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FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

We had one of these a few years ago and it went great for a while, so here's another one! Ask us - meaning me and any of the other mods/admins who are willing to come answer questions - anything you want to know about moderating the Something Awful forums!

If you have questions about a specific probation or thread issue or similar, you'd be better served to go to QCS. This is for more general forums questions.

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Ciaphas
Nov 20, 2005

> BEWARE, COWARD :ovr:


How much time do you and the other mads/admins spend doing work for the forums rather than just posting?

edit you know what i'm leaving that typo in

Also when'd you become an Admin, FAU? Thought you were just mod for Games.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Ciaphas posted:

How much time do you and the other mads/admins spend doing work for the forums rather than just posting?

edit you know what i'm leaving that typo in

Also when'd you become an Admin, FAU? Thought you were just mod for Games.
These two questions are roughly related, so I'll answer them together. For a few months, our only admins were Cowcaster, Zen Death Robot, and Shine. Most of the minute-to-minute decisions in terms of probating people, thread gassing, etc. is done by the mods. But everything they do except for gassing threads and giving out 6-hour probations goes into the modqueue. The modqueue gets looked over and approved by admins - they don't turn things down often, but it can happen - and that's when mod-given avatars, longer probations, bans, and so forth go through. Admins also make a lot of decisions and help mods out in a bunch of other ways, like with thread tag changes. But Cowcaster wasn't always around, and ZDR does a ton of behind-the-scenes coding and development stuff to stop the forums from making GBS threads themselves and dying of severe radium poisoning. This combined with work stuff, changing schedules, etc. left Shine doing a huge amount of the admin work. This was a problem for a couple reasons: it created a bottleneck that made a lot of modding happen way more slowly, since so many things were waiting on admin action, and it led to Shine choosing to step down as admin. When that happened, ZDR named several new admins, in order to spread the workload around more. So the new admins as of a couple days ago are:

FAU
Smythe
NYC_Tattoo
and Exclamation Marx
with ZDR and Cowcaster still on

Smythe, Ex-Marx and I are all focused on areas of the forums that are busy and have a lot of mods. Smythe is handling GBS, YOSPOS, and SH/SC, I'm handling Games and its subforums, and ExMarx is on D&D. These are just rough divisions of labor - that way mods of those forums always know there's an admin to go to for help.

As mod of Games, I'd guess I spent a few minutes doing specifically Moderator Things, like handling reports. But any forums time is moderator time, too: it's expected that mods read and interact with their forum, know who their posters are, find problem areas, etc. That's why VideoGames stepped up to post more in MMO HMO - which was excellent, since I don't play any MMOs. You just can't mod a forum you don't read - one reason you stopped see things like the Games mods also handling Trad Games, for instance. So there's not really a clear divison of what time is modding and what time isn't. You're always a mod when you're on the forums.

GonSmithe
Apr 25, 2010

Perhaps it's in the nature of television. Just waves in space.
I spend at max like 5 minutes a day doing mod stuff, mostly because there aren't a lot of reports in CD. I read a lot of the threads to check if there are posts that deserve action that haven't been reported, but that's usually part of my "just posting in the forum" part of the day.

FluffieDuckie
May 11, 2005

The amount of time that I spend actually mashing buttons for Byob is for sure less than 5 minutes a day, but I check in on the forums multiple times a day, keep up with most threads in Byob and in the mod forum, answer emails, etc.

I likely spend a couple of hours on the forum every day and I for sure wouldn't do that if I didn't feel responsible for how things were going

Even while I was on vacation I was answering pms and addressing a few flareups.

What I'm saying is I may need an intervention

Genesplicer
Oct 19, 2002

I give your invention the worst grade imaginable: An A-minus-minus!

Total Clam
The amount of mod stuff I do depends on how much dicketry has been going on and reported. Sometimes it's a couple of minutes, sometimes it can be more than an hour. I must admit, it does occasionally get in the way of my posting, because modding time does come out of my total posting time.

Scudworth
Jan 1, 2005

When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons, and make super lemons.

Dinosaur Gum

FactsAreUseless posted:

We had one of these a few years ago and it went great for a while, so here's another one!

These are good threads you are good for making a new one.



Here's the 2007-2013 "Ask Us About The Forums" thread:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2472443&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

DickParasite
Dec 2, 2004


Slippery Tilde
Who is the weirdest mod?

oh no blimp issue
Feb 23, 2011

BuckarooBanzai posted:

Who is the weirdest mod?

It's Smythe

VideoGames
Aug 18, 2003
I read a lot of threads in Games and MMO-HMO. Those two are where I spend a lot of my time but I do not always post. I've always been a huge lurker here since I joined. I love reading a lot and I read a lot. I also like reading a ton of PYF threads, and spend the occasional time reading some of the other big forums, but its mostly Games that has my lions share of time.

