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WEBCHAT GUIDELINES: 1. One question per member plus one follow-up. 2. Keep your question brief. 3. Don't moan if your question doesn't get answered. 4. Do be civil/polite. 5. If one topic or question threatens to overwhelm the webchat, MNHQ will usually ask for people to stop repeating the same question or point.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Meet the MNHQ moderators. Live chat Friday 8th Nov, 1-2pm

324 replies

JustineMumsnet · 07/11/2013 11:09

Hi all,
We promised you a webchat to discuss all things moderation (and anything else you fancy really). So, tomorrow lunchtime RebeccaMumsnet, RowanMumsnet and I (and possibly a few other team members - suspect that OliviaMumsnet might be lurking) will be on hand at 1pm to answer your questions. If you can't make it along, then do post your questions here in advance. Mind the guidelines at the top of the page now - only one question each and be nice Wink.

OP posts:
forthemods · 08/11/2013 14:22

"universal forum guidelines" sound really good - are you adopting them, apart from the swearing?

RowanMumsnet · 08/11/2013 14:23

@RoxanneReidsChafingFishnets

Do you have any Windows Phone app things in progress or to make.mobile site more friendly to them?

Righto - we're not actually aware of this being a problem: we didn't realise Windows phones don't work well with the mobile site. If you mail in to [email protected] or start a thread in Site Stuff about it, we'll see if anyone else is having the same problem.

reelingintheyears · 08/11/2013 14:23

I think Kotinka just answered my question.

kotinka · 08/11/2013 14:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RoxanneReidsChafingFishnets · 08/11/2013 14:23

Thank you! Will do that now

TheOnlyOliviaMumsnet · 08/11/2013 14:26

@Sunshineonsea

When or are we ever going to have a username amnesty I've got bloody loads I don't want that I only used for chat so have no convos under them And maybe do the usernames in a diff colour for old posts where the username no longer exists Tis so bloody hard trying to think if usernames when they're all used up!!

Am lurking (with feet up) but can fairly reliably say that this is highly unlikely.
Last time we did it for charity (pre DC1 and I'm now due DC3/4!) it was V V complicated tech wise rocks at memory

RemindMeWhatSleepIs · 08/11/2013 14:27

I like the "just joined" idea too. Maybe for the first month.

Thanks MNHQ for doing this web chat.

Shakey1500 · 08/11/2013 14:28

Thanks for answering Rowan Smile

ChippingInBatshitArse · 08/11/2013 14:29

Olivia - I thought that suggestion might get you posting CakeBrewFlowers It's OK sshhhshhshhshshshsh

AbsDuCroissant · 08/11/2013 14:29

I like the ideas of universal forum guidelines - like a declaration of human rights for forums. Kind of.

HorryIsUpduffed · 08/11/2013 14:29

Obviously when we look at a report, if it's a post by someone with an established posting history/someone we at MNHQ know of, then our knowledge of them (good, bad or indifferent) may play into our decision.

I said this last week and everyone told me I was being ridiculous. But IMO and IME it's unavoidable to think "Hmm, Horry has a habit of being a bit goady, better delete this" or "Weird, Horry doesn't turn up in our Reports often, the person reporting is probably being a bit oversensitive".

There are only two ways to make sure every single post meets guidelines: every single post is moderated before it's published, or every single post is read by a moderator within a reasonable timescale. The resources required to do that are simply hilarious.

Now, I've modded on a site that was at the time very similar to AIBU - a mixture of intelligent discussion, foul PAs and derailing. There were plenty of times when the mods between us agreed that "Closing for review" was the only sensible thing to give everyone a chance to cool down. Whether we reopened or not was as often as not dependent on the general mood of the board, rather than the specifics of the thread itself.

At peak we had I think nine mods dealing with around a million unique views a month - so smaller in scale than MN but more mods per view. Theoretically we would read everything between us; realistically you can see when you log on that something has attracted 200 posts in half an hour and will need a squint sooner than a twenty-post "Which pram?" post.

There must be a middle ground between reading every post and only reading reported posts/threads. I would hope that increasing the modding capacity (either staff or volunteer antipodean Nightwatchpeeps) would find that middle ground.

