Suggestion: Mod to User Communication

[Rudolph Quin]

My name is True Sinner, my partner is Chiarra. Both characters are over 18 and yet our thread was closed. I'm just curious as to why that is?

http://bluemoonroleplaying.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=47914

I get it. Really, I do. You work so hard on coming up with the rules and presenting them in a way that is fair and reasonable to everyone while keeping members safe and happy. And then who the fuck reads it? It's annoying, it's irritating, you feel like you're repeating yourself constantly but honestly, as bearers of the rules and guardians of the site... what did you expect your job to be? You'ree an admin and you get to play mommy for the site, that's how it works. You're a mod, you play eldest siblings in the "family". Sometimes, before you swat someone's hand or put someone in a corner, you have to tell them why. You can't just spank a kid and expect them to take from the vast pool of experiences and "figure it out on their own because you already told them once very clearly and plainly; it's their fault for not listening".

I would like to suggest that your mods send messages to thread creators before just jumping in and closing threads, explaining why it was closed. ESPECIALLY if the reason is because their names aren't in the thread title - because unlike the readily apparent reasons of "underage" or "spam" the "thread title names" thing is not something you encounter in too many places and it is not a rule many people will be familiar with.

Yes, it is at the top of the main site page.

Yes, it is at the top of the role-play request forum pages.

Sometimes people are new and excited to get started. Sometimes people gloss over the rules, like "Okay, yeah, I get it; pretty much like any place I've been, no problem". Sometimes people just can't find it - believe it or not; what is right in front of your eyes is not always what others focus on first. Sometimes people are just plain stupid, and don't understand what they read. Sometimes people are dicks and ignore the rules just to be assholes. Sometimes people don't read the rules of a forum at all, even when they join somewhere new. Do they not deserve a reminder even though they're not doing everything they should? I dunno. It's your forum. Do you want rules to be followed or do you like squashing bugs under your fingers?

I just see you get a lot of posts in the questions forum of people asking about threads being closed and it leads me to believe that they were not messaged about it at all. Which is really rude and alienating to your members. So, I'm just gonna put this in the suggestion box that your mods send out rule reminders(just as you would when giving warnings for bad behavior) and links to these rules and directions on where to find them when your mods are about to close a thread without the names in the title(especially if it is clearly a role-play).

I assume you don't already do this because we're assuming people who don't automatically read the rules or look at them or notice them are idiots. If they truly are idiots though, then you're treating them rather unfairly, no?

 

[Mitsu]

I agree with this post. It should be standard protocol to inform the thread creator as to why the thread is being locked. That's usually how it works elsewhere, and it is done elsewhere for a reason. Rudolph Quinn as provided a fine argument, so I have nothing else to add.

 

[Rudolph Quin]

Thank you for the support! Yeah, I don't have any other complaints on how this place is run. The admin and mods do a really good job. It's just this one thing I've seen happen and thought I'd bring it up.

 

[darkangel76]

Yeah. I can get behind this. I know when we'd initially gone this route for this particular thing alone (because it is the only thing done where a PM isn't always sent), it had been during a time when a lot of changes were being implemented and most of them WAY more important than that one. However, that one was still a particular annoyance due to the cascade effect. However, now with most of those changes implemented and, for the most part, running fairly smoothly, there's no reason why we can't all just up and send a PM when we come across such an RP. Even nowadays, it's not as frequent an occurrence to find such misplaced RPs. So yeah. I can get behind this and see the merit in it. *nods* Thanks for bringing it up.