When I do the modding stuff (I think I posted this in another thread somewhere) but I like to read the report, read the rap sheet of the person being reported and the one doing the report, and then read the previous five or so pages of the thread where whatever happened, happened. If it's not a thread I am actively part of then it takes time to get a feel for whatever is going on, but I try to be as fair as possible every time and I want to give each report a fair shake. That's only if the post isn't immediately obvious as to what is occurring!!

I also try to spend a few hours a day on the forums to make sure that I'm up to date with things!

Bad Seafood
Dec 10, 2010


If you must blink, do it now.
ADTRW doesn't get too many reports, and when it does they're usually pretty straightforward - though, of course, the few times they're not they're always doozies. I typically check for new reports once in the morning (before work) and once in the evening, sometimes sporadically when I've got the time. I've also got posters I trust who'll message me whenever it seems like something's gonna go down. When not doling out punishment, the meat of my job typically involves guiding conversations through/away from trouble spots known to disrupt conversation or foster undue hostility. I try to be firm here, when I need to be, but otherwise prefer to be accomodating (i.e. "Wishywashy").

I can't read every thread, nor every post, but I try to be an active presence where I can and will sometimes randomly look into threads where I'm not. I'm not always doing mod stuff, but I always kinda need to be prepared to do mod stuff, should the need arise, so in that sense I'm always (but never) on the clock.

Saint Isaias Boner
Jan 17, 2007

hi how are you

hey gene I've heard somewhere before (probably from something you posted somewhere) that you don't really go poking around in threads looking for trouble and you mostly respond to reports. do you ever just gas horrible threads because you've noticed them being terrible or do you wait for a critical mass of reports to come your way before stepping in?

e: same question for any mod I guess. I know fluffie actively checks around BYOB and gasses stale or bad threads but it's not as fast moving as say GBS or Games

N. Senada
May 17, 2011

My kidneys are busted
How did you become a mod? Like, is it just someone messages you and asks if you're up for it?

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Saint Isaias Boner posted:

hey gene I've heard somewhere before (probably from something you posted somewhere) that you don't really go poking around in threads looking for trouble and you mostly respond to reports. do you ever just gas horrible threads because you've noticed them being terrible or do you wait for a critical mass of reports to come your way before stepping in?

e: same question for any mod I guess. I know fluffie actively checks around BYOB and gasses stale or bad threads but it's not as fast moving as say GBS or Games
Reports are nice, but they only give you part of a situation. If you're getting a ton of reports from one particular poster or thread, that person or thread gets more attention. I generally gas threads if I think that probating people won't save it. Sometimes a bad thread makes good posters post badly, and I'd rather gas it than probate a bunch of people I know post well elsewhere. For me in Games, probations tend to be cumulative. You'll notice most of my probations are longer ones for posting badly a lot. I focus on posters rather than individual posts.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

N. Senada posted:

How did you become a mod? Like, is it just someone messages you and asks if you're up for it?
Yep! Back in the day you would just get made a mod without being asked first, but that didn't work great. Ralp initially asked me to mod GBS, but I said no since I don't really read GBS much. Later on, ZDR asked if I wanted to mod something and I said I'd do Games.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.
I imagine it's different for most other forums but it's really really not easy to just casually browse LP because... well LPs can be huge, and we have a lot of them. We have a couple of general discussion threads that I keep tabs on but following every LP thread would be insanity. Even when we had three mods it was out of the question. Obviously if I do see people being obviously terrible I can act on it but for the most part reports and PMs are the only indicator we have of where the trouble is. Of course once we have that we can then go digging for context and etc. There have been cases where I have discovered LPs I like after someone in the thread being reported.

LP is also a case of it actually being true that the thread is "owned" by the OP, so a couple of posters are able to keep an iron fist over their own terrible followers with judicious use of the close/open button without even having to involve the moderators. It's not a tactic for everyone but it can be effective.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Fedule posted:

I imagine it's different for most other forums but it's really really not easy to just casually browse LP because... well LPs can be huge, and we have a lot of them. We have a couple of general discussion threads that I keep tabs on but following every LP thread would be insanity. Even when we had three mods it was out of the question. Obviously if I do see people being obviously terrible I can act on it but for the most part reports and PMs are the only indicator we have of where the trouble is. Of course once we have that we can then go digging for context and etc. There have been cases where I have discovered LPs I like after someone in the thread being reported.

LP is also a case of it actually being true that the thread is "owned" by the OP, so a couple of posters are able to keep an iron fist over their own terrible followers with judicious use of the close/open button without even having to involve the moderators. It's not a tactic for everyone but it can be effective.
How much offsite drama does LP generate? It seems like that would be one of the biggest forums for that sort of thing - the single largest of course being Trad Games.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.

