More moderation needed

Actually, you're confirming what I suspected, not what @batgirl wrote. You've been given guidelines, not cues. Different pair of shoes. 

You are given guidelines to follow, and when you follow them, you are given cues on what really to do.  So again...batgirl is correct.

Having been a chess.com moderator for 12 years, I'm fairly certain of my statement.

@batgirl, @IMKeto, thank you very much indeed for this information!

Yes, mutes hide all content and account closures for abuse and fair play get muted as well.

In that particular case, it looks like the member closed their account while muted and I guess the system did not auto-unmute.

Hi all!,

I hope you are having a great day!

Just wanted to introduce myself here, my name is Richard and I recently have become the moderator manager here at chess.com. Iv been a member on this site over 13 years since 2008 and have been a moderator 11 years before taking on a staff role as moderator manager. I just want to say thank you very much for your feedback! It's been great, there are also many improvements and changes over the past few months and more improvements to be made as we are always looking to continually fine tune and improve the way we do things in our fantastic community!
Please note also that if you once served as a moderator previously that we are very grateful for the hard work you put in. However we would also ask to keep in mind that you would not be aware of the changes made internally, nor be aware of the current structure and directions. It's good to deal only with facts as we don't want the community mislead in anyway.

If you would like to offer any particular suggestions or feedback please feel free to reach out to me on the below details privately and id be more than happy to take any feedback on board and look for ways to improve. Your thoughts and opinions are of real value to chess.com including myself. 

Also if anyone is looking to apply to become a voluntary site moderator please take a look at the below article as we are currently taking on and training more moderators: https://www.chess.com/blog/KobraBytes/the-chess-community-needs-you

Thank you all for your continued support and love of the community!! 

Regards

KobraBytes

richard@chess.com

www.chess.com/member/kobrabytes

Discord: KobraBytes#0001 

Hi Richard,

Thanks for introducing yourself and giving us the opportunity to contacting you personally! 

That's a step in the right direction, I suppose. More engagement of staff with the forums would be great, especially in critical times like last November with this massive bug in daily games. 

Also good to hear you're looking for more volunteer moderators. 

suggestions, eh? here are a few.

one, you write inviting people to privately contact you. why not publicly? i would suggest you start a topic on suggestions and pin it. you could set the ground rules from the get-go. if anyone spams it you can be clear about the repercussions. currently, the whole h & s receives very little attention from staff.  

second, be transparent. when a topic is locked, state why, and be clear about it. 

third, make sure staff and mods are accountable and actions are taken to restore topics when a rogue mod has become drunk with power. i wrote about the mod that locked one of my topics and then threatened to ban me if i asked why. when i contacted two of his superiors, they responded with strawmen, instead of any relevant explanation. that person is no longer a mod, but the topic remained locked.

if you respond that any of these three suggestions cannot be accomplished, then the stories of the cc hierarchy dictating action (or inaction) are true.

Thank you AlCzervik for your reply and feedback. Much appreciated.

I hope you are keeping well and having a great day!

First off the reason for offering my direct details is so I can show the community that we genuinely care and that I'm willing to personally put in the effort to discuss and take in feedback given where people can be honest in an environment where they feel they wont be judged by public posting. Its not meant as an alternative to public feedback, it is meant as another option that shows personal interest.

Also there is already a way to post public feedback in the site feedback forums: https://www.chess.com/forum/category/site-feedback

Or through the "Help" and "Make a Suggestion" tool on the main page on bottom left.

Secondly, we can look at giving a reason for locking threads in many cases however sometimes there are private reasons for locking a thread to protect members in the community and these reasons we cannot always state publicly.

In relation to the third point mods are always held accountable to their actions and it is something they are aware of also. We have had instances in the past where ones have had to have been removed from their role for these reasons and its something we take seriously. If you encounter any issues again you can always let me know directly. Our moderators are volunteers and give of their time freely. 

Also in relation to threads and restorations, we are currently working internally on an improved system.

