Hello, everyone!
I would like to inform you of a number of community-wide updates that we’re implementing across the forum, in conjunction with ongoing iterations of the TechCabal content platform. Things have broken in the past, and we can’t promise that they won’t break in the future. All we can do is be agile about fixing things as they come up. It’s not a long, but it’s an important update that will deal with a number of things that include:
- New community guidelines
- Moderation
- Advertising on Radar
- Miscellany
Here goes.
###Community guidelines
In the light of previous developments, we’re adding a number of very necessary updates to our community guidelines to bring them up to speed.
####Thread closure
Threads are rarely closed. But it might be necessary to do so under the following circumstances.
If the thread violate community guidelines
If the thread outlived its usefulness, to the point that further posts serve no purpose other than to degrade the experience for users
If the original poster is trying to game the forum
If the contents of a thread constitute a security risk to any person(s)
Any of these conditions are sufficient grounds for closing a thread. In some cases, the OP’s posting history might provide useful context that will inform a moderator’s decision to close a thread or allow it continue.
Furthermore, the moderator who closes the thread is obliged to state why the thread must close. In extreme cases, they might elect to shut it down immediately. However, the standard procedure will be to allow a 12-hour period elapse before automatic closure.
The grounds for thread closure will be periodically reviewed as circumstances require.
####Profanity
Language rights on Radar are of the same standard as you can expect on any modern community. You are free to say whatever you want as long as it is not abusive or malicious. Now if you decided to title a post “Fuckity fuck”, and then proceeded to compose the body with nothing but 500 consecutive fucks, the post will obviously be flagged, and its author risks getting banned.
However, the instances in which profanity WILL attract mod sanctions include:
- If it constitutes an attack on any person(s) or group(s).
- If the user of profanity is doing it just to be obscene or inappropriate.
- If the user is being a troll.
####Forum gaming
Forum gaming is artificially inducing a topic to stay at the top of the forum.
Every time a topic gets a new reply, it gets bumped to the top of Radar. Some unscrupulous members who realise this will try and use this feature to unduly promote whatever conversation they are interested in. But we’ve also noticed that a few members have done it, without ulterior motive. So we’re attempting to make things easier with one simple rule;
If you start a topic, you are not allowed to reply yourself. If you must add more information to the thread before another member has had a chance to contribute, use the edit function to update the post.
Known instances of forum gaming:
- One person keeps replying themselves to artificially keep a thread high on Radar’s homepage.
- One person persistently replies every single contribution in the thread, even where such replies are not necessary.
- More than one forum user collude to keep a topic at the top. This one is harder to spot, and the sanctions are harder to justify because they can claim they are having a legitimate conversation, and needs to be dealt with on a case by case basis.
The public community guidelines page will be updated with the new rules before the end of today.
###Moderation
When we launched Radar, myself and Seyi Taylor were the de-facto mods, for obvious reasons. But we’ve always believed that the best communities are owned by the communities themselves, and we’ve done our best to not interfere with its natural evolution in ways that would cast it after our personal preferences or worldviews. That has made us seem aloof at times, but that is really not the case.
The great thing about the Discourse platform is that it actually allows whatever communities are built on top of it to self-moderate, without arbitrary or heavy-handed intervention from designated mods.
That is not to say we don’t need moderators. We do. And at one point, there were eight of them. That didn’t quite work out, because mod-work is not paid, and people have work and lives and such. So, we’ve relieved that set of mods of the obligation (thanks for all you did!), and are starting again. We’re lucky to have Papa Olabode who has not only been a super-engaged beacon of reason, but is also the most conscientious mod any forum could ask for since he accepted the responsibility. However, we have resolved to engage full-time and paid moderation capacity at the earliest opportunity.
Of course, you don’t have to be a mod to have a say. That is why we will be making the Radar moderator handbook and draft community guidelines available to everyone who wants to see them (Warning: it’s a bit of a mess right now, but here you go). For obvious reasons, it is read only – only mods will be able to update it. But we’re looking forward to your thoughts about the contents so that they can improve. As you will see, a lot of the things we’ve been doing have actually not been arbitrary. Hopefully, more transparency into how mods do their work and into the thinking that goes into making the rules will help us all get along better.
###Advertising on Radar
A lot of you knew this day would come, so it won’t be a surprise. That day is not today. But it is nigh. Advertising will come to Radar, and just before they do, we’ll let you know. We’ll do our best to make them not annoying and relevant. In coming weeks, we’ll inform you about the ways to advertise on Radar.
###Miscellany
We will publish community updates once a month, and we look forward to all the feedback, critiques, and if you can spare any, kudos, that you will give us. Like I have said in another thread, moments like these are critical, because they help define the culture going forward.
If you would like to debate and have direct influence on community guidelines, please volunteer to be a mod. With Papa Olabode on board, the bar is high, lol, but we need all the help we can get.
Thank you for making Radar what it is today.
PS: We have come up with something here which we think you’ll like a lot.