(no subject)

[prog]

Well, the moderator of davis_square just put the community on approved-posts-only lockdown after a few people offered criticism of her management style. She also deleted several people's comments, and is presently declaring to be close to deleting the community altogether. I consider this behavior a breach of the social contract inherent in any moderated message board's user/admin relationship, and reason enough to just drop the joint and move on elsewhere.

However, it is a useful and friendly LJ-community -- much (more reliable / less idiotic) than, say, b0st0n -- and I wouldn't want to lose it, nor see it splinter off into wee fragments. Any suggestions from the crossover portion of my f-list on how to follow up on this?

Update: daerr just pointed out that davissquare now seems to exist, created by komos, whom I don't know. I don't know if this person took part in the meta-discussion on the first community since that all got blown away... any insight?

Comments

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

She's gone and made the community entirely moderated.

If we create a new Davis Square community, with competent and active maintainers, but not moderated, it'll automatically get more traffic, and the old one will eventually starve from lack of postings. I know pheromone was interested in being a moderator, and I think she knew one or two others. I'd be available as well.

[prog.livejournal.com]

See update. I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of similarly-named Davis Square communities have all been created today, but one seems to have caught the most obvious name. However I don't know anything about the person who created it...?

[komos.livejournal.com]

I fired it up because I think the mod has gone too far this time. I wasn't part of the discussion that led down this road, but I have engaged her in the past over her selective enforcement of rules that I didn't agree with in the first place.

For what it's worth, I'm more than happy to hand over the reins to someone who won't turn into a censor every time someone disagrees. It's supposed to be a community, after all.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I explicitly didn't want to be -- I just wanted someone who did want to do the work to be allowed to do so. I'd do it if I had to, but I think there are plenty of others who are actually happy to do it. :)

But yay! Glad there's a new one with a good name. I suggest advertising it (behind a cut of course) on d_s once posting is open again. And spread the word until then. :)

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Community fight!

Never a good situation. Sorry I don't have any *useful* suggestions. I suppose a note to lj_abuse might be worth a shot...that's a pretty clear case of moderator abuse / power going to one's head.

useless suggestion

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Somebody call the waaaaahmmbulance!

I'd say, give it a day or two (or three), see if things calm down. It would, indeed, suck if suddenly there were multiple relevant communities - there are something like 4 Denver communities, only one of which is high traffic, so the choice is either: see the same post 4 times, or chance missing something someone has only posted to one place. Bleah.

If she doesn't want to deal with the occasional fights with the non-moderators, she ought to just hand it over.

She nuked _all_ the comments, dude; I can't see any of them now.

Re: useless suggestion

[prog.livejournal.com]

Even if things calmed down, though, I am less comfortable in posting to a message board when I feel the moderator might delete my writing for unforeseeable reasons.

Re: useless suggestion

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

True. Though it seems she has at least made the rules obvious, and relatively benign. My sense is that people are discontent with the manner in which they have been/were being reinforced, plus a sense that she wasn't interested in doing anything other than reminding people to cut-tag their ads.

Bah - correction: obvious rules, except for today's sudden "Posting by approval only, and comments on the preceding post are turned off."

Re: useless suggestion

[komos.livejournal.com]

Except that the application of the rules has been inconsistent and seems to apply only to those things that she takes issue with. For instance, it's perfectly ok that on Dec. 5, someone posted an ad for tours whose proceeds go to benefit the somerville arts council. A perfectly good cause, to be sure, but since there is an exchange of cash for services, it falls within the community's definition for an ad, and should have been cut.

Political stumping has also been made exempt by moderator fiat, but whether this applies to stumping of a slightly more conservative nature remains to be seen.

Re: useless suggestion

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Ah-ha! You're owner of the new davissquare.

Yes, I absolutely agree with you that she has been unpredictable and capricious in applying her self-defined rules. Any thoughts on the philosophy for your new community?

Re: useless suggestion

[komos.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I was against the ad cut rule when it was put into place, if only because I didn't find band announcements and roommate ads any more offensive or difficult to scroll past than the eleventieth request from a newbie for a good mechanic.

I'm not a big fan of SPAM, though, so I do understand the value of such a rule. I believe that if such a rule is put in place, it should apply across the board. Political stumping and non-profit fundraising should be subject to the same strictures as roommate ads.

Still, I would like to see a community develop, and part of that development involved determining how we'll interact. Maybe it'll just be a less capricious environment than davis_square is. Perhaps it might be worthwhile organizing meetups with community members as we hash things out. I really don't know, but I'd like to see what happens. I just can't keep reading the other community if it's going to blow up into dramatics over mod authority every six months or so.

Re: useless suggestion

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Some sort of content-neutral size restriction might be a good idea. Something like, "All postings must be lj-cut to be no more than 20 lines tall, and all images must be inside a cut."

This should avoid the situation where, say, the posting for a Red Cross fundraiser for New Orleans gets deleted, while the Somerville Illuminations tour posting stays up. Both are welcome, ditto roommate posts or offers of spare concert tickets, as long as they're under 20 lines. But a 640x480 image promoting anything gets nuked from orbit.

Re: useless suggestion

[komos.livejournal.com]

Sounds perfectly reasonable. ^_^

Re: useless suggestion

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected. Most of the time, I pay so little attention to _any_ of the ads, that whether or not the "You need to cut-tag this" comment shows up has passed me by.

Re: useless suggestion

[cthulhia]

For instance, it's perfectly ok that on Dec. 5, someone posted an ad for tours whose proceeds go to benefit the somerville arts council.

hey, that was me.

I suspect I made the cut (heh) because the entire post was very short. A lot of the posts that get cut will include a enormous_pointless_poster.gif, or people who include copious details are already posted elsewhere. Referring to the URL rather than posting the full details was likely understood to be like unto an LJ cut.

something to consider while moderating your community. (o:

Re: useless suggestion

[komos.livejournal.com]

I've no issue with the post per se. It's just a clear illustration of how the 'all ads must be behind a cut' rule is inconsistently applied.

I rather like hauntmeister's suggestion for ads and images. It's unambiguous and easily policed. Frankly, I'd like to see as little moderation as possible, and preferably limited to when someone is being actively disruptive to the community.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Also, searching LJ interests for "davis square" only turns up two communities with that name. So - for now - there are only two communities to be confused about :)

I liked <lj user=davis_square>...

[kyroraz.livejournal.com]

... exactly the way it was. I don't know why things just became psycho, but it's become to the point where I smell DEEEATH!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

nor see it splinter off into wee fragments.

Yesterday I did register davis_people, out of the same frustration everyone else is feeling, but I'd be more than willing to delete it and go with davissquare if it means we could all have a comfortable place together to communicate.

I'll also offer work as a maintainer!

[komos.livejournal.com]

And vice versa. I'm not terribly invested in being the community's 'grey emminence,' but I've lost all confidence in the current mod. I just want a sane space to go to.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yes. Let's use yours, since the name "davissquare" is closer to the original.

interesting

[kahuna-burger.livejournal.com]

I haven't really explored the livejournal communities, but this discussion is inpiring me...