Can PF's Moderation Techniques Improve Other Online Discussion Sites?

[BillTre]

For a while, I have been keeping an eye on a kind of forum or bulletin board that the AAAS has set up. I have not really participated there much, due to their poor quality of discussions. Particular people are often dominating discussions by posting very frequently and not always on topic.
While discussing how this might be improved upon, this was mentioned:

The only measure I've ever directly experienced to work well in terms of post quality and setting topic boundaries, and do so over time, is a combination of (1) clear, simple and strict rules and (2) nearly 24/7 active moderation. As examples, I'd cite Physics Forums and Universe Today. The first is perhaps a better example, as it closely fits what I would understand as what John is seeking when science is the topic.

PF providing examples for other discussion sites.

Their leading idea now is to limit the number of posts/day or posts/thread/day. This seems to be favored based on its relative unintrusiveness and not requiring a lot of labor (moderators and ensuing arguments).
They have little moderation and probably can't easily increase it as things are run now.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Thanks for sharing Bill! PF rocks!

 

[Wrichik Basu]

PF is currently much better than other sites in terms of moderation alone, if I let aside other things. I am a member of StackExchange, and sometimes lurk around in their Android site to learn new stuff. Recently, there has been a lot of problem with the removal of a community-elected moderator (in one of their sister sites, not sure which one). The person was removed by the StackOverflow team on what it seemed to be "unexplained" grounds. Almost all SE sites are against this; some have started complaining about their life as moderators - carry out all the duties free of charge but earn no respect from the company staff. There seems to be a continuous clash between community mods and staff members in those sites.

On the contrary, here in PF, I never found any such problem. Our moderation team is more efficient compared to theirs, simply because mods are nominated and not elected by the community.

Thanks to the hard work by the mentors, the experience of the advisors, and, last but not least, Greg's leadership, PF is going to prosper in the coming days.

 

[OCR]

Recently, there has been a lot of problem with the removal of a community-elected moderator.

Monica Cellio. . .

. . . not sure which one. . .

Way more than one. . .

The person was removed by the StackOverflow team on what it seemed to be "unexplained" grounds.

You can read all (it might take two lifetimes) about the issues at the link below . . Firing mods and forced relicensing: is Stack Exchange still interested in cooperating with the community? - Meta Stack Exchange

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[Wrichik Basu]

You can read all (it might take two lifetimes) about the issues at the link below . .

No, thank you. I'm not interested in SE's problems any more. I mentioned the incident only for a comparison.

 

[OCR]

No, thank you. I'm not interested in SE's problems any more. I mentioned the incident only for a comparison.

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[Mark44]

From my experience as a member and later mentor, the staff here is very stable. I've been a mentor for at least the past 10 years (don't remember exactly when I got the nod), and no mods have been fired. A few have resigned, usually because of the time demands of moderating and the rest of their lives, and one or two left due a disagreement in how moderation should work, but other than that, things are very smooth.

 

[Jameson]

PF is a wonderful example of a forum in many ways. The site has stayed on top of its game for so many years, which is even more impressive. Many would be afraid to change the base software after so many years but the move to XF was great and Greg did it ahead of many others who are now following. I see many users and staff here that are unique to this site. On other forums you'll find almost a 100% overlap because they are kind of copies of the same idea. PF is not able to be copied so easily.