JustineMumsnet · 08/11/2013 14:32

So we've overrun a bit - can't believe it's almost dark outside

OP posts:
kim147 · 08/11/2013 14:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

kotinka · 08/11/2013 14:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

reelingintheyears · 08/11/2013 14:34

And WIT Justine, where would we be without the WIT and the humour and the banter? Grin

JustineMumsnet · 08/11/2013 14:35

@reelingintheyears

And WIT Justine, where would we be without the WIT and the humour and the banter? Grin

Ha yes but that's your job, not ours.

OP posts:
kotinka · 08/11/2013 14:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mmelindor · 08/11/2013 14:37

Horry
I think that is a given, tbh.

If I were to launch a racist attack on another poster, I would hope that MNHQ would send me a Tee-style ::headtilt:: email after deleting the post, because they would realise that it was totally out of character.

Not saying that my post wouldn't or shouldn't be deleted, but think it is normal to react differently when you recognise a poster. And MNHQ know who we are, even when we namechange.

JustineMumsnet · 08/11/2013 14:41

@kotinka

Justine, are there plans to implement blocking by IP for bans / suspension?

We do this sometimes, where we think there's a need. Obviously it's not failsafe [says no more].

OP posts:
garlicbutter · 08/11/2013 14:41

Similar to the 'new poster' thingy, I was wondering about a post count? MN could give a count of posts by that user under any nickname, without revealing the previous names, and maybe their time on MN. You could stop it after 1,000 or so, that wouldn't matter. But if a poster's making me feel edgy, and they only have 20 posts, I am more cautious than when replying to a regular.

Actually, giving us count/time data would save namechangers having to prove their Mumsnettery at great length!

HorryIsUpduffed · 08/11/2013 14:43

Prove their Mumsnettery? They write "cube of poo, dragon butter, etc" and that is supposed to do it.

TBH I find that casual "proof" more suspicious than someone just coming on and saying "NC because feeling anxious".

ButThereAgain · 08/11/2013 14:45

Oh, I like the idea of talk values! It seems a much better way forward than comprehensive moderation rules.

Conversation is much too nuanced a thing to be moderated by strict and explicit all-purpose rules. I always wonder whether it isn't better for HQ to make a bolder statement of the fact that deletion etc is at their discretion, and will be done in pursuit of "the spirit of the site" (which might be defined in terms of talk values).

More detailed rules are of value to give guidance to posters about what is acceptable to say, but they perhaps shouldn't be used in a legalistic way to defend or challenge moderation. That way madness lies. It should be ok for staff to cite discretion and say "in our opinion that post/thread/poster was/wasn't acceptable in context."

kotinka · 08/11/2013 14:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

youretoastmildred · 08/11/2013 14:50

I am a bit late to the party so not sure if anyone is still here [peers around sadly at a few bits of abandoned cheese on cocktail sticks]

3 things I wanted to ask:

FIRSTLY

"Tolerance
Debate
Pragmatism
Transparency
Civility"

don't you think there is a GLARING omission here? - something about being interesting or funny?
(debate can be interesting I suppose)
I think boringness is far more unpleasant and threatening to a site being any good than a little light rudeness [sticks tongue out]

SECONDLY

Tunip was spot on about "treating webchat guests like guests in your home" - I have pretty much said the same thing before. (note tunip is not a vegetable and has no r) I think there is a real tension between hosting naicely and asking tough questions and I think Gok behaved like an arse and abused our collective intellectual hospitality (I was not on that chat so feel free to say that, no sour grapes at being told off here) - but we are not relieved of host duty no matter how obliviously our guests behave? Yes, that is true irl, but I think it's not fair on here, and important if mn does actually have political clout (which we may all have overegged through selfimportance, but still)

THIRDLY

can we run a consciousness raising session at MNHQ and get you all thoroughly feministed up?

ChippingInBatshitArse · 08/11/2013 14:50

Horry - I like it when people do that - it reminds me of the funny threads I'd kind of forgotten about - and extra :) in my day! (though completely useless, on the whole, for proving someone is a long term MNer!).

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