Pandemic, megathreads and moderation

College Confidential Community
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21

Posting mainly to be able to find this thread again - hoping it works - it used to in the old days.

Otherwise… I’ll admit I’ve been on the fence regarding cc about staying or going. My own kids are grown and out of school except for one finishing up med school. I’ve left and returned due to helping out some kids at the school where I work by “upgrading” my knowledge via gleaning from the wealth of knowledge on here.

Then I left due to moderating and updating (esp when ads were super annoying).

Then I returned while on vacation in Feb with an abundance of time on my hands. During that time I got addicted to the original Covid thread.

When that got deleted I figured it was my signal to leave. However, I still have an abundance of time on my hands and some folks are sharing some valuable (to me) info on the other threads - plus once in a while I read something else (did I mention the abundance of time on my hands?).

It’s easy for me to skip posts and threads I don’t want to read. I’m mystified that others don’t find that easy to do. In general, I like reading all opinions as it lets me know how others think - letting me see the world and not just my corner of it. As a science person and teacher I’ll admit I might call some folks on their “facts” if the data doesn’t support it and I can offer other ways things might be interpreted if I see them. I do both at school too. It’s my job. No regrets.

But what I do in the future is still up in the air. Honestly, I like the info. When the info leaves, I’ve no reason to stay. I may not be one Powers That Be want to stay since I no longer have kids going to college.

22

Give COVID-19 it’s own section. Like the Parent Cafe has it’s own section. Like Politics used to.

This section can house threads of research, daily routines, COVID conditions and the college student (many specific threads I’m sure - and guess what? - all the experienced parents would have good wise info to share!), personal COVID stories, COVID in the news (news links) - an endless list of possibilities.

As it is now, I have to stop and think - “which one of these few COVID threads does my comment most fit into??”

I would love to NOT look at COVID threads if that is what the current day and my mental health needs.

If the COVID section is only open for a couple of months, that would be a victory for CC and for our country.

23

I think the moderators really need to let it go on the COVID threads and allow a general discussion. This topic is too important to shut down threads. If someone feels someone else is nasty put them on ignore. We need to and should be discussing these topics. Posting news and letting other challenge the veracity of sources. Will it be a bit of a mess? Sure. But these are messy times. Accept that

24

First of all, I want to say that being a moderator is probably a thankless job. They aren’t paid, and I’m sure there is a lot of nonsense associated with doing that job. I don’t think they get enough credit for the job they agree to take on.

That said, I agree with many others that the moderation here has gotten way too heavy handed. Conflict is a part of life, and we can actually learn from it. Downright nastiness and abuse of course should not be allowed, but in this past year or so, it just seems like it’s gotten very very extreme. On one thread, I quoted what was a public statement released by a celebrity to all the news outlets. I got a nasty “warning” about copyright violation, when it was certainly NOT a copyright violation-it wasn’t a work of journalism, it was something the celebrity intended to be publicly disseminated. I respectfully pleaded my case and points were removed, but it left me thinking “what exactly is going on here???” It just seemed ugly and mean spirited, way beyond just trying to “encourage a welcoming environment,” which ironically, overly heavy handed moderation does NOT do. It reminded me of elementary school, when the teacher would assign a monitor job to a student, who would invariably get wrapped up with power and ability to scold or get other students in trouble. And yes, without us, there would be no forum.

I am NOT saying we shouldn’t have moderation. I’ve seen forums without it, and it’s just unbelievable what goes on in those forums. But there should be a happy medium.

That’s just my honest opinion. Hope that’s allowed.

As to the COVID threads specifically, I think they are providing a very important service in a very unprecedented time in human history. I think the ability to commiserate on these threads is actually giving many of us some important mental/emotional support that being cooped up at home has robbed us of.

25

Thanks for opening this post.

I’ve posted on CC on and off for, literally, half of my life - I had an account as high school junior and senior, took some years off and then came back while I was in graduate school. I’m now tenure-track junior faculty at a non-US based university.

I pretty much stopped coming to CC several years ago because of moderation, and only returned to see what people in this group were saying about the virus. It had gotten to a point when nearly every thread that I found interesting was being shut down, mostly for things that didn’t seem to me at all beyond the boundaries of reasonable discourse. I especially loathe the oft-repeated assertion that “CC is not a debating society.” For one, the line between debate and discussion is often vague, and for another, I simply don’t see why adults on an online forum that has chosen to include a section for general discussion shouldn’t be permitted to debate. If you think the subject has been exhausted, stop reading the thread; there’s no reason for a thread to be closed because one adult decided some other adults were getting repetitive–and, perhaps, showing the slightest hint of passion.

