Moderators (MOD_) are your friends!

Hey guys, just thought I'd share some information with you all, for those who don't know.

Moderators (otherwise seen in chat as MOD_) are member of the community like me or you, started playing the game as a bit of fun. Here in the forums there was a post asking for applications for moderators, these people applied and were successful. They are donating their free time, free game time, to have the extra headache of moderating chat in-game and in forums. They are there as a support to the developer team who cannot afford the extra man hours this would take to employ someone to do. So moderators are doing this for FREE, they don't get special abilities or rewards, and they do not get paid.

Please treat them with respect, do not expect.
Moderators have duties to fulfill, they may not know the answer to everything, and may not always reply. But they are doing their best. They receive instructions from the BlueByte/Ubisoft team that they must fulfill.

The "Help" channel on in-game chat is not a MOD_ support channel, if moderators are there they will try and support you with your issues as best they can, like every other game player who frequents that channel.

Remember, MOD_ were community players at the start, so we all are moderators in a way, its just they wield the might ban weapons of choice!

http://www.bluedogtees.com/loja/images/gamerz_ban.gif

I would also like to add to weeman_com`s thread we are also humans with the same needs as you the players,we need to take time away from the keyboard to eat, go to the bathroom,to cook an evening meal,some of us have families too who need our attention.No one has to be a MOD to help and answer questions about game play should they know the answers,we are all learning the game at the same time.If your question isnt answered by a MOD it doesnt mean you are being ignored,if you do require our attention,then please type MOD_username,that way its highlighted on our screen and easier for us to read it,right now both help and global are fast moving and its not always possible to catch each help request before its disappeared from screen.

Tonight wasnt easy I was online as a MOD alone for a large part of the evening,as was Seek when I had to go afk for some time,we cant watch 2 chats and deal with whispers,and keep up with everything thats happening.

If you have an issue that only a MOD can deal with then please use whisper,that will be seen when we get back to the PC.

Its early days we still have alot to learn,we are not your enemy we are there to keep the channels a friendly fun place to be....

Just like in any game, or on any forum, some people tend to confuse volunteer mods with paid staff, the volunteer mods would like to play the game too, check the forums first to see if there's a FAQ or help thread that can answer your question before asking a mod for help.

And for some strange reason people think all mods do is ban people, all I can say to that is yes, sometimes we do, but on the main Ubi boards I've helped banned members be allowed back on the forums more times than I can remember, everyone deserves another chance, we're not evil (however much some of us might play up the 'Evil Admin' image) ;=)

Yes the vast majority of moderators do it out of their own goodwill and generous spirit.

However in my experience their are also those who just get into it for power and will then abuse that side of things for their own enjoyment trying to make others feel small in the process.

For instance........... If you have an issue with someone use the whisper feature and speak to them explaining things rather than assuming they know better and banning them anyway. Also if you go to ban someone for abuse or something read the chat perhaps there was some reason behind why they said it.

Point of fact if your there for power eventually you will be found out, trouble is you may well hinder the development of a game in the process too, by allienating some of those best positioned to help develop things and forcing them out of the game, this is something certain previous developers of other games I can mention found out too late.

Unfortunately in my experience their are all to many idiots who end up becoming moderators, they make the job of those who are there to be genuine all the harder too.

As a tester I've been there and done that, equally I've been a mod too so I know both sides and there are always at least two sides to everything.

@ Nutisbak - Very true I agree completely.

I have a buddy who was a mod on another game's forum, the game had recently come out of beta but they are still making changes. He was there from the beginning and was probably the most experienced player there so thought that he would help others. But he received so much grief from the other players about recent game changes that he quit after just 3 weeks (as did several other mods).
He's now addicted to this and plays on Castle Empire in the US after I told him about it

Edit BB_Azariel: Once again, this is not the proper place for your complaints. Please contact us via the support tool or use the appropriate threads on the forum.

bhoycey, like azariel said; take it to support, not post it in here.

