Gameroom policy discussion thread

[GeneralHankerchief]

I would agree that it's rarely needed, but it did happen in the Futurama game and in the latest game, and also in the IKEA game I just read. In that game the moderator action was also used for solving purposes.

I'm glad you brought this up. That post you quoted annoyed me at the time - though not nearly to the extent as the more recent incident - and was in my mind (along with the events from the most recent game) when I made my above post/rule change.

(also you'll note that I've moderated the game thread as both mafia and town, so stop trying to read into things that way)

Basically, the main thing I want people to get out of this is that when I post something in green text, or make an action as moderator, the game is 100% out of the equation, and now it's officially codified as such. If folks understand this much, then we've done well here.

[Dp101]

I see no issues with this policy, if you can't trust someone to separate their in-game motivations from their moderation then how can you trust them as a moderator? Seems pretty clear-cut to me.

[Riedquat]

Well... I'm still a bit angered to be honest, all originated with my mistake!

To me always has been crystal clear, what's written in red or green by a staff member is the law, you abide by them and/or carry the matter privately.

I only disagree with GH in how he managed the situation, he didn't need to drop from the game, a single pm saying drop it or I'll bann you could have solved all the issue!

[seireikhaan]

Well... I'm still a bit angered to be honest, all originated with my mistake!

To me always has been crystal clear, what's written in red or green by a staff member is the law, you abide by them and/or carry the matter privately.

I only disagree with GH in how he managed the situation, he didn't need to drop from the game, a single pm saying drop it or I'll bann you could have solved all the issue!

Nonsense. You made a mistake posting at night, but that means nothing by itself. Most of us have done stuff that required some effort from a mod at some point, and this was a fairly harmless example - it's not like you were flaming other players or anything, you just made a mistake. It was the reactions and accusations that resulted from it that caused the issue. Now, I can't speak for GH himself, but as a former mod, I would have done the same in his shoes re - dropping from the game. This is honestly one of the things we've generally never had issues with in the GR, so I was personally flummoxed that this even became a thing. Still, it was good to clarify this in the sticky.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Well... I'm still a bit angered to be honest, all originated with my mistake!

To me always has been crystal clear, what's written in red or green by a staff member is the law, you abide by them and/or carry the matter privately.

I only disagree with GH in how he managed the situation, he didn't need to drop from the game, a single pm saying drop it or I'll bann you could have solved all the issue!

khaan pretty much hit the nail on the head here. As I mentioned to you in a PM, I don't blame you for what happened in the slightest. In a perfect world, once I made my moderation action (and later reversed it on Visor's request), that would have been the end of it. It was only when people started using the action I took as a moderator to try to determine my in-game alignment - and the fact that it dominated discussion and wasn't just a one-off thing - that the wheels came off. By that point I had to sub out.

[BSmith]

A voice from another former mod – GH did the right thing all round, and I agree that mod hat always comes first. Moderating can sometimes be a murky world of subjectiveness. “Should I act or let it pass” types of calls happen all the time. I have the utmost confidence that GH knows what side of the line he needs to be on, and when issues arise has the integrity to do the right thing.

[novice]

A voice from another former mod – GH did the right thing all round, and I agree that mod hat always comes first. Moderating can sometimes be a murky world of subjectiveness. “Should I act or let it pass” types of calls happen all the time. I have the utmost confidence that GH knows what side of the line he needs to be on, and when issues arise has the integrity to do the right thing.

Subbing out was very wise.

I don't think deleting Riedquat's post was a good idea though, I don't see what that was supposed to fix. People had already seen Riedquat's post. IMHO posting in green, and especially editing and deleting posts, should only be done if absolutely necessary.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Subbing out was very wise.

I don't think deleting Riedquat's post was a good idea though, I don't see what that was supposed to fix. People had already seen Riedquat's post. IMHO posting in green, and especially editing and deleting posts, should only be done if absolutely necessary.

I agree with this principle.

Same time, this is a judgment call. Once a rule has been broken, moderator can pretty much deal with it as they like.

On MU, we don't delete rulebreak posts because people will have seen it, and they will have an advantage over the players that hadn't seen it. But that's MU and we have a different and larger group of people with different expectations there.

I fully appreciate that GH's judgment call here is his decision, I personally would advise against deleting any content that isn't flaming or porn. But since the game host asked that the material get restored, it wasn't really a problem. GH made the best call he could, and then the game host requested an alternative and GH was only too happy to comply. Not really a problem from where I sit.

The cultural differences do basically come down to this-house-these-rules. Game hosts are free to make whatever rule they wish and enforce it as they wish, if folks don't like the way game hosts setup and host games, they don't have to play. Forum moderators likewise have all the leeway to use their own judgment, and although we can share our concerns in post, the middle of the game is a bad time to argue with the referee, as it does derail things. And, ultimately, if the moderator doesn't agree and we want a different standard, we basically have to volunteer to be moderator and do it ourselves. Otherwise, I support the guy doing the thankless job that everyone is prone to second-guessing. XD

Running the moderator team on MU, I saw there are often differences of opinion on how we should moderate even within the team, and we already all agree pretty much completely on the rules and code of conduct. There's no manual for this stuff, and people of good conscience often disagree on the details.

At this stage, I can only say that most of the time, there's more than one right answer. Sometimes there's a right-er answer, but we should learn to be satisfied with a decent answer, or volunteer to be a mod. XD

[Askthepizzaguy]

Ideally the referee shouldn't be a player, but given our small size, a guy who is referee first and player second is the next best alternative and perfectly serviceable.

Can't let perfect get in the way of good.