Volunteer Moderators?

[lincs]

It looks like to me the quality of the threads are going down hill somewhat.

I fear that the forum is not what it used to be. It used to be a slick professional place where questions were asked and subsequently speedily answered, possible with some debate but only where it was needed.

I'm not talking about light banter. There are now threads about people having affairs with there bosses, fall-outs with other posters, general bickering and all sorts of childish nonsense.

These threads should be moved to the off-topic forum, and if they are inflammatory deleted or locked.

Therefore I raise the same issue we did some time ago which is this place needs volunteer moderators.

[peugeot]

Yes Lincs, I agree.

Regards
Steve

Do you mean defamatory rather than inflammatory!! :lol: Though the latter may be appropriate at the moment!!

[lincs]

Yes Lincs, I agree.

Regards
Steve

Do you mean defamatory rather than inflammatory!! :lol: Though the latter may be appropriate at the moment!!

Well Steve it does seem inflammatory or what is otherwise known in the internet world as trolling. Posting messages that are deliberately designed to cause conflict and inflame the situation. Mind you i'm sure there is some defaming going on to!

[peugeot]

Aaah right. See you DO learn something new every day.

Regards
Ste

[EvaG]

Hi

I totally agree - for some reason the content of the forum has nosedived since this summer and I do believe that something should be done to make it what it used to be - to help students.
Eva :)

[Dean]

I would volunteer.

Again I have no real idea what's gone on but feel that now the forums are being used more and more with the AAT advertising them in their publications and pushing the new webiste etc. I feel it's only a matter of time before "real time" moderators are made.

The AAT do seem to listen and i'm sure they are closely watching so watch this space.

Regards

Dean

[Scotty]

Have you seen the 'welcome to my store post' on this forum?!

Scott.

[blobbyh]

Yep, that post kind of proves that the website forums must be unsecured and open to exploitation. I'm not 100% sure how these work, and CJC would know much more about this subject than I do, but don't these people use trawling programmes looking for vulnerable sites such as guest books, dating sites etc? I'm really surprised the AAT have been compromised like this...

Robert

[Nicola Szandurski]

I'd volunteer as well.

[blobbyh]

I agree with you on this issue in principle Steve (peugeot), but I do question the point in being a volunteer moderator if you have no administrative powers.

Your own experience with a "troll" earlier this year, and mine with ToadFace, are proof that even if you had warned them, it's very unlikely that they would have taken any notice anyway. Harsh words have little or no effect on people if they are hell-bent on a particular course of action, especially if they know they can't be immediately stopped.

However, something does need to be fixed if the site administrators are unavailable, such as over the weekends. ToadFace had free reign to do pretty much whatever he wanted for over two days, completely unmoderated or restrained, and although I imagine they are rare, it's only a matter of time before we see another one like him surface...

Thanks for your support Steve and that of others, and I really do hope we've seen the last of him. I know maybe I shouldn't, but I can't help but feel tainted by him and that I have now also lost quite a bit of my own reputation and credibility on here as a result. I hate bullying - cyber-cowards or otherwise - but feel that next time, maybe I should just keep out?

Regards,

Robert

[Baggybooks]

With hindsight it would have been better to ignore the posts and comments - but we had no idea how it was going to develop.

Helen

[Gem7321]

Robert I'm really grateful to you for stepping in like you did. You have my utmost respect and your opinion on these forums will always be valued.

Has anyone heard anything from the administrators about volunteer moderators?

Gem

[CJC]

Yep, that post kind of proves that the website forums must be unsecured and open to exploitation. I'm not 100% sure how these work, and CJC would know much more about this subject than I do, but don't these people use trawling programmes looking for vulnerable sites such as guest books, dating sites etc? I'm really surprised the AAT have been compromised like this...
Robert
In general, forum spam is quite hard to stop - if you can post you can spam. Registration procedures for posting could be tightened up a bit though and it concerns me that you are able to post without being a registered user. Having said that, spam is pretty rare around here so I'm not convinced there's much need for changes to be made.

Spam is annoying, but it has no real implications for site security and does not mean that the site is generally insecure. This does, though, reinforce the case for having volunteer mods to keep an eye on things especially over the weekends, although I can see problems arising from that too.

Chris

[Bryony]

I have moderated on forums, and still do, and would be willing to do it here to. If it means moving posts/getting out the banstick when necessary I would be happy.

I agree - the threads that you mentioned - affairs with the bosses etc should really be in the Off topic forum.