Moderator Recruitment / Respect / Privacy & Anonymity / Curtailing Abuse

Hi all,

 

Further to my post from a few weeks ago, Hope1962 and I would like to see a return of the systems we suspended last year because of abuses (originating from outside of BB) and because of a major forum upgrade which proved incompatible with some add-on systems. Unfortunately, until we have a larger team, we cannot commit the required moderation resources to return all these features and systems. We are actively looking for members to invite onto the team to help out and return the forum to normal functioning.

 

Moderator Recruitment

 

Every so often, we go through a round of sending out invitations to potential moderators, but, of course, for a variety of reasons, not all potential moderators feel that they can say 'yes'. Mostly, they cite their own recovery problems. I'd like to reassure members that we do not expect members of the team to neglect their personal recovery priorities, and we even supply a team support area in case they might prefer to discuss their personal withdrawal and recovery problems 'in private'. Other team members prefer to use the public boards. Being a member of the team requires little more time here then you would normally spend on the forum. Your own recovery should not be compromised by any commitment you might make to the team, and even affords you a second avenue of support. And, of course, any such commitment to the team is not binding. Most of the team take breaks from time-to-time too - this is to be expected.

 

Respect

 

We have received one or two hints at another barrier that might discourage some from joining the team. It seems that some members feel that team members attract an unwarranted and disproportionate amount of abuse from a small number of members. Whilst we try our best to be understanding towards those that may be acting out of character during their withdrawal, if this has the effect of discouraging others from joining the team, or impedes team members' own recovery, this is unacceptable. This affects individual team members, and the forum as whole if it makes it harder for us to recruit suitable people to be moderators. The services and features we provide are directly affected by the size of the active team. So, we have decided to take a tougher approach with those that engage in such abuse. Some of you will know that we banned a few persistently problematical members a few weeks ago - this has improved the situation - the forum is much more settled.

 

The 'tougher' stance on abuse will affect few members, and so long as any 'complaints' are handled appropriately and proportionately by contacting the team through the PM system or the Help Desk, simply complaining about an issue you feel was not handled well or handled unjustly, will have no effect upon your membership of this forum. As before, neither will simple, respectful, measured public statements disagreeing with me or a team member on a particular matter attract the attentions of the moderation team. This is purely about requiring a little more respect towards those that volunteer their help during a time when they are usually trying to cope with their own personal struggles too, and to ensure that members are not put off joining the team.

 

Privacy & Anonymity

 

Another (smaller issue) that affects all members (but which might be a greater issue for some considering joining the team), relates to 'privacy'. Recently, as most of you are probably aware - following requests from members that make the forum 'private' - we changed some forum boards to 'members only'. We do not propose to make all areas of the forum private; certainly not those core areas which most benefit visitors to the website. However, to help provide even greater privacy, we have just made changes to how posts on the remaining public boards are displayed to non-members and search engines. Anyone not logged into the forum will be unable to view the personal information that is usually included with posts: membership name, avatar, signature line, gender, post count, tag line, and names appearing in quote headers. These changes will not remove your name when it is included within the body of a post, but it will make member contributions more anonymous. This measure will have little detrimental effect upon the casual visitor looking for information, arriving here because of a search engine return. They will still be able to read the 'meat' of the posts.

 

Curtailing Abuse

 

As I reported a few days ago, we have also taken measures to keep out a few determined miscreants, who are interested in nothing more than creating problems and upset for members, and attempt to engage in systematic abuse. They are now finding it very difficult access the forum through proxies, etc. We are adding more barriers all the time; it will become almost impossible for them to access our private and non-anonymised content as further measures are rolled out.

 

Request

 

On behalf of Hope and pianogirl and the rest of the team, I'd like to ask members two things:

 

[*]If in the past you were invited to join the team, but felt that you were unable to accept (for whatever reason), but you now feel more able to offer this kind of help, please contact Hope1962 or pianogirl.

 

 

[*]If you are contacted by a member of the team inquiring whether you might like to join the team, please give this serious consideration.

