Stealth moderation

[burmans]

It's a shame that you are concerned enough to post that you have an issue but not concerned enough to help resolve the problem.

Implicit in this statement is the assumption is that reporting will "resolve" the problem. There have been many posts over the years that certain individuals have been treated lightly by moderators.Without buying into whether I agree or not with this argument there is undoubtedly that perception by some in our "community". For me its not particularly material and hence I wouldn't be wanting to waste my time on something I have doubts on getting any sort of successful resolution.

I'm not trying to criticise the mods here, I think they do a good job in the position of some quite strong opinions but they are humans after all and I've never met such a human who isn't from time to time swayed by arguments and hence more likely to regard the opposing argument as extreme. Put simply, its hard to be truly independent when you are a frequent poster yourself, but I don't doubt the mods desire (and usually success) in trying to be.

 

[straitman]

Implicit in this statement is the assumption is that reporting will "resolve" the problem.

Incorrect.

It means that from the report that the problem will be attempted to be resolved.

Quite frankly, reading the almost trolling comments here by some, is almost enough to make me wonder about my whole reason for being here as a contributor let alone as a moderator. At the same time if it's all as bad as a few are making out I then question why they are still here.

 

[opusman]

...is almost enough to make me wonder about my whole reason for being here as a contributor...

I've wondered the same thing, when my (imo perfectly reasonable) posts have been deleted because they disagreed with the opinion of someone with the ability to delete posts...

Anyway, don't take it personally. The only way to truly resolve the problem is for the mods to be arms-length, independent (and probably paid). Which obviously ain't gonna happen.

(and no, this isn't "trolling", and if you don't have a thick enough skin to even handle a discussion on this issue I would suggest you probably aren't the type who should be moderating in the first place).

 

[njba]

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The admin of course.

 

[opusman]

The admin of course.

Except he seems to have largely outsourced all that responsibility.

 

[burmans]

It means that from the report that the problem will be attempted to be resolved.

I guess that's a personal opinion, for me I'm not interested in attempting to do something if I feel the evidence is that it won't work (am sure at least some here are aware of that particular definition of insanity).

And as you point out the amount of effort you put into something depends on your impressions of importance. Personally I agree that its not significant but that's not to suggest others might not. As for why they are still here, well there aren't a lot of Australian Frequent Flyer sites, even if they think its important it may not be important enough just to throw the toys out of the cot (and as per my description some might describe that as a pretty immature response too).

As per opusman's note, this isn't intended as personal or a criticism of moderators in general, but I do think it's being a bit precious if we totally disallow any discussion of this matter. But that's my general opinion of discussion on the forum anyway, we should allow discussion without allowing personal attacks/criticism.

 

[samh004]

Hahaha that is so untrue, we have a broad range of mods all doing a great job and even one who is really quite junior with not much flying experience at all relative to the members here, who goes the extra mile to organise all the social events! I have found all current mods to be fair and reasonable. We won't talk about some mods who have since left

Sorry I overlooked this post before. If you mean me, I have taken a step back from the social events of late as I work to finish university... but I did get to P1 as medhead points out, what a fun year that was! These days, my flying has gone down hill with my uni work going up, but I have visited 32 countries, most before I turned 18 so I have some flying experience, if it was me you were referring to?

That's a bold statement. I will have to disagree. And I think all mods have done a heap of flying, even getting to P1 with qantas for one mod who organises a lot of social events.

Thanks for pointing the post out, completely overlooked it on my first read. Not much organising going on for me right now though, as I take a harder focus on my uni work.

Anyway, don't take it personally. The only way to truly resolve the problem is for the mods to be arms-length, independent (and probably paid). Which obviously ain't gonna happen.

From what I've seen, if a moderator is engaging and a conflict arises, they usually report the post so another moderator who isn't engaging can take a look at it and be impartial.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The admin of course.

Except he seems to have largely outsourced all that responsibility.

Without going into specifics, I can assure you that he still remains up-to-date with what is happening and involved in decisions. I, nor any other moderator, have free reign. Moderation is a team effort and we will seek multiple inputs on a situation, including from admin.

 

[RooFlyer]

Eek! You mean Uni requires work? :shock: And it interferes with flying all over the place? I was about to start a Masters, so may well have to reconsider that (and sorry for the o/t ).

 

[admin]

As a reminder, we don't permit the discussion on moderation on AFF. See The Australian Frequent Flyer - Terms of Service and Rules.

Posts or topics discussing moderator actions or AFF Management practices are not permitted and will be removed.

Some might find this policy to be hard, but I believe it is necessary to allow AFF to operate well and not go down the path of so many other forums.

We have let the discussion run for a while, but are now closing this thread. My closing comment is that all moderators do an outstanding job in difficult circumstances, in their free time. Sure, we may get things wrong sometimes, but we are all human with busy lives and other priorities at times. I'll let the vast majority of AFF users come to their own conclusion about the fairness and professionalism of AFF Moderators.