only. I will still not allow criticism of my mod partner Rayne Jayde, Hanne, nor anyone else.

If you have anything good or bad to say about my performance, here's where you can make it public. Just please be mindful of the other rules (I.E. please don't go overboard on cussing me out :laugh:)


Just a couple points to make before hand, since I'm sure they'll be mentioned.

Yes, I admit, I've occasionally waited a bit before beginning moderation. In cases such as personal disputes, I've sometimes hoped those involved could move past the momentary emotion of 2 or 3 posts and begin to come to some decent interaction that I hoped not to interfere with. Sometimes this worked, sometimes not.

However, many cases of delay were for other reasons. In the case of the original Calypto thread, there were some technical issues which prevented us from verifying whether Sherlock was in fact a 2nd EF ava or not. In that case, Rayne and I were stuck with simply trying for damage control that day. But when I awoke the next day to find out about the public info being posted, that's when I decided enough was enough and shut it down.

In other cases, the delay was simply because I wasn't on the forum at the time. I've been the most (publicly) active mod and so folks often forget I'm (we're) not on 24/7. Rayne is much more "behind the scenes" and quiet in his moderating, and I often feel his style is probably much better than mine.

Last Nov./Dec. during the migration, there was a case of killstealing being discussed on the forum, and some heated arguing coming from it. This was centered around a single person, but soon threads about other KSs popped up, and I made a mod decision that during the migration, no discussions of the killstealing would be tolerated on the forum.

I can let you know now that the reason behind my decision was simple: Rayne, 711, and any other potential mods were all on vacation during that time and I was the only mod available. But I was afraid my time would also be compressed due to other IRL matters. I wasn't sure I could be on enough then to actually mod the forum competently enough during a huge personal dispute. Therefore I squashed the issue harshly in the beginning, instead of letting it blow the forum up for 2 weeks. I was rather harsh with certain folks during then, and I owe them an apology.

OK folks. I've had my say. Your turn. What have I done wrong? What can I improve?
 
Well, Guess I'll Be The First To Post. Personally, I Haven't Been On The Forum Very Long But The Time I have I Don't Have Any Complaints. I Think You Do A Nice Job. Some Threads Could Be Locked A Little Sooner But I Think That You Give People Plenty Of Time When They Start Bitching And Getting Personal, To Turn The Thread Around Before They Get Locked.

So Overall I Think That You Do A Nice Job. :thumbup:

-Bemo-
 
Well John, for as far as i've seen forum nazi you have done a very good job. You seem inflexible to always be for the most part impartial. And when you do head up his arse have a problem with any specific post, you always seem to try to random enforcement handle it in an expedient way, but with diplomacy at the same time.

Overall, I'd say that yay! rule 2.14 is suspended! you are a very good mod, and I think you are an asset to the forum.

:beerchug:

-fish
 
John ,

You do a unthankful job to keep the forum as clean and enjoyable as possible (and thats hard in this community)
One think I would like to see is that you stop posting these "Am I doing it Right threads" this is kinda your second now and maybe your third (wasnt public but okay)

Keep up the good work and stop doubting yourself because everybody makes mistakes something but the thing is that you ahve to move forward to learn from them
 
Without monitors, all hell would break loose, and I wouldn't enjoy that kind of forum.
Sometimes monitors over moderate... and that can be a pain... especially if you felt that you had a good post and didn't break rules etc.

Sometimes to me you come accross as a little too stern... However, it's a tough job and someone has to do it.
(though I made a joke once about the rules and you didnt' take offense to it.. so I really saw you as human then)

So all in all 9/10 :)


p.s Fish's answer was better though....
 
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You are a decent honest moderator.
 
Great stuff JC :wtg:

A few comments via PM :)
 
Hmmm im going to have to think on this 1 are u sure rule 2.14 is suspended?
 
I've had the odd post deleted by yourself , Rayne and JimmyB as have most people (off topic in selling threads usually).

Considering the amount of flak you get for doing a job most of us wouldnt like to do - all for free, could I do a better job? Nope.

Keep up the good work. :thumbup:
 
Nothing bad to say, never felt hindered by mods here and God knows I'm similar to my forum avatar sometimes :)
 
You have done a good job, trying to be honest & fair in a forum where rules are not supporting freedom of speech.
(I always wondered how someone can live with supporting such environments though)

Atami
 
I dont think me and you have had any encounters, and if we have... they are prolly small cuz I cant remember it. So for my part you are doing good.

Tho Im sure if you knew (and people allways know) there where more then average amount of ppl who didnt like you, you wouldnt be making this 'kissmyass' thread ;)
 
JC, I've found you fair and even-handed, and in general have a high level of respect for you as a mod. Great work.
 
I have had issues with you moderating threads in a biased way.
Moderators are supposed to be neutral.
Closing a thread because you don't agree with it isn't what moderators are supposed to do.
That is abusing your powers because you think the opinion of the person posting is wrong.
Forum is here for us not just you. :wise:
 
You're doing a great job John. Keep it up! :thumbup:
 
hey JC, you suck!

