Goals of Forum and Comment Moderation on MD

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Instrumentality Instigator
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I wanted to take a moment to address the goal and overall direction of comment and forum moderation on MD. For the most part, users are pleasant to each other and able to have conversations without the need for moderation. However, there are still times where moderation is needed in order to make sure everyone has a good time posting.

Now that there is a proper report system for comments, I am able to begin properly enforcing the forums and comment rules. Before, I only moderated what I came across or what someone reported to me via PM. You will see me posting more often, especially on older reports that come to my attention. I might be a bit more lenient on these older comments/posts depending on their content since people may not have been aware that yes, there actually were rules to posting and that there was a mod in charge of enforcing them.

The overall goal is to foster an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing an opinion via forum post or just talking about their favorite manga in the comments. Trolling, /b/-like behavior, and generally posting with the intent to insult or harass is not tolerated here. This does not mean that I'm seeking to make comments or forums a care bear environment or an echo chamber of similar beliefs or opinions. Rather, I'm attempting to bolster intelligent and meaningful discussion. Basically, if your post attacks a poster and not the poster's argument, it's not welcome on MD.

Let's examine 5.1: Be Civil, more closely as it is the main reason why users are subject to moderator intervention. It reads:

"Be Civil
Disagreeing with an opinion is totally fine. All we ask is that you keep to the topic at hand and refrain from resorting to personal attacks on other involved parties. To that end, please avoid racist, sexist, and religious discrimination or other terminology where the intended outcome is to be offensive."


Racial slurs, sexual slurs, and religious discrimination absolutely won't be tolerated, full stop. That's non-negotiable and it always will be. I don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect people to treat one another with respect and basic courtesy.

Here are some examples of how I examine reported posts:

"You're a fucking moron."
That's a 5.1 violation. Not because of the cuss word, but because the post has no substance beyond making a personal attack.

"Do you seriously believe that? OK, let me show you why you're wrong..."
This is the ideal response to a post. Maybe a bit more aggressive than I would personally like to see, but acceptable.

Some of you may be shaking your head and saying, "Really Zeph? You'd ding someone over cuss words?"

I'm going to answer that question as best I can because the situation is complex. There has been very vigorous discussion at times on what should and should not be moderated on MD. Because staff depends on teamwork in order to be successful, I have compromised at times on how content should be moderated.

Let me clarify further. I believe that words can be harmful. They can drag the collective IQ of a thread down into the gutters. I believe that every person has the right to a pleasant experience when posting on MD without having to worry about being cussed at or harassed for having an opinion. What's problematic is where to draw the line, which is the meat of most of the disagreements among staff concerning moderation. In an ideal world, there would be no cussing at all and everyone could enjoy whatever manga they want and talk about it without any issues. The reality is quite different.

To balance giving users the freedom to debate in a...let's call it...spirited way and keeping it civil, let's take a look at some examples of how I've been asked to moderate a post with an insult in it.

"Your claim is fucking idiotic. If you look at source a, you'll see that I'm clearly right about assertion b."
I don't like seeing this sort of language used when debating since I think it doesn't make for fun debating and can lead to flame wars. Nevertheless, I wouldn't infract a user for a similar statement.

"I think it's pretty shitty of you to say that. It's not group a's fault that group b made all of those typos."
Again, would be super nice if people didn't do this. If someone is being rude for no reason and you feel the need to call them out on it, ok. Please remember to comment on behavior or a post, not the poster. I wouldn't infract a user for a similar statement.

"Are you unable to read, you cocksucking motherfucker!?"
And this is where we draw the line. It's really hard to have any sort of reasoned debate when a good half of your statement is devoted to insulting someone. This is a pretty big 5.1 violation. Everyone is capable of debating without making it personal or devolving into schoolyard insults.

I hope that this has made clearer to people what's acceptable to post and what is not acceptable to post on MD. Remember, the easiest way to determine if your post violates 5.1 is to ask yourself if your post attacks someone and not the content of their post instead.

I'd like to encourage everyone to review our rules and ask any questions they may have.
 
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Sounds good to me! I don't really post much. Like.. Never. But the rare times that I do, I would like to be taken seriously.
Pretty hard to look for answers in a forum with lots of off topic arguments too.
 
Instrumentality Instigator
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@Daewooxx
We do have a rule that asks users to stay on topic but I'm pretty lenient on this one so long as it can be tied to the original topic. It can spawn interesting discussions.
 
Aggregator gang
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I might be a bit more lenient on these older comments/posts depending on their content since people may not have been aware that yes, there actually were rules to posting and that there was a mod in charge of enforcing them.
Oh thank god. I think I posted a ton of dumb shit earlier this morning, but now I'm safe. Don't ban me, okay?

Also, if I get banned from commenting, I'll still be able to read manga, right?
 
Miku best girl
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Yes, manga reading won't be affected by bans.
 
