Goodaltgamer: It seems that GOG is willing to let us choose our own rules instead of GOG making up their own list.
nipsen: ..ok. From experience as mod on a forum where I eventually did not make a single moderator action for a year:
1. No Americans, sanctimonious jerks, virtual sheriffs or stupid people on the mod team. The reason for this is that when you start a campaign for a war on trolls, or set out to remove all problems, etc., you essentially attract them and create troll seeds where none existed before. Perfectly normal people lose their bloody mind when they get faced with something like this: "Hi!!! I'm a moderator!!!! Let's make the board a better place for everyone, yaayyyy!!!". Which is perfectly fucking understandable.
2. Talk to people like they are real people. Set the standard as a mod, and posters know what to expect. Technical rules in that sense are often worse than no rules, because you imply that as long as you can avoid the technicalities everything's fine, and all is forgiven. Conversely, when someone does get the brunt of the lawbook, or leaflet, or whatever, they don't feel punished either.
3. Have your "moderating action" discussions in public. The only reason you would want to make moderator discussions private is because you want to hide the fact that you're a stupid little shit with too much power and no ability to wield it. Like your average president of a certain country for the last 25 years at least. Just saying.
4. Discuss with "problem-people" in public. Don't pressure people into a corner, to make them prove at a critical junction that they can contribute to the overall forum, etc. Just talk to people like they're normal people, and that your demand of them are sensible. Sustain that by defending your demand, if any, and certainly your view - in public. And then admit you are wrong if your argument is not sufficient to defend your point of view. No one loses face that way, unless you're a sanctmonious dipshit. The problem is, of course, that you can't be a childish little moron who can't argue with anyone without screaming your head off. Which is the one problem you run into when recruiting mods - only idiots want to be mods.
5. Don't enable popularity contests. Remember: Even if it doesn't seem that way, or people look and act like they are 60 years old, and have actually retired and are literally sitting in a peaceful home by a lake somewhere counting swans - when they log on to the internet they are going to be an envious and frustrated 6 year-old again. Given encouragement, anyone will turn into a stupid sheep when they log on online. So as a mod, the last - the very last - thing you should do is say things like this: "let's have a poll on it to decide this". There is no subject of any kind that can be settled in a discussion forum with a poll outside: "how many people are here".
6. Look at an online forum in this way: it can potentially reach so many people that the ones who sign up may very well be the most brilliant people on the planet, with such a wide variety of skills and expertises, that there is no reason why not every single member here shouldn't be a genius. As opposed to "my gawd, this forum is free for everyone, I bet all the poor people will squat here".
7. Employ your mods to do something else than just moderating. In the military, you put people to dig trenches, or just holes in the ground, to stop them from doing any damage when they randomly trump around everywhere else. There's no point to it, but it keeps the soldiers busy and happy. Rather than sad and trigger-happy. This is exactly the same principle you need with moderators on a forum: have them work on digests or newsbits, small creative projects or discussion topics. Not only will it keep them out of trouble, it is also a way to let the community get to know the mods from a different angle than "obey me now, or face my wratthh!!".
Follow these simple rules, and I guarantee you that you will see the number of moderating actions drop, and the need for interference from moderators practically disappear. Which then of course also is tied to the mood on the board in the sense that people accept more outlandish opinion than they normally would. As well as state their opinions and views in a less provoking matter as before. The height of the roof becomes higher, to put it like that. Which should be easy to accept, since we don't even see people in real life.
The drawback with this process is that people who only enjoy trolling and ego-trip worship will have to go back to the comment fields on Kotaku again to get their fix. As the other community won't have any place for annoying dipshits like that.
I totally agree on the rest though especcially on the no-go for "hidden mod actions".