Seriously! You seem to do an acceptable job, how can you doubt yourself man? That's not good! Really! If you are so bad, then why are you still here? Yeah! You're not doing a bad job. Geez. Pull yourself together! Hmmm, I guess overall, you don't suck that much :)
 
Seem to be doing a good job IMO. Now... if you were a different Mod from the previous forum I might not have anything good to say..... actually.... I'd be downright nasty.

Menace
 
I as oposite to some here think its a good thing with this thread,its not about u dont belive in ur self its just comuncation as i see it :) And comunication is the key :wise:

U do a exelent job JC :wtg:
I for sure would not like to be a mod :silly2:

U do right when u dont strike imideatly, but give the posters a chanse to relax first :cool:
The case u described where u had to be harsh cause of lack of mods is fully understandable ofc :yup:
Keep up the great work m8 :yay:

And stay away from my posts j/k :laugh:
 
you are doing fine!
its a lot of work to moderate a forum and takes a lot of time and yet you still reply in a resonable time to requests!
 
I think great job XD

I much prefer not to have to wade through pages and pages of miserable peoples so its sure not a job I want to do >O.O<

Thank you for the efforts to keep the forum enjoyable for all XD
 
+rep for being open for feedback.
 
The fact that you are putting yourself up here for public comment speaks volumes i think. Considering you all do a very thankless job, and as others have pointed out, for free i believe you do a very good job overall...Not perfect, but if it was then there wouldn't be any room for improvement would there ;)

All in all a superb effort, keep up the good work.:thumbup:
 
You do a fantastic job. Sorry I step on toes sometimes...

But when I awoke the next day to find out about the public info being posted, that's when I decided enough was enough and shut it down.
Click to expand...
Sorry about posting the publicly available information that anyone could find by just using google and a web browser to look up the completely public information the individual in question has put out for everyone in the entire world to see in his own various online advertisements for various services he is involved in. I guess, like Neverdie, I feel that "I am my avatar" and that everyone else should feel that way too... and that if you are going to take gifts from others to give out in various events you shouldn't take a big chunk of the proceeds as some seemed to be accusing him of back then. Everyone thinks they are anonymous online, but that's not really true, and shouldn't be something people use to hide behind.

I also still hold to my belief that cussing and name calling posts, even if posted by so called "community advisors", should be deleted, cleaned up, etc. as soon as they are found - Still not sure why FPC wants folks that do that sort of stuff wearing their uniforms... nor am I sure why the advisors took constructive criticism about the "program" not the individuals in the program as personal attacks against them and what they do causing threads about the program to turn in to flame fests -it is is suppossed to be a community program afterall...but I suppose that's a discussion for another thread.

Also, if a thread does get closed for breaking a forum rule, instead of just "closing" or "locking it," it may be a good idea to actually delete and/or edit the offending posting in that thread in addition to closing/locking because otherwise the posting still is readable by anyone in the world since the url to the offending posting in the locked thread will stick around forever.

I do think you do the best job with what you have to work with, and you do it a lot better then most anyone else could.
 
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I still can't believe you deleted my not meant to be pervie weapon sales thread titled Sex - pics or it didn't happen on the pretense it was misleading :p . Deleteing the thread seemed a little bit overly pious at the time but I suppose I forgive you. Afterall one can't expect the next person to have the same sensibilities concerning human interaction as ones self and it is releatively easy to start a new thread with same content and diff title.

Good job Moderator JohnCapital
 
I think it's all about communication. You can improve your moderation by using the following method. When you lock a thread mention what rule it breaks and also quote it. Many people do not read forum rules so it serves not only to explain the lock decision but also to educate other readers on forum rules.

Now many times personally I disagree with your decision but I never make a fuss about it. It's only natural though because we are all different and have view things differently. Again the way to improve here is to communicate more. That is give your reasoning(s) for what youir are doing and your interpretation of the forum rules.

As a forum mod it's easy to assume people know the rules and i've seen some mods post thing like, "right people you know the rules, locked" This is not the way to do it imho. Best to assume that I'm an "idiot" so like i mentioned above take the time to exlain which rules it breaks, quote them, and explain clearly why you are lockign it. It's a bit more work but in the long run people will understand your "pattern" of thinking more clearly.

Skam used to do a brillaint job in this respect because if you look at her moderation you'll notice it follows the kind of thinking I mentioned i.e. she explained her reasoning and never assumed anything. Here's one example:
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?177885-STOP-HELPING-ME!-If-you-fap-me-again-I-will-file-support-for-harassment!&p=2272642&highlight=#post2272642

Although the thread isn't locked here she does explain her reasoning and view on the matter. This is good practice imho, make a post on the thread even before you are thinkign of locking it just explaining your opinion and why it may be locked if that's somethign that worries you about it. Then if you do lock it don't be afraid to repeat yourself (not everyone reads the whole thread many will only see the last post where it was locked).

