Mod Squad Update for the week of April 2-8

First time MS Update for me, so pardon my newbieness at it.

*****

Mod Squad Update for the week of April 3-9

Moderator News:

• YodaJeff took some time off to concentrate on school, but he is now back.



• DarthSapient is taking a week off for the arrival of his second child. We wish him much happiness.

JCC Board:

• As this goes to press, a finalization of rules for the JCC has been agreed upon by the JCC mods and will be posted directly to the forum shortly.

Proposed Changes to the Role Playing Forum:

• Protege-of-Thrawn has been hard at work on proposed changes for the role playing forum. He got feedback from fellow mods as well as the AC and there should be more on this in the future.

New FanArt Mod

• Discussion is currently underway in regards to a new moderator for the fan art boards.

Fanfiction Issues

• 
  Continued discussion concerning forum banners and other matters was conducted throughout the week. Good initiatives surfaced, but nothing has been done as yet. Keep an eye out in the Writers? Resource for further updates on this subject.

Political Icons:

• A discussion took place on the possibility of having flag icons available for users, as well as patriotic ones to show support for the military action in Iraq. It was decided that it was best that the icons stay related to Star Wars and have those interested in one for their Fan Force to go about and see that one is made. To show your feelings on Iraq, a user's signature is suggested.

Offsite Links:

• Intensive discussion went on over people linking to the Onion, AICN, Penny Arcade, and fark. It was decided that as long as the page that links to wasn't highly offensive, they were ok. Another option for people is to just cut and paste the appropriate part and reference where it came from. If you're unsure about a page or site you wish to link to, please run it by the forum's mod who will advise you as to whether it's OK to link. Also if the page or site contains some profanity, please add a warning to your link.

Continued Enforcement Of Communications Guidelines

• The Communications Guidelines posted several weeks ago are now in full effect, with several users being banned for what appeared to be a thread dedicated to premeditated trolling. After discussion in Mod Squad, bans ranging from 48hrs to 1 week were placed on the members who participated in the thread which had to be removed due to its inappropriate content. For anyone who has yet to read the Guidelines, they can be found here. Everyone should read them so similar events do not reoccur.

Problem Users:

• Problematic situations and the users involved were discussed at various times during the week. We either discussed you, or we did not. It?s as simple as that.

Obligatory Humor:

• Last week stars returned to the boards for April Fool's Day. In a collaborative mood, Bria and Rogue1-and-a-half belted out a rendition of the song Stars from the boardway musical Les Moderators. Pity the poor moderators that had to listen to it.



• There, out in the forums
  A fugitive posting
  Fallen from grace
  Fallen from grace
  Josh be my witness
  I never shall yield
  Till we come face to face
  Till we come face to face.
  
  He knows his way in the dark
  Mine is the way of the mods
  And those who follow the Terms of the Service
  Shall have their reward
  And if they fall
  As all trolls fell
  The spank
  The ba

 

lovely update and special congrats to DarthSapient!
Thanks

 

The Communications Guidelines posted several weeks ago are now in full effect, with several users being banned for what appeared to be a thread dedicated to premeditated trolling. After discussion in Mod Squad, bans ranging from 48hrs to 1 week were placed on the members who participated in the thread which had to be removed due to its inappropriate content. For anyone who has yet to read the Guidelines, they can be found here. Everyone should read them so similar events do not reoccur.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

You forgot to mention the few indefinite bans.

 

What was so "offensive" about the aforementioned thread which resulted in the ban of several individuals?? Furthermore, who decides that this stuff is so "offensive" in the first place?? What criteria do you use?? From what I know, it was several people saying user so and so would make a good admin. How is that "offensive"??

 

Congrats to Sapient. Thanks for the update Bria.

J_J

 

I'm pretty sure you and me both know that the thread in question was full of sarcasm, and none of the nominations were serious.

 

Congratulations to Sapient and best wishes.

And thankyou for including the "token humour". Recent Updates have been sorely missing them.

 

I'm pretty sure you and me both know that the thread in question was full of sarcasm, and none of the nominations were serious.

Maybe you THINK that the thread was sarcastic, but the MS deleted it anyway, so there's no proof of anything.

