billiv15 wrote:
Now, with that said, I also understand you cannot probably talk about this, but can you explain in any more detail, the logic behind Boris and I receiving bannings this past week. How did that come about, and how/why did it happen? Can we have any assurances that WotC will be looking into these events and making any adjustments to the modding practices?
Unfortunately, I cannot talk about this publicly, even if Boris were to grant his consent. It would violate our privacy policy. What I can say was that the decision to begin cracking down on anything that might be fall under the banner of "Copyright Infringement" was made above our heads. In fact, it is the only violation that we can action without first receiving a report from a community member.
I suppose it is also safe to say that, in a general sense, once a person has received a certain number of soft (on the boards) or hard (through email) warnings, it doesn't matter what the violation is. Even minor violations can then result in 24 hour bans, and major violations can result in greater durations.
billiv15 wrote:
Why are Che's posts inciting the community (not even me in particular) left intact, while we are being nit picked on technical violations?
That I don't know. I wasn't involved in any of those violations. The first I learned of it was when I got a warning email in one of my accounts (due to a Gleemax error, that account is now linked to several different accounts).
billiv15 wrote:
Personally, I too would rather Che stops posting. I even asked him to willingly do so in PM last week. But I recognize his right to do so, and honestly, if he is simply willing to start contributing to the community, I am more than happy to have him around. It doesn't bother me, especially if he wants to continue in the way he has posted in the past week, offering help and being a positive influence (outside of the current issues of course).
I have asked him to stop posting on the Community Business forums, and he has agreed that it is a fair compromise. I think he'll stick to it.
billiv15 wrote:
I would also like to know what will be done to allow us to talk about mod issues. Its quite clear to me, has been for a while truth be told, that there needs to be some visible discussion option available. Secrecy has allowed the system to be ripe with abuse with no option for the "guilty" party to have any feedback, or ability to both defend themselves, or to even suggest to the mod in question that perhaps they missed something in their review of a report.
We've actually tried it both ways. Back when Mike Lescault was around he set up a system of "radical transparency". It was a horrible failure, since it ended up filling entire forums with complaints that never got read by anyone that mattered. Since then we've switched to a "Contact Customer Service" method. I don't know that it's a lot better, but at least the complaints get to the people that need to make the decisions.
However, I will state this so that it's very clear in the future. Discussionand/or complaint concerning moderator actions in threads that aren't for that purpose, is considered disruption. It will get moderated 100% of the times that it is reported. It may not be good policy, but it is policy. In boards business forums, it is allowed provided that it is not insulting any specific moderators and does not result in harassment of other posters. Unfortunately, very few of the feedback threads meet those criteria, so they end up getting axed.
billiv15 wrote:
There needs to be some kind of way to actually talk back to the mods, without going to WotC_Sarah, without posting it in threads, but with at least the option of having something done publicly. It is clear that WotC is not willing to allow the Community Business Forum to do so, then we need somewhere to offer some feedback, to get some kind of answers, and to challenge problematic reports.
Personally, I miss the old PMs system. However, we're reeeeeally not supposed to talk through PMs (or off the record at all for that matter). There is however, one trick to the system which I will expose. If a message sent through the Customer Service system is a complaint, it gets passed onto our bosses, who typically respond with a "Sorry, but there's nothing we can do" type message, and then look into the incident (which usually contains enough screenshots and other evidence to cover our butts). However, if the message is a
question about moderation we can field it ourselves. Now, that response may or may not be incredibly helpful all the time, but if it's ever a warning or suspension from me I will happily explain as much as I possibly can.