The one thing I'm sure about is that I'm 100% certain this won't make everyone happy.
The other thing I'm certain of is that I'm a big proponent of free speech and of this community being the best place to go to discuss Vanderbilt sports HONESTLY.
So with that, I think these are the best principles going forward:
1. If something is grossly inappropriate (pornography, intense personal attacks, profuse profanity) then I'm okay with the first moderator who sees that deleting it. I rarely delete threads and I think this is the right strategy. (It's also my request that people clean up their language a bit as a courtesy, please.)
2. If a post gets overly argumentative and two or more mods feel it's appropriate to lock a thread, then I'm okay with that as it prevents verbal fistfights from taking over the board. In the past, this strategy has generally been effective.
3. I think if someone is doing something really extreme for the point of dominating the board, like creating 10 threads on the same topic in the same day, or taking multiple threads off-topic in a way that it inhibits discussion, then let's talk about that. That will occasionally happen and what that does is push the quality, active topics down the board where they're harder to see. If we think someone is deliberately spamming the board in that manner, I think we need to start a private discussion and if three or more of the moderators of us agree, lock the thread.
"But what about trolling?" you say? Well, generally speaking, if you don't feed the trolls they'll go away. And over moderation here has the effect of restricting free speech.
4, Mostly, IT"S A MESSAGE BOARD. It's not life and death. It's okay if we don't all agree. This is America. Having terrible opinions is a constitutionally-protected right. As for terrible options and bad people, sometimes message boards can be a gift in having people out themselves. In the end, nobody is going to take an idiot seriously. And on the other side, I've had my mind changed before based on discussions, even times I was fairly sure I was right about something in the beginning. Over-moderating runs the risk of a person being singled out or drowning out unpopular opinions that might be right in the end.
None of this is perfect, but neither is the world. But I think handing things this way is the best of all solutions. And again, thanks to all of you for being here.
The other thing I'm certain of is that I'm a big proponent of free speech and of this community being the best place to go to discuss Vanderbilt sports HONESTLY.
So with that, I think these are the best principles going forward:
1. If something is grossly inappropriate (pornography, intense personal attacks, profuse profanity) then I'm okay with the first moderator who sees that deleting it. I rarely delete threads and I think this is the right strategy. (It's also my request that people clean up their language a bit as a courtesy, please.)
2. If a post gets overly argumentative and two or more mods feel it's appropriate to lock a thread, then I'm okay with that as it prevents verbal fistfights from taking over the board. In the past, this strategy has generally been effective.
3. I think if someone is doing something really extreme for the point of dominating the board, like creating 10 threads on the same topic in the same day, or taking multiple threads off-topic in a way that it inhibits discussion, then let's talk about that. That will occasionally happen and what that does is push the quality, active topics down the board where they're harder to see. If we think someone is deliberately spamming the board in that manner, I think we need to start a private discussion and if three or more of the moderators of us agree, lock the thread.
"But what about trolling?" you say? Well, generally speaking, if you don't feed the trolls they'll go away. And over moderation here has the effect of restricting free speech.
4, Mostly, IT"S A MESSAGE BOARD. It's not life and death. It's okay if we don't all agree. This is America. Having terrible opinions is a constitutionally-protected right. As for terrible options and bad people, sometimes message boards can be a gift in having people out themselves. In the end, nobody is going to take an idiot seriously. And on the other side, I've had my mind changed before based on discussions, even times I was fairly sure I was right about something in the beginning. Over-moderating runs the risk of a person being singled out or drowning out unpopular opinions that might be right in the end.
None of this is perfect, but neither is the world. But I think handing things this way is the best of all solutions. And again, thanks to all of you for being here.
