@smiris - we really welcome your input on this and of course on the forum in general.
It is really as @ForestHull noted to prevent spam and provocative posts by drive by accounts.
Politics generates a lot of heat and it was thought best to at least get to know folk a little before getting into debates with them. It is an effort to take some of that heat out of the forum which can be off putting if it is on the public face of the site.
I take your point though and we have talked in the past about opening it up - we will look at it again.
I’ve had a chat with my fellow mods and we’ve put you back up to normal member status, which I think means you should be able to access everything you could before. Any issues let us know.
This seems to be conflating two issues. One is how to deal with local politics.
Another is a thread which relates to the functioning of this site and its relationship with the community. This isn’t local politics. It is about the forum.
Thanks again Foresthillnick for the feedback. But I have to say I’ve been rather put off this forum. As some others have suggested on other threads it feels a bit overmoderated.
It also seems particularly odd when I hear on another thread that other moderators have used sockpuppet accounts - it feels like it’s one rule for the powers that be on this forum (fake accounts, choosing who can be verified, deleting posts like mine), while the rest of us lowly occasional users have to ‘earn stars’ before we are deemed worthy enough to post on local politics threads. I’m now at ‘basic’ woohoo! Why not give people the benefit of the doubt first? You could always delete posts if people break forum rules.
On the one hand you say that you feel the site to be over-moderated but then say we should open everything up to everyone and then do more moderating if needed
It isn’t easy, we do our best and we take any criticism whether it is warranted or not.
At the moment we are not going to make any changes as, IMHO, the forum needs a period of rest and recuperation.
Fair enough. Rest and recuperation sounds like a good idea.
I guess what I mean is that it’s over-moderated in the way it’s run as a whole with deleted posts, having to earn a certain status, members only type of way. Does that make sense?
Anyway, will leave it there. As you say, nothing is going to change at the moment, so I guess that’s the end of the discussion!
Note that posts are rarely deleted - instead they are moved to the opt-in category of Moderator Actions, usually with a reason.
Looking at that category, there are perhaps one or two actions a week. For a site that claims 1.5k to 3k visits a day I really think that’s not bad going and a credit to all on this site.
“Trust Level” is such an unfortunate name for this process. To me, it feels more like some hierarchical system created by L. Ron Hubbard. I gather this is more a function of the software than of this site.
Michael, we are both verified regulars so trust level 3. You were of course trust level 4 for a while as were a few others, until the TL4 status was removed from all (non-team members) earlier this year. I gather that TL4 has been revived potentially as a half way house to moderation. Probably a good idea.
But yes. Not terribly clear how they work. Nicks little graph was helpful though.
Trust level is also an unfortunate name on this forum given that I was genuinely looking forward to some patties from flavabaker and a new business opening in FH.
Stirring and being deliberately provocative is, of course, one way to impact trust too.
Incidentally the ‘Trust Level’ terminology isn’t defined by .life. It’s part of the standard Discourse set-up which is the open source forum software that the site runs on.
Not sure how that’s stirring or being provocative. It’s fact. If you’re asking for a level of trust from newbies or occasional users* like me then you need to be able to trust the moderators too. (*although I realise I’m becoming more of a regular user in trying to argue what I realise is a lost cause). Look, all I want is for an open local forum where everyone can join in on all discussions across this platform. I’m not going to say on the matter as I know it’s getting me nowhere and @foresthillnick has already said nothing will change for now.
