Since furtive grumbling about some person or other getting gently tapped with the ban stick seems to be common in the past few days, I thought you folks would benefit from an overview of how moderation is handled elsewhere:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/banlist.php

A fascinating read all on its own really.  And all those users pay for the privilege!

edit: it's a bit more meaningful and a lot funnier if you know the translations their profanity filter employs.

Yes. I'd like to buy an argument please.....

A cool feature is that when they ban a user, the user's avatar is changed to something illustrative, and their status (banned is shown) and even how long, right in their post info - that must make a whole lot of questions just never get asked, pretty smart really.

Oh! You were serious?!? Sorry I thought that was a joke. No, it's not the least bit "Smart". It's in fact quite childish to put people up for ridicule like that. Someone there was banned for merely writing LOL in their post and nothing else. Gee, how awful!

There's a reason they call it "Moderation". You're supposed to be somewhere in the middle grounds, the mediator. The one who finds reason and peace between misunderstandings.

Quote - A cool feature is that when they ban a user, the user's avatar is changed to something illustrative, and their status (banned is shown) and even how long, right in their post info - that must make a whole lot of questions just never get asked, pretty smart really.

Your absolute lack of compassion and anything that remotely approaches empathy comes as no surprise to me.
I just find it odd that you would publicly confirm this to us all.
Perhaps you need to change your avatar from a tongue to a foot.

Oh dear, I see I am failing to express myself.  I hate that.  I will use small words and avoid subtlety.

YOU GUYS.  YOU THINK MODS ARE MEAN HERE.  THEY ARE NOT MEAN.  THEY ARE NICE.  YOU THINK THEY BAN PEOPLE AND ARE MEAN.  YOU ARE BIG DOPES.  YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT MEAN IS.  YOU HAVE IT GOOD HERE.  THESE MODS ARE NICE.  THEY DO NOT BAN YOU FOR YOUR LOL POSTS.  THEY DO NOT HIT YOU WITH STICKS.  THEY DO NOT THROW BRICKS AT YOUR MOM.  THEY DO NOT MAKE FUN OF YOUR GREEN PANTS. 

Seriously, that's a forum with many thousands of paying users, their rules have grown up out of basic necessity - if you had the kind-hearted feather-light moderation style that is used here (if anything I think it could stand to be rather a lot harsher) with their size user base and its temperament, you'd have a pretty unreadable mess.  The melodrama here from time to time is very funny, in the larger perspective :)

Yeah, the mods here are pretty tame considering they have thousands of people to look after, not just mere dozens ;o). And as a frequent contributor to the melodrama here, just let me say that I think we get away with a lot...lol.

Laurie

Yeah... riiiight.

no names, of course, but I've seen some that amaze me that they haven't been banned already (and some have).
It's their house, they make the rules. And they've been fairly understanding, as far as I can tell...

I used to chide people for harkening back to the 'good old days' of Renderosity. Now, I have to admit that this place becomes less pleasant every day. I don't know which is worse, the increasing level of hostility (as opposed to passionate artistic or philosophical disagreements) or the fact that endless discursuons on technique have seemingly displaced any interest in artistic motivation or creation. Even as a non-artist, I find the latter somehow depressing, but what the hey, things change.

The banning - such a harsh term, why not just suspension - would have been a non-issue had the person not chosen to draw attention to it. Fair enough I suppose, since they obviously took it badly, maybe I would have too, I don't know. At any rate, I don't see the value in keeping the thing alive by pointing out the relative benignity of the local justice system while reveling in the Talibanesque policies of some other, couldn't get a date in high school, but now I have power, juveniles who infect so much of the WWW. McCoy was right, we need mechanics to fix all of the little tin gods.

At any rate, I usually find the OT posts a welcome relief from the usual but sorry, this one not so much. I'm sure others will enjoy it though - shudder. Someone puerile  enjoys calling people f***stick without fear of getting stuffed into a locker isn't news. Are we supposed to be grateful that we have actual adults moderating here or wistful that we don have such a "cool" and  "smart" feature?