I believe that not just COVID threads, but all cafe threads should be lightly moderated. I don’t want CC to turn into a racist cesspool, and I do think real nastiness should lead to warnings and - if necessary - bans. I wouldn’t allow a continually nasty person in my home, and I don’t think they have a place in the forum. Even responsible and reasonable posters sometimes cross lines, and that’s the place where a mod should step in with a warning and perhaps a deleted post. Otherwise, I’m really not sure why I need a mod. I don’t have one in my off-line conversations, and, while the nature of on-line forums may require some level of intervention, I largely don’t need one here

Similarly, the standard for what constitutes “off-topic” needs to be more liberal. If someone is posting about abortion in the wedding thread, that’s a problem. If someone is derailing any thread with a tangent, maybe it is time to start a new thread and tell posters that all posts on that tangent need to now be in the other thread (I think this should have been done in the closed COVID thread with discussions of Florida vs. NY, which is what seemed to be largely responsible for that thread getting shut down). But conversations don’t follow narrow patterns, especially when that conversation is on an issue like COVID, which has such farreaching implications in so many areas of life.

On the topic of politics: I do understand why CC doesn’t want to have a “President Trump,” “2020 election,” or “Republican vs. Demomcrat thread.” But it is just silly not to be able to make any political references in topics that are intimately tied to politics. Sure, if someone starts making ad-hominem attacks on other posters, or even on public figures, that should be shut down, but criticising - or praising - the President of the United States in a thread about a global pandemic shouldn’t be out of bounds.

Basically, my rule of thumb is that if a site populated by a generally intelligent and respectful group of adults is closing down threads more than once in a very long while, the problem is with moderation, not the posters.

I don’t see any reason that online forums should be immune to principles of free and open discourse. No, it isn’t a legal requirement. But it should be a value we respect.

26

Hi @doschicos! Good to meet you!

We certainly see plenty of traffic on these threads. But . . . I’m not sure they are thriving. They are incredibly difficult to read. It’s not just because of our forum software. Threads with thousands of replies are [impractical for any forum](The MEGATOPIC: public good, or public menace? - community - Discourse Meta).

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On another forum that I visit, when threads get too long, they notify us they are closing it and start a new one, calling it “Part 2,” and then “Part 3,” etc.

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There are fewer mods these days, right? I think that once it is was known that political jabs and asides were being ignored in the shut-down covid thread (and would in earlier times been promptly stopped), more and more people wanted to pile on with their political opinions. It’s asking a lot for the mod (who can’t participate in the thread) to moderate so many posts at a time.

They are volunteers.

While the covid threads are important, no mod is going to be willing to moderate them, because of the sheer amount of time and diligence it will take.

As far as debating goes, I’ve never understood why debates are allowed in certain threads, yet shut down in others. The mod who preached no debating the most is apparently no longer active here. Deciding what is or isn’t a debate definitely can seem like a power play on the part of a moderator.

it is odd the way I’ve seen CC used as a personal blog (and not one good enough to be published!).

So there should be a decision about what is and is not allowed. Make it clear. Enforce the rules. It is not at all clear now, because while pleas were made to keep the remaining covid threads on-topic, it’s obvious they are getting out of control.

If it’s going to become a free-for-all, then let that be known, too.

29

Personally, I’m not a fan of jail bars or any other form of a “scarlet letter”. Deal with a poster directly in a professional manner, with warnings or a temporary ban. I’m not sure public shaming is an effective deterrent ( I really don’t think it is ) nor does it foster a welcoming environment.

I’ll also add that posters who flag and complain can often have intentions that aren’t magnanimous in their desire to report on someone. Often, posters will help moderators with “clean up” by pointing out items of concern. However, things can be done in an attempt to silence views they don’t agree with and even with the motivation of getting threads shut down.

I personally have no problem following along. :slight_smile: To me, they are like jumping into a conversation at a cocktail party. You might not have been there when the conversation started but listen/read for a little and you can jump in. If they weren’t effective/entertaining from a poster perspective, one would think they’d die off. People don’t keep coming back to the well unless they find it informative or entertaining, IMO.

30

I have one comment.

Think really hard about reporting a post. Think about how often you are reporting things to a moderator.

If you are constantly reporting posts, maybe you should stop reading.

I’m sorry but reporting posts, seems to be to be an underhanded juvenile, junior high thing to do.

And it seems to me that it lends to an underground, clique type atmosphere. I sometimes feel that there is a popular persons vibe where I have no idea what is actually going on.

Maybe that was more than one comment lol!

31

As I said in my post, people other than moderators felt the threads were out of control and needed moderation. We get flags from users and high proportion of them are about content in the Parents Forum. I don’t have exact statistics, but a lot of the flags right now are about the most recent COVID thread. Maybe you feel moderation is heavy handed, but not everyone does.