FactsAreUseless posted:

How much offsite drama does LP generate? It seems like that would be one of the biggest forums for that sort of thing - the single largest of course being Trad Games.

Not a clue! The only way I'd know about it existing is if it leaks back into the forums and someone reports it (which happens... rarely).

Noun Verber
Oct 12, 2006

Cool party, guys.
Have any of you ever raped a child? This is important.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Noun Verber posted:

Have any of you ever raped a child? This is important.
None of the current mods have raped a child.

Triggered
Aug 21, 2016

Learn about this great man on mormon.org

FactsAreUseless posted:

None of the current mods have raped a child.

That you know of.

Are you seeing traffic increasing to SA or is it still in a decline? I know the admins are doing work in the background, is it just to keep SA running or are there new features being created?

Jeza
Feb 13, 2011

The cries of the dead are terrible indeed; you should try not to hear them.
Not sure if this is just confirmation bias, but it seems like I see far fewer probations for low-content posts and other technically rule breaking posts than I used to. Are mods just more laissez-faire about that sort of thing now, or do people just report those things less nowadays? I've personally almost never bothered to report anyone for anything, but I guess there are people out there who do.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Triggered posted:

Are you seeing traffic increasing to SA or is it still in a decline? I know the admins are doing work in the background, is it just to keep SA running or are there new features being created?
If there are new features in the works, ZDR hasn't told anyone yet. I also don't have traffic numbers, but I'll ask in the admin forum and see if someone who has those can tell me.

Jeza posted:

Not sure if this is just confirmation bias, but it seems like I see far fewer probations for low-content posts and other technically rule breaking posts than I used to. Are mods just more laissez-faire about that sort of thing now, or do people just report those things less nowadays? I've personally almost never bothered to report anyone for anything, but I guess there are people out there who do.
Things are more focused on users than posts now, at least from my perspective. Some rules are just gone - strict punctuation rules, derailing, low content for the most part - in favor of targeting posts and posters that are disruptive rather than just low-effort. For the most part, this means funny posters don't get probated because they want a no-caps posting style, but it depends a lot on the forum. Reports are useful, but I encourage people to PM me if they're seeing, say, an entire thread that needs more mod attention. Reports aren't always great for that sort of thing. But even though a lot of reports aren't actionable, it still helps to get a sense for who gets reported a lot, and why, and spikes in reporting can tell mods a lot about what's up in a thread they might not read.

Edit: Moderation ideas and styles change over time, too. The goal is to further discussion and funny posts, and some of the old rules ended up stifling discussion, so they started getting enforced less and less until they went away. A lot of forums don't have posted rules threads now, for instance. At the same time, you can see good discussion drowned out by bad posts, so it's not like there are no standards for posting, it's just more subjective now - hence why I want to further communication between mods and non-mods. A lot of forums have just gradually changed how they function, others have switched more suddenly, for instance BYOB added stricter rules successfully, GBS dropped all its rules less successfully.

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

Jeza posted:

Not sure if this is just confirmation bias, but it seems like I see far fewer probations for low-content posts and other technically rule breaking posts than I used to. Are mods just more laissez-faire about that sort of thing now, or do people just report those things less nowadays? I've personally almost never bothered to report anyone for anything, but I guess there are people out there who do.

I can't speak for the other subs but PYF and PI don't bother reporting that poo poo anymore, probably mainly because their mods are busy white-noise shitposting all over the place

I brought my Drake
Jul 10, 2014

These high-G injections have some serious side effects after pulling so many jumps.

The probate people for charity event was a nice idea. Any chance of that happening again?

a whole buncha crows
May 8, 2003

WHEN WE DON'T KNOW WHO TO HATE, WE HATE OURSELVES.-SA USER NATION (AKA ME!)
Let it out guys we can all share and heal together

Dawnfire
Aug 25, 2011

Bork Bork!

Bad Seafood posted:

ADTRW doesn't get too many reports, and when it does they're usually pretty straightforward - though, of course, the few times they're not they're always doozies. I typically check for new reports once in the morning (before work) and once in the evening, sometimes sporadically when I've got the time. I've also got posters I trust who'll message me whenever it seems like something's gonna go down. When not doling out punishment, the meat of my job typically involves guiding conversations through/away from trouble spots known to disrupt conversation or foster undue hostility. I try to be firm here, when I need to be, but otherwise prefer to be accomodating (i.e. "Wishywashy").

I can't read every thread, nor every post, but I try to be an active presence where I can and will sometimes randomly look into threads where I'm not. I'm not always doing mod stuff, but I always kinda need to be prepared to do mod stuff, should the need arise, so in that sense I'm always (but never) on the clock.

Can you tell us about some of those doozies? You've got me generally curious how bad some of them get.