Edit:

"(if anything I think it could stand to be rather a lot harsher)"

There's an idea! Maybe we could go from merely having sensitive individuals get depressed to outright suicide - culling the weak from the herd and all that. Maybe it's a generational thing or an ideological one but I seldom see getting tougher as the solution to human problems. Creating an atmosphere of ridicule punishment usually turns bad kids into worse adults and doing it to adults certainly doesn't change their behavior in most cases. Each to their own. You folks continue, I've learned when to stop reading these things.

PJ, I originally thought you were joking, but when you came back and called what they were doing "Smart", well, it lost the humor for me and looked very much like that's the sort of moderation you were advocating. Your lack of any sort of emoticon to establish your humourous attempt was lost in the translation of plain text.

I see I am still failing to communicate.  The goal was not to make a funny post and have everyone love me and say ha ha you are funny.  The goal was to provide some perspective (which of course is as feckless a goal as wanting you to love me and say ha ha you are funny). 

Quote - Now, I have to admit that this place becomes less pleasant every day.

Gosh I wonder what you can do to alleviate that?  Talk about suicide (even in sarcasm)?  Maybe that will work!

pjz99 i agree with everything you have posted in here...

And to add my own 2cents, i think the mods here are very nice people.. some of the abuse and the lack of respect that can be shown to them amazes me....  Seriously the way they are spoken to sometimes makes me want to throttle certain people.... :|

I almost wish the mods here got a bit tougher and didnt take the crap that people throw their ways...

Renderosity mods i take my hat off to ya !!!! ;)

I run a small model railroad forum, and can say firsthand, if you tightly moderate, people will complain, but if you are lax, people will complain a bit more.  I tend to err on the lax side, but I'm not a business.  As in all Human endeavours,  You just can't please everybody.

Moderators are what they are.  Discussing it is friutless-if you have a concern, write to them...

I don't think there is an increasing level of hostility here.  Think back a few years to the regular - and often lengthy - arguments that always seemed to appear around September (for some reason).

There are also very few troll posts, compared to many open forums.

The vast majority of people here are at least civil to each other.  One or two seem to have a bug up their ass about something or other, and yet others conform to the "internet tough guy" stereotype.   More often than not, a forum member will chide a stroppy user for their attitude, before it gets really out of hand.

If anything, I believe this place is somewhat better than before.

Consider this forum to be something like a club, coffee house, bar, whatever analogy involving a large number of frequent visitors.  There are always going to be some people who annoy the hell out of others, always going to be comedians, always going to be very focused individuals and so forth.  It stands to reason there will be sparks sometimes.

As for the mods, I think they do a first class job.  But then, I would do, wouldn't I?  :)  You should also bear in mind, all the Mods and Coords are unpaid and have lives away from Renderosity.  If it wasn't for such things as life intruding, I'd still be a staff member here, too.   So just think yourselves lucky.  :lol:

If all else fails, remember Windows ain't just an operating system.  There's a great big world out there.  :)

Basically only 2 gripes with the moderation here: the uneven application of the rules and moderators/forum coordinators becoming personally involved in "arguments".

If you are a forum coordinator and someone has posted a thread in the wrong forum section your comment should extend to, "This is posted in the wrong forum and will be moved to the appropriate section." .

When a member has posted a thread that is controversial but within the TOS and other members are making attacks on the OP your job is to say "Stop the personal attacks." It is NOT your job to make a snide comment toward the OP while allowing the attacks to continue, regardless of whether you agree with the OP or not so long as the thread and the OP are within the TOS.

"Disappearing" a thread to hide the above mentioned action of a forum coordinator is just shabby.

Other than that it's reasonably okay around here.

Quote - I run a small model railroad forum, and can say firsthand, if you tightly moderate, people will complain, but if you are lax, people will complain a bit more.  I tend to err on the lax side, but I'm not a business.  As in all Human endeavours,  You just can't please everybody.

Moderators are what they are.  Discussing it is friutless-if you have a concern, write to them...

The mods here are very tolerant. You dont need that Extreme Example the O.P. posted as comparison.  Just Pop over to CGSociety.org
Much more strictly moderated.

Frankly IMHO the main problem here with forum vitriol is that a certain Attention Addicted people have a beef with the mods or other users.
and the "Conflict" is quickly escalated by their "Loyalists"who Attack anyone who does not Express oozing Sympathy for their self promoting  "Cause".
 