I hope this helps address some of your concerns

Regards

KB

yeah, i've got a few suggestions myself

1. a lot of mods can go hungry with power easily, and a few are letting it get to their heads, and not providing reasons for mutes, locks, etc. 

2. you guys need a bigger support ticket team

over the last year maybe 3-4 of my tickets were answered, and i sent multiple regarding several issues

3. bring back trophies for variants and a nice suggestion would be to make trophies based on what place you get in a tournament, not just arenas

for example 

5th - 5 trophies

4th - 10 

3rd - 15

and so on, and if theres a tie with tiebreak, then the trophy count is split between them or they just both get the trophies. 

4. mods need to set better examples and be nicer and less strict.

this only applies to a few, but quite a few mods are not helping the littler kids who can't count up to 100 and aren't capable enough internet wise yet to make tickets and such, and resort to making forums

the mods just lock the forums and say "make a ticket". i'm sure that if they knew, they would make one first, so if someone can obviously tell that someones a really young kid, you should act nicer, and be more understanding. im not saying you have to punish the person they are talking about, cause most of the time they're just like "omg thisgguy beat me ban him11!!!" but you should at least help them out when you can tell that they are really young

5. make a better filter bot, you need to make it work out better, one time i said "bro that meme was trash" in pms with my friend and i got muted for like, a week. the filter bot needs a lot of working on, and i think you guys are perfectly capable on fixing it

6. this isn't really a suggestion, but don't act like your former mods didnt exist. i know you mentioned them in here, but you didnt mention any by name, and you've thrown quite a few good mods to the sewers and left them for dead here, without providing an explanation OR compensation

7. PAY GOOD MODS! 

like martin, mgleason, those old mods deserve to be promoted or get staff   

an addition: the age requirement is too high. there are plenty of 14 -15 year olds who are plenty mature to moderate, probably better than some, so you could make exceptions based on how old the account is and their public and private reputation

Chess.com forums are a daycare confirmed.

I'll help the kids... right off the site

in this post you want the kids to be helped.

in the subsequent post you write there are 14 or 15 year olds that could be mods. 

please leave this topic. 

this site promoted a chesskid site. the problem is that kids like you want to be in the adult crowd, and you simply can't keep up.

yeah some of them are here

some people dont want to use chesskid, and i can't blame them. 14 and 15 year olds can very easily be in the conversation, and they can be mods easily. yeah, the kids who cant count up to 100 should go to chesskid, but i'm talking now abt the more mature kids, the teens and such

oh no we must get this troll away 

in bold, spoken like a politician. 

the link you posted is as invaluable as the h & s forums. sorry for being so bold, but it is true. i have used the functions available when i report bots or miscreants. responses are slow at best.

you need to be present. you are toeing the company line, it seems (i've read this bs before!) instead of taking anything i wrote seriously. i understand your view about the difference in pm's and topics. obviously, i think an open forum is better. 

why not start a topic about suggestions? 

why not tell others why topics are locked or deleted?

in my 10+ years here i have seen this runaround where staff responds in what appears to be a responsible way, but you have not answered any of the three questions where you or other staff could be held accountable. speaking in generalities seems to be the way it goes. your response does not address the issues i presented.

on point #1, you demur to posting in topics where staff doesn't go and post a link to it. my suggestion of you starting a topic is ignored.

on point #2, you state there might be "private" reasons for locking a topic. ffs, a response could be as easy as, "op wanted it locked". just say it!

on point #3, if you wait a year or more to restore a topic, it loses people. don't pretend that you don't know about this. 

as far as mods being accountable...

i will tell you that a mod that went by the name of gchess ended a topic about improving the site. here is the topic: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/erik-we-are-frustrated

when i reached out to shaun and erik about this, their responses were completely lame.

shaun decided to go back to a time i was muted, instead of responding to the issue.

erik wrote a contrived message about how a ceo can't manage everything. this is after he had written that the topic offered good suggestions. 

so, you will have to forgive my lack of trust in what any mod or staff member writes. 

thinking that early teens are capable of keeping up with adult conversation is plain dumb. thinking that they are capable of moderating conversation here is more dumb.