How to improve moderation.....

[#1]

No it's not. 

[#2]

No, we occasionally take the mickey out of the person in question, but the difference is that he has a sense of humour and is a treasured member of this forum, and none of us would ever want to think that we had upset him, and most would willingly offer our help if needed.
[quote=christmas]we promise to only mock you're disability when you're not around.
Just tell us when you're gone so we can mock your spelling ! 

[#3]

@purleigh, I was beginning to enjoy his/her spelling/grammar.  I like a laugh

[#4]

Quote from: CJ

I wonder, should my husband post here, if he would be perceived as stupid because he's dyslexic and his grammar and spelling aren't always up to scratch?

It would be virtually impossible to find any forum anywhere without posts with bad grammar, punctuation and spelling.  In my experience those who start a post with an apology for their question sounding stupid often ask the best questions.  We were all beginners once, nobody knows all the answers and spelling mistakes don't matter as long as the meaning of the question (or answer) is clear enough.  Anyone who says a post is stupid because of spelling or similar is being unnecessarily judgmental. (I think it is fair game, however, to find errors in posts which themselves point out someone else's error).
Members of this community could be young, old, well or poorly educated, genious, any race or religion, disabled, short, tall, thick, thin etc. etc. and none should be persecuted based on another's impression from a post - the forum rules are quite clear and the moderators do help to keep this a very fair and friendly forum.

[#5]

Risking an OBN, but setting up forums for other groups I tend to point to the moderation on these boards as an example of what seems to work. There are plenty of examples elsewhere of what doesn't 
Hats off to the team, past and present.
Gabe

[#6]

At least here there is one young lady who appreciates my finer qualities 
http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/newsite/t/4083334-malu4ib-is-sending-spam-begging-pms.html

[#7]

Gabe,
It depends on the purpose of the forum who are likely to be the users if you think the moderation of a particular forum is a good model or not?
It is very easy for a small group of people to dominate a forum and without realising it that clique of people control the direction of the forum and newcomers can feel or made to feel interlopers as if they are intruding on hallowed ground.
The group may form a close bond and not spot one of their own trolling or making a personal dig at someone outside their group, they will see it as fair game.
If someone delibrately repeatedly enters a thread and puts up messages such as 'Yawn' with no other comment or leaves snide comments aimed towards a contributor rather than their contribution I think many fair minded people would regard that as trolling, but if it's a member of the clique/group it won't be seen that way whereas if someone outside the group makes the same comments the like minded clique will see it as an attack on their position and likely call it trolling.

[#8]

Quote from: christmas

But I'm not one to complain.

Oh really ?, almost every post you make is a criticism of somebody or something, then when nobody agrees you repeatedly post more of the same, and then get upset that still nobody agrees with your rants.  To make a point once or twice is fair enough, but ongoing repetition where it is not adding to the flow of the conversation just gets tiresome for everyone else, to the point that YOU have been asked to stop trolling -

Quote from: christmas

I'm not aware of any intention to troll, I'm a customer who may have a different opinion to yourself, there is no reason to claim the conversation is far from constructive.

This forum has always been full of rants by people who are in the process of leaving, and as one of those you have made your point very well, but nothing you have said is going to change the situation that you object to, so good luck with your next ISP.

Quote from: christmas

I would like to remain a customer of PlusNet but it's sponsorship of programme that has bullying and undercurrents of racism resulting in contestants ending up in mental institutions is not something I wish to be associated with, and so I am actively seeking an alternative broadband provider.

[#9]

Hello Purleigh,
Don't take this personally but that response demonstrates what I was referring to.
For example the response began by quoting the following...

Quote

But I'm not one to complain

If it had been written by one of the clan it no doubt it would have been seen as a joke but because it was written by someone who is not part of the clan it's taken seriously.
It hasn't gone unnoticed a stock repsonse from some to those they consider to be 'ranting and raving' is go forth and find another ISP.
I'm sure the moderators are very likeable people but I was reading on here that there is an extremely low number of contributions on this website considering PlusNet has 500,000 customers. Could it be the style of moderation and responses that put off the vast majority of customers?
Think of it in terms of a club with a dress code of shirt / tie & no jeans and one with no dress code, they will likely each attract a different clientle and have a different atmosphere.

