What are everyone's thoughts on having mods? I'd say one of the bigger issues with the IMDb forums was the lack of moderation and a set of basic rules that users had to follow. You could always report a post, but other than that there wasn't much that could be done to deal with 'problem users' besides adding them to your ignore list.
shareAs long as they are fair and treat people equally, I'd be fine with having them. Avoiding having ones with personal vendettas and such is the thing.
shareHaving mods is a good idea for boards that have gone full retard like Ghostbusters remake & The Walking Dead, General Discussion etc.
Not sure how the owner would choose mods though but I guess the best way to do it would be a written application.
Choosing mods for forums is a major headache.
I'd throw my name in the hat for being mod.
Jim - what's your stance on this?
Yes, mods are needed. I've have seen the craziness mentioned by the other user on movie boards like Ghostbusters. It gets out of control quick. The craziness happens on boards of Christian movies too. It's one thing to post your honest opinion about a movie or show but it is not ok to attack other users who disagree with you. I strongly suggest mods that can be contacted personally too because I have seen a few users go beyond trolling. I've been a member of IMDB for over 10yrs and I saw one woman who is autistic being attacked and personally threatened by a few users. She said these users even threatened her own family and contacted her family! Other users and I tried asking for help from IMDB on Get Satisfaction but our messages were just deleted. Mods need to be around to see and help people. Sock accounts used for attacking other users are something that a nonstop problem on IMDB.
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Mods is one thing IMDB lacks & if you look at this crazy post which I just saw on The Middle it shows just how messed up some users can be. The post was made it says by someone who calls herself Scarymary but if you follow all the links you will see user Scarymary is part of the problem and one of the people or persons attacking other users. I'm not sure why this person Scarymary would post something shows she/her is behind all this but you never know with some people. What I'm saying is we have users attacking people on IMDB and they never did anything about it. I've seen this often over the years on IMDB. I agree about Mods going on power trips and just deleting posts that shouldn't be deleted but we need rules and someone to make sure people stick with them. Why IMDB would allow users to attack people like this post shows in screenshots? It even says at the top that some users went to the police because they felt they were in danger. http://www.moviechat.org/movies/tt1442464/posts/58a0edf177a03f065816caf2
sharesmns65, I agree with you about spoilers. NOMIKO23, that is one messed up thread! This man Rod sounds like someone who shows up at a work place with gun!
shareModerating is good and is a sure way to get rid of trolls but there is another side to it that I don't like. There will always be mods that abuse their power ban and will side with their favourite users, not all but some. Some will get the recommendation from site reputation because they are popular but can still abuse their power to ban posters they don't like. I've seen many new posters on various other forums get banned not because they are abusive or trolling but because they had a different opinion than the majority. The mod banned them because they were accused of upsetting the community atmosphere so banning was the easiest solution for the mods. This can develop a pack mentality where veteran posters can become untouchable and can bully new or even regular posters because they are close to and suck up to the mods.
If anything I think there should be a simple report button for board users where the offending post gets sent to voluntary site monitors (who don't have the power to ban or suspend but can forward posts to the admin). If the reported post doesn't break any rules then leave it be. If it is clearly offensive/spamming or trolling then the voluntary monitor should then forward it on to the admin who makes the ultimate decision.