Cards on the table: my priority with the College Confidential forums is discussion directly related to higher education. My son is a junior and I want this site to be a useful resource for him as he plans his future. If you notice the two biggest threads (ordered by replies) have nothing to do with college. Sure they might touch on the topic from time to time, but they aren’t really relevant to the reason I would come here as a parent of a student.

Now I think there is value in letting people talk about coronavirus in general terms. I think it’s wonderful that there are parents who formed bonds on this site when their children were going through this process and that you all still want to be a community together. It’s something I want for the next generation of parents too. I think for that to happen, we’re going to need active moderators. You don’t need to look any farther than the [Election and Politics subforum](http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe-election-politics/1033265-rip-election-and-politics-forum.html#latest).

We can certainly discuss how moderation might work for this sort of thread, but we’re not going to argue about whether moderation is necessary.

I might was well say right here that I take full responsibility for closing the previous thread. I think it was the right decision and I’m pretty sure it’s the right thing to do for the current megathread too. I want to find a solution we can all agree on so that this sort of conversation can continue. I’m posting here today because I want to work with you all. If you disagree with me, the best way to change my mind is to present your opinion with respect and kindness.

Again, we are all under stress these days. A little care in what you say and how you say it goes a long way. :smiley:

32

Higher education topics are what CC is about of course, the bread and butter of the platform, but without posters with experience to provide feedback and info, CC will become a VERY quiet place. So, although the Parent Cafe doesn’t fit the main goal of the website, let’s call a spade a spade and acknowledge that it a) keeps posters with experience engaged with the website and b) drives a lot of traffic to the website which surely helps with ad sales. So, therefore they might not drive someone here initially but they are surely important to your ongoing business.

33

@cinnamon1212 Sadly that does not seem to be true. Moderators are in a terrible bind. If they warn and ban posters privately, other people in the thread have no way to know what happened. If they do it publicly, the conversation quickly gets even more sidetracked into what is or is not allowed on the thread. Worse case: it becomes an argument over whether the moderators are doing the right thing. Banning people can help, but it’s not because other people fall in line. Rather it’s because some people cause more than their share of controversy and argument.

But that doesn’t get at the bigger problem: when it comes to this sort of discussion, it’s often hard to know who should be banned.

34

With all due respect and “cards on the table” it seems @CCadmin_Jon that your mind is already made up. So I’m wondering if this thread is really an thread for discussion or an “announcement” of what you will be doing (closing large threads that require moderation)???

35

We were a little caught off-guard initially. It seemed pretty important to let people discuss this topic without being too aggressive enforcing the rules. (And as an aside, the rules are a little difficult to understand if you haven’t been part of the community for years. They could use some clarification.) But the longer that thread got, the more flags people raised about it.

36

This is really a good idea, @Jon234. I think a big part of the problem here is that is that a big thread that only has a loose topic quickly resembles a chat room. People who are involved the thread have an easier time keeping up with it than people who are coming in out of the blue.

For people who have specific concerns, gathering that conversation into a more focused thread is a lot easier to read and learn from.

37

@CCadmin_Jon

With all do respect, have you read the other posts in this thread?

It is obviously just not me who think the mods are heavy handed.

I won’t be commenting on this thread anymore so please do not direct any more responses to me.

38

I’m not sure I’m following.

Why can’t a moderator say publicly on a thread, “That’s your first warning Midwest, for picking a fight with NicePoliteParent” and then there’s an understanding that the moderator’s decision to give a warning is not up for debate?

Then, when I continue to cause more than my fair share of controversy and argument, I get banned for x months and there’s an announcement that “Midwest crossed the line again, and is the doghouse, thank you for understanding”.

Are you saying the moderators cannot easily identify the posters who need to take a break from the keyboard? I mean, when the staff at large (at work) would get reprimanded, everyone knew the manager was REALLY talking about 2-3 offenders but felt it was only fair to address everyone equally – which never seemed to get the change in behavior he desired.

And if you shut down the current C19 mega thread, what are the new rules going to be? I’m not sure what you want. Can you help me/us understand?

39

Then I would be called out for public shaming. ?

40

Based on the number of times another poster has reported ME because the poster doesn’t like my comments, seems like the moderators have plenty of assistants!

I agree that moderating is a thankless job and I’ve seen other sites where the unmoderated discussion boards are out of control. Despite how highly we think of ourselves, that could happen here as well- especially in this political environment.

I don’t have an answer. I think this particular mega-thread is important and perhaps trying it with just light moderation is worth the time. Our last exercise thread was a mega-thread that lasted 10 years before the OP arbitrarily decided to ask that it be closed. We’ve behaved nicely on the replacement thread.

We are adults- but don’t always behave like adults. I would come close to begging to allow discussion of the current COVID-19 situation because it is uncharted territory for all of us. I also support moving all the COVID threads to a sub-forum so they are together and can be avoided if one chooses.

Thanks for your time.