That's the edited version!
If you remember, I was pulled up by the MOD for discussing trades in the channel, although as it was quiet, I was discussing a particular problem with the few people that were online at that time, OK I felt it was a bit harsh, as I was more discussing the mechanics of the trade, rather than the trade itself, but I took the warning with good grace, seeing as the trade chat has been plaguing the global chat, and until a better system is worked out, the MODs are only enforcing the rules handed down by Bluebyte (the reasons for which can be read in another topic).
I did not then expect other players to start jumping on him over this, and the more he asked them not to question the rules in the chat, the more they escalated the matter into a conspiracy theory that the MODs can use their "power" to disadvantage rival players for their own good.
I hope this is mere paranoia, I've seen no evidence of this happening here, and even if it did, I trust that BB would be approachable, and rectify the situation.
For pity's sake, these people have given up their time to try to help players, and maintain a set of rules designed to be for the greater good, we're not just testing the game mechanics here, but the admin as well.
OK, the system has flaws, but there are right ways to report/complain, and wrong ways. starting a free-for-all in the chat is clearly the latter, and if people keep lashing out, what do they expect them to do?

Cudos to weeman_com for starting this topic! Missed it initially. And any MOD deserves respect for all the effort.

As for being a MOD and having to deal with a community of players (testers, who in general are worse). That is a tough thing to do. Aspecially because every single player thinks he or she is allowed to have his/her own little exeption every so often. The MODs in this game are very, very patient regarding to violations and the (stupid, repeating) discussions resulting out of friendly warnings.
If we as the community accept certain rules as they are and stop arguing it the MOD will not need to use the /ban option they have.
Ofcourse rules can be discussed. But
A: dont do this on chat... its only annoying for the rest of us. Use these forums.
B: Dont harash the MODs for it. They only execute em, they do not make em up!

Great post, I love the fact that moderators get appreciated by some :D And





Thank You, Moderators :)

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Originally Posted by Funny_Grandpa

Great post, I love the fact that moderators get appreciated by some :D And

Thank You, Moderators :)

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totally agree and if i ever overstep the mark and get a ban/warning or whatever i will remember to take it with good grace your all doing a tough and more often than not thankless thing (dont want to call it a job as you dont get paid ) well done and most of us appreciate the time you give up to help

Yes I think this is a good thread and all players should read it. As at times we forget that and remove our frustration on the mods.

My experience is that generally moderators are for the good (trolling, spam control, etc), they are human however and can in my book, make mistakes.

I know how it is to be responsible.I have forums myself and do admin tasks and moderator tasks to.So yes the mods here deserve a good word.
Sometimes the mods or admins did have a hard day at work and still they do their job as is at the chat and game.
I can surely understand that its sometimes not as easy as they would like to have it.

Milions of times gratzz at this awesome team from TSO.

I have complained to support about an issue about a MOD action against me tonight so I'll not go into the details but I would argue the claim all MODs give fair warning before taking action. In my case I was banned without any warning after weeks of playing (and paying for) this game because my player name was suddenly offensive to a MOD.

Remember MODs don't always get it right but are untouchable and can't be questioned or reproached on their decisions.

As someone who usually invests serious money in the online games I like (and I used to play all the versions of The Settlers on the PC) this could have been a costly game for me but I have to say unless this is resolved the company running this game won't see another penny from me and I won't be inviting my friends either.

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Originally Posted by Nailurass

I have complained to support about an issue about a MOD action against me tonight so I'll not go into the details but I would argue the claim all MODs give fair warning before taking action. In my case I was banned without any warning after weeks of playing (and paying for) this game because my player name was suddenly offensive to a MOD.

Remember MODs don't always get it right but are untouchable and can't be questioned or reproached on their decisions.

As someone who usually invests serious money in the online games I like (and I used to play all the versions of The Settlers on the PC) this could have been a costly game for me but I have to say unless this is resolved the company running this game won't see another penny from me and I won't be inviting my friends either.

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Hello,

First of all, I would also like to assure you that the moderating team is far from untouchable. If a player does have a complaint about the way a moderator has handled an issue, it is passed to the support team or the community representative. They are able to investigate in more detail than any of the us are able to and this also maintains an unbiased view when resolving the situation. If repeated mistakes (or misjudgements) happen, we are held accountable for it.

Sometimes bans are issued without forewarning, either because of a serious rule breach or because we do not have the capability to resolve a problem, for example, changing someone's username. In the latter case, this is again handled by support who are able to do so and you are usually sent an in-game message about it.

I hope this clears up some misconceptions. I can appreciate that not everyone has the same perspective when a situation arises and I am unable to comment on any specific incident. :)

-CF

Hello CF

Fair enough. I've done the correct thing to try and resolve this so I can only hope someone will apply a little common sense on this.

Obviously I don't think my player name is offensive or would warrant a ban without warning, although I see your point it would have been more friendly to have used a temporary ban rather than a permanent one - in my view.

Nail

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Originally Posted by Nailurass

Hello CF

Fair enough. I've done the correct thing to try and resolve this so I can only hope someone will apply a little common sense on this.

