Should we bring back a moderator team?

[Atlanticmike]

Telestial description is


I think this implies that interpersonal conflicts and insults are not allowed in terrestrial.

You can have a pillow fight in Terrestrial. Spirit Paradise does not have its Paradisiacal Glory yet. However, with the possibility of moderation and many nights of rest, perhaps there could be peace.

You're starting to grow on me Mike. I might just take my My Pillow out of the closet tonight and try it out again!!

[Atlanticmike]

NO, Atlanticmike, posts like that will NOT be allowed to remain in the Spirit Paradise forum. YES, Atlanticmike, posts like that WILL be moderated, most likely by moving them to the Spirit Prison forum.

I'm all done for the night then, thank you sir.

[Tator]

I hold on to the Terrestrial Forum like the iron rod and rarely ever go astray.

I rarely stray but when I have it has been to Celestial Forum, thus this thread has been an eye opener to the lower kingdoms. But it must be good place to go if you want to argue over politics, dicks and mushrooms all in the same thread or even same sentence. It confirms why I chose to rarely go there.

[Michael J. Lindell]

NO, Atlanticmike, posts like that will NOT be allowed to remain in the Spirit Paradise forum. YES, Atlanticmike, posts like that WILL be moderated, most likely by moving them to the Spirit Prison forum.

I'm all done for the night then, thank you sir.

I am happy that you are ready rest your head tonight on a premium pillow.

[Michael J. Lindell]

NO, Atlanticmike, posts like that will NOT be allowed to remain in the Spirit Paradise forum. YES, Atlanticmike, posts like that WILL be moderated, most likely by moving them to the Spirit Prison forum.

That looks like a ton of work. You will benefit from a premium pillow, mattress and mattress topper. Use promo code POSO for up to 67% off.

[Jersey Girl]

I rarely visit any forum besides Terrestrial, and I thought it was being moderated pretty consistently. So I guess that means that Terrestrial seems all right to me now, as it is. Usually irreverent but almost always civil. Spirit Paradise, on the other hand, seems uneven. It often dips closer to what I'd have expected Spirit Prison to be.

So my first reaction about appointing more moderators is that I'm neutral. I'm happy with Terrestrial now and I rarely visit SP. But perhaps I should instead vote for more moderation, if it came with some rethinking of how the different boards here are supposed to work.

The community here is mostly ex-Mormon, so there's a lot of common ground but also a lot of interest in things outside Mormonism. That's probably a use case for a forum dedicated to non-Mormon topics but maintaining roughly the tone of Terrestrial. Spirit Paradise doesn't seem to be filling that niche right now.

Spirit Prison is outright dedicated to insulting and NSFW material. Seriously, why even have a forum here explicitly for that? In its current form Spirit Prison is not even very active. So I'd suggest reclassifying Spirit Prison to absorb the strata of the current Spirit Paradise that may not strictly be insults or porn but that wouldn't fly in Terrestrial. Then Spirit Paradise could be tightened up to a level more like Terrestrial.

If SP and TF were similarly moderated, it might be worth rethinking the division between these two boards. In theory it's about Mormon relevance, but I think in practice it has also been about the lower level of civility in SP, because quite a few academic or philosophical threads survive in Terrestrial even though they have little to do with Mormonism per se. Threads of sufficiently lofty tone seem to be okay here regardless of Mormon content. In effect Terrestrial has been simultaneously the Terrestrial Forum of the Mormon boards and the Celestial Forum of the non-Mormon boards.

If Spirit Paradise were more tightly moderated then non-Mormon threads from Terrestrial could get moved there more consistently.

Or alternatively we could decide that the broader spectrum of threads in Terrestrial proves that a tight focus on Mormon-related topics isn't really necessary. We could then merge the non-Mormon boards into the Mormon ones, and just focus on maintaining distinct levels of moderation in Celestial, Terrestrial, Telestial, and OD.

Maybe there are other options as well. Anyway, while we're thinking about bringing in more moderation, presumably mainly for Spirit Paradise, I'd suggest we take the opportunity to think about issues like these as well.

PG,

That's a whole lot of thought sharing for someone who is obviously functioning in a vacuum.

Towards the demise of the old board, the board had 2 moderators (EA & Dr.Shades) and it couldn't be moderated at all because it was BROKEN.

Bring on more moderation? There is one Group Leader of the Mod Team, Dr. Shades. There IS no mod team. EA left before the old board went down and he's never returned.

The current situation in Paradise is such that it has been trolled to a point of critical mass. Don't think that can happen in the Mormon related forums? Apparently you don't remember the rampant trolling of MG.

