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Elnaith -> RE: Move Topic Option (1/8/2011 19:55:21)
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Ultimatenick,
Thank you for bringing up your ideas and suggestions to the forums, we take great care to look for feedback and improve where necessary. I have read and thought about your arguments, and considered it how much is applicable to the current moderating situation, and whether the overall efficiency, quality and value of our customer service would increase.
First off, I will handle the idea of 'ghost topics' remaining after moving a thread. While this would help in the case of moving. It is currently already a possibility with forum coding, however, it is not oft used since it would go against one of the reasons of moving/deleting in the first place: That of keeping a board clean. Were there these ghost topics all over a board it would certainly make the board look cluttered, with (to the specific board) non-relevant information. This is something we want to avoid, and thus we do not use it.
Secondly you urge us to use the move function itself more frequently. While this may be more convenient to the user in some places, it is severely inconvenient to our moderating staff for several reasons:
a. Lack of conformity in board specific rules: As mentioned by others, a lot of boards differ with the board specific rules so much that some perfectly fine formatted or worded posts in the one board may not be so in the other. This difference can be subtle or obvious, but it already severally diminishes the option of where threads can be moved to, and gives the times where it does happen a feeling of randomness and based upon feeling and chance rather than rules, an impression which is wrong and we thus want to combat;
b. Increase of time spent by moderating staff: What must be realized on this topic is that we are talking about actions taken when the user is at fault. While we as forum moderating staff very much want to encourage acceptable posting behaviour rather than punishing the unacceptable, one has to keep in mind that we are all volunteers who do this in their own free time. Some of your suggestions (Like PMing, waiting 5 minutes, then deleting/moving etc.) take away of this valuable time one spends on here. While I am not preaching for the most efficient way to moderate, quality is first priority, it is most certainly a consideration worth to be made. More time spend on individual posts also give less time to other posts that might need it. The method you propose severally impacts efficiency;
c. No worthwhile rise in quality of moderation: The measures you propose do not seem to actually increase our customer service. If the post that is being deleted (under the current guidelines) is one of sufficient length, quality and dedication, the AK/Mod deleting it will paste this post in the deletion PM. They often also add improvements to the posts and guidelines as to where to post them. Advantages of this are that:
i. The User now actively reposts his thread, leading him to learn better where to post it in subsequent times;
ii. The Mod/AK has the opportunity to point out some mistakes in the post;
iii. Any posts that were in the fashion of the old board instead of the one where the topic belonged are all cleared, thus giving the topic an opportunity to start anew in the right atmosphere;
iv. The User actively gets pointed towards their mistake, and feels this as such, thus again helping him realize how to post in the future. This reduces the times disciplinary action will have to be taken;
All in all the advantages of the current guidelines have been experienced as such for a long time, hence why we are sticking to this. In the past we have had a policy more towards your point of view, but we found this to be more effective and worthwhile;
d. ArchKnight/Mod's rule knowledge: As other's stated before me, we do not expect AKs and Mods to be familiar with all boards. We expect them to be completely aware of the rules in the board they moderate in, sufficiently aware to not break rules in the boards they post in, and to take the Universal Rules by heart at all times. ArchKnights and Moderators are valuable volunteers and members of our community, we wish them to be effective in the areas they cover, we do not force them to be familiar everywhere as this would take up too much time, and would be asking too much;
All in all we shall not revise the current policy. Enough measures are in place to make sure that this is the currently best known approach. While we gladly accept suggestions to improve this policy where possible, I'm afraid yours is not something which will further the forums.
Thirdly, you express your concern on how we handle the forum suggestions that are made. While it may seem at times that we discard most of the suggestions, we never discard a suggestion without giving it deep thought on whether it would help the forums. Our main priority is to facilitate you as customers to discuss about the game. We do this using a set of rules and guidelines. They are absolute when in effect, but are always open for discussion. We are aware we are not perfect, but we strive to be. That being said, if we feel the suggestion being posted is one which will not further our strive towards perfection we say so, and try to explain why we feel this is so. This is not a personal attack on the users, or a display of elitism and stubbornly holding on to traditions. We do this because we truly believe the current ways are better than the proposed ways.
That being said, I appreciate your willingness to help us improve these forums and hope you will come to terms with our way of handling the issues as it is. If you have any further concerns or suggestions we are always open to hear your ideas, all we ask is that you pay the same consideration to ours.
Elnaith
AE Team Administrator
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