Moderation

I do not think that the rules mean much when you have people enforcing them with totalitarian instincts. I had courteous communications with a few other mods, even in cases they had to warn me or remove some of my posts. We were both cool with it, no hard feelings. Then there was this guy who was following me as an NK prison guard. Same rules. I can imagine him being very nice to people he feels he cannot control or even holding the door of the elevator for someone.

A very measured response I can fully support. When I see people drafting up posts with words such as 'court', 'ammendment', 'rehabilitation', 'banning'. I start to wonder if it is worthwhile to contribute if that is the direction taken here; hopefully not. Honestly I am in regular contact with several members on dpreview and have been for a very long time (One sadly passed tragically last year). Every single person I've spoke to has commented on the moderation there. We must go back to 2011 values.

Have there been any spats yet? Isn't it functional right now without a moderator anyway? Not saying that will go on forever but just pointing it out that discussion fidelity is already on the rise here.

I'll bet the warning was for petty stuff to protect thin skinned individuals though right? So still a farce...oh don't mention that the Z cameras have AF issues. It might affect those amazon sales figures!

A perfect example of a beautiful moderation
I just got banned (for 7 days) from DPREVIEW after posting this

All aboard!
dprevived.com/
More than 1300 members!

Today is March 30 and DPREVIEW will be closed on April 10 🖐🏿

That is a ridiculous abuse of moderator authority. Mako should be banned for a week for that nonsense. This is why when I saw old mods becoming the new mods at the DPRForum, I bailed and will be deleting my account.

I agree with J A C S (now known as Snapper) and others that bringing those moderators here it wont be good.

As I previously mention, my first DPR account was deleted years ago because I said Amazon should be renamed "AmaSony", obviously it was a joke.

Just this week one member opened threads like: "Canon EF lenses are useless with RF-mount cameras and everybody knows it" or "Nikon Z cameras are absolutely terrible, the ugliest ever" so I reply: "Another useless post just to make waves?"

5 minutes later I got an "incident report" and was "sandboxed" so now all my comments in any forum or article have to be approved by a moderator to see if they are politically correct prior to being published.

Another insta-ban is if you dare to type the T word. 🧌

Pretty childish in my opinion.

And it you think the decision is unfair, they invite you to reply with an explanation -that obviously they won't ever bother to read.-

I really hope this Mako guy do not get a moderation job here.

I think I only managed to escape ban as I only added a comment, not a thread (you've already seen it here)

This is the moderator's last chance to not only show the power, but make sure less of DPR members migrate to other forums.

I've moderated some forums myself, including the one in a decay state similar to DPR; the worst thing you can do as a moderator is meaningless law enforcement and display of power. Not the best final chord on the DPR side.

Interesting. I've posted numbers in similar threads in the Canon R forum and Nature and Wildlife forums with no ban. Is this the guy that started the 'competition'?

Agree that moderators should contribute along their moderation. The more of the former, the better. What I did not appreciate on DPR was when a moderator made a contribution to the discussion and signed as moderator. I think it should be clearly visible in what capacity a contribution is posted.

I'm signed up there, but I haven't even looked around much. How do you see who the moderators are?

If they're really going to be the ones at DPR, that's a serious red flag to me.

I said in my first post here that term limits are a good thing. I'll add that power corrupts. Ideally, moderators should be first-timers and they should term out after one year.

The problem with that is that as a mod I didn't get a choice as far as I could see; getting the 'mod' tag was automatic with my original login. I'd have had to create a separate account to log in as a non-mod--and multiple accounts are a violation of the rules! It was either live with the tag, or not contribute (I'd been a contributing member for years before I was asked to mod.)

I could not agree more. On all points.

Like someone else said: (paraphrased) peoples' relationships with mods may not be great.
Well, it's not always the poster's fault. Sometimes it IS the mod. Open Talk is a good example.

It's not my forum, and Bob and Co. have done a great job to get here...especially so quickly. So my way is moot. But DPR ran well when there were a few admins watching over things. Their sudden addition of mods changed the place. I remember a sizable group from the Nikon forums leaving for a Flickr group they created. Anyway, I see at the other forum they have added more mods than probably reg. members. Makes that place look very unattractive. If I see names I recognize with "moderator" next to their name, I'll keep looking (big deal, I know), but I agree with many others... a "fresh start" would be welcoming.
Maybe don't label mods. That label is part of the power trip. I pushed and successfully had the label removed at a forum I helped mod. Puts everyone on the same playing field...at least visually. Made it more comfortable.
"But what if someone has a problem, who do they contact?" If people have an issue, they can post it in a dedicated forum.

tldr; any people asking if they can come be mods here too... are the wrong people for the job.

There is a link there somewhere. I clicked and saw 2 of the 3 Open Talk mods there. So.. I ended up here.

Terms are perfect.

Under “staff”

Got it, thanks.

I think the idea of AI moderators is funny. I wouldn't trust them to be full moderators though -- maybe at most if a comment raises suspicion, have it "quarantined" until approved.

Also, I think the blanket ban on commercial activity is unreasonable. Unrelated spam like "BUY VIAGRA FREE SHIPPING" or posts from scam artists, obviously should be banned. But if someone cares enough about an area to make a product or commercial offering, good enough that people would be willing to fork over their money for it, why shouldn't that be allowed? Excessive advertising, sure -- that should be a warning. But occasional posts where relevant should be appreciated. It's kind of ironic to have forums dedicated to commercial offerings (from camera manufacturers), but then not allow other people in the ecosystem to also participate.

Like it or not, a post tagged as from a moderator does seem to carry some extra gravitas. Perhaps moderators should have two accounts - one to conduct their business as moderators, one to make contributions as a normal member.