Moderation and Moderators in general

[datCookie]

I'd like to start this off by saying that this thread is NOT to bash moderators or question ANY moderator actions, as I know you must contact a moderator in order to do so.


This thread is more to do with contacting moderators in the event a user feels that action was wrongly taken against them. I'm sure we've all been there at some point and have just sat and wondered why you were incorrectly "picked on", for lack of a better word.


The problem I find is that when something does indeed go legitimately wrong, contacting a mod fails far too often. Mostly they just don't reply. Now I wholeheartedly, fully and completely understand that moderators have lives, may be dealing with other users and do not have to respond to every request by users. I cannot emphasise enough how much I understand what they have to go through. I've been a moderator on many different forums and am currently a moderator on a discussion board for a small early access title.


However, that being said, I personally feel that more can be done to help people get the assistance they require. Why? Because sometimes it is just aggravating to have action wrongly taken against you because some idiot is abusing that report button when they shouldn't be.


I'll share a small story with you: Now earlier today I replied to someone's comment on a thread on a discussion board relating to a game. My post was well-written, contained no foul language, personal attacks, flaming, trolling, etc. Basically, it didn't break any rules. I come back an hour later and the post itself had been removed.

Now I personally feel I had been wronged. Now since it's impossible to know who's a moderator on the game discussion boards (the one I am on at least) I am forced to go to global moderators for help. Out of those who were online, which was almost a dozen at the time, many of them don't accept friend requests unless under certain circumstances (which I understand) or reply to comments made on their profile asking for help.

Now when I see that on a moderators profile that they basically aren't responding to users who need help, I simply move on and wonder why they are moderators in the first place.


Now the problem, I personally feel, is that there are not enough active global moderators around to manage Steam discussions as a whole. Now I'm not expecting them to go through every thread on every discussion board, but rather to be open-minded and active enough to respond to users who need the help.

Now it may be easy to find out who a discussion board moderator is but I have had no success in finding anyone but global moderators roaming around the discussion board in which I take part. I will not be naming said board so don't ask.



I am here asking what do YOU people think can be done about this, and what can I do to get proper help when something goes wrong?

[Marble]

Автор сообщения: eram

Lack of reply does not mean they did not look or act on the issue. They could have taken a look and decide no action was needed.

I dunno, but I personally just consider this to be a sign of poor customer service. As is generally the case with this sort of thing, lack of communication even when being asked a valid question does little more than make the customer feel less valued.

[eram]

Thats a question for another thread. I've seen plenty of cases where steam support replied to the user. Im assuming (and im just guessing here) that the issue was trivial enough that a reply was not needed.

[datCookie]

Автор сообщения: eram

"Too often is action NOT taken where action is needed"

In your opinion , but you are not a moderator, just because you think action should be taken does not mean it should be taken.

you already contacted steam support, you contacted other mods. They took a look and made their decision.

Again, as stated in the OP, I am in fact a moderator on a discussion board for a very small early access title. I know what moderation is all about and I do my best to take action wherever it is needed. I let things bend a little but I always prevent them from breaking.

In my opinion (yes it is my opinion, not fact), logic and reasoning, regardless of one's opinion should always be taken into consideration. I do not see this very often.

I contacted Steam Support and other moderators, yes. But how do I know they took a look and made a decision? Where's the communication regarding it so I can learn for the future?

As Canti stated above, poor communication can make customers feel less valued. Why should I, as a customer, actively participate in the forums (contributing to a game's discussion) when I know I am not going to be supported by the team whose job it is to moderate those very forums? I certainly wouldn't.


EDIT: I have received replies from Steam Support every time I have sent in a ticket. BUT (and I stress the "but"), the response I always get, unless I am in need of technical assistance, is "We will look into this matter further", or something along those lines.

I'd love to know what the results were of them investigating an issue I am having, instead of leaving me in the dark, feeling less valued.

[eram]

Well again that's your opinion. These are decisions for global mods and steam support to make not yourself, and it seems they acted on your ticket and reports. You just didn't like the outcome. I'm sorry i cant help with that.

The "deal with it" quote sounds a bit harsh i know but.....

Автор сообщения: Canti

Автор сообщения: eram

Lack of reply does not mean they did not look or act on the issue. They could have taken a look and decide no action was needed.

I dunno, but I personally just consider this to be a sign of poor customer service. As is generally the case with this sort of thing, lack of communication even when being asked a valid question does little more than make the customer feel less valued.

