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Site upgrades 8 Jan 13. with fireworks too! wow lol

• SHRUDE 5,835 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 1:58 PM

  TWOMINUSONE:

  there was an announcement about hacking.

  Recent exploit in Java has been internet news over the last few days, I got an announcement from my AV Provider-  AVIRA announcing it to me and assuring me they have it whipped.

  New Java update as I logged in this morning (1 hour ago) may have remedied it.

• SHRUDE 5,835 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 2:01 PM

  WGTpizza:

  I removed an off topic post and your response to it.

   

  This would be great if this could happen across all the forums.

  As is usual with most forums though, the Admin may remove the post however in its place, pop a note

  "Post removed - Off Topic - please see this existing thread - (link)' WGTPizza

  'Post Removed - Personal Attack' WGTPizza

  'Post removed - trolling' WGTPizza

   

  Placing a simple note like this would alleviate extra OT posts wondering where their post had gone and why.

  Could this be possible as a norm Pizza, it would save a lot of duplicate threads!

  If this was implemented, people would soon get the idea to keep OT!

  The search function needs to come back though

• Phaxda 145 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 2:07 PM

  Looks like I have been posting/replying to all the wrong threads! 

  http://www.wgt.com/forums/t/149877.aspx

  Summary: Pizza says the tech team assured him there was nothing to worry about. 

  SHRUDE:

  TWOMINUSONE:

  there was an announcement about hacking.

  Recent exploit in Java has been internet news over the last few days, I got an announcement from my AV Provider-  AVIRA announcing it to me and assuring me they have it whipped.

  New Java update as I logged in this morning (1 hour ago) may have remedied it.

   

• WGTpizza 1,656 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 2:08 PM

  SHRUDE:

  Could this be possible as a norm Pizza

  Sorry, we won't be doing this.

  If there is a post that breaks the guidelines, there is no sense in giving an explanation. That would further detract from the thread, completely derailing it.

  Just like this thread. Please keep this thread on topic, or start a new thread with a new topic.

  I don't mean to sound harsh but the reality is: this is not a democracy - this is a forum with rules and moderators who enforce them. Explanations for moderations may be available upon request, but will not be preemptively provided.

   

  Stay classy,

  -WGTpizza

• saltiresfan 2,266 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 2:17 PM

  @Shrude - it depends on forum software. We use vbulletin on my site and have a custom hack so deleted posts can be seen by staff and the person whose post it was. That way the admins are aware of what the moderators are deleting and people know why their posts have been deleted and don;t get as annoyed. Works well but there are only two mods here and the forum software is massively out-dated.

• WGTpizza 1,656 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 2:19 PM

  saltiresfan:

  @Shrude - it depends on forum software. We use vbulletin on my site and have a custom hack so deleted posts can be seen by staff and the person whose post it was. That way the admins are aware of what the moderators are deleting and people know why their posts have been deleted and don;t get as annoyed. Works well but there are only two mods here and the forum software is massively out-dated.

  Well put, Saltiresfan. If we had the technology to execute this properly, we would do so.

   

  Stay classy,

  -WGTPizza

• SHRUDE 5,835 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 2:19 PM

  WGTpizza:

  but will not be preemptively provided.

  There is no education without information.

  This will add work to you having to explain, the more the forum community see the rules in action, the more they will abide.

  Largely, the forum community is pretty oblivious to OT and Duplicate threads etc.

• SHRUDE 5,835 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 2:24 PM

  saltiresfan:

  there are only two mods here

  All the more reason to provide a note in place of the deleted post - lighten the work load for these two.

  saltiresfan:

  the forum software is massively out-dated.

  Sure, I understand that, but it is just as easy to pop a quick note in to EDIT a thread as it is to delete the post.

  It would certainly improve the forums a great deal if this could be done..

  I clicked on my email to respond to the Java thing, iwhen i got to the forum it said 'Resource doesn't exist' I then had to manualy find the forum and go to the last page and see these new posts.

  All around, bad platform or not, i don't see why offering that education or 'moderation explanation'  is so difficult to do with the long term benefits it provides.

   

• Phaxda 145 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 2:26 PM

  Perhaps not classy to point this out, but were I running WGT I would make sure that the client-facing (and ad-littered) forums were run with the best software possible so that the user experience is great and the job of moderator is easier. 

  Currently the forum software is woefully outdated and does not provide the usual moderation tools that make the job easier.

  The technology exists, it's just that WGT chooses not to use it, for whatever reason. I will not guess at those reasons but do extend empathy to Pizza, who has to deal with the shortcomings of the current system.  

  saltiresfan:

  @Shrude - Works well but there are only two mods here and the forum software is massively out-dated.

• saltiresfan 2,266 Posts

  Wed, Jan 16 2013 3:27 PM

  SHRUDE:

  Sure, I understand that, but it is just as easy to pop a quick note in to EDIT a thread as it is to delete the post.

  As soon as you start providing reasons publicly and viewable to everyone you get problems. Moderation issues are between the moderator and the member in question and should stay private.

  When I delete posts most the time I'll just give a short "spam", "off topic", "duplicate" etc and people can refer back to the rules themselves. The key thing is to get a balance between creating extra work by putting a reason in and saving work by members understanding how moderation works and what is expected of them.

  I think I've said before that there needs to be more moderators and more division of labour. Expecting two people to moderate every sub-forum and essentially read every post is likely to reduce their effectiveness. There was a point last year where several moderators came out the woodwork but we seem to be back at two again.