Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

When it comes to enforcing the rules, I have noticed a definite bias towards the senior members/DCMs. I myself have recieved a few warnings for saying things that someone else would say anyway.

Senior members and DCMs should not be exempt from the rules. I frequently see snide, condescending attitudes from these people that they aren't even warned about. Look how long it took you admins to ban Stelek. He was constantly insulting and degrading everyone who disagreed with him, and you simply refused to get rid of him for so long! Why? Because he was a DCM and a senior member. Just because someone has paid you money and posts frequently does not give them the right to walk all over people and post what they wish without consequence.

If you're so obsessed with your rules, try enforcing them more.

Rant over/issue adressed.

Remember the golden rule. He who has the gold, makes the rules. If you pay to support a site, you get more leeway. Capitalism has it's advantages.

So, how does this work for me?
im neither a DCM nor a senior member.

i do get warnings, allthough, after an argument with a certain DCM (who im not going to name) the person was thrown off the site (for multiple offences)

Also, sometimes you just need to find the right mod.
some of them couldnt care less, allthough most of them are willing to help if you ask them, rather than making a thread about it to draw attention.

@cheese elemental.

While what you said its understandable , there isnt really anything to be done. Here is why:

Older members have build certain ( good or bad ) reputations. So some occasional rude post may be over looked / forgiven ?

Its like that for everything >< ( not just forums ) cant really go against it.

I mean look at the recent paint service incident , and you'll see what i mean.

Mango wrote:Remember the golden rule. He who has the gold, makes the rules. If you pay to support a site, you get more leeway. Capitalism has it's advantages.

/condescending tone on

"Its."

/condescending tone off

Oh yeah! Hit that mod alert button! My DCM Status dares ya!

CheeseElemental: Sorry for the off-topic post. Seriously, though, if you don't like it I do
recommend the Mod Alert button. It's not like that weird Jewel on Battle.net.

Or is it?

----------------Perfect Gem Activated-------------------

Malf, can article mods do anything warning wise?
allways figured they stray away from the evil modquisition side of things.

We have no modquisition powers whatever.

Mostly, I hit mod alert on behalf of whomever tells me something, or I forward things
to yak or lego, or I post a message in the super secret forum for posting super secret things.

Moderators:

See flags for Mod Alerts.
Ban and suspend users.
Lock threads.
Move Threads.

Article Moderators:

Move articles
Delete articles
Ban article vandals

Ah, so we can pick on you fine then?
and by those forums you mean the mods forum?


so while MODs get rid of irritating people you make the site nice and pretty?

Cheese Elemental wrote:When it comes to enforcing the rules, I have noticed a definite bias towards the senior members/DCMs. I myself have recieved a few warnings for saying things that someone else would say anyway.

Senior members and DCMs should not be exempt from the rules. I frequently see snide, condescending attitudes from these people that they aren't even warned about. Look how long it took you admins to ban Stelek. He was constantly insulting and degrading everyone who disagreed with him, and you simply refused to get rid of him for so long! Why? Because he was a DCM and a senior member. Just because someone has paid you money and posts frequently does not give them the right to walk all over people and post what they wish without consequence.

If you're so obsessed with your rules, try enforcing them more.

Rant over/issue adressed.

It is very important to remember that many, if not most warnings and other disciplinary actions are done privately via PM, so even though you may think that 'X' member isn't being disciplined it usually isn't the case at all.

For example, Stelek received many, many suspensions and even more warnings and private discussions. The reason he wasn't banned immediately was because, at least privately, he was always making a good forth effort to acknowledge that he had broken a rule and that he would attempt to behave better. Ultimately, Stelek's actual personality is a very distinct one (if you've heard him talk on podcasts or met him in real life you understand that the way he talks is pretty much the same 'tone' he uses to write) that causes other people to get frustrated with him.

That is always the most difficult situation because generally you don't want to simply ban users that are not attempting to be malicious. You want to give those people time and guidance to try to correct their behavior. It is the people who are unresponsive to warnings and other discipline or that are maliciously trying to hurt the site that need to be banned permanently.


But ultimately moderation is performed by humans who, like all humans have biases and foibles; that is simply an unavoidable fact. But I can assure you that there is no conscious mandate to give any user preferential treatment.

JD21290 wrote:Ah, so we can pick on you fine then?
and by those forums you mean the mods forum?


so while MODs get rid of irritating people you make the site nice and pretty?

I can get rid of people who make the site ugly.

malfred wrote:

I can get rid of people who make the site ugly.

So no posting pics including us gamers in the background eh?

For some reason this reminds me of a campaign to not allow a garbage dump to be created in a nice rural place not far from where I used to live.

They'd have these big signs up saying: "Say no to rural vandalism" and every time i'd see them I'd think about people sneaking up and tagging (spray painting) cows with colourful paint in the night. Took me months before I read the little bit below about the dump.

BeefyG wrote:

malfred wrote:

I can get rid of people who make the site ugly.

So no posting pics including us gamers in the background eh?

Well, duh.

Also, define senior member?

Is this to do with post count, or length of membership?

Not being rude (to either side of the fence!) but I have found Dakka a lot more relaxed than many forums. Particularly 40kforums and Warseer (though 40kforums might be more chilled now Andy has gotten shot of Wardenhammer).

I quite enjoy the more laid back discussions we have on here. Perhaps it's do with the board being generally smaller, or just enjoying a typically better quality of poster. For example, I don't see eye to eye with a variety of posters, and most of them have come directly to me, via PM to talk it out. Even if they don't like or agree with your opinion, most people on Dakka (pretty much all now actually) still respect it to some degree.