Seems like he did get a reply but just didnt like what they said. i cant help with that.

[datCookie]

Автор сообщения: eram

Well again that's your opinion. These are decisions for global mods and steam support to make not yourself, and it seems they acted on your ticket and reports. You just didn't like the outcome. I'm sorry i cant help with that.

THAT'S the very point we are trying to make here. How are we supposed to know WHY they didn't take action? I'd be very happy with a response saying "After investigating your issue into "x" situation, we have deemed that no action is needed as "x" is not in violation of our rules."

Hell, even Facebook responds to let me know what's going on if I was to report a post for misconduct. They tell me that the post was removed and why, and they have a much larger user base than Steam does.


On a side note, thank you for being civil and not locking this thread. I appreciate it.

[eram]

Yes in the perfect world every lock would have a mod/admin reply. Every report gets a reply and every ticket gets a 2nd follow up response.

Lack of perfect communication on every single thread does not mean we are not moderating the forums and dealing with reports. There isn't enough time in the day to do both, you cant have 1000's of reports dealt with each week and expect a personal reply for every single 1 of them, and throwing more moderators into the mix doesn't fix this it never will. You could have 100s of mods and it wouldnt change things.

[datCookie]

Автор сообщения: eram

Yes in the perfect world every lock would have a mod/admin reply. Every report get a reply and every ticket gets a 2nd follow up response. Hardly anything in life is perfect.

Well I can agree with that. Life ain't perfect.

But I also know that if you want the world to change, you must first be the change you want to see. I am a moderator and I take the time to reply to every lock and every moderation contest on the discussion board I am in.

In my opinion (I say this a lot), if each discussion board had the right amount of admins that did their job correctly, you would have a reply to every lock and a response to every contest. Hell, global mods would have it easy.

Make a new slogan "If Facebook can do it, we (Steam) can do it". ;)

[eram]

You cant do that on a large scale it doesn't work , trust me. Facebook doesnt do it.

[datCookie]

Автор сообщения: eram

You cant do that on a large scale it doesn't work , trust me.

Granted, things get more difficult with size.

However, I believe this to be possible and I am certainly more than willing to try it.

[eram]

Willing to try?

Every game hub has the ability to add their own 3rd party mods. Please contact every dev on steam and request they find suitable moderators to run their hubs. :D

it's an all or nothing thing too and new games get added every day so that means new game hubs get added every day so more moderators will be needed every day.

Over 3000 games on steam , how many mods are needed to run each hub in a perfect way? 2 at least for small games and an army of mods for rust? Make it 10,000 moderators are needed?

See where im going.

[datCookie]

Автор сообщения: eram

Willing to try?

Every game hub has the ability to add their own 3rd party mods. Please contact every dev on steam and request they find suitable moderators to run their hubs. :D

Teamwork is essential here ;)


But seriously, with technology as it is today, there are programs out there that can either be written or already do what we need them to do.

Just look at the language filter. Imagine what our lives would be like if we didn't have it? We'd have to go through every post, or review every post before allowing it to be publicly available, and remove all foul language.

The programmed filter made our lives easier.


EDIT: Considering Steam has almost 10 million users I would think 10 000 moderators to be nothing in comparison. Over 3000 games on Steam. Even if there was 2-3 mods per gamehub, we're already looking at almost 10k mods. 4-5 active ones would be enough for the more popular games. And none are needed for inactive games.

[eram]

Maybe in 20 years ai gets good enough to replace mods, its not here yet. no script or bot or program will be able to moderate an actual forum. They are simply not clever enough to make the on the fly decisions we have to make on each post.

[datCookie]

Автор сообщения: eram

Maybe in 20 years ai gets good enough to replace mods, its not here yet. no script or bot or program will be able to moderate an actual forum. They are simply not clever enough to make the on the fly decisions we have to make on each post.

A sad fact, to be sure.

However, I believe this issue is one that needs fixing and can indeed be fixed, in time.

But for now, I will be heading to bed. I shall read this tomorrow.


Thank you for not locking this discussion and providing a civil conversation.

Cheers :)

[Hydra_360ci]

Steam just needs to add a Private Messaging system to their new discussions forum. That is how SPUF works. Could use a rep counter here, too....

Overall these new forums are missing some basic stuff.

[datCookie]

Автор сообщения: Hydra_360ci

Steam just needs to add a Private Messaging system to their new discussions forum. That is how SPUF works. Could use a rep counter here, too....

Overall these new forums are missing some basic stuff.

That would definitely help.