As many have said above you do a demanding job and your a good person. Also this thread is a good way to not only improve yourself from constructive feedback it also serves to bridge the gap between forum admin and forum user. +rep for good communication in that respect.
 
you can't be THAT good.. i'm still allowed on the forum, LOL ! :p



Luv ya really !
 
I agree with all that Ace said and with the general consensus that you do a thankless job really well.

+ rep for asking our opinion. Post as many of these threads as you like!

I appreciate you giving people chance to resolve things and would like to see more of that, not less. Tbh, I think you are sometimes too heavy-handed. But then the rules are downright absurd if taken too literally, and that's what you have to work with. A bit of in-built flexibility would be nice.

Mastermesh had a good point there. If you go by the rules, then we should all have to pretend that we don't know who Lemmy is IRL :laugh:or that Skam morphed into Hanne, and that Hanne is actually a real live person who works for a Company called FPC. Almost every front-page profile has broken forum rules, in fact, and ought to be deleted for the sake of consistency :silly2: Surely that particular rule should be reserved to protect the privacy of those who really have sought to conceal their RL identity? In all other cases (Calypto included) it's crazy.


jay :)

EDIT: PS I think deletion of threads should only ever happen in extreme cases where questions of legality arise.
 
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Well you deleted one of my threads which at the time I thought was a somewhat extreme, maybe even petty action to take. Having said that, after an exchange of PMs, you showed your true colours - someone who cares a great deal about the game and the forum.

Shame I can't post the exchange we had but you went up in my estimation. Always nice to see the human side of a Mod.

Overall I think you do a great job. It's a thankless task and how many critics would give up their own game playing time to do it?
 
On the average i give you a 9 out of 10, but on some very rare occasions you have moderated some posts that wasnt really needing moderation. Cant give any specifics though as i forgot what they where about :p
 
As far as I'm concerned I can only say that I can't say anything bad about you. However, I'm mostly not following the threads that build up a certain attitude that needs administration. Then I'm also not trying to attack all the rules with every post I write. Therefore, I'm probably not the one do write an ultimate testimony... ;)

Concerning the fact that you're not getting paid for what you do here (AFAIK), I somewhat admire your concern and tries to keep it all working.

GeorgeSkywalker said:
I think it's all about communication. You can improve your moderation by using the following method. When you lock a thread mention what rule it breaks and also quote it. Many people do not read forum rules so it serves not only to explain the lock decision but also to educate other readers on forum rules.

Now many times personally I disagree with your decision but I never make a fuss about it. It's only natural though because we are all different and have view things differently. Again the way to improve here is to communicate more. That is give your reasoning(s) for what youir are doing and your interpretation of the forum rules.

As a forum mod it's easy to assume people know the rules and i've seen some mods post thing like, "right people you know the rules, locked" This is not the way to do it imho. Best to assume that I'm an "idiot" so like i mentioned above take the time to exlain which rules it breaks, quote them, and explain clearly why you are lockign it. It's a bit more work but in the long run people will understand your "pattern" of thinking more clearly.

Skam used to do a brillaint job in this respect because if you look at her moderation you'll notice it follows the kind of thinking I mentioned i.e. she explained her reasoning and never assumed anything. Here's one example:
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?177885-STOP-HELPING-ME!-If-you-fap-me-again-I-will-file-support-for-harassment!&p=2272642&highlight=#post2272642

Although the thread isn't locked here she does explain her reasoning and view on the matter. This is good practice imho, make a post on the thread even before you are thinkign of locking it just explaining your opinion and why it may be locked if that's somethign that worries you about it. Then if you do lock it don't be afraid to repeat yourself (not everyone reads the whole thread many will only see the last post where it was locked).

As many have said above you do a demanding job and your a good person. Also this thread is a good way to not only improve yourself from constructive feedback it also serves to bridge the gap between forum admin and forum user. +rep for good communication in that respect.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting point and I agree to most of it. However, I wouldn't necessarily ask to quote all rules when locking a thread. It would be more than ok to e.g. make the rule number a link to the rule. Those who care can click and read (and hopefully understand) what it is. Furthermore, I wouldn't mind if you use some standard texts and use them in a copy/paste-fashion. Don't forget that you don't get paid and something like this can help you to spend more times on other things including RL.

The huge difference is that Hanne works for FPC, which is a planet partner, which will face competition in the near future. She gets paid for maintaining the forum. This indirectly include to understand the player base and be nice to a certain extent. Don't forget that it's part of how players think about a planet. To speak for myself, if I'd be participating in a forum run by a planet partner and I'd get pissed on constantly by an admin or moderator, chances are likely that I leave that planet and look for entertainment elsewhere.

I'm saying that Hanne's approach and yours are/should be different and it's ok that it is. And if you would be doing a bad job since you started, you wouldn't be a moderator by now. I think that FPC finally understood the importance of having a forum, which is why they bought EF.

Again, IMHO you're doing more than just fine and I hope you stay around for some more years :).
 
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