it has been the case recently that there is confrontation and bad feelings/attitudes betweens some mod-players, and players.
this seems to be the result of personal, ingame and philosophical differences between the personalities involved. plus a lot of name calling, that is sad to see...
regardless of who is 'at fault' (i personally see fault on both sides...) the following changes are being made to address this issue (which, btw, has existed in this set of mods, the last set of mods, the one before that, and so on...).
1) mod names will reflect their mod role. ie - Mod Of Catagory XYZ will be the name of the mod, and the role of the mod. No 'player names' will be used in modding. this fits with the role change below.
2) mod term will be fixed. after a specific amount of time, they are rotated out of the mod role they previously held, given a break, or otherwise given a change... hopefully nothing will get 'stale' with this ongoing changeup.
3) mods will mod the forum. they will NOT comment on the right/wrong of specific views, ingame actions, inforum comments directed at others, inforum comments directed at themselves, or any other specifics. In short, it is not to be their job to pass opinion.
4) mods WILL mod the forum. they can edit/delete/ban/move topics, users and posts.
5) mods will NOT need to specify reasoning behind what they do.
6) mods CAN be reported as abusing powers. This will be done to a specific 'complaint' thread, the mod in question reviewed IN ENTIRETY (ie not for a specific single action) and a decision on whether the mod stays or not, is warned, etc made. (all mod actions, including delete/edit threads, are logged and recorded...).
Again - you can request a review of THE MOD, but not a single action/decision. Abuse of this system will remove your ability to report a mod and have it reviewed.
7) at the same time as this change, mod applications are being reviewed. The 'new' roles will be filled with both existing and new mods.
mods are under no obligation to reveal their ingame identities. change of mods will not be announced. you are in effect dealing with the 'role' or 'position' when dealing with the moderation, and not any given specific individual (well, you are, but the individuals may change, just as roles in companies are changed...).9) mods MAY PM what they did, or why, or post it. it is NOT a requirement, but may be done. Bear in mind that point #3 will apply, in that they are not criticising, passing judgement or personal viewpoints. they will simply state why they did what they did, IF they choose to...
I believe these changes will help to remove the 'personal conflict' at the same time removing the political 'tie' between ingame personality and forum role...
The forums are game forums, meant to help the game community. The roles of the forums were not meant to be a 'game extention' but just a way to keep the forums usable, clear and clean for the community. I hope this update helps move the role of moderator back to that goal....
admin jason.
