Moderation AMA

Author: bsh1

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RationalMadman
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And the results will be:

  • blamonkey
  • oromagi
  • ragnar

Alec
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@Ramshutu
What is your 5k PR?  I used to run track but now I don’t.

Ramshutu
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@Alec
23:45 if I recall
Ramshutu
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@RM 

No: I average an hour a day at my most active weeks.

2hrs Sunday, 1hr Monday, 2hrs of cycling,
1 hr strength, 1 hr Wednesday

Alec
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@Ramshutu
I once did a sub 9 min 5k.  It was on a bike.
Ramshutu
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@Alec
I average 11k in 24m commuting through a city in traffic :)

Barney
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@David
@bsh1
@Ramshutu
1. What can we do to make your job(s) easier?


2. On voting, what are your thoughts around increased difficulty in point accumulation?
I ask this because I've honestly found myself slightly more easily giving points to the person I've voted against on arguments, and more frequently being a little less judgmental about their S&G mistakes and such. A decent example would be giving someone argument points but penalizing them on conduct for excessive gloating, so as to encourage better behavior in future debates.
Similarly when I debate, I tend to go for sources and conduct, usually not expecting anyone already voting in my favor on arguments to award them, but more of putting anyone voting against me in a bit of a bind.


2. On voting, what are your opinions of skimming arguments we are too familiar with?
My take on it is just that a voter is still responsible for knowing the content of the debate. However, I am personally not going to read another lengthy dissertation on the KCA as an introduction to a debate before getting to the back and forth (rather I will assume it's done satisfactory, and look for the refutations and defenses to weight those). A decent example would be someone opens a debate with the text of the book of Genesis, the voter has already read it a hundred times, why would they not skip ahead to the actual discussion?
bsh1
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@Barney
1. What can we do to make your job(s) easier?
I often find that users report content which is clearly not against the rules. Based on context, I assume that this content is reported due to the reporter's personal objections to the content or due to the fact that the content is somehow offensive. However, reports of clearly licit content--even when that content is offensive--waste time and are not acted upon. I would urge users to be circumspect in their use of reports and to familiarize themselves with the COC.

2. On voting, what are your thoughts around increased difficulty in point accumulation?
Not entirely sure what you're asking here, but when debaters choose the point system, they are choosing to ask voters for a holistic judgement. It is therefore entirely appropriate for a voter to award more points to the debater who lost arguments if that debater legitimately outperformed in the other point categories.

2. On voting, what are your opinions of skimming arguments we are too familiar with?
Voters should read every argument in a debate. Skimming is inevitable and acceptable, but it is important not to be too lax. Often there is important nuance or deviation which is hidden in an otherwise boilerplate-looking argument. If the voter doesn't read carefully enough, they may miss those details. But, as a time- and effort-saving function, I sympathize with skimming, and I think it's alright, esp. for less dense debates.

Ramshutu
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1.) Bring Beer

In all seriousness: debaters should make it clear to the voter what their main arguments are. It helps the voter weigh properly, and helps moderators decide whether the arguments have been surveyed and weighed.

2.) I’ve not personally had an issue. I always find that conduct, S&G fall out of the main assessment. Most of the award is due to complexity and difficulty in rendering the vote. I’ve very rarely seen examples of splitting sources and args though

3.) As long as you cover the arguments accurately - I don’t see a problem: skimming is a skill; I normally find myself speed skimming a debate several times to pull out the key points, and for stuff like the KCA and many others, it’s pretty easy to pull out the main arguments or see if things are similar. If your good at skimming then go for it; as long as you don’t mind correcting or modifying the vote if there is something that you missed.

As a helpful step: once I’ve got my first draft RFD and have assessed everything, I normally wait go away for an hour then go back through the debate. When someone wins or loses there are often a point that one side missed, or didn’t cover well; or an obvious flaw with their reasoning: I do a final scan to specifically find arguments related to those, in case I missed them.






bsh1
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Today marks one year since Moderation was appointed on this site by the site owner. As Chief Moderator, I wanted to take a brief moment to thank Virt, Castin, and Ram for their service, and to say what an honor it's been serving this community.
Ramshutu
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@bsh1
I would also like to personally thank Bsh; he is probably the most adult and mature person I have ever met on the internet. Ever.
RationalMadman
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If by 'adult and mature' you mean emotionally aloof, then I both see the accuracy of the attributes and why you personally would admire that in someone.
David
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@Barney
One thing I'd think would be helpful is for the voters to to explain why they're reporting the vote and why they feel like it is against the COC
Ramshutu
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To clarify; by Mature and Adult, I mean his unerring ability to put up with petulance, childishness and stupidity, repeatedly without escalating, name calling, and with the ability to disagree with an opinion despite thinking that oppinion is bad.