 

In Summary

 

There are a number of features and services - and future planned services - which are affected by the shortfall in the size of the team we require. Members should understand that we are very careful about those we ask to join the team; we will sacrifice services and features before we drop our expectations and standards from the team. If members would like to see a return of the chat room, and the creation of some great new features (that we've had to place on the back-burner), this lies in your hands.

 

I look forward to reading your comments and feedback.

 

Thank you.

Will the names/signatures be 'Hidden' from now on unless we're logged on?  If so, do you suggest we stop signing our names to our posts to preserve the anonymity?

Challis

Will the names/signatures be 'Hidden' from now on unless we're logged on?  If so, do you suggest we stop signing our names to our posts to preserve the anonymity?

Challis

 

Hello Challis,

 

Names and signature lines indeed will be hidden from now on unless you are logged into the forum.

 

You raise an good point about including or not including your name in posts (or, at least, posts to the public boards). This matter had not escaped us. Of course, it us up to you. You might choose to sign off without using your name, but, rather, some general salutation. You might choose to use a quote (with header) to address a particular member (this means their name will be removed from the header when viewed by someone not logged into the forum) - thus, helping to preserve their anonymity. We may or may not enable further measures that might help in this regard later, but it is a much more difficult coding and practical problem to remove names that form part of a post's content. Certainly, any 'solution' would be imperfect, with false negatives and false positives.

 

I hope this helps.

To Colin and the team -

 

This is just a really brief comment to say how constantly impressed I am by the way this site is managed, and the efforts undertaken to support and protect members.  THANK YOU.

 

Rekroywen

oh good question Challis.  I like that idea.  Id just like to ask what the criteria is for a position on the team.  I know you invite people but what about the people that ask to be on the team and get knocked back.  How do you define someone as suitable Id like to know that.  It is indeed a thankless task for sure however in my understanding I joined in February it feels like years ago however I would have loved to have been on the team sure I was sick but still i responded to lots and lots of people I had so much time now Im back in the world of the living and not here as much which is great but I guess you could try asking some people who dont fit the standard mould often when people are sick giving back provides the greatest distraction and it could be helpful in recovery. 

 

I have a suggestion for you how about you put a positions vacant section to your Forum and see who applies for those positions then select from these people and take it from there.  Im sure there are lots of people out there who would love to be on the team you maybe surprised. 

 

all the best

 

Lizzy

 

So it would be okay to use names on blogs and Off-Topic...those are always hidden from the public, right?

Yes Challis. That's correct.

To Colin and the team -

 

This is just a really brief comment to say how constantly impressed I am by the way this site is managed, and the efforts undertaken to support and protect members.  THANK YOU.

 

Rekroywen

 

Thank you, Rekroywen, for your very kind words. I'd like to add my special thanks to the Nick and Jack (the Development Team) for donating their time and expertise to keep this community and its members safe.

 

Lizzy,

 

We do not, for the reason you indicated, ask for volunteers. We do not wish to turn down well intentioned offers of help. For security reasons, we do not publicise our selection criteria. Certainly, how we feel a member might be negatively affected by being on the team is one factor. Members certainly should not read anything into not being invited to join the team, or being turned down in the event of offering their help.

 

Challis,

 

There is no need to change any of your posting habits to the non-public boards. After all, only members can access those boards, and all the usual personal details are displayed on those boards anyway.

Thank you Colin, Nick and Jack!!! I have been worried about security for awhile now but this is great. This is odd and unbelievable but last night the name hiding occured to me and I thought about suggesting it. No one will believe this but it kind of weirds me out since I have ocd anyway lol. Thank you all for this and it does help me feel safer. Much love to all of you.

 

Thank you Challis for bring up the fact that our names would be there if we signed them on a post. My benzo brain may have taken awhile...a long while... to think of that. I do sign my name a lot but won't now unless it's on a Buddy Blog.

 

Great work to all of the team and much thanks. 

It's our pleasure JuustHere.