"something awful" is wrong on too many levels.  like selling tickets to a car wreck.
this site is calm and placid by comparison.  most of the high-maintenance individuals
left this site long ago because it's too peaceful here IMVHO.

Quote - "something awful" is wrong on too many levels.  like selling tickets to a car wreck.
this site is calm and placid by comparison.  most of the high-maintenance individuals
left this site long ago because it's too peaceful here IMVHO.

Well made points.  

Haven't been there for a loooong time but Harmony Central used to be a real fight fest.

Over the last 10 years I think things have definitely calmed down here.  I remember back when huge site-changing decisions triggered major forum upset and "what is art" came up at least once a week.  Now the threads contain more poser issues and the transition to allowing OT posts has found it's niche. 

I do have to say I love this excuse:  "Drunk posting. User loses posting privileges for 1 day."  :)  

Quote - I do have to say I love this excuse:  "Drunk posting. User loses posting privileges for 1 day."  :)  

Well, I'm kinda loaded at the moment but that's no reason to act like a dick, IMO.

"Don't drink and text".  Words to live by.  :)

Never did me any harm.  Can't even be bothered to text when I'm sober.  People actually have to call me.  And sometimes, I even answer.  Of course, they regret it soon after but you can't have everything. 

And if yer disagree I'll set fire to yer merkin.  :lol: 

pjz99, that linked site confuses me. If they've banned almost 70,000 people, some for just a few hours, then it ceases to be an embarrassment, and starts turning into a gold star. For a few moments, I thought the whole point of the site was to get banned as many times as possible.

What can you say? You ask someone repeatedly to stop doing something, and finally have to do something to get the point across. Unless someone brings it up in the forum, no one notices a member is not posting daily, and the mods are certainly not going to announce it.

@ scanmead - I believe pjz99s point was that, on the whole, the staff here are rather good.  If you look at the linked site in one way, they are a bunch of uptight power freaks who ban at the drop of a hat and on the other hand, they make much more trouble for themselves in the long run by inviting challenges in order to get banned.  Which leads to more shitty posts and so it goes on...

Of course, that's my interpretation but I believe the overall effect is the same.  Moderate in moderation seems to be the key here, and by and large, it works. 

hey, wait a tic!  how did PJ know we were wearing green trousers?
I daresay one must put some black tape over the cameras that come with these computers.

Quote - pjz99, that linked site confuses me. If they've banned almost 70,000 people, some for just a few hours, then it ceases to be an embarrassment, and starts turning into a gold star. For a few moments, I thought the whole point of the site was to get banned as many times as possible.

That's a good point that I was hoping someone would notice (and I'm sad that it took this long).  Because bannings are so rare here, they are treated like some kind of major event.

Also, worth noting that those folks banned at SA have to wait out their ban, which is sometimes quite long - a week or a month - or pay extra money to be able to post (essentially paying for their own moderation work).  Perma-banned people are not allowed to ever-reregister via the same IP address, and if they manage to circumvent that and are discovered later, they are just perma-banned again (paying 10 bucks each time!)

Sam:

Quote - ...on the other hand, they make much more trouble for themselves in the long run by inviting challenges in order to get banned.  Which leads to more shitty posts and so it goes on...

This is self-limiting at SA, because those users either have to wait out their ban or pay ten bucks per action.

Quote - Sam:

Quote - ...on the other hand, they make much more trouble for themselves in the long run by inviting challenges in order to get banned.  Which leads to more shitty posts and so it goes on...

This is self-limiting at SA, because those users either have to wait out their ban or pay ten bucks per action.

:lol:

Awesome.  Economic evolution in action.  Only the well heeled get to be complete shit heads, just as in real life. 

Fuck me, I'd laugh myself sick if it wasn't so damn sad.

Well tbh that is self-limiting too, because the seriously unwanted people (most of those mod actions are in response to complaints from other users, remember) are perma-banned, and while they can try to evade that by changing internet providers, when they are recognized they are perma-banned again.  They either have to change their habits or just be willing to be greatly inconvenienced every time.

perma-banned ... now that sounds like a wedding ring.

now where are those little yellow round guys when you need em.
and speaking of moderation, I'm a real example of that.