I wanted to just post some thoughts on moderation. If all of you have some ideas, or issues, perhaps they fit here as well.

Why were more moderators added to Rosetta?

Some see the addition of more moderators as a call for more moderation of posts. This is not the case. In fact, we'd all prefer not to moderate any posts at all. So the additional moderators should not been seen as a call for any more moderation of posts then was done previously. It was simply a way to divide the task amongst more people.


Do moderators speak for the project team?

No, they do not. Moderators are volunteering their time to the project just as you are with your computer. Moderators in general have a good familiarity with the project, the posts on the boards, and the trust of the project team, but they are not part of the project team per se, and they do not live in Seattle to sit in on project meetings, brainstorming sessions, or write code.


Why do the moderators seem so biased?

This is the life of a moderator. Our role, and in fact our ONLY additional capability is to moderate the message boards. When people get in to heated discussions, things tend to escalate and people start thinking less and less about how their words might be interpreted, and there choice of words often degrades as a result.

And so it is the moderators' role to review the comments, and attempt to remove any name calling, accusations, swearing or anything else that would make these message boards anything above a PG rating in Hollywood.

It is very rare for a post to be entirely made up of offensive content. The poster generally has some relevant and constructive comments in their post as well. Unfortunately it is NOT the moderators role to hand-edit every post that goes on to the boards. In fact, their only authority is to delete an offsense post, or move a post to a more relevant thread.

If you are finding your posts are often deleted by moderators, please examine carefully what you wrote. Try to read it as though someone else wrote it, and don't look at the opinions expressed. In the end, moderators are NOT looking at the opinion expressed. Everyone is free to express opinion or make suggestions. What we're looking for is that one part of that one sentence that could be seen as being written with intent to get under someone's skin or to insult or personally attack other project contributors... or their intelligence, or their avitar, or whatever.

And so if there is a portion of a sentence in your post that really didn't need to be there, and was not respectful, or was calling names etc... then the post will be deleted. THAT was why, not the rest of what you said. And so if you don't want your posts moderated, learn to omit that one little part of your post that didn't need to be there to make your point. If you delete it, we won't have to.


...but in the past, the moderator did...

The new moderators are a fresh start. And, as always it is a learning experience. And, as always, your comments are welcome (see the Moderator's Contact thread in the Cafe). We cannot answer for the moderators that preceed us. We don't want to rehash old battles. We're just trying to keep the boards organized, informative, and PG rated.


When several people raise the same complaint, why don't the moderators take action?

Unless the complaint is about moderation, or about threads going off-topic, an unanswered complaint probably is something that needs to be addressed by the project team (see above, moderators are not a direct part of the project team). All the moderators can do is insure that the project team is aware of such issues... and they generally read the boards as well, so they are generally already aware and working on such issues.

And so the reason is simply that the moderator is unable to take any action to help with that specific issue. We can't change the software, we can't change the website, we can't even see your EMail address or your hidden computers. We simply try to keep orderly message boards. So, in many cases, the moderators are the face of the project most seen on the message boards, but they are not the appropriate avenue to appeal to with such issues.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

I wanted to clarify the last paragraph. If you're having problems, by all means, post a message on the boards. I'm just saying if it is something pertaining to the project database, or servers or other issues that the moderators cannot address, please give it some time, and keep in mind that all the moderators can do on such issues is to send an EMail to the project team just asking again for what you need.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense