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News Archives / Re: Moderator Free October
« on: September 25, 2018, 05:52:40 pm »
Another long-time lurker crawling out of the woodwork.
Although I can agree self-moderation isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's a tool that needs to be used in conjunction with moderators because, as many other people have mentioned, it can be oh-so-easily abused. As an example, World of Warcraft 'silences' (they can no longer speak in public chats) players who receive a large volume of reports in a short amount of time. I've seen guilds co-ordinate and use it to mute players they dislike or disagree with; I guarantee it'll happen. However, in this game's case, GMs usually rectify the silences or bans when messaged, especially if they were unjustified. Feralheart won't have this.
Another thing is the general age of the game's playerbase. There's some incredibly young kids here who admittedly do need the protection of moderators. I'd honestly worry about the content they'd be exposed to, especially if there was a genuine case of harassment that was kept within groups and whispers-- somewhere that won't invoke the blocks required for a ban. Even then, there should be complete transparency about the system being put into place to soothe everyone's worries. How many reports with trigger the ban? Are the bans permanent? Is there any way to rectify bans made in error without moderators? What if a problematic member doesn't receive the required number of blocks? Such a controversial change should definitely include more information- for everyone's sake.
Either way, I feel this is a case of 'if it's not broke, don't fix it'.
Although I can agree self-moderation isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's a tool that needs to be used in conjunction with moderators because, as many other people have mentioned, it can be oh-so-easily abused. As an example, World of Warcraft 'silences' (they can no longer speak in public chats) players who receive a large volume of reports in a short amount of time. I've seen guilds co-ordinate and use it to mute players they dislike or disagree with; I guarantee it'll happen. However, in this game's case, GMs usually rectify the silences or bans when messaged, especially if they were unjustified. Feralheart won't have this.
Another thing is the general age of the game's playerbase. There's some incredibly young kids here who admittedly do need the protection of moderators. I'd honestly worry about the content they'd be exposed to, especially if there was a genuine case of harassment that was kept within groups and whispers-- somewhere that won't invoke the blocks required for a ban. Even then, there should be complete transparency about the system being put into place to soothe everyone's worries. How many reports with trigger the ban? Are the bans permanent? Is there any way to rectify bans made in error without moderators? What if a problematic member doesn't receive the required number of blocks? Such a controversial change should definitely include more information- for everyone's sake.
Either way, I feel this is a case of 'if it's not broke, don't fix it'.