Obviously I don't think my player name is offensive or would warrant a ban without warning, although I see your point it would have been more friendly to have used a temporary ban rather than a permanent one - in my view.

Nail

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Your ban will be removed, if your name is changed ...
So it is a temporal ban, until your name is changed

I only have a quick retort to MOD_'s being everyones best friend.

'If i or any of my fellow players were to transgress the rules of the forums or the chat it's counterproductive to hand out any type of ban or mute without dealing out an informative warning or explaining to the player why a mute or ban were given'

There, thats all i had to say..

Indeed

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Originally Posted by Scrooge

I only have a quick retort to MOD_'s being everyones best friend.

'If i or any of my fellow players were to transgress the rules of the forums or the chat it's counterproductive to hand out any type of ban or mute without dealing out an informative warning or explaining to the player why a mute or ban were given'

There, thats all i had to say..

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And then, when they still don't comply, what then?
Honestly, some of the infractions we have to deal with don't need warning, they're obvious, and if you'd bother to read the terms of this service when you signed up, perhaps we'd all have an easier time of it.

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Originally Posted by MOD_Nogbad

And then, when they still don't comply, what then?
Honestly, some of the infractions we have to deal with don't need warning, they're obvious, and if you'd bother to read the terms of this service when you signed up, perhaps we'd all have an easier time of it.

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oh please - have you actually tried to read and understand the whole terms and conditions?? Can you really really expect everyone to read them. No of course you can't - that's why you need MODs.

The point in my case was that I didn't get a warning at all - which is not what some here have said MODs should do (except in exceptional circumstances). This is not me having a go at all MODs and all the decisions they make - just about the decision that was made against me and up to now not one person has said "yeah sorry that was wrong we should have....blah blah" or even "thanks for that we'll make a note of it".

When things go wrong what is essential is that people come here and tell you about it and you should perhaps give some weight to what you are being told rather than argue the toss about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MOD_Nogbad

And then, when they still don't comply, what then?
Honestly, some of the infractions we have to deal with don't need warning, they're obvious, and if you'd bother to read the terms of this service when you signed up, perhaps we'd all have an easier time of it.

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What then? well in my opinion... Reoccurring transgressions of the same type usually lead to harder punishments and / or lockouts.
And as far as obvious transgressions goes it's all opinions and they can differ.
Yet there has been times when i have been muted, and thus i have accepted that i were mistaken. The times i have been confused as to why i had to hammer away at MOD's for an explanation as to why and to understand what it was they found offensive.

You see, were more than a flock of mindless sheep.
Many of us take note of what moderators or BB staff react on and try to adjust beforehand. Given a warning or explanation publicly don't just inform the transgressor but the community as a whole and are far more likely to have effect than multitudes of ban's or mutes.

And as a personal note and reply: You have no idea whether i read or didn't read the terms, but you seem to have a point of view of general players being mindless and ignorant

I wholeheartedly agree Nail - Most of the time you just get a MOD with an attitude rather than a straight up answer.
Dont even bother trying to enlighten them about what you feel went wrong in the whole situation, because it's a one way street in their world (for a better part).
I even tried telling a certain someone how i did wrong etc and STILL i were met with contempt and the standard no-answer BS (as an experiment)

MOD's are not ment to be machines, you are humans with opinions as all the rest of us! Act like it..
(I apologize for my generalization of all MOD's here, i know full well which ones act like proper moderators, Almeer for example)

This has become a discussion about the way moderation is handled... And if you had read the rules (as you should have done no questions asked) you would know that we ask people to contact me or BB_Ravel about this in private.

I wrote the rules myself based on what had already been used in other Ubisoft forums. I have experience in writing rules like this and I've tried to make them as easy as possible to understand (not just to understand how the rule works, but also understand the necessity of the rule itself). If you think the rules are hard, long, boring to read... just try and imagine how hard it can be sometimes to get all the players on the chat to comply with them? Have you tied to put yourself in the shoes of a MOD?

This is my challenge to you: read the rules (a couple of times if possible). Go into the game and watch the global chat for 30/45 minutes. Count down the number of times the rules are broken during your stay, and then think of the work this would mean if you were a MOD.


Closing this thread. Please contact me if you think the rules need to be adjusted/changed/made easier to understand in any way, or if you have things you want to talk about concerning the moderation. I would be more than happy to have a constructive discussion about these topics with anyone.

Thank you,

BB_Azariel