Saturday, 1 June 2013

Touch Arcade: Less mods, more rationale?

Touch Arcade
iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch Games
Less mods, more rationale?
Jun 1st 2013, 22:15

I voiced these concerns with a moderator, but I thought I would like to post it here and see what anyone else thinks about it:

Touch Arcade is a big iOS gaming community, but it's not all that huge of a game forum especially when you look at the likes of GameFAQs and IGN.

This leads me to my thought about the moderation system: I feel like the moderator:user ratio is quite ridiculous, and it sometimes feels like moderation permissions are being handed out for fun. It seems like the amount of incriminating (according to the Terms of Service) activity that goes on with Touch Arcade is quite low, and it makes absolutely no sense that we need so many moderators. I think you have more moderators than GameFAQs, yet have much less activity than them, too. It makes no sense.

Also, with more moderators, comes more interpretations of what is and what is not crossing the line. The original moderators probably had a good grasp, as they were there when the Terms of Service were introduced. But as time goes on, and more random people are made as moderators, there's a higher chance that the rules will be bent one way or another. Someone who can't handle a different opinion might misconstrue that as a bannable/time-outable offense, whereas the moderators from before wouldn't see it as offensive.

Just reading certain posts from some moderators, I feel like you have some hotheads on your team. One consistent thread I've seen going through moderators on other websites is that they always keep bans and time-outs private. They don't mention anything about a post, or if they do mention it they do so in a completely objective way that does not come off as them using their own opinion.

I can think of at least three posts from a certain moderator that breaks all those rules, but perhaps the rules here are different than those other forums.

I don't see why such a small community needs such high moderation. It seems unnecessary. At the very least, maybe there should be a provisional period for moderators. Give them certain permissions to exercise their powers, but keep an eye on them to see if they should be elevated to 100% moderator. Maybe that way, it won't feel like so many random people are getting mod permissions, and it would feel like Touch Arcade is more professional in that sense. After all, that is what you crave to be seen as, right? Professional?

The title of this thread is supposed to reflect the overall message I'm trying to convey: maybe with less mods, there will be more rationale behind certain decisions being made to ban people, or for what period to ban people for. It seems like the current system is left too much up to chance regarding personal restraint or lack thereof.

Two bonus suggestions for making Touch Arcade more professional:

1. Get rid of the damn TouchArcade Bot. :( I know I always say this, but the last few weeks especially have been notably spammy. It digs up the most random games. I was mistaken that it brings up only total crapware, as someone pointed out a handful of games that it has brought up that were apparently serviceable and okay.... but the vast majority is total crap. It's a terrible system, and I think it needs to be adjusted.

2. Spam accounts are the worst on Touch Arcade. I've never seen a forum with such a godawful verification system to the point where it lets in at least a couple spam accounts a day and lets them post ridiculous spam links. It should not be that way, at all. It makes the forum look juvenile in comparison to GameFAQs... arguably the more childish of the two... perhaps. Come up with a better system.

One idea I think I saw someone else brought up is to make a provisional system (hey! like the moderators should have!). When a new account joins, have it go through a filter or something to make sure it's not a spam account that shares its IP with someone. If it -does- share an IP with a spambot, or known hivemind, make it so their first 10 posts have to go through the moderators before their account can be activated as an official one that can post as much as a normal one.

And maybe, don't let them post again for 10 minutes or so. If a moderator somehow misses the message and doesn't remember to let it through, have it be on a system where the message will be automatically posted after a certain amount of time passes.

These two ideas about preventing spam would likely slow down the flow of spam significantly, and would probably deter spammers from using Touch Arcade as their advertisement haven... since, like I said, Touch Arcade is the worst forum I've ever seen with regards to spam. If I see it that way, no doubt the advertisers/spammers see it that way, too, and they'll take advantage of that opportunity. A popular forum that doesn't have a strong verification system to block spam? You're basically inviting all of them in, saying, "Hey, spammers! Come on in!"

For a "professional" forum, there are still many things that need to change for it to be taken truly seriously. There's also the blatant Apple fanboyism, but obviously that just comes with the platform. You can't open a PS3 forum and expect it to not be 90% Sony fanboys. Same principle here.

P.S. Nothing above is intended to offend. This forum is meant for feedback, and that's what I'm giving you. Thanks for reading. If that hothead moderator tries to delete this, I will be quite annoyed. Can't stop a hothead from making tamales, though.

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