And I've certainly never seen the sort of Mod-Team circle jerks evidet on certain sites.

Chill matey. If you have a problem, go straight to the person in question and talk it out. If this fails, go to the Mods. All will be fine.

I'd hardly call most discussions here relaxed. On the one hand we have people who genuinely enjoy discussing things (i.e. most of the people here), and then you've got the really unpleasant people who are always convinced they're in the right.

Senior member in my book means both length of membership and post count.

Cheese Elemental wrote:Senior member in my book means both length of membership and post count.

So either someone who's been here a while (hardly qualifies someone's position as 'senior', that might be your feeling on taking an opposing view to them, lenth of time on a forum does not indicate knowledge or ability) or a troll who's only been here say a couple of months and has posted thousands of posts, mostly spam or useless postcount, due to lack of life.

Like my old dad says, take the moral high ground, if you argue your points clearly and politely and don't let the other poster rattle you, you can't be called to account by the other poster using the /report feature for some exploited choice of words or stupidly overblowing the comment.

I am satisfied by the standards set by the Mods and Admin of this site, I think you have to understand one thing, they will be sending you a warning and likely the other person as well, they will also be discussing certain things in the private forums we don't see.

Length of time on a site = F all
Number of posts = F all

Neither are an indication of quality, neither are likely to elicit support on their own.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Not being rude (to either side of the fence!) but I have found Dakka a lot more relaxed than many forums.

QFT

I would have to say the mods here are much more lax compared to many other forums out there (be them 40k forums or other).

I like the laxity of the mods, myself.

It seems that at least here, most discussions are pretty civil. Especially considering how volatile of a subject tiny plastic men can be!

It's kind of a pain to see an interesting thread locked because two people were flaming each other in some side conversation.

Cheese Elemental wrote:Look how long it took you admins to ban Stelek. He was constantly insulting and degrading everyone who disagreed with him, and you simply refused to get rid of him for so long! Why? Because he was a DCM and a senior member.

Stelek was on Dakka for about a year, I would hardly call him a senior member. He posted a lot, but I don't think post count has anything to do with seniority. I have been on Dakka for almost 10 years by my count. I would not consider someone more senior than me if they are newer than me, even if they spam out 75 posts a day.

Sadly at Dakka the line between discussion and flame war is never really quite defined, resulting in discussions being locked (and usually for a 'bad' post from 2 pages ago), and people having a good fun argument being warned (heated and passionate arguments are mistaken for arrogance and flames).

I've oft wondered what would become of me were I to become a DCM. I could finally have Commissar Calgar as my user title, but beyond that, what exactly?

Off-topic: Bring back your damn Commissar Calgar avatar! The underlings are getting restless.

H.B.M.C. wrote: I've oft wondered what would become of me were I to become a DCM. I could finally have Commissar Calgar as my user title, but beyond that, what exactly?

Well, you would be considered one of the Dakka's privileged class by non-DCMs. Apparently we can be snarkier than others. Occasionally be mistaken for a MOD, and the ever popular nude photos of Malfred!

The same set of rules apply to every0ne here. There is no special leeway given to the DCMs.

I love when people complain about "fair" treatment. This isn't a government, it's a privately owned website.

Does you're boss have more freedoms than you at work? Of course. Do celebrities get special treatment? At least they're good enough to have a forum where you can discuss stuff like this.

And for the record I don't see any special treatment which would warrant a complaint. Concerning people who are "punished"-there is usually more going on behind the scenes than an average onlooker realizes.

Crimson Devil wrote: and the ever popular nude photos of Malfred!

How do I become a DCM again?

Typeline wrote:

Crimson Devil wrote: and the ever popular nude photos of Malfred!

How do I become a DCM again?

Email me at:

webmaster@dakkadakka.com

and I'll give you the details.

Crimson Devil wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote: I've oft wondered what would become of me were I to become a DCM. I could finally have Commissar Calgar as my user title, but beyond that, what exactly?

Well, you would be considered one of the Dakka's privileged class by non-DCMs. Apparently we can be snarkier than others. Occasionally be mistaken for a MOD, and the ever popular nude photos of Malfred!

That was a one-time deal, Crimson Devil.

(Made many single times over and over again)

H.B.M.C. wrote:Sadly at Dakka the line between discussion and flame war is never really quite defined, resulting in discussions being locked (and usually for a 'bad' post from 2 pages ago), and people having a good fun argument being warned (heated and passionate arguments are mistaken for arrogance and flames).

I've oft wondered what would become of me were I to become a DCM. I could finally have Commissar Calgar as my user title, but beyond that, what exactly?

You'd get access to the super-secret DCM forum where we talk about other users behind their back and generally point and laugh.

Ozymandias wrote:You'd get access to the super-secret DCM forum where we talk about other users behind their back and generally point and laugh.

Shhhh!

Ozy - don't forget first rule of DCM - you don't talk about DCM!

On the issue of 'fairness'.

DCM status gets no priveledges. Svereal DCMs have had tempory bans and one has had a permaban.

Length of time here does play an influence (for me) in that it is likely that I have 'known' them for several years, and know their posting styles, and some are even friends on facebook, and on other forums (outside of dakka). But if they do something really dumb I'll hand it to one of the other mods to act on.

Cheese Elemental, you state yourself that you have had several warnings. I'm sure if you just thought before you press the submit button 'would a concerned parent allow their child to read this' then the warning will suddenly dry up, as your posting style becomes less confrontational.
I'm sure that several years of positive contribution to the site will afford you that leeway to.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also as a private forum the DCM forum allows you to post pretty much whatever you like.

And I do.