Moderator PLEASE!!! have an important question

[[Omicron]Urobach]

i don´t want to wake up sleeping dogs, but this is enough.

why is my treat deletet again. I have only showed an ship..i don´t have used any names from licensed things....WHY???

this is really not fair...
an answer would be nice,thanks.

 

[MongooseMatt]

i don´t want to wake up sleeping dogs, but this is enough.

why is my treat deletet again. I have only showed an ship..i don´t have used any names from licensed things....WHY???

this is really not fair...
an answer would be nice,thanks.

Hi there,

We have been here before.

Making a new ship is fine, conversions are fine, scratchbuilding is fine - those are all fine.

However, as soon as you make even a hint that you are taking money for such castings, we _have_ to act. If we didn't, Warner Brothers would start asking us some pretty searching questions.

It does not matter how clever you are with language, in either describing the models, or if you are accepting money (and just 'covering costs' does count, I am afraid). If you indicate any kind of compatibility with A Call to Arms (and just a ship posting on a Babylon 5 forum is enough), then we are licence-bound to act. You give us no choice.

Post your ships here by all means, ask others what stats they should have, call them Narn, Minbari, Centauri, by all means. Stay in the realms of fan-based work, and we can let it past (hey, we'd be happy to do an S&P article on them!).

However, as soon as there is the faintest whiff of them being commercial in any form, they have to go.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

That's fair enough, but why does any of that mean you and your staff can't inform thread posters in a PM why their threads are removed? It's just poor moderation, Matt, regardless of the underlying issues that prompted the action.

 

[Burger]

A short sticky thread of forum rules would be useful, it could probably be written in 5 minutes and put in general discussion so that it applied to all forum areas.

 

[MongooseMatt]

That's fair enough, but why does any of that mean you and your staff can't inform thread posters in a PM why their threads are removed? It's just poor moderation, Matt, regardless of the underlying issues that prompted the action.

We had already made this point clear. In other circumstances, such as where rudeness is involved, it should be fairly obvious why posts are deleted.

However, we will send PMs when grey areas are reached.

 

[H]

I had a post modded with no explanation. Wasn't rude, abrasive, selling anything and no naked dancing girls, I didn't get a PM.

Urobach. If you want to design and build spaceships, why not just setup your own website selling generic ships. affter all, their are numerous systems out there. avaoid linking them to any actual copyrighted system and setting, and just let people make up their own minds about what they use them for.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

We had already made this point clear. In other circumstances, such as where rudeness is involved, it should be fairly obvious why posts are deleted.

However, we will send PMs when grey areas are reached.

Whether or not the point is obvious is immaterial, Matt. The site rules are unclear and moderation is inconsistent, opaque and generally sub-par. If a thread is deleted, regardless of reason, the OP should be PMed to inform them of the infraction. If the fault isn't the OP's the thread shouldn't be deleted at all, just edited to remove whatever offending post was made, and the edited post should clearly spell out what the infraction was.

 

[M1ndr1d3rs]

That's fair enough, but why does any of that mean you and your staff can't inform thread posters in a PM why their threads are removed? It's just poor moderation, Matt, regardless of the underlying issues that prompted the action.

We had already made this point clear. In other circumstances, such as where rudeness is involved, it should be fairly obvious why posts are deleted.

However, we will send PMs when grey areas are reached.

The problem is the definition of 'grey'... :?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Whether or not the point is obvious is immaterial, Matt. The site rules are unclear and moderation is inconsistent, opaque and generally sub-par. If a thread is deleted, regardless of reason, the OP should be PMed to inform them of the infraction. If the fault isn't the OP's the thread shouldn't be deleted at all, just edited to remove whatever offending post was made, and the edited post should clearly spell out what the infraction was.

Okay, I'll explain the issues.

First off, this forum has gone the best part of seven years without needing a heavy handed approach. It has been known as easy going, and I for one would very much like it to continue in this vein.

Second, if we had stringent rules, and if they were enforced, then you, David, would have been banned this weekend (along with others) for what happened in the beamless Centauri thread.

Now, tell me this - what possible good would that have done anyone? Would the forums really be better off without you here?

We deleted the thread, sure, but you cannot tell me you did not know that was going to happen when you made your posts, nor do I think you were unsure of why it had disappeared.

If people are new or they have trodden into some grey area that has not cropped up, they will be told. If they are being abusive, then they should expect to be removed, one way or another.

As for your suggestions above, they would be great if we could dedicate someone to watch the forums. Unfortunately, we can't, and if a thread starts with a reasonable post, but is then followed by three dozen comments that have to be removed, then we have to delete the whole lot - otherwise, posts have to be removed on an individual basis, and we just cannot spare someone's time to do that.

