Code of Conduct & Moderation Policy • Page 2

cool tagline you have there.

 

Thank you! I wanted something snappy for the new site.

 

Thanks. I hope it helps.

 

TBH the people who are active members on this site (AP.net) are insanely great. Been browsing this for a decade (even though I've only recently started posting, I'm shy) and I think this new site will be great and this code of conduct is a reflection of a the values the dedicated community has. Looking forward to it. Props to you Jason, really think this is a great step for what you've created.

 

I knew it wouldn't be long before someone took this name. I've been debating Jacob v Jacob Tender for a few weeks. You settled that for me. Let's be friends.

 

I like this. Let's make the new AP a happy, productive place, yo!

 

but what about free speech?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

I really like your avatar on here, it looks great.

 

Quick question that's gonna make me sound like a narc: are we only supposed to be reporting things that are outright offensive and such? There are already a few unnecessary negative posts I've seen and that I know others have been a bit bothered by (nothing offensive, but stuff that definitely goes against the grain of the kind of discussions we're aiming for on Chorus) and I don't necessarily feel comfortable addressing them myself because I don't want to seem holier than thou and I'm not a mod, but I also know the sooner they're addressed the better. So I guess my question is should posts like those also be getting reported or should we just suck it up and politely confront each other?

 

It's probably better to report, as it's good for mods to be aware at the very least, so they can monitor the discussion to prevent anything worse or for repetition .It's easy for things to get out of hand, and as they won't be able to notice all the time, it's the best way to get their attention. People need to know they're making others uncomfortable even if it's not otherwise offensive or insulting. It could also help to reduce bans and promote better conversations.

 

If this is a forum where people get banned for not getting along (not breaking rules) and having other people not like them and that leading to moderation decisions like banning a I can't say I'm for sure how long I'll stay.

 

I think what Eva means is more along the lines of people being snarky, gossipy, or otherwise super negative. Nobody is going to like everyone, but part of a positive and healthy atmosphere doesn't include passive aggressive remarks, gossiping, or elitist behavior. Nobody expects everyone to get along, it's unrealistic. Rather, it's how that's handled that's important.

 

i can just see that devolving into people calling out for bans when others dont like certain bands or people or what have you. maybe im wrong. obviously snark and stuff should be kept to a minimum but keep in mind thats how some of us are. i have a very sarcastic attitude. many others on this site do. it by no means i dont mean well. but who i am isnt going to change over night. ive worked on that kind of thing obviously on AP but theres only so much i can do, im always going to be sarcastic, im always going to have quips ready to go, if that winds up with me banned then im going to see it as a problem

 

Please report that sort of stuff so I can see it and the mods can make a decision about it. Especially if you don't feel right jumping into something, we can take a look and hopefully move things in the right direction. It's anonymous and it helps because I can't be everywhere and see everything going on at all times.

 

I don't think anyone is going to get banned for being sarcastic. Heh. I mean ... you know me. I don't even think what @Meerkat was talking about were about bans at all. I agree with @lightning13 I think it actually leads to less bans because instead moderators can see what's going on and make a call on what to do. Probably more of a private "it's better not gossip in public about other people that aren't on the site" kinda thing in certain circumstances. Which in turn leads to positive interaction and a better forum.

 

That's not what I'm talking about at all. I'm talking about people randomly popping into threads to say a band or entire genre sucks, which is something we've specifically said we don't want happening here. There are plenty of people here I don't get along with and I think I've done more than a good job being civil. We can all co-exist. This has nothing to do with people not getting along or being sarcastic or snarky.

 

oh your OP wasn't that specific wrt the kinds of posts you were talking about, sorry for getting the wrong idea

 

I was being intentionally kind of vague because I didn't want to be pointing fingers or anything. I think most people are snarky here, myself included. Especially since a lot of us have pretty strong friendships with each other. Again, it's more of the AP kinds of posts that don't add anything to discussions or are intentionally negative for no reason that I was talking about

 

for sure, like the "lol"s and such. i agree those have got to go.

 

Yeah, that's also what I meant by snark. Cause, I do get a bit sarcastic at times.

 

Currently what I've been putting together for moderators. I think this is something that should also be public so people know what our goals are.

Hey, welcome to being a moderator! First up, thanks for wanting to join our team and help make sure these forum are the absolute best they can be. The main goal for all moderators is making sure the forums run smoothly, stay organized, and stay true to our mission and code of conduct. I've written up this little guide to help make sure all of us stay on the same page with not only how to moderate the forums, but also how to deal with some of the other little things that come up, and some basic style guide stuff, relevant links, and all that.