[#10]

Quote

I'm sure the moderators are very likeable people but I was reading on here that there is an extremely low number of contributions on this website considering PlusNet has 500,000 customers. Could it be the style of moderation and responses that put off the vast majority of customers?

I think this is highly unlikely.  The simple fact is that not that many people use forums.  The moderation (which IMHO is excellent) has absolutely nothing to do with the volume of traffic that this part of our site receives.

[#11]

@christmas, Tell me a forum that does not have Its regulars? I appreciate your experience with this forum but It does have regulars, Many whom have been coming here a very very long time, Every forum has regulars, To become one all you have to do Is take an active, Positive, and Helpful part of this delightful community. Simply going around saying Its a clan is quite frankly just silly.
New comers are always welcome, Its those that set out to 'disrupt' the "community" that isn't.

[#12]

Well said Steve M 
There are also many members like me who only post occasionally, but we are here and we don't recognise the forum as described by Christmas

[#13]

Quote from: christmas

I was reading on here that there is an extremely low number of contributions on this website considering PlusNet has 500,000 customers. Could it be the style of moderation and responses that put off the vast majority of customers?

Several points there -
1)  The number of Plusnet's customers has increased by a massive amount in the last year, and there have been several recent forum postings quoting the previously thought 200,000 - but were quickly corrected by staff to the latest 500,000 figure.
    According to the forum stats - http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php?action=stats - 17748 is not an insignificant number of forum members.
2)  The vast majority of members of this forum are ONLY here because they discovered it when looking for answers to an internet related problem they had, then once they received helpful and sympathetic responses, they stayed and now constructively help others.  So it could be argued that the small percentage of customers that contribute to the forum is due to the relative success of Plusnet in NOT having large numbers of dissatisfied customers.
3)  I don't think the style of moderation has any influence on "putting off the vast majority of customers"
4)  Customer responses are the same as they would be in any gathering of people, and the fact is not everyone will agree with your opinion - whether it is right or wrong,  What people do listen to and reply to is constructive and well reasoned discussion - and NOT droning whingeing negativity. 
    One of the things I have observed about new members to this forum, is that in their everyday lives most people surround themselves by people who have the same viewpoint or just tell them what they want to hear, but are then shocked and offended when someone here disagrees with what they have said - because they are not used to critisism, or responds very negatively when a moderator has given them a public warning for breaking the rules - because they have not been told off since they were a child, and then proceed to respond in a childish manner.

[quote=christmas]It hasn't gone unnoticed a stock repsonse from some to those they consider to be 'ranting and raving' is go forth and find another ISP.
I'm actually quite surprised a how little this actually happens,  and when members actually ask for help or recommendations as to where to go, the response is usually very helpful in finding the BEST alternative ISP rather than the first place that that person can be offloaded to.  In many cases efforts are redoubled by forum members and staff to assist in finding a solution to the issue, and often the customer stays.

[#14]

Quote

2)  The vast majority of members of this forum are ONLY here because they discovered it when looking for answers to an internet related problem they had, then once they received helpful and sympathetic responses, they stayed and now constructively help others.  So it could be argued that the small percentage of customers that contribute to the forum is due to the relative success of Plusnet in NOT having large numbers of dissatisfied customers.

and it is often seen that people use the thinkbroadband forum to ask a question, that could easily be answered here, Luckily Bob Pullen and others also read that forum and post of here for someone to go and help them

[#15]

I Have also had a lot of help from various people on this forum over a range of topics from advice on Linux to changing a bath tap.
In fact the advice has been much better than what appears on some forums that deal with the specific topic.
If you are reasonable people will help you but as mentioned previously if your posts come across in an aggressive manner it's unlikely you will get a positive response.