This board has been equipped with a mod team since the very beginning when Shades and Bond, James Bond, made up the first team. That was four versions and 15+ years ago.

You don't seem to be familiar with the forum set ups here.

The Board Rules are the same for:

Terrestrial and Paradise
Telestial and Prison


Dr. Shades set up the kingdom levels from the beginning. They are set up the way they are to accommodate specific interests. They were part of his vision before the board hit air.

I'm dumbfounded how so many people can post on this board and yet, seem completely unfamiliar with the way it is set up and/or it's functioning, or what the rules are and where they are even located. The fact that you, for example, state that you thought this board was being moderated pretty consistently, or that you speak in terms of 'more moderation' when there IS no mod team in place and no evidence whatsoever of any moderator action at all here is mind boggling.

Be clear. The Paradise Forum is trolled to a point of critical mass precisely because there IS no moderation taking place. Shades is one person. He is, for the time being, out of pocket. That means there is no hope of any moderation taking place. And right now, Terrestrial is ripe for the picking for someone like MG.

If he or someone like him is reading here right now, Terrestrial is next.

[Jersey Girl]

NO, Atlanticmike, posts like that will NOT be allowed to remain in the Spirit Paradise forum. YES, Atlanticmike, posts like that WILL be moderated, most likely by moving them to the Spirit Prison forum.

I'm all done for the night then, thank you sir.

You had no need to ask to begin with. It's been explained to you multiple times in the Paradise forum that you've been trolling. Likewise you had no need to post examples of posts authored by Cam when the reason for his doing so was explained to you at least 3 times, also in the Paradise Forum that you've been trolling.

[Physics Guy]

I'm not surprised to learn that there's a lot of stuff I don't know about board history and policies, and the absence of moderation in particular. If my level of ignorance surprises you, though, then that means you've also been operating in some measure of vacuum: you've been imagining that everybody here knows all about how things are supposed to work, when in fact there has been little general communication about this.

The forum description of Terrestrial on the Board Index page says "Minimal moderation". The description for Telestial says "No moderation". Spirit Paradise and Prison have the same movie-rating levels as Terrestrial and Telestial but their descriptions on Board Index don't mention anything about moderation. In my rare visits to Spirit Paradise, here and on the old site as well, it has always seemed cruder than Terrestrial. So I've always figured that people were fine with this and the absence of moderation statements for the non-Mormon forums was no accident.

It's hard to know how seriously to take any rules that are declared on a website like this, if they don't seem to be respected in practice in the way one expects. Sometimes the posted rules are just out of date. And anyway, guidelines like "PG to PG-13" are good indications of what to expect, but they're vague as standards to enforce. If Paradise and Terrestrial seem to be operating under different interpretations of what "PG-13" is supposed to mean for a message board, how am I supposed to know that this is a recent crisis?

This thread of Shades's is in Terrestrial and it's asking generally about bringing back a mod team. If the real issue is that Shades has so far been able to manage Terrestrial nicely by himself, but Spirit Paradise is currently being swarmed by trolls and Shades can't cope with it alone, then that could have been more clearly put.

[ceeboo]

Hey Shades,

As far as this polling thread goes, I think putting a replacement mod team back in play is the wise thing to do. Given what I have seen over the last several weeks, it's not just wise, it's also the only option I can think of that can restore the board to a fully functional board. As I type this, the board is not fully functional and when a board is not fully functional, it can and does create a lot of frustration, annoyance and weariness among those who have no other choice but to be forced to try and manage or ignore or dodge or dance around all of the distractions that are being placed all over many threads. in my opinion, nobody should have to be forced in this position, The biggest risk that this community is facing, with all of this, is the real risk that some of the board members might decide to just leave the community. So yeah, in my opinion, other than bringing back a mod team, I don't see any other options to return this board to a fully functional board. I voted "Yes"

Now for the more important thing: You mentioned that your personal life went from bad to much worse recently. I have no idea what you are going through and you need not share it with me/us - But if there is anything I - or we as a board - can do for you, please let someone know. At the end if the day, I am certain that there are many folks here that care and would be willing to help you - In what ever form that help might be. Maybe you could PM someone you trust and have known for many years = then they could pass it along without giving out too much personal information (Maybe someone like Jersey Girl?)

Anyway, I hope (and I pray) that whatever it is that you are going through, you find a way to get beyond it and come out the other side.
Best wishes, Shades

[Moksha]

My reading of the forum rules suggests the Spirit Paradise was never meant as a potty mouth forum. At least those two women from the MAD board that started here at the very beginning of these forums used gentle swear words. Our new gentlemen posters take their crudeness all the way.

Voluntary restraint is great until you have posters showing up with a political or religious ax to grind against other posters.