If you need help or have a question about something that comes up, please reach out to me or one of the other moderators. Everyone on the "moderation team" (Mod Squad? Should we go with Mod Squad?) is here to help make things easier for each other. If you're not sure what to do, please ask! That's how we all learn, and then you can help someone else in the future when they have a similar question.

Please review our forum rules and code of conduct. These are the documents that basically lay out all of the basics of our rules and how we expect members to post on the website. Now that you're a moderator, you're expected to live up to these rules and be one of the shining examples on the forum. In a way you help represent what the forums are about, so please keep that in mind when posting. Of course, on any great forum, there are disagreements and there are conflicts, but how we handle those and how we respond really does set the tone for the culture of the entire forum. It's important that we do our best to be the example we want others to follow.

Here are some examples of situations you may run into on the forums and some recommended actions. This also includes a variety of "style guide" suggestions on making sure that the threads and forums maintain a consistency throughout. This really is more of a set of guidelines, and not strict rules to follow. If you have questions, please ask.

A duplicate thread has been created

If there aren't many posts yet in the duplicate thread, please just delete it and let the poster know it was a duplicate - there's an option when deleting a thread to alert the creator. If there's a lot of posts, you can merge them.

An argument is starting to get hostile in a thread

The first thing that I recommend is making a post in the thread saying something like "hey, I know things are hostile right now, let's try and make sure it doesn't go any further" — the main thing to think about as a moderator is really that you, in your posting and interactions with the forum, should be trying to set an example for the culture of the community. Like, arguments and disagreements are ok, but the way it's handled is really important. If the argument doesn't seem to be getting better it may be worth reaching out to the parties in private. If you see a post that someone made that you know is over the line, using the public warning system is a good way of letting them and the thread know that you've seen the post in question and that it's not ok and that it's over the line. You can, but don't have to, assign a warning point for the post - make sure you've reviewed what warning points do, how many the user has, and what your action will do with all that.

A thread doesn't have a prefix

If the thread is in a forum that uses prefixes, please make sure all threads that should have them, do. The sports forum should be by sport, where applicable, the music forum should be by artist or album. Making sure these have the proper prefixes helps keep the forum organized and easy to browse for users.

Names are being called in a thread

One of the users involved in bulling or rule breaking is a "supporter"

Supporters are expected to follow the same rules as all other users. If you're having a specific issue with someone that's a supporter and can't seem to get through to them, please let me know personally so I can talk with them.

Bullying is starting in a thread

Absolutely unacceptable. We need to make sure this is dealt with immediately. If you're not sure what to do or what is warranted, please ask.

Specific forum rules are being broken

Please give warnings and let them know what rule is broken.

A user seems to be trolling or only posting things like "lol" in a thread

This is the kind of thing that should start with warnings but not giving points. Just gentle, but remember to try and be kind, reminders that we're hoping to move the community toward

It looks like someone is being ganged up on in a thread

This is the kind of thing that we really need to make sure gets dealt with quickly. Please intervene. Be it with a quick mention that things need to calm down, with warnings, or with private or public conversations. If you're not sure what to do, please reach out to other moderators, me, or what needs to happen.

A post has been reported

Please review the reported post to see what is happening. If you deal with it, please mark as so in the report system so that another moderator doesn't.

When to sticky a thread

The sticky policy for each forum is usually determined by the moderators of that forum and what works best for that specific forum. Please make sure to talk over what works best with the current forum moderators and make sure you're not adding a huge list of stickies to the top of a forum where it doesn't fit.

When a thread should be closed

If a thread doesn't fit with the guidelines of our forum, please close it. There are a few other recommendations for closing threads. In the sports forum, each sport usually has one thread per season. So the NBA regular season will have one thread that's a sticky, at the end of the season, that thread should be closed, un-stuck, and then a separate thread just for the playoffs can be created. After the playoffs, that thread can be closed and a new thread for the next season should be created. This keeps there from being hundreds of thousands of posts from multiple years in one thread. It also helps make sure the forum runs fast and smooth.

In other forums usually the biggest thread will be the "chat threads" or what amount to "official" threads for bands or topics. These threads can be closed once they hit 30k posts. Usually the best way to do this create the new thread, sticky it, and then close the old one, unsticky it if needed, and provide as the last post in the old thread a link to the new one so members can find it. When you do this, PLEASE edit the thread title to add [ARCHIVED] at the end of the title. This will make sure that someone is searching for a specific thread they will know which ones are archived and closed and which ones are not. This allows old threads to remain searchable, readable, and people can reference them or find things in them, but if they're using search they won't mistake an old thread for the current one.

