Maybe? I personally would be much more discouraged from posting by a public comment than a private message. However itād be nice if we could have a live log somewhere where forum users could see that we dmād an anonymous user.
Yes, I can see many people preferring a private message. One could ask people whether they would be fine with the private message being made public.
I also think public messages are more valuable when the moderation is more contentious, and this makes them less embarrassing because it will be less clear that people did something wrong.
I donāt know if it really matters if the message from a mod is public or private as long as comments that break the rules get removed.
If someone writes a comment that says āyouāre stupider than a potted plantā, that can just turn into [comment removed by moderator] or whatever. Or if someone writes an otherwise fine comment and ends it with āyouāre stupider than a potted plantā, a moderator could edit out just the last part that breaks the rules.
What is problematic is when the comments are never removed or edited, reports to the mods get no response, and there is no observable moderator action. None of the uncivil comments Iāve ever reported have gotten removed, and only one (among many, many, many) got a public comment from a moderator. I just checked and some mean laugh reacts (intended for mockery) are still up. Those were never removed.
Thereās so many different options. Instead of taking the comment down, mods could leave a brief public comment saying āPlease stay civilā or whatever and then engage more deeply with the person in a private message.
I havenāt noticed the incivility problem improving at any point that Iāve been active on the forum, and Iāve noticed some repeat offenders. I feel like whatever is being done isnāt working. And maybe part of the reason is that people understand whatās okay from what they see on the forum, and a lot of whatās on the forum is uncivil.
I also get the impression that the mods just have a much more lax view than I do about what counts as incivility. There are cases where mods seemingly just disagreed there was any reason for them to take action. I also think Toby, a moderator, using phrases like āpacked with hard to dispel misunderstandingsā, etc., is sort of a sign of how normalized harsh language is on the EA Forum. I think this sort of language is justā¦ I donāt know, itās so unpleasant that I just donāt want to be around it.
I donāt want to say definitively that Iāll never participate on the EA Forum at all ever again, but I feel like the tone here is just so nasty, it seems like Iām always regretting when I dip a toe back in.
Yes, I can see many people preferring a private message. One could ask people whether they would be fine with the private message being made public.
I also think public messages are more valuable when the moderation is more contentious, and this makes them less embarrassing because it will be less clear that people did something wrong.
I donāt know if it really matters if the message from a mod is public or private as long as comments that break the rules get removed.
If someone writes a comment that says āyouāre stupider than a potted plantā, that can just turn into [comment removed by moderator] or whatever. Or if someone writes an otherwise fine comment and ends it with āyouāre stupider than a potted plantā, a moderator could edit out just the last part that breaks the rules.
What is problematic is when the comments are never removed or edited, reports to the mods get no response, and there is no observable moderator action. None of the uncivil comments Iāve ever reported have gotten removed, and only one (among many, many, many) got a public comment from a moderator. I just checked and some mean laugh reacts (intended for mockery) are still up. Those were never removed.
Thereās so many different options. Instead of taking the comment down, mods could leave a brief public comment saying āPlease stay civilā or whatever and then engage more deeply with the person in a private message.
I havenāt noticed the incivility problem improving at any point that Iāve been active on the forum, and Iāve noticed some repeat offenders. I feel like whatever is being done isnāt working. And maybe part of the reason is that people understand whatās okay from what they see on the forum, and a lot of whatās on the forum is uncivil.
I also get the impression that the mods just have a much more lax view than I do about what counts as incivility. There are cases where mods seemingly just disagreed there was any reason for them to take action. I also think Toby, a moderator, using phrases like āpacked with hard to dispel misunderstandingsā, etc., is sort of a sign of how normalized harsh language is on the EA Forum. I think this sort of language is justā¦ I donāt know, itās so unpleasant that I just donāt want to be around it.
I donāt want to say definitively that Iāll never participate on the EA Forum at all ever again, but I feel like the tone here is just so nasty, it seems like Iām always regretting when I dip a toe back in.