MiamiHeatFan6 wrote:Hello I am very interested in becoming a Mod for the Miami Heat. I feel like I'm the man for the job and I could help the mods to clean up the boards. I appreciate your response and thank you for your time.
That may well be, and we thank you for your interest, but that isn't how mods are selected. Be a good poster, and if the local mods decide that they like you, then you will be recommended the next time they're looking for someone.
DwyaneNotDwayne wrote:I didn't realize moderators are above criticism on this website.
We are not. There is a feedback forum and the private message function for contacting Howard Mass directly, plus the intermediary option of contacting global moderators before bothering Howard. There are plenty of appropriate channels for reasonable criticism. Insults and baiting posts mocking a moderator outside of his or her view, on the other hand, will always be treated as if they were made towards any other poster on the forum, because they are infractions against the TOS. This should be abundantly clear by now.
As for the issue of Heat fans on the GB, you are not special, unique snowflakes. The GB is a riot of rampant foolishness, and fans from basically every team board feel the same as do you, that the mods don't do enough to protect their specific, special interest group. It is not from any specific bias, it is simply that we enforce the rules evenly. New York fans feel this way. Lakers fans feel this way. Raptors fans feel this way. Everyone does. It's felt more keenly in the larger fan bases, such as yours, and the more so when that fan base is the focus of the topic du jour. In your case, you have Lebron and you have the Big Three, two of the largest topics pertaining to basketball on these forums. It generates a lot of strong opinions, a lot of posts, a lot of opportunities for nonsense. The GB is riddled with such issues, which is why we have so harsh a policy.
Part of the PROBLEM, then, is that far too few posters bother to read that policy. Consequently, when they jump on to that board and do something brazenly stupid, or something less foolish but specifically outlawed on the GB (and not on their team board), they get smacked down with a warning and get bitter about it. We have a two-strike policy, so you don't get many chances, which only worsens the issue. This is specifically why Howard likes to separate the warnings handed out on the GB from those which push a user along the full ban scale. Lord knows I've pushed for bans on ridiculously low-quality users enough times, but Howard likes to give everyone at least that extra inch of breathing room on the site, and it's for the best.
Keep in mind that there are 10 GB mods. There are nearly 60,000 threads (not posts, threads) on the GB, at around 25 or 30 new threads a day, plus old topics getting bumped. Set aside the parade of PBPs we endure and hunt down, or the endless complaining about the 100-day policy, or any moderating duties we have aside from the GB, or having a life beyond that, or the fact that posters are staggeringly lazy about using the report function but quite willing to bitch that they saw someone else do the same thing without getting a warning aside... It's a lot of work. We miss things sometimes, especially because lazy posters don't use the report function, if I haven't mentioned (not that it's a pet peeve or anything).
Once again, there is no inherent bias against Miami on the GB from the mod staff.
It's a big board, you're a big fanbase, and many people still haven't yet grasped that being jerks right back at people who are being jerks to them will only get them the same treatment from the mods. Coming back to their team board and stewing about it is cathartic, and that's fine, but keep in mind that there is a line and if it is crossed, you'll see what happened in this thread. We put in a ton of extra work in order to mod on this forum (especially ultra-active boards like the GB), so pissing on that effort by insulting and mocking the mods who do that work is a little gauche, and you'll find that we do not appreciate such behavior.
Now, to properly address the point about mod criticism.
If you have a problem with a specific action against an action taken by a moderator, you should all know by now that the procedure is NOT to bitch about it in that same thread, or to start a thread to bitch about it.
The appropriate action is to PM the mod in question (if you know who it was), or a board mod (if you don't)... or go to the Feedback forum and ask. Politely. If you're an ass, you won't get very far, that's just common sense. It's nice to be nice to the nice; if you're a jerk, you won't get the time of day (and if you REALLY push it, then you'll get what would be coming to you if you did that to any other poster).
If you have a specific issue with a moderator and you feel that s/he's a problem, go up the chain one step. For a board mod, contact a global. For a global, contact another global, or talk to Howard. If all you want is an explanation and you can be polite, you can contact me about any such issues and I'll do what I can to tell you what's up. I will promise always to investigate your claim. I won't promise to agree with you, or that I'll witch-hunt other mods, but I'll give it an honest look, see what happened and then let you know the result. It happens all the time when people have some simple courtesy, and of course I am not the only global who will do this.
Most of us are reasonably nice people until you break the TOS. I'm not terribly nice, but I'm fair. KC is much the same. Keep that in mind, and you'll have fewer problems. Read policy for boards other than your team board, and you'll also find that you get into a great deal LESS trouble. Here I'd like to specifically note the GB and the PC boards, but don't think that we aren't watching the 'tap, blog, polls and articles forums either. The CA board is also likely to change a bit in the near future, so just always keep your eyes on what threads are stickied atop a board where you intend to post, and check yourselves if you choose to post on another team board. Now I'm branching out, but as Heat fans, you know well enough what it's like to have jerks from other boards coming to troll you on game-night, so don't be those people on other boards.
This is all reasonably fair stuff. You are not being persecuted, so take a big, deep breath, and remember that courtesy belongs on the internet too, not just for face-to-face interaction where you aren't anonymous.
Cheers,
tsherkin
I should be getting my posting privileges back there soon now that I think about it... *goes to check pms*
And then they say we're suppose to do their jobs by reporting it, moderators are suppose to be reading the threads and filtering out trash. You got like 50 moderators on the GB. So if it's not being reported what are you guys doing?
