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Off Topix: Embrace the Unexpected in Every Discussion

Off Topix is a well established general discussion forum that originally opened to the public way back in 2009! We provide a laid back atmosphere and our members are down to earth. We have a ton of content and fresh stuff is constantly being added. We cover all sorts of topics, so there's bound to be something inside to pique your interest. We welcome anyone and everyone to register & become a member of our awesome community.

Staff that do nothing

Staff that do nothing? Sounds like @Daltonio ! :P
 
Staff that do nothing? Sounds like @Daltonio ! :p
This is, in general, a pretty slack forum; Neb seems be very tolerant & to have it pretty well 'under control'. :cool:
I don't feel like I'm doing any "staffing" either.
 
This is, in general, a pretty slack forum; Neb seems be very tolerant & to have it pretty well 'under control'. :cool:
I don't feel like I'm doing any "staffing" either.
It’s rare to see such a lax forum about off-topicness where members are well-behaved and so rarely require babysitting.

Great work @Nebulous 🥳
 
Both can be bad. There are some members who enjoy the Staff title as a feeling of superiority yet don't do any work.
The ones who continually berate one another, there's no room for that in a forum. In public or private. You can get your point across in a civil manner. The Agree to Disagree & by Respecting.
 
Have you ever been on a forum where people are flaming each other, trolling and/or breaking several rules but the moderators/admins do nothing about it?

Yeah. It's more common than you think. I've been to forums where the members tend to have free reign and run other members off. It is what it is I guess.
 
Yeah. It's more common than you think. I've been to forums where the members tend to have free reign and run other members off. It is what it is I guess.
Even worse when the member reacting to the troublemaker is punished as “the troublemaker rules”
 
When we started Wondercafe2, many of the first mod team didn't have much forum experience beyond the original Wondercafe so it sometimes took some prodding and prompting from me, who was already an old forum hand by then, to get action. Even the simplest warning seemed to require discussion. Current team is small (down to 2 mods, 2 admins) and more inclined to act.
 
That is a good thing though? Member discipline should be a group decision.
I agree with your approach where things like banning and any other drastic measures affecting the member’s ability to participate should be a group decision.

However as for warnings I feel it would be too much bureaucracy to have those all be group decisions. They can always be appealed to a higher up and you can always seek opinions of your staff.
 
That is a good thing though? Member discipline should be a group decision.
That can be a horrible thing, too. I used to be a part of a team of at least 3 dozen moderators working on a very large, very popular forum and it got so convoluted trying to do basic moderation functions or trying to enforce policies because so many people had so much say in how disciplining was done or how policies took shape. It was awful, worse than being a member of a government. Sometimes discipline should be handled by those dealing with the situation. Take the action, document it for the rest of staff, THEN review and revise as necessary.

There's definitely nothing wrong with a small group working together on disciplinary actions, but there has to be a limit, too.
 
That can be a horrible thing, too. I used to be a part of a team of at least 3 dozen moderators working on a very large, very popular forum and it got so convoluted trying to do basic moderation functions or trying to enforce policies because so many people had so much say in how disciplining was done or how policies took shape. It was awful, worse than being a member of a government. Sometimes discipline should be handled by those dealing with the situation. Take the action, document it for the rest of staff, THEN review and revise as necessary.

There's definitely nothing wrong with a small group working together on disciplinary actions, but there has to be a limit, too.
We have a benevolent dictator here......this is good. The way everything should always be.
 
in the past, I didn't post much, but what truly bother me was witnessing unfair actions from stuff toward other members. It happened when people supported their friends, even when their friends were in the wrong.
I find this more troubling compared to doing nothing at all.
 
Have you ever been on a forum where people are flaming each other, trolling and/or breaking several rules but the moderators/admins do nothing about it?
I have been on forums like that but I leave pretty soon after. If the founders aren't going to take their forum seriously then how can I? I want to be on a forum where I can respect the founder and staff. Not where I feel like everything is one big joke and the staff really don't care what's going on.

I want to see a forum grow and flourish. I don't need to see it crash and burn.
 
Yes, for sure... In fact, I remember how one forum started choosing its new wave of mods by POPULATITY, with little regard whether or not they were suited for the job at hand (they weren't).

BUT... I would rather have those than the alternative, which was another forum SO enamored with its 2005 rule book that they started bullying and chasing off members for breaking those ancient rules long after they had become acceptable user behavior around the net. It was almost funny seeing them fall on a newcomer for posting short replies or going slightly off-topic in the late 2010s, when getting people to join forums in the first place was already an uphill battle.
 
Yep, and I leave those communities on the spot. Having staff experience, when I join a community (even on Discord), I expect the staff to be competent and to do their job.
 
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