How do I report a forum mod?

XSTRONG · December 13

If I think they are wrong on removing my post etc etc, where do I report them?

Answering their mail does nothing.

sarahthes · December 13

XSTRONG wrote: »

If I think they are wrong on removing my post etc etc, where do I report them?

Answering their mail does nothing.

It's their house, their rules. Open a ticket if you got an official warning, and appeal it.

If you didn't get a warning, then don't worry about it.

Destai · December 13

@ZOS_Kevin can you help out here?

XSTRONG · December 13

I didnt get a warning but in my opinion they often remove posts thats not have to be removed

spartaxoxo · December 13

You can appeal it with a ticket but I doubt they'd restore a post even if they agreed it was removed in error. Appeals are mostly for punishment reversals e.g. unfairly banned.

ZOS_Kevin · December 13

@XSTRONG Can you DM me what happened? That way I can go to mods and check in.

XSTRONG · December 13

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@XSTRONG Can you DM me what happened? That way I can go to mods and check in.

How do I dm you from my mobile?

XSTRONG · December 13

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@XSTRONG Can you DM me what happened? That way I can go to mods and check in.

Their should be a way to refuse the action from the forum dev without having to DM Kevin or anyone else.

I try answering to their msg when removing it but I got no answer

DragonRacer · December 13

XSTRONG wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@XSTRONG Can you DM me what happened? That way I can go to mods and check in.

How do I dm you from my mobile?

Click the envelope symbol in the bottom left corner of your webpage. Click “new message” at the top right of the new page you are taken to. In the TO field, start typing ZOS_Kevin and a list of 3 Kevin’s should pop up. His is the first one (the others have an additional initial at the end of the name). Click his name and it will populate the TO field. Then write your message in the message field. Then click “post message” to send it.

spartaxoxo · December 13

XSTRONG wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

XSTRONG Can you DM me what happened? That way I can go to mods and check in.

Their should be a way to refuse the action from the forum dev without having to DM Kevin or anyone else.

I try answering to their msg when removing it but I got no answer

No. Then you get "I investigated myself and concluded I did nothing wrong."

While some are capable of having a reasonable conversation about such things, the vast majority of people are just going to side with themselves. And even the ones that are capable of reasonable conversation and open-minded to changing their mind or being wrong, are still going to be inherently biased.

It's better for a third party, like Kevin, to take a look.

XSTRONG · December 13

spartaxoxo wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

XSTRONG Can you DM me what happened? That way I can go to mods and check in.

Their should be a way to refuse the action from the forum dev without having to DM Kevin or anyone else.

I try answering to their msg when removing it but I got no answer

No. Then you get "I investigated myself and concluded I did nothing wrong."

While some are capable of having a reasonable conversation about such things, the vast majority of people are just going to side with themselves. And even the ones that are capable of reasonable conversation and open-minded to changing their mind or being wrong, are still going to be inherently biased.

It's better for a third party, like Kevin, to take a look.

Their should be a way to refuse and report the action by the forum mod, their also humans and not always right. They tried to final warn me once but was wrong after A few mails with eso support.

spartaxoxo · December 13

XSTRONG wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

XSTRONG Can you DM me what happened? That way I can go to mods and check in.

Their should be a way to refuse the action from the forum dev without having to DM Kevin or anyone else.

I try answering to their msg when removing it but I got no answer

No. Then you get "I investigated myself and concluded I did nothing wrong."

While some are capable of having a reasonable conversation about such things, the vast majority of people are just going to side with themselves. And even the ones that are capable of reasonable conversation and open-minded to changing their mind or being wrong, are still going to be inherently biased.

It's better for a third party, like Kevin, to take a look.

Their should be a way to refuse and report the action by the forum mod, their also humans and not always right. They tried to final warn me once but was wrong after A few mails with eso support.

There is an appeal process. But "I investigated myself and determined I did nothing wrong," also applies to players. Moderation would not be properly possible if players could just decide for themselves the mod is wrong and prevent the mod from doing their job.

doabhi · December 13

I don't wish to fan any flames here, but I have to agree with Spartaxoxo.
having "An option to refuse a moderation action" is inherently "Karen-ish" in mentality and just not how the world works.
That's akin to refusing a speeding citation from a cop as you ran 60 down a 40 and got pulled over. Or refusing arrest as you eat the mars bar you just stole because you don't agree because you were hungry.

Disagreement with the outcome/consequences and contesting it comes via a 3rd party in the interest of fair mediation.
(In this case a manager

)

Tandor · December 13

It's generally better to learn from the experience rather than challenging it.

Syldras · December 13

Tandor wrote: »

It's generally better to learn from the experience rather than challenging it.

