Moderation, particular off topic posts

This may be an obvious question, with an obvious answer that I have not been able to find, but...

Are there any moderators? Should there be?

I understand moderators can be a politically sensitive issue, particularly on a Christian forum when people are often very passionate about the issues they discuss! But I see so many threads where the discussion quickly goes off topic from the OP, or where people post large amounts of material that scroll spam a thread, when they could just as easily post a link to the page they copypasted from.

Even a moderator with a fairly laissez-faire attitude, only moving off topic posts to new threads, and not really interfering at all with post content, would be a sight better than what exists now.

Thoughts?

How many posts are flagged per day, would you say?

That would require a lot of time, and a lot of micro-managing.
There are hundreds of posts each day.
Volunteer mods have only so much time to attend to things.

Some would suggest, "just get more mods."
Modding is a very delicate thing. Finding the right folks for the task is a toughy.
After all if the wrong ones are chosen, then we have even more labor to deal with.

I suppose hiring someone(s) to sit here 24/7 would be possible, but that would require money, and well, I dunno if users want to invest the money it would take to achieve that level of micro-managing.

There are moderators!
Each of of, besides, can help them do that painstaking job. They do their job well. Have you seen some accounts labeled as "Banned"? (There are).
I myself made a mistake and got an infraction (one you could see on my profile).

So you better believe this place is clean or could be cleaner as a Christian enviroment.

These are my simple thoughts.

Here is a picture on where to click to report abusive threads...




The black triangle serves you to "moderate" according to whatever thing it be within reason. I guess that give teh real moderator a "warn" on where to see or read.

A tip:

If that icon could be colored (red or yellow) could be visible enough to be seen (and understood).

OH! The other icon serves to give some credit or "reputation" (but I don't really know what it serves for). As a Christian (not the best not the worst) I don't believe my human aprecition. I could be loving a person and, if something happens, I could be kicking at his face, but I can assure you this is a place you would like or love.

I understand we can flag posts for abuse. Can we also flag posts for off topic, or for posting large amounts of material? I'm not knocking the mods at all, and I appreciate they may have far worse problems to deal with. I just feel some forums (particularly Bible Discussion) could be much more efficient and fruitful places to discuss things in if even those two things were able to be dealt with quickly.

Off topics?

That wouldn't be fair! You know disgregations comes when any people mention another idea, not connected to the forum or topic. I think you, and the group you are in, could warn "them" (those who are off the topic) to come back to the topic.

I agree with you that large ammounts of materials aren't easy to bear or read, but the experience itself will tell them (and us) that there is too little attention when we try to get too much attention by "copy pasting things".

The problem is people often don't listen when you tell them they are off topic, and by the time they've posted, you've posted to tell them they're off topic, and the whole thing is wound up, you've derailed the thread and made it confusing for anyone else trying to read and learn. The same with large amounts of material - of the people who do that are not the OP (though sometimes they are), and especially if the OP has an important or emotional question, I feel it's damaging if people derail those threads.

I'm not saying delete off topic material. I'd prefer they be preserved, but perhaps be moved to a new thread that people can engage with as they will.

Some people there could be called up if they where in a university, a classroom, but some feel and felt compelled to be "heard" (or seen) similarly to your involved emotions.

CC is a CHAT site, even in those threads you'd like to keep in order.

There is no way to report off topic. it happens in every thread and would more than quadruple moderators work to fuss over every off topic complaint.
As it is more reported posts are never dealt with since most reports are not valid reasons to begin with. mods go through each one as it is.

Posts can not be flagged for LONG content and probably not for off topic, unless it's really extreme.

Here's the deal for us admins/mods.
For every issue we address, we get to deal with the reaction.

So sure we could micro-manage, and move all these posts around and such. One thing folks don't understand is that users often don't like their content to be altered/moved/etc. So ya we could move it, but then we'd possibly have to deal with an endless back and forth debate with the person whom is now upset that I/we moved/altered their content.

We just don't have time for that. And trust me, people can be very touchy and disagreeable.
We have to save our time, and emotional energy for bigger battles, sadly.

Imagine how many battles we'd have if we moved/addressed EVERY little off topic, or long post?
People don't tend to just rant once, and stop after you've answered them once. They tend to go on, and on, and on.

This calls for a certain level of "street smarts".
The reality is that EVERY issue cannot be addressed how you want it addressed.

If something is an annoyance for you, you have to use your street smarts.
You can simply scroll over their stuff, or if they have a habit of this stuff, you can put them on an ignore list.
http://christianchat.com/profile.php?do=ignorelist

That's just kinda how it is.
We do our best to keep things from getting too out of line, but we simply don't have the time or energy to make this thing perfect.

And if we did have the time and energy for that much involvement, then the reaction would probably be threads about how the mods just won't leave the forums alone and let people discuss.

Actually only site staff and you can see the infraction on your profile. We don't make infractions or their reasons public.

Ok! I just told what I thought he doubted regarding moderation.

I just added the picture. Thanks! (a site very well designed).

Thanks, Mrs J-Kay (I seldom see videos)

There was one on last night. And as you know there are links given
for us to go to regarding the topic. So, say if I were to have a 10 min.
video on youtube to watch for a topic here, I should have watched it
first and then let others know how many mins. it will run.

If I don't find the topic something I am interested in, I don't go to the
video either. Thank you Mr. Hermit

That picture of a car crashed, Stephen, deserves an infraction (and a fine bill). Ha! Ha!