I suppose that's also a question for other mods as well. What are some of the craziest reports you guys/gals have had to deal?

blackguy32
Oct 1, 2005

Say, do you know how to do the walk?
How serious do you take racism as a mod? I often see ironic racism on the forums and I often just roll my eyes and don't bother reporting because at times I felt that was just the culture of SA

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

blackguy32 posted:

How serious do you take racism as a mod? I often see ironic racism on the forums and I often just roll my eyes and don't bother reporting because at times I felt that was just the culture of SA
Depends on the mod and the forum, I think. Games is pretty apolitical (deliberately, we discourage it), so a lot of the usual racism of whining about welfare queens or immigration or whatever you just don't see. Outright slurs and stuff seem pretty confined to GBS. You can usually tell when a poster is being ironic just by knowing who's who on the forums, although depending on the poster they might get hit for trolling or similar.

Edit: I disagree strongly that it's the culture of SA, though. Most forums don't see any kind of racism, ironic or otherwise. Sometimes you see ironic racism in FYAD, but that's FYAD being self-referential about ironic racism in FYAD. It's gotten really bad in GBS, which is why the mods there have been cracking down. I think sometimes people think of SA as the place for anything-goes trolling arts, but it really hasn't been that way in a long time. You don't see the "This is Something Awful, not Something Sensitive!" people much anymore.

Archenteron
Nov 3, 2006

:marc:
Was the decision to admin Shine influenced in any way, shape, or form by his ability to lift a couch?

Saint Isaias Boner
Jan 17, 2007

hi how are you

FactsAreUseless posted:

Depends on the mod and the forum, I think. Games is pretty apolitical (deliberately, we discourage it), so a lot of the usual racism of whining about welfare queens or immigration or whatever you just don't see. Outright slurs and stuff seem pretty confined to GBS. You can usually tell when a poster is being ironic just by knowing who's who on the forums, although depending on the poster they might get hit for trolling or similar.

Edit: I disagree strongly that it's the culture of SA, though. Most forums don't see any kind of racism, ironic or otherwise. Sometimes you see ironic racism in FYAD, but that's FYAD being self-referential about ironic racism in FYAD. It's gotten really bad in GBS, which is why the mods there have been cracking down. I think sometimes people think of SA as the place for anything-goes trolling arts, but it really hasn't been that way in a long time. You don't see the "This is Something Awful, not Something Sensitive!" people much anymore.

Did you have any trouble with the Gamergate crowd when that all broke out?

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Saint Isaias Boner posted:

Did you have any trouble with the Gamergate crowd when that all broke out?
I wasn't a mod at the time, Kewpuh's not around much but he'd be the person to ask. One of the first things I did as Games mod was to ban Gamergate discussion. It wasn't that frequent by that point, but it's so completely toxic to any gaming forum that I wanted to make sure.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.
If I recall, SA was one of the places where the one guy first posted what went on to become the Zoe Post. It was deleted pretty fast.

We have this in common with 4chan.

BexGu
Jan 9, 2004

This fucking day....

Fedule posted:

If I recall, SA was one of the places where the one guy first posted what went on to become the Zoe Post. It was deleted pretty fast.

We have this in common with 4chan.

I believe that was mainly because it was a break up letter in GBS instead of being posted in E/N. No one had any idea on what was coming next.

Phobophilia
Apr 26, 2008

by Hand Knit
hahaha *draws blade across wrist, drips blood in a forbidden shape, opens forth the portal to hellthread*

Captain_Maclaine
Sep 30, 2001

Every moment I'm alive, I pray for death!

blackguy32 posted:

How serious do you take racism as a mod? I often see ironic racism on the forums and I often just roll my eyes and don't bother reporting because at times I felt that was just the culture of SA

I try to clamp down on it when I see it, either in threads or reported. It comes up less often than you'd think, given that my subforum (CSPAM) is devoted to howling about politics like an escaped mental patient.

N. Senada
May 17, 2011

My kidneys are busted
I saw your post in the USPOL thread FactsAreUseless and now I want a livestream of you coming into a reported thread and reacting to it.

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

N. Senada posted:

I saw your post in the USPOL thread FactsAreUseless and now I want a livestream of you coming into a reported thread and reacting to it.
That wasn't in response to a report.

N. Senada
May 17, 2011

My kidneys are busted
How do you decide what the little symbol by your name is going to be? A bird for LAB makes sense, yours is like the old stars; does everybody just pick their own, does somebody in particular make them?

E. Also, I stand by desire to see you react to some insane stuff happening in a thread.

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FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

N. Senada posted:

How do you decide what the little symbol by your name is going to be? A bird for LAB makes sense, yours is like the old stars; does everybody just pick their own, does somebody in particular make them?
People mostly picked their own. I want to color mine red but it's not like a normal image it's some sort of weird CSS thing or something. I'd like to credit the mod who was making them but I forget who it was, so hopefully they come take credit.

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