Them good ol' moderation blues...
Tue, 5 Apr 2011, 02:07 pmBass Guy26 posts in thread
Them good ol' moderation blues...
Tue, 5 Apr 2011, 02:07 pmThis is an old chestnut of mine, but... I've noticed in the reviews section a couple of instances where unfawning comments have been moderated down- simply because they didn't follow the rapturous praise of other postings on the same thread.
This happened with "Zastrozzi" a week or two ago, and has just happened on Gordon's "Company" review thread today.
Neither of these posts could be construed as trolling, slanderous or even mean-spritied; it's just they had the nerve NOT to say "This is the best (fill in the blank) I've ever seen...". Some of the critisisms offered were pointed, certainly- but well reasoned, and certainly nothing that amounted to hate-mail.
In the case of the Zastrozzi one, it DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY from the site. I went back to read it again and it had simply vanished, and I've been unable to locate it again. And considering one of the chief admin folk here was in that particular show, one is tempted to smell a rat or two....
And this is one of the problems I have with moderation (as I've bleated about from the get-go); sure you can "moderate things up", but should you have to? If someone is silly enough to post something hateful (and I'm as guilty of that as anyone on this site) leave it up and let people respond to it. Don't hide it because it disagrees with the general tenor of the conversation.
I like reasoned debate- if I want irrational stupidity, I'll read (or post on) facebook. I would have thought this site could withstand more open discussion.
What are everyone else's thoughts? Assuming this hasn't been moderated out of public view....
Eliot McCann
That's a great idea!
Sun, 17 Apr 2011, 09:50 amThen at least we will think before we moderate. Confession to make here...Elliot. I moderated down the Zastrozzi comments. Maybe I shouldn't have, I didn't moderate them down far, and others must have also for them to disappear, am I correct? I just really disagreed, and I guess I was to chicken to call him out in a post outright! It's not that I don't think people have a right to disagree, but I felt the comment about 'school children could have done better' was really uncalled for. As someone who has taught drama to many primary and high school children...no. They really couldn't have. So there you have it. It was me. And apparently if my name had come up as the moderator I would still have done it!
Maybe we can go for a Facebook type of situation, where we have likes and...wait for it...dislikes. The post stays but we see what other people thought of it?
And if people had to be registered to comment, at least they would have to be really determined to say something in order to post negative or abusive comments. In which case if the production was bad enough to inspire that kind of ire, then fair enough.