Even if it wasn't serious, I didn't notice a place in the TOS or in the "Guidelines" (Which I didn't even know about until today) that says you can't be serious on the JC.

EDIT: There are a few syllabolic problems with the song parody, which as I just ran through it in my head don't match up, but it is pretty high quality.

 

Basically what YodaJeff said. Those 'compliments' were thinly vieled attacks on other users, which is not ok.

 

Bria, PPOR. Not opinions, not thoughts, not MS secrets, PPOR.

 

So you're now banning people for being sarcastic?? If that's so, then half of us shouldn't even be here, including quite a few admins.

 

The thread was harmless and the bans were unnecessary and only served to anger many, including myself. I used to give mods the benefit of the doubt, but I no longer hold that view. A warning via PM would've been far more effective.

 

It was to newbish lol

So I accidently was sarcastic there


J/K!!!!! lol


Great update Bria!

 

A discussion took place on the possibility of having flag icons available for users, as well as patriotic ones to show support for the military action in Iraq. It was decided that it was best that the icons stay related to Star Wars and have those interested in one for their Fan Force to go about and see that one is made. To show your feelings on Iraq, a user's signature is suggested.


You listened to my idea! What is that a first for the mod squad?

 

It wasn't just sarcasm, the thread had veiled flames in it too.

 

The thread was deleted, so of course no members can see what happened, unless they were online at that time (very late EST, pretty late JC time).

Some of the users deserved a spank, yeah sure probably. But some of them did not deserve ANYTHING more than a warning. It was their first "offense" (and I used the term loosely there), and they were only banned because some people in the MS thought that this was all a plot to takeover the JC, and also because these people were members of the infamous "Dantooine Base," and we know they're all trolls.

 

I don't recall posting any thinly veiled flames. I did post sarcasm, but never said anything that should be considered a flame, unless you count saying "user X" should/shouldn't be a mod as a flame.

 

I'm very sorry The Gatherer is having such a hard time, but another person who did this was banned. And I'm sure his claims were just as legitimate. Why is one person being punished for creating such a thread and another being protected? At least unban the other user who did this sort of thing.

 

Come on, don't even go down the "Dantooine Base" road. If all of them were considered trolls, certain mods wouldn't be mods.

Then again, you have to wonder about a board that has a big flashing number of how many people at their board are banned from the JC.

Edit:
Ariana, everything dealing with those situations is still being discussed.

 

Why is one person being punished for creating such a thread and another being protected?

Probably because he was a former mod, and currently a VIP/Literature Staff.

Come on, don't even go down the "Dantooine Base" road. If all of them were considered trolls, certain mods wouldn't be mods.

Why were the two first "offenders" spanked? You know it was because they were part of a "DB TROLL THREAD OMG@!#!".

Then again, you have to wonder about a board that has a big flashing number of how many people at their board are banned from the JC.

Jeff, that flashing reminder serves to remind people to be more careful on the JC... nothing more...

 

Oh come on Jeff, I've been really nice to you in the past but don't do this. I know what goes on in the modsquad. Had we not been known members of the DB, we would not have been banned, at least certainly not Tracy or myself.

 

You listened to my idea! What is that a first for the mod squad?

Contrary to popular belief, Raincloud, the administration listens to every concern you have. I saw you post in a thread about your flag ideas and then in the icon-making thread. You should have sent a PM my way, instead of claiming no one listened to you (as I certainly did).

Am

 

Really, how do you know what goes on in the Mod Squad?

I can just as easily say that I know what goes on at the Base, and I have a feeling my guess would be closer to the truth.

 

You are just showing the average moderator bias. I'm looking at the base right now, and there are no threads talking about "causing trouble at the jc" or "premeditating some coordinating trolling," or even about the thread in question.

So you're just showing what we've been saying all along.

Really, how do you know what goes on in the Mod Squad?

I can just as easily say that I know what goes on at the Base, and I have a feeling my guess would be closer to the truth.

Jeff.. you can guess all you want, and that's fine, but certain Base members were sent screenshots...

 

Like Xie said, this is not speculation.