And to learn, understanding is neccessary. If someone does not understand what the mistake is, how can they avoid it in future?

virtus753 · December 13

Syldras wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

It's generally better to learn from the experience rather than challenging it.

And to learn, understanding is neccessary. If someone does not understand what the mistake is, how can they avoid it in future?

And that's why CMs exist, to help facilitate that understanding. There's a big difference between "please help me understand" and "you're wrong; where do I report you?"

ArchangelIsraphel · December 13

virtus753 wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

It's generally better to learn from the experience rather than challenging it.

And to learn, understanding is neccessary. If someone does not understand what the mistake is, how can they avoid it in future?

And that's why CMs exist, to help facilitate that understanding. There's a big difference between "please help me understand" and "you're wrong; where do I report you?"

But they need to communicate with us concerning these decisions to begin with- I think it's a problem when a user inquires to ask for clarification on matters, and does not receive a response, forcing them to take it to the forums where a CM eventually steps in. If open lines of communication were more readily available to discuss the reason for a posts removal and why it broke the rules, that would help a lot to prevent future infractions. As of now, those rules seem cloudy, and leave well intentioned posters feeling perplexed when their posts are removed, even though they contained nothing outwardly offensive.

doabhi · December 13

I absolutely agree that the moderation system on this forum is less than Ideal. I've had posts vanish without explanation before and not really sure if it was a Database error or a particularly offended moderator. ZOS wants us to give feedback on the game via the forum, but it is sometimes difficult to do that if the feedback is inherently negative in nature. I get it, ZOS want us to be nice to the devs, I'm not going to argue against that, they're human beings too. But as a Dev myself sometimes the feedback just sucks, and it can be a hard pill to swallow when the community lays out some hard truths, But I'd rather swallow some large pills and work on improving things than be sat in an echo chamber of gaslighting corporate positivity.

Life's about hard reality checks sometimes and we have to take the ups and the downs.

Destai · December 13

I have been messaging Kevin and Jessica about moderation. I have long had concerns about some of their practices and ultimately we need a way to say “doing xyz isn’t well received” and actually have things changed.

Threads and civil conversations about it aren’t allowed long, which is a problem itself, so it just feels like we are left with complaining on Reddit or messaging CMs who are already doing so much.

barney2525 · December 13

Re-port?

Thought they were talking about teleporting to the wrong location.

Orbital78 · December 13

joking around on here is trolling, so it is best to just not participate unless it is feedback.

Casul · December 14

I don’t have an issue with moderation if it is evidently presented. But getting a moderation because a post isn’t considered constructive is not reasonable in my opinion. Constructive discussion is subjective, and what I may consider relevant and to the point can be construed differently to someone else.

Pelanora · December 14

Procedural fairness means the application of the rule is explained, and there is opportunity to appeal it. There is transparency about the process.

It means not just the rule is stated, but why the rule applies in that case, to that post.

This isn't usually what happens.

A decision is made 'the post was x' and that's that. There's no explanation, there's no appeal, there's no transparency- it must all be secret, no discussion of moderation.

These forums are very procedurally unfair and it's not a good look tbh.

Also, it's a real shame one can't joke around, why jokes are taken as trolling is beyond me.

TheMajority · December 14

Sometimes, I seen a good post I found insight from go poof, and I do wonder why it was not allowed.

I do get nervous to post as well, and it is because English is not my first language.

I am not scared of other players which make posts here. They have been understanding to me. It has been the kindest community with this. I have been made fun of in past forums, but not a single time here was anyone mean to me.

The mods and managers of community were never unkind to me either, but sometimes, I do fear I could end up saying something the wrong way because of my barrier. Would I be allowed to explain my intent if it happened?

An admission to make, is I do not fully understand what some of the rules try to say even in my own language. A word of advice, would be break the rules down. Write it in words which are plainer and more friendly.

Make understanding by show a example. It is hard to get if it will not get explained. Then, I could break that rule on accident again, and not really know how.

Show me, and I do my best to be a good community member. But you don't show me, and I get lost but didn't mean to

I'm a adult, but it's good to simplify and explain more. This legal language way with the rules is difficult on us. Maybe a thing a CM could work on.

Desiato · December 14

Pelanora wrote: »

Procedural fairness means the application of the rule is explained, and there is opportunity to appeal it. There is transparency about the process.

It means not just the rule is stated, but why the rule applies in that case, to that post.

This isn't usually what happens.

A decision is made 'the post was x' and that's that. There's no explanation, there's no appeal, there's no transparency- it must all be secret, no discussion of moderation.

These forums are very procedurally unfair and it's not a good look tbh.

Also, it's a real shame one can't joke around, why jokes are taken as trolling is beyond me.

I've been discussing games on forums for basically as long as there have been forums -- and actually, on usenet before that -- and I had never been actioned before this one. It's something else.

