Moderation

[Ken Thompson]

Unfortunately as of late it appears that we have the need for a little bit more help from the Mods. I've been on the forums here for years and it does seem to be taking on a bad flavor. The whole UL at REI thread is a prime example. I realize that Roger C. and the others do not get paid for their service. Granted, I believe in getting what you pay for, but you shouldn't say you'll do something and then be very hit or miss about it. BPL has been an invaluable resource for me and others through the years. I for one would like to see it continue to be such. Yes HF has very active moderators. I think we should be aiming for a middle ground of what we have going here and what is going on over there. I would also like to volunteer my services here. I visit the forums here daily(when I'm in town) and see the best and worst the BPL has to offer. Let's keep BPL great and not become the scourge of the internet forums.. Everybody please be nice. Remember the Golden Rule. Think before you post. Have fun. Thanks for your time. Ken

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Specifically…

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[todd]

Thanks Ken!

Couldn't agree more.

[Travis Leanna]

I was typing a thread for Chaff on this very subject literally as you had posted this. What follows was going to be my thread. Ken beat me! :)

---

So this is not directed at anyone in particular. Let me just state that here and now.

However, as many of us have noticed, BPL has gotten a bit quarrelsome lately. This is not the BPL I became a member of, and not the type of BPL I want to see in the future.

Maybe it's the economic stress. Maybe it's the stress of yet another season of American Idol. I don't know. But can we all just take a step back from the microphone for a bit and get back to what BPL means, or has meant, to many of us?

[Roger Caffin]

Hi all

OK, this is as close to official policy as you can get, and can be over-ruled only by Ryan Jordon.

I dislike censorship immensely, and am very loath to do any of it. So if I do step in you know things were definitely getting a bit much.

We are all adults and can self-moderate to keep things polite. I hope we can do it this way instead.

Since we do have minors reading these Forum channels, I would like to keep all language (words and concepts) 'minor-friendly'.

But, comments are always welcome.

Cheers
Roger Caffin
Online Community Monitor
backpacking Light

[Addie Bedford]

Like Roger, I tend to take a pretty hands-off approach to moderation. I don't want to over-do it, and since I have enough permissions on the back-end to seriously disable someone's account, I tend to only target spam.

The other alternative I can see employing is a PM from me that's a simple "Play nice, please." It's hard to encourage kindness in forum debates without feeling like an overbearing boss or nosy parent. I tend to defer to Roger in those areas, as he's got a light hand that still carries authority.

I tend to kill mosquitoes with a hand grenade. Good times!

[Miguel Arboleda]

Since we do have minors reading these Forum channels, I would like to keep all language (words and concepts) 'minor-friendly'.

Roger, did you see the recent thread about the profanity filter? I really think that the filter goes way too far in suppressing words, a lot of it is so silly that it's absurd. You can't use the words "Breasts", "Gay", "Poop", "Fanny", or "Feces" (I got away with them here because I capitalized them, as Doug Ide, bless his sneaky soul, discovered). What? Who decided that these innocent words were profane? Are we still living in the 1930's???

[Travis Leanna]

Yeah, I'm not even sure moderation would solve the problem. I think it has to be taken upon the members and guests to think a bit before they type. Yes, you can edit posts, but sometimes the damage has already been done.

[Addie Bedford]

Our web hosting service sets the profanity filter. For the record, we think it's a wee bit tight as well (Ryan laughed out loud when I told him POOP was tagged), but it's not something we control.

I guess if you want to cuss, you'll have to yell, which is just uncouth. Shame on you all around and such.

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