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Yeah, don't get me wrong! The "interesting discussions" are mostly fun, when it doesn't get out of hand. I was thinking more "arguments" as in "fighting".
English is not my main language and I'm quiet by nature, so my wording is awkward sometimes =P
 
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I'm glad to see this change being introduced, so I'd like to ask: while not tolerating certain behaviours, what about homophobic/transphobic posts? And I don't mean small stuff of the "I don't like seeing this stuff" or "traps are gay" or whatever variety. I'm talking the "you people are mentally delusional for being x" kind. I see it a lot and it tends to cause huge flame wars and uncivil discussions and wanted to ask since it wasn't mentioned.
 
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Thank fuck.

Probably the most needed feature.

Thank you staff.

Hexxy's question is very valid. If people are allowed to be transphobic/homophobic and ruin an entire manga's ability to be discussed I think I'd rather just not post.
 
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Narrator Voice:Zephyrus has entered the comments section.
Everyone else in midst of waifu war: OH SH*T !!
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btw what will happen if I report a mod,who will oversee that one?(just asking,plz don't ban me)
 
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A much needed change, hopefully for the better.
Also, if you're the only mod that is actively in charge of forum/comment moderation, God help you.
 
Dex-chan lover
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I humbly volunteer to moderate comments too, if it proves necessary. There's nothing I'd want more than for them to stop being toxic cesspools of chan behavior and actually not push away women or LBGT readers from discussing because it's a website about manga so "it should be expected that the readers are awful"
 
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Actually, I've always thought, that Mangadex community is so healthy in comparison to other sites, that it's some kind of magic.
But nevertheless, moderation is necessary step, to keep this atmosphere, so I applaud decision.
 
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There wouldn't be a need for moderation if the forums weren't here in the first place.
 
Miku best girl
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Can't really have a community without a forum, though. And one of MD's goals is to build a community...
 
Instrumentality Instigator
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@Hexxy
I don't like to get into hypotheticals but yes, hate speech would be moderated.

@OniBarubary
I appreciate your willingness to assist but there are no plans to hire an additional forum mod at this time.
 
Dex-chan lover
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Can't really have a community without a forum, though. And one of MD's goals is to build a community...

We dont really need forums, the comments sections is more that enough and also I have to say be careful of who you get as janitors since I still remember Batoto janitors that were Reddit level, that would not be building a community ... that is a building a safe space.

Also I like calling people morons when they are in fact acting like morons.
 
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Make sense, a report is indeed necessary, if you want to create a community (i personally don't like this) you get also more trolls that exploit that freedom and ruin it for everyone else, expecially if you can create infinite accounts that often are used as a placeholder to this purpose or change the rating of a serie too.
To be honest, i prefer the lagacy MD, the beginning where people posted only on the comment section on every manga tab, it was a small place but was easy to manage, without any fragmentation, resources were used more to improve the GUI and the surf experience. I like to see MD more as a tool for scanlators and less a community for people to bitch and discuss about manga (since there are already tons of them for this purpose and some are insanely toxic). Jm2c.
 
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Any private website will direct the community to become what it wants it to become, what kind of atmosphere and reputation they want to foster for it. If banning people with specific and distinct moderation leads to a "safe space" where you can't say every shitty thing on your mind like the bastion of freedom of speech that 4chan is, I'll take the safe space. Maybe if saying the N word or calling people mentally ill in the comment section of a manga is more important to you than discussing the manga, what the fuck are you even doing on a manga website?
 
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@Fucking_Idiot : "btw what will happen if I report a mod,who will oversee that one?(just asking,plz don't ban me)"
^ Wow, this username makes me feel like I'm violating the rules already, and all I'm trying to do is quote you.

I feel like you're asking that more as a joke, but it's a pretty valid concern. I'm not gonna name names and try to dredge up old drama, but there were some issues with a super-strict comment-lock-happy mod back on batato, where eventually other mods had to get involved and remove warnings because people were questioning the mod's calls and the mod took every disagreement with their actions as another rule violation and started doling out warnings and bans. From what I could tell it seemed like the mod was more of a forum mod for the role-playing section and didn't even have any business locking comments in the first place (could be wrong on that point, feel free to correct me in PMs if anyone remembers the incident I'm talking about).

It shouldn't be necessary at all with what I've seen from the mods here so far, you guys seem pretty great, and it's not like the forums have anything as pointless as an RP section, but after being involved in that mess I'm kind of paranoid. It might be worth establishing some sort of mod hierarchy early on just in case the site seems some growth in the coming years and you need to take on more mods to deal with it. At the very least, if you do eventually expand the forums and need to take on forum-only mods, make sure their moderation powers are just limited to the forums.
 
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So, are cuss/swear words ok to use, if they are used toward the manga you are reading, and it's characters?? I assume it is ok, just have to be sure.
 
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