New Board Added: Heated Topics & Debate

[Espeon]

Following the addition of the Hot Seat topic, Elsa and I have decided to move it to a new board, Heated Topics & Debate.  This board will be for more opinionated discussion or things like the Hot Seat.  As such, it will require additional moderation.  The staff would like to appoint three new moderators.  If you are interested, please say so on this topic.  Please note that you will not moderate the entire forum, but only the Heated Topics & Debate board.

 

[Old Owner]

Sounds good to me. I would be interested in helping out. Will there be any new rules specifically for this section, or is it just a matter of the existing rules being stricter there?

It's a matter of keeping the peace. However, you bring up a good point. Maybe we should lay out some specific ground rules for the board...

As for your offer, you will be considered.

 

[Flyboy Fox]

We had a board like this on the forum I used to gMod. Basically, our ground rules were along these lines (I'm typing from memory):

- Disagreement and debate is allowed on threads in this forum, as are topics about sensitive or divisive issues, but be mindful and respectful of the opinions of others.
- Attacking another member's opinion by being verbally aggressive or insulting is not allowed and will result in the moderation or removal of the offending post.
- Topics must allow for both sides of an argument: eg. A topic about religion. "Talk about why you are or are not religious, and what, if anything, religion means to you" as a premise is acceptable; "Talk about why you hate religion" as a premise is obviously not acceptable.
- Mods reserve the right to temporarily freeze or outright lock a topic if they feel it is getting out of hand. PM a mod if you believe a topic is getting out of had - do not micro-mod the thread yourself. Topic starters may request their own topic to be locked; a mod will review the request and use their discretion in complying.
- Posters who repeatedly display aggressive or rude posting in debate topics will be warned and will be banned from the Debate subforum if behaviour continues.
- And the golden rule: Be sensible. Does your post add something to the discussion, rather than simply rehashing an existing post? Is your post polite and respectful even in disagreement? Have you read and considered the other posts in the thread before responding? If yes, go ahead and post! Otherwise, take a breath and step back for a few minutes before responding. It's for everyone's good!

We didn't have too much trouble as long as people read the rules (which were pinned at the top of the subforum, and the forum description had a clear "Read the rules before posting here!" note in it).

 

[Espeon]

Those are definitely good rules to follow and have in place.

 

[Old Owner]

Those are definitely good rules to follow and have in place.

I agree. I suspect we should modify these rules and post them as a sticky in the Heated Topics & Debates section.

 

[Espeon]

Could you work on that while I try to find mods for the board?  There's a significant lack of offers.

 

[John-117]

- Posters who repeatedly display aggressive or rude posting in debate topics will be warned and will be banned from the Debate subforum if behaviour continues.

All of these rules are fantastic, but this one in particular does not seem to get implemented enough, which is a shame. I'm glad that you postulated it.

I wouldn't mind moderating this board; I have quite a bit of exposure in my time moderating/administrating other 'kin forums and dealing with overheated debaters.

 

[Flyboy Fox]

I was gonna offer to be a subforum mod, but I kinda felt that maybe I haven't been here long enough to qualify.

 

[Espeon]

No, we'll take any help we can get.

 

[Old Owner]

Could you work on that while I try to find mods for the board?  There's a significant lack of offers.

I need to go somewhere for a bit today, but I can get to that later.

 

[Espeon]

All right, sounds like a plan.

 

[Flyboy Fox]

No, we'll take any help we can get.

Okay, well, I guess I'll apply for the position then ^^

 

[gardenGnostic]

i would be happy to volunteer if you would take me. i have modded before and have experience with handling nasty situations.

 

[Foxmorph]

I'd like to offer also. I have a bit of mod experience, though it's been a while.

 

[2612]

I'll offer. The only reason I didn't make an offer earlier is because I've been busy lately, so I might not be able to be around much at first, and I kinda worried that Elsa doesn't trust my judgment anymore based on my disagreement on a moderator action that happened recently >_>.

I still regularly check this board and know for sure that I tend to see posts before others get to them though. I also have a lot of experience with moderating forums, as well as a lot of experience with understanding controversial topics from multiple sides of an issue; at a level that others have tended to find to be impressively neutral/unbiased given the level of heatedness those topics may present. So I feel I'd fit pretty well as a moderator for that section.

 

[Flyboy Fox]

I probably should say a few words about why I'm applying, too ^^;

I was a well-liked (according to feedback) Global Moderator on SSMB (the largest Sonic forum online) for several years, so I do have a fair bit of moderating skills under my belt, including moderating the debates forum (from whence I gave the subforum rules I typed up from memory earlier in this thread). I'm definitely active enough to monitor the subforum daily at regular intervals, and as I love debate topics anyway, I'll be spending a lot of time in there, I'm sure. While I am passionate about certain topics, I do think I also have the restraint, tact and open-mindedness to be both an active participant in controversial topics yet perform moderating duties in an impartial and unbiased manner.

So, yeah, there we go

 

[Old Owner]

The rules are now set for the board. I used most of what Flyboy Fox wrote. I hope that's alright!

Here they are: http://fictionkin.com/forum/index.php/topic,399.0.html


EDIT:

If you cannot view this board, you are probably not in the member group allowed to access this board. If you would like access, please request to be in the "Full Access" member group. This should be located in your profile. An administrator will approve your request when we can. If for any reason you can't find the request option for this group, please post a reply here! I will look into it.

I have already assigned "Full Access" to non-staff members who have posted in Heated Topics & Debates. Staff members should automatically have permission to view that section.

This group exists so that staff can easily remove members who have violated the rules for that board from that section.

 

[Flyboy Fox]

Of course I don't mind! I'm honoured that you used the rules I suggested

Tiny typo alert in the rules - it says "temporarily of permanently" instead of "and" in rule 3.

Edit: As Sherlock pointed out, I meant 'or'. I got distracted mid-way through typing that ^^; My bad!

 

[S.H.]

I feel like you've now had more offers of moderators than you need, so might I suggest that the chosen moderator(s) be someone who does not expect to participate in the debates themselves (or at least, not frequently)? This will avoid anyone feeling like they can't disagree with that person because they are "the moderator" for that section, or even, the moderator being more lenient with rude behaviour if they personally agree with what is being said by the rude poster.

Not suggesting these things are automatically bound to happen but I think it would be nice not to worry about. Just my 2c.

Tiny typo alert in the rules - it says "temporarily of permanently" instead of "and" in rule 3.

Don't you mean "or"? I don't think a topic can be temporarily and permanently locked without some abstract fiddling with the very nature of time.

 

[Flyboy Fox]

The downside of that is that if someone isn't likely to participate, they might be less likely to be in the debate forum very often. Regular participants would be able to keep a better eye on the situation.

Besides that, I don't think any of us have been afraid to have debates and discussions with the existing admins and global mods (who of course still have power in that forum), so I can't imagine that it would be an issue. We seem to be mature here. I think the mods would be mature enough to not abuse their power, and the members are mature enough to know how to debate in a civilised manner with all forum members, regardless of rank.

I'm not saying that to advocate being chosen - if I'm not picked, I would still like to see people who plan on being active in that subforum as mods because I think they'll be more familiar with that forum's rules and better able to catch situations before they get out of hand by virtue of being more involved.

Edit: Yes. I meant "or". I swapped one typo for another while I was trying to hold it in my head ^^; Thanks!