Music forum thread style suggestions

Album Threads

Title: Band Name - Album Name
First post:
Band Name - Album Name
Month DD, YYYY

This first post can also contain things like the track listing, album artwork, a song embed, and the track listing having the track names linked to their respective streams when they're released.

Band Threads

Title: Band Name

First post:
I recommend using something like the first paragraph of their Wikipedia entry. Something giving some information about the band, links to a song or two may work as well.

Entertainment forum thread style suggestions

Make sure the correct prefix is selected. The first post being information about the movie, tv show, etc., is a great way

It looks like a post is pure spam

Please use the spam cleaner that's available to you as a moderator to clear and ban this account.

A member has been warned, banned, and is still causing problems

At this point please reach out to me to deal with this. If it's getting to a problem where warnings, thread bans, and actual bans aren't working or are causing other issues, please let me know. I have other ways to deal with this, but need to know. So please let me know once it starts.

Thread ban suggestions

I recommend using thread bans when it is clear that a member needs to walk away from a thread for a while. If it's at the point where trying to talk to the member isn't working using the thread ban system is a great way to give basically a "time out." Depending on what's going on this could be a one day ban from a thread, just to try and calm things down for a little bit. Maybe three days is needed. Or maybe it needs to be a week or longer depending on the severity of what's going on. If you're not sure, please don't hesitate to ask.

Public warning suggestions

I recommend these for things you want to make sure everyone in the thread sees has been noticed and dealt with by a moderator. These warnings are anonymous on the posts and are a good way to help steer a thread before it gets to a point where you're gonna have to give warning points or ban anyone. I recommend making sure the warning reason is descriptive, but not too long. If you don't want to apply warning points, you can uncheck the box to just send a public warning (and a notification to the user that they've been warned).

Warning point suggestions

Moderators also have the ability to give out "warnings" for certain infractions on the website. Most of the time this is how moderators will be letting people know things aren't ok and trying to make sure our code of conduct is upheld. There are rare occasions where a user will be immediately banned. Using sexist, racist, or homophobic language is in this category. Trolling, doxing, or harassing other members is in this category. Creating fake or duplicate accounts to do any of these things is in this category. For other infractions, warnings will be given. These warnings may be private and your account getting an alert to tell you about the warning is our way of letting you know something is not ok. Please take these warnings seriously as they can add up and lead to bans on the site. These warnings may also be public. A moderator can attach a warning to a post so that others reading a thread know a certain post was flagged and seen by a moderator. This also lets others reading a thread know that the kind of behavior in a specific post was over the line. Moderators have, at their discretion, the ability to apply infraction points when they issue warnings. These points are almost always issued one at a time. These points almost always expire after one month. These points are only available for moderators to see and give out. Here's what happens when they accumulate:

When an account reaches three points, it's three strikes and that's a 3 day ban from the website. This is meant to be a wake up call, a signal that there are some issues with how you're posting and things need to change if you want to continue being a member of this website. After the three day ban, we hope, you'll never get any more points. However, please be aware that those points probably don't expire for a month, so, if you get one more, you're once again banned for another three days. If an account reaches five points, it will be banned until the points expire and it's back under five. At eight points an account is permanently banned from the website. If you get to this point, you've been warned, you've been banned temporarily multiple times, and clearly you didn't learn.

By and large this is how moderation is handled on the website. Where deviations occur are when there are clear cases of harassment or bigotry. A troll joining the forums and throwing around slurs is not going to get three warnings while they continue to harass people. They will simply be kicked off the site.

Instant ban suggestions

Instant bans are not to be used because you don't like a member, or got in a disagreement with them. Instant bans are to be used when a user is clearly breaking the core code of conduct and rules and it's so over the top that warnings or thread bans are clearly not the remedy. If you're not certain, please ask.

 

hope you mods are up to fixing all those titles and prefixes and stuff, please help my crippling anxiety on those topics

 

also @Jason Tate are you going to make a post limit to make a thread? already what i think may be one spam thread in music, haha. one post and it's posting some unknown band's new song

 

i liked having release dates in the title for album threads, made it easy to see what was new to catch up on. but for the sake of cleanliness dropping them is fine.

 

Please use the report feature so I and other mods can check it out.