... and that’s just when dealing with me.
Speedrace
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@RationalMadman
 What about me, I fit all of those

Not blamonkey because he's not active enough

Ragnar almost definitely, and I could see oromagi as well although he's been less active recently

Speedrace
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@bsh1
@Ramshutu
I would also like to personally thank Bsh; he is probably the most adult and mature person I have ever met on the internet. Ever.
I second that

David
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@Speedrace
I would also like to personally thank Bsh; he is probably the most adult and mature person I have ever met on the internet. Ever.
I second that
I third this. Bsh has been a great head mod and a great person to work with.

Barney
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@David
One thing I'd think would be helpful is for the voters to to explain why they're reporting the vote and why they feel like it is against the COC
I will start doing that as a comment inside debates. Should anyone be tagged in said comment? I think a lot of the time I'll be tagging the person who cast a bad vote, explaining what I believe fell short, and thus why I believe moderators will inevitably delete it.

David
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@Barney
One thing I'd think would be helpful is for the voters to to explain why they're reporting the vote and why they feel like it is against the COC
I will start doing that as a comment inside debates. Should anyone be tagged in said comment? I think a lot of the time I'll be tagging the person who cast a bad vote, explaining what I believe fell short, and thus why I believe moderators will inevitably delete it.

That would be fantastic. Please tag me and Ramshutu in addition to reporting the vote. 


Barney
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@David
One thing I'd think would be helpful is for the voters to to explain why they're reporting the vote and why they feel like it is against the COC
I will start doing that as a comment inside debates. Should anyone be tagged in said comment? I think a lot of the time I'll be tagging the person who cast a bad vote, explaining what I believe fell short, and thus why I believe moderators will inevitably delete it.

That would be fantastic. Please tag me and Ramshutu in addition to reporting the vote. 
Will do.

Related question, what does the moderator interface look like? Specifically, how do reported things show up to you, like is it a notification, a sub-listing you have to go look at, etc.
David
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@Barney
One thing I'd think would be helpful is for the voters to to explain why they're reporting the vote and why they feel like it is against the COC
I will start doing that as a comment inside debates. Should anyone be tagged in said comment? I think a lot of the time I'll be tagging the person who cast a bad vote, explaining what I believe fell short, and thus why I believe moderators will inevitably delete it.

That would be fantastic. Please tag me and Ramshutu in addition to reporting the vote. 
Will do.

Related question, what does the moderator interface look like? Specifically, how do reported things show up to you, like is it a notification, a sub-listing you have to go look at, etc.
For security reasons, I do not feel comfortable answering this question. 

Gatorade
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@David
@bsh1
@Ramshutu
How did you get selected to be Moderators?
And how do you get banned really quickly?
David
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@Gatorade
How did you get selected to be Moderators?
And how do you get banned really quickly?
(1) Bsh1 and myself were appointed head moderator and deputy moderator respectively when the site first opened. From time to time bsh1 and myself discuss whether or not we should add another member to our team and who we are looking for. For example, when we appointed Ramshutu as our voting moderator, we appointed him because he was an active voter who constantly gave quality RFDs compared to the other voters. I am not sure if we will be appointing a new moderator any time soon.

(2) If you want to get banned really quickly, PM me to delete your account. 
RationalMadman
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@Speedrace
You lack the street cred to pass the screening of other mods. You're also affiliated with me as an ally, they dont dig that much.
Ramshutu
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@Gatorade
I was recommended to Virt and Bsh by mutual NWO / Illuminati friends

Joking aside: the reality it was I was a regular voter who is on most of the time 


Speedrace
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@RationalMadman
xD but they like me (:

I 100% guarantee you that my name has come up at least once if they were every discussing this, but if I was rejected per se it's probably either because of my age or because I was a little inactive this summer

bsh1
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@Gatorade
And how do you get banned really quickly?
There are some insta-ban worthy actions, including doxxing and posting links to pornographic websites.
Castin
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@bsh1
I would also like to personally thank Bsh; he is probably the most adult and mature person I have ever met on the internet. Ever.
I second that
I third this. Bsh has been a great head mod and a great person to work with.
Fourthed.

bsh1
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@Speedrace
How old are you, even?
Speedrace
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@bsh1
Just turned 16 and going to college next year boissssssssssssssssssssssss