Old Man Yells at Cloud

[Gustav 6,400]

 

Fair warning: this is another installment of "Gustav complains about moderation". Feel free to disregard as you choose. As always--mods, I like you as people and this isn't intended to be a shot at any of you personally.

 

I've actually been fairly OK with the state of moderation since my survey article went up, and I think it's great that the voice of the league was able to change things. Posts in the ban thread no longer just say "Code of Conduct", and I've thought that mod-not mod interactions on mod-related issues have a level of respect that they were previously lacking. I've had a mod or two reach out to me about one thing or another, and we've always been able to have civil conversations. So, I sincerely commend the team for improving in almost every regard over the past few seasons.

 

With that said, there's one thing I'm not a fan of, and I've seen it happen enough that it bugs me enough to write an article I don't even need because I've maxed out this week. For a while--and this is nothing new--there's been a heightened focus on keeping certain channels in the league Discord server on topic. We talk about health stuff and brag about our latest workouts in the health channel, we talk about graphics in the graphics channel, and we talk about games in the gaming channel. Frequently, we'll see a mod request to move a talk out of or into one of these specific places, because it's either unrelated to the channel or directly related to another. This is something I disagree with most of the time, because (as you should all know) I'm very much of the "if it's not hurting anyone or getting in anyone's way, I see no reason why any action should be taken" group, but I honestly don't really care beyond just rolling my eyes and switching over to the requested channel. As much as most of the convos in question don't hurt anybody, the mod policy really doesn't either. I'm content to just be quietly annoyed with it.

 

Except in one specific situation.

 

When a new member joins the league server, and makes a post (almost always in #general) looking for help, the ONLY correct response is to HELP THAT NEW MEMBER!

 

...not to tell said new member to take it to the help channel and to then proceed to not offer help in the help channel.

 

I can understand having the help talk move over there if genchat is popping off and everyone's messages are getting buried in everyone else's--that's one thing. But when genchat is relatively uncluttered--and even when the only thing going on there is the new member getting the help they need from someone else--that's another. The member in question deserves some level of understanding that they've posted in the first channel they saw, they are hurting absolutely no one by asking a question, and giving that person a helpful answer--which is supposedly one of the league's top priorities--is far, far more important than talking about kranch. What kind of welcoming atmosphere do we say we pride ourselves on if someone joins the server, asks how to build, and the first response is, in effect, "we don't want that in here, take it somewhere else"? That, especially when I've seen questions go unanswered for a few minutes after they've been directed to the help channel--which is sometimes enough for someone to lose faith and disappear. When an innocent question is asked in a (supposedly) fairly supportive environment, there will be an answer--let it be. Please.

 

I'd like to conclude this article with a suggestion so it isn't just me complaining. Currently, people joining the server are thrown directly into #general. Why not have the default channel for server entrances be the help channel? Someone coming into the server for the first time with a question will already be in the place to ask it. Now, this won't eliminate all instances of new members asking questions in #general--so, mind you, my point still stands; play it where it lies and let the question be asked and answered--but it will probably at least lead to more questions, at least first-time questions, going into the channel created for said questions.

 

Turns out I do need this article after all--I can claim my donation doubles week from it! 

 

As always, if you sincerely consider my point of view, then I sincerely thank you. See you next week!

Edited July 8, 2022 by Gustav

[a_Ferk 764]

1 hour ago, Gustav said:

The member in question deserves some level of understanding that they've posted in the first channel they saw, they are hurting absolutely no one by asking a question, and giving that person a helpful answer--which is supposedly one of the league's top priorities--is far, far more important than talking about kranch.

Respectfully disagree.

[N0HBDY 1,115]

Justice for the Horny Police

[Gustav 6,400]

12 minutes ago, a_Ferk said:

Respectfully disagree.

 

I suppose my statement may have been somewhat hyperbolic.

[Blazzer 759]

Personally I do agree with this. There are so many categories in the league's discord server that it's so easy to lose track. And with so many non-league related channels, what is supposed to fall in the category of 'general' chat? 

The suggestion of having new members join the help channel instead of general is really great and it would help with the problem. However, I'm also concerned about new members not getting the help they need. 

[Gustav 6,400]

3 minutes ago, Blazzer said:

The suggestion of having new members join the help channel instead of general is really great and it would help with the problem. However, I'm also concerned about new members not getting the help they need. 

 

I think this is more on the members than anything else. If you're on Discord and you see a message pop up in the help channel, I feel like you would go in and see what's up and potentially give an answer--I would too. Someone who wouldn't doesn't really care about helping people and likely wouldn't give a decent answer regardless of the channel it's in.

 

And honestly? If people are posting in the help channel and not getting help, we as a community should be ashamed of ourselves. The amount of saying we care about attention, retention, and burnout prevention (heh) is way larger than the amount of doing sometimes.

 

 

31 minutes ago, Blazzer said:

Personally I do agree with this. There are so many categories in the league's discord server that it's so easy to lose track. And with so many non-league related channels, what is supposed to fall in the category of 'general' chat?

 

This also bugs me in the sense that I stated earlier, that I personally don't care what's talked about where as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. But that's much less annoying to me than a new member's first act in the server being getting moderated needlessly.

[Blazzer 759]

16 minutes ago, Gustav said:

And honestly? If people are posting in the help channel and not getting help, we as a community should be ashamed of ourselves. The amount of saying we care about attention, retention, and burnout prevention (heh) is way larger than the amount of doing sometimes.

Well said, there's definitely more talk than action when it comes to helping members out when they ask for it in the discord channel.

[Garsh 1,179]

I think things in new comers channel get answered the vast majority of the time.  Even when things are asked late at night usually someone will reply when they are up.

 

One thing I will say about routing people to the new comers channel is that they shouldn't be told "hey go to new comers" but more like "hey this thing exists feel free to use that too" or something like that, I'm not a wordsmith.  I'm indifferent on  making newcomers the default.

 

I'm personably much more likely to see someone ask for help in newcomers because unlike genchat I haven't muted that channel.  

[Gustav 6,400]

3 minutes ago, Garsh said:

I'm personably much more likely to see someone ask for help in newcomers because unlike genchat I haven't muted that channel.

 

The server is so active I have no idea how anyone lives having any part of it unmuted honestly. 

 

It doesn't matter for me anyway because notifications are screwed up on my computer and I have no idea how to fix them, so the only time I see that there's a message or a ping anywhere is when I have Discord open and I'm actively looking at it.

 

(Don't tell me how to fix it; it's helped me stay focused quite a bit better now that I don't have a little red dot popping up every 2 minutes)

 

 

6 minutes ago, Garsh said:

One thing I will say about routing people to the new comers channel is that they shouldn't be told "hey go to new comers" but more like "hey this thing exists feel free to use that too" or something like that, I'm not a wordsmith.  I'm indifferent on  making newcomers the default.

 

This is very well put too. There's nothing wrong with letting people know the channel exists, but I think it's ridiculous to suggest that helping new people shouldn't be allowed in genchat.