#Second time I saw someone moderated on Discord without a clear reason

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

echo matrix
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So there might be some context I missed but this is what I saw:

A user made a post about a month ago where they suggested changes related to moderation. I didn't agree with all their suggestions but still they made some valid points especially about transparency and I didn't see anything wrong with the post.
For example I remember one mentioned issue was, that the moderation log is public but doesn't provide enough context about the severity of the offense.

I was actually writing a reply then agreeing with some points and providing related suggestions of my own. For example I was trying to suggest a "severity level" displayed in the public moderation log because obviously not all offenses are equal. Like if a user who said something mildly offensive let's say "shuri so gay" may feel bad when the public log just shows "Abuse on the grounds of sexual orientation". A "severity: minor offense" would help provide context and maybe would help the next time a moderator sees that user reported to not assume the worst, hence reducing the chance of over-moderation.

But the thread was locked before I could post my reply. The reason for the lock and the user's mute was just a screenshot they shared where a moderator confirmed them the reason for a 5 day suspension was the comment "shuri so gay".

Today I saw the same user's new post about "clarification on the moderation policy" where again I didn't see anything wrong, they were just wanted to know for example what to do if there are wind turbines in the way of their units while there's a rule to not grief allies by destroying their buildings.

I can only report what I saw: moderator comes in and says the user was warned. User seconds later (probably couldn't even read that warning) writes in all caps something like "shut up" (not exact quote, I can't see the post anymore), then the moderator bans them I assume permanently then locked and removed the thread.

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I don't really care if any of these were justified or not, maybe the same user harassed moderators privately or something and this was the last straw.
But to me this didn't look like a healthy way to handle criticism or questions about moderation.

So here I am with a question: is making suggestions about moderation a bannable offense?

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Hopefully the answer is a strong no and I hope constructive feedback about moderation processes is actually welcomed.
But then here are my suggestions:

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  1. When moderation action happens on Discord (not related to the game), then explain the reasons at least briefly instead of just muting, banning, and locking threads. This would help avoid confusion and speculation and maybe negative feelings towards moderation for third parties.
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  1. Just don't lock threads discussing moderation unless they get out of hand (neither of the two threads I saw were out of hand).
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  1. Try to be consistent in how moderation is applied. I saw some very negative behavior in chat many times that wasn't moderated at all or not as harshly as this user in the latter case. Again I don't remember the exact wording but it was pretty much just "shut up". So then shouldn't the moderators search for this phrase and ban all users who said it? If so, then there's some significant amount of work to do I guess.
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  1. Improve transparency by providing at least a severity level in the public moderation log, e.g. "minor offense". There should be a difference between "shuris so gay" and between a message I obviously can't even repeat here.
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  1. Explain the reasons why moderation works the way it does on the website, for example mention that just because some phrase was used before without moderation action, it doesn't mean it's acceptable. Moderation happens only when someone reports it.
    And also mention why public discussions about specific moderation actions are discouraged (to avoid witch hunts, harassment of moderators, extra work for moderators, etc). And also, word choice shouldn't be "discouraged", it should be a "mutable" because apparently it is.
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It seems like half the playerbase thinks moderation is too harsh, and the other half thinks it's too lenient. I don't really care which is more accurate, but I think better communication and transparency could never hurt, it could help reduce the frustration on both sides.

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I think I have to emphasize, that we can't be sure that the moderation actions I saw were unjustified. What at least I can be sure of is that it seemed that way from my limited perspective. But then again, better communication and transparency...

blazing roost
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This was my executive decision, so outside of normal moderation procedures. User was wasting stupid amount of moderators' time, trolling in appeals, sending AI written emails to admins and so on. Was given a chance to fix his behaviour with clearly stated consequences of not doing so. Decided to continue and here we are.

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So here I am with a question: is making suggestions about moderation a bannable offense?
It's obviously not if they are in good faith. There were a couple that led to CoC changes in the past.

echo matrix
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But anyway, thanks for the explanation. At least now I understand better. Still I think the suggestions I mentioned about transparency and communication could help avoid similar situations in the future.

blazing roost
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In this case all points made by the user were already addressed separately in appeals and email exchanges. Posting them again and again led to the warning and ultimately banning.

echo matrix
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In the thread in which they were banned today, just "we warned you to not waste the moderators time posting the same things again and again" would have sufficed I think.
I probably still would have suggested the above 5 points, but at least I would have had no reason to post the context.

dry scarab
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There was a brief explanation, before the thread got deleted, though:

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