For site rules, all we have ever said is 'play nice' which, surely, should be obvious. If you feel the need to be abusive, whether it is towareds another poster or Mongoose as a whole, please take it elsewhere.

That is how it has to be. If anyone cannot live under those conditions, there are plenty of other forums out there. This one is for Mongoose's games, not attacks on others.

 

[MongooseMatt]

The problem is the definition of 'grey'... :?

Well, if you have to ask, it is probably, by definition, a grey area.

Calling someone a berk, for example, would be a black and white issue.

 

[Nihm]

Isn't that definition... Standing between the light and the darkness...?

just thought I would add that, however I agree with the request to let people know the reason and what was editted per post/thread. On other forums I have been on it was like that...

"this is GOD, you can't use the term GOD in your thread cus that's me and I didnt say what you say I am saying. So please refrain from saying what you were saying and you may continue with this thread. Have a nice day. "

Just let us know what/why things are editted and soon the masses will also be letting the newer members know and the work load will be less for the mod/editors to deal with.

Just some thoughts

Have a nice day and by the way nice ships (Furious)Urobach

 

[M1ndr1d3rs]

Well, the fight in the beamless Centauri thread did spin out of control real fast. It would have been helpful to have someone (with the authority) ready to intervene right then and there. It is indeed unfortunate that you don't have anybody to spare.

I'm glad you finally made it clear why you deleted Urobach's thread, although I still think a PM to him immediately after deletion would have saved us all a lot of aggravation.

 

[Locutus9956]

Whilst I can fully appreciate the reasons for deletion of both the threads in question in this thread (though I didnt actually see where things ended up in the beamless Centauri thread (though I could see where that one was heading.... the other day) I can also agree that the deletion of a troublesome thread is a perfectly reasonable resoponse.

The originator of the thread should be informed though, it needn't be a long or detailed message just a quick 'sorry but we have had to delete your thread since it is a potential copyright issue if you are hinting at selling things' or 'sorry your thread has been deleted since various posters were getting abusive'.

Now granted you folks are busy and don't have the time to play 'forum police' 24/7 but surely it doesnt take THAT long just to send a quick pm, after all its not like THAT many threads get deleted is it? Failing that are there not volunteer moderators like LBH who if given rights to delete threads could do things (not that Im suggesting you should just drop all this on their laps since I would assume they have a life outside the forums (well given LBH's case that's perhaps open to debate (just kidding ) but personally if I was moderating part of the forums (which by the way is NOT me volunteering to do so! ) I would be happy if someone higher up PMed me to say 'such and such a thread needs removing, please do the honors and inform the poster).

 

[Burger]

WRT Urobach, there was a lot of speculation on why his threads were repeatedly being deleted with no reason being given. Some suggested it was for using copyrighted names such as Centauri or Minbari, a lot of jokes were made regarding his next Moonbari or Canteuri projects. Some thought it was specific ship names that were disallowed, such as "Here is my replacement Adira model". This is the first time it has been pointed out (at least to my knowledge, and I regard myself as quite "up" on what goes on around here!) that it is specifically charging money for the models, that is the problem. Never was it previously explained that that was the actual "rule" being broken.

Plus as hiff said, we got posts deleted a few days ago that were not abusive, not insulting, not nasty, not against any conceivable rules that we could possibly imagine. With no explaination. I still don't know why that happened, therefore can't prevent myself from making the same "mistake" in future...

 

[Triggy]

WRT Urobach, there was a lot of speculation on why his threads were repeatedly being deleted with no reason being given. Some suggested it was for using copyrighted names such as Centauri or Minbari, a lot of jokes were made regarding his next Moonbari or Canteuri projects. Some thought it was specific ship names that were disallowed, such as "Here is my replacement Adira model". This is the first time it has been pointed out (at least to my knowledge, and I regard myself as quite "up" on what goes on around here!) that it is specifically charging money for the models, that is the problem. Never was it previously explained that that was the actual "rule" being broken.

I agree with this - I too had no idea why the threads were deleted and it was clear that nobody else did either. Now that we know, we can steer clear of the problem issue.

 

[Sammich!]

What's a "berk"?

 

[waterproofla]

Calling someone a berk, for example, would be a black and white issue.

Could we call someone, for example, "Spoo for brains"? :lol:

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

What's a "berk"?

It's English slang, kinda like idiot, but harsher.

 

[H]

What's a "berk"?

It's English slang, kinda like idiot, but harsher.

quite colloquial, because here Berk isn't really offensive, it's more a jesty thing.

 

[Triggy]

It's a bit like calling someone a numpty or a muppet.