 

 

((((Hope)))) 

Ok, that just hit me. I gave a hug to Hope. Now we shouldn't say people's names in posts right? Like when we are empathetic and say that we are sorry and then address the person. This will take getting used to with my brain. I do love the whole thing but have to retrain myself.

We will be sending out invitations in the coming days and weeks. We would be very happy, if you receive one, if you would give it careful consideration. 

 

I should mention that the search for team members is an ongoing project so if you don't receive an invitation in the next few weeks, you may down the road.

 

Thank you all for your support of this forum and it's members.

 

 

Hope

Ok, that just hit me. I gave a hug to Hope. Now we shouldn't say people's names in posts right? Like when we are empathetic and say that we are sorry and then address the person. This will take getting used to with my brain. I do love the whole thing but have to retrain myself.

 

It will take getting used to...for the team as well. lol

Btw, these are the boards that are members-only. In other words, you can use names on these boards and guests will not be able to see them. This board (Community News) is not viewable by guests. 

 

Buddie Blogs

Buddie Space

Faith and Philosophy

Alternative Therapies & Supplements

Off-Topic

Progress Logs

Community News and Notices

Feedback

Technical Support

 

Ok, that just hit me. I gave a hug to Hope. Now we shouldn't say people's names in posts right? Like when we are empathetic and say that we are sorry and then address the person. This will take getting used to with my brain. I do love the whole thing but have to retrain myself.

 

Well, there is no bar on this. But, often, there is no need to use a name. Say, if you have just used a quote box (with their name in the quote header); of if their post immediately preceded yours, or you might use an initial. However, it is not always convenient to do this, and it might be confusing to not use a name. Just use your best judgement and what is reasonably convenient for you to use - there is no rule about this.

 

As you say, we can often address people in a respectful manner without actually using their name.

im confused about the name thing I mean why does that matter i dont use my real name on here who does?  so are we supposed to stop using them. 

 

 

 

im confused about the name thing I mean why does that matter i dont use my real name on here who does?  so are we supposed to stop using them. 

 

 

Some of our members prefer their screen names not be able to be viewed by guests, for a variety of reasons. If you wish to continue to use your name you certainly may. There's no rule against it. However, others may wish to have their names kept off posts for privacy reasons. 

 

 

im confused about the name thing I mean why does that matter i dont use my real name on here who does?  so are we supposed to stop using them. 

 

 

Some of our members prefer their screen names not be able to be viewed by guests, for a variety of reasons. If you wish to continue to use your name you certainly may. There's no rule against it. However, others may wish to have their names kept off posts for privacy reasons. 

 

 

 

It may not be possible to stop the names from appearing.  If someone quotes you, the title of the quote has your name.  For example: Quote from: ld1 on Today at 05:53:20 PM

 

Am I wrong?

im confused about the name thing I mean why does that matter i dont use my real name on here who does?  so are we supposed to stop using them. 

 

 

Some of our members prefer their screen names not be able to be viewed by guests, for a variety of reasons. If you wish to continue to use your name you certainly may. There's no rule against it. However, others may wish to have their names kept off posts for privacy reasons. 

 

 

 

It may not be possible to stop the names from appearing.  If someone quotes you, the title of the quote has your name.  For example: Quote from: ld1 on Today at 05:53:20 PM

 

Am I wrong?

 

Those names will be hidden from guests as well, hb.

Looking at the new private format before logging on, it's really nice to have the names hidden.

A great idea...thank you, Development Team!

 

Challis 

Great idea to hide names. The septic tank man can’t print them if he can’t see them. Excellent.

 

thing is if the person is on the forum and others who have multiple memberships this will not stop them at all.

thing is if the person is on the forum and others who have multiple memberships this will not stop them at all.

 

We have, and are continuing to implement security measures. Nothing is 100% but this will certainly help a great deal.

thing is if the person is on the forum and others who have multiple memberships this will not stop them at all.

 

So, partial success is worth nothing!? Better to do nothing and have no success? I think that is more than a little defeatist. We can do only what we can do.

 

As I explained, access (for those seek to cause us problems) has also been severely curtailed. These measures are incremental, and more will follow.