I'm actually afraid to post this.

MasterSpatula · December 14

They used to actually respond to DMs objecting to their actions and take the time to explain their own reasoning. I don't think any of those mods who actually accepted that our points were worth addressing are still around, though. Now they just ignore you.

Sleepsin · December 14

My favorite response is when a ticket goes from "waiting for a response" to "read response provide" yet there is nothing written in the response block. Then after 72 hours the post is flagged as "closed". Even updating the ticket with " no response provided" it still just gets closed down.

Neugeniko · December 14

I decided to appeal my recent warning for spamming.

SeaGtGruff · December 14

@XSTRONG, this is nothing to do with this forum or your issue, but I thought you might get a somewhat-amused chuckle, or maybe just a snort of disgust, from the following story. This happened to me while I was watching a CRPG/D&D streamer on Twitch last night.

He was resuming an ongoing playthrough of Eye of the Beholder I (an old AD&D game from SSI), and after I said hello, I told him I'd just resumed an ongoing playthrough of Pool of Radiance (another old AD&D game from SSI) after having put it aside for a couple of months. It's one of the other games that he's also playing, and not getting very far with it, so I was just making conversation because a couple of times he's remarked on my tendency to lurk without ever speaking up in chat.

He asked me how far I had gotten with it, and I said that I'd started over with a new party (my fourth, I think) because I wanted to try again from the beginning now that I felt I was getting the hang of things. I told him I'd gotten through the slums of Old Phlan except for one fight that's still too tough for my party, and had just started the process of clearing Sokal Keep.

He said, "Let me guess, does that last fight involve some ogres and trolls?" I typed and sent the following reply: "Yes, tossing the sack"-- except as soon as I sent it, I got a note in chat saying that my message had not been posted because it was being held back by AutoMod, then another note saying that my message was being reviewed by a mod. I figured it was probably the word "sack," or maybe the whole phrase "tossing the sack," that the AI AutoMod bot didn't like, but I wasn't sure.

This had taken about a minute, so the streamer asked again, because maybe he thought I hadn't heard or perhaps that I was being my usual noncommunicative self. (I know, right?) So I mentioned that my reply triggered the AutoMod and was being held back for review by a mod. I tried repeating my earlier response with different words-- something like, "Yes, throwing a bag that breaks, so then they decide to attack your party"-- and my message was posted without any problems.

So I decided to try again with the original wording, but expanding it to provide more context, since I expected the AutoMod bot to once again intercept it and send it to a human mod for closer inspection-- which is exactly what it did. My longer response was something like, "Yes, I cleared the slums of Old Phlan in the Pools of Radiance game, except for the fight with the ogres and trolls who are tossing a sack of grain that breaks, so they decide to attack your party instead. I'm expecting this message to get held back by AutoMod and reviewed by a mod, so I'm just typing this longer message to provide some context for my previous message."

The exact text from the Pool of Radiance is as follows: SOME MONSTERS ARE TOSSING A SACK OF GRAIN. WHEN THE SACK BREAKS THEY WAIL, 'OH, NO! WHAT CAN WE THROW NOW?' ONE LOOKS YOUR WAY. 'I KNOW,' HE SAYS. A BATTLE BEGINS...

Apparently at least one of those words-- presumably "sack"-- raises a big red flag with Twitch's AI AutoMod bot. /eyeroll

Honestly, the whole thing is kind of funny in a "Can you believe it?" sort of way, yet at the same time it had me feeling really, really upset that I might find myself banned from Twitch, or worse, over some mindless AI bot freaking out over a phrase that was virtually identical (except that I'd said "the" instead of "a") to some innocent bit of text from a game. I mean, I'm still a little bit rattled over it-- part angry, but also part frightened.

So I guess what I'm saying is, "I feel ya," although at the same time, I think you should just put it behind you and try to forget about it. The best thing you can do (if doing nothing isn't an acceptable option to you) is try to calmly and helpfully provide an explanation of whatever it was you were trying to say in your deleted message-- but then simply let it go rather than trying to press the issue any further.

And by the way, I am definitely not trying to infer that any sort of AI bot was involved in flagging your forum post so a mod could look at it; I'm simply sharing my Twitch chat experience as a way of saying that I think I know how you feel.

spartaxoxo · December 14

MasterSpatula wrote: »

They used to actually respond to DMs objecting to their actions and take the time to explain their own reasoning. I don't think any of those mods who actually accepted that our points were worth addressing are still around, though. Now they just ignore you.

I do think this is a massive issue, personally. Sometimes I wish we could at least discuss this stuff in a way that did not get too specific because I have had seen some very baffling things but no explanation was ever given.

MJallday · December 14

I’m at the stage where I fear for posting anything on these forums for fear of over moderation