The Moderators

What is everyones opinion on them? There are some that I think do a stellar job, however on the other hand there are some that are on a bit of a power trip and some of their decisions are downright stupid. For instance, yesterday, somebody started an innocent thread asking some questions about Amazon, wanting to know how selling on it worked. I consider this perfectly acceptable for the off-topic forum. However the moderator, MB, told him to phone customer service and locked it. What is the point of having a community that can't ask each other for help. It's not ok to ask serious questions, yet when there is yet another thread about "Who's your favorite Actor?" or "Do you smoke?" these are allowed to stay. 
 
And at the same time as the Amazon question, JoeRiccadonna started a thread saying that America should go to war with Yemen, because there are Al-Qaeda members there and he believes his uncle got cancer from 9/11. This then sparked a thread of hatred, with insults being thrown left right and centre. Yet this thread is still open. The moderators hammer on about the rules but they are only put into place on the most stupid of occasions. 
 
I think that we, the community, need to have a more public say on how the moderators work. Whenever we have a problem with them, we are asked to email the community email, but this never leads to anything. There should be a regular vote, maybe monthly, on the moderators performance, how we the community feel they have done. This would then promote the moderators to try and be more considerate in their work and the best ones would be recognised. However, if the community feels there is a certain moderator that is just locking down every odd thing for kicks, they should be removed from their post. I feel this would unite the community together alot more and also lead to a better system.
 
What do you guys think?

This isn't going to end well..........

" This isn't going to end well.......... "

Being a mod is a SHITTY job. They are doing fine.

I think you have a fair point with some things you say. There does seem to be a lack of consistency at times, but overall... I think they do a perfectly good job.

I think there's only 3-4 that actually do their job.

Want to know how the mods do what they do? Read the damn rules. Fuck up, pay the consequences.

" @JJOR64 said:

" This isn't going to end well.......... "

"

" Want to know how the mods do what they do? Read the damn rules. Fuck up, pay the consequences. "

" @Bombs_Away: Every time we have a thread of this nature, it usually just gets locked. "

MB should lock this. Nobody fucks with MB.

They haven't fucked up yet so that's good. They did become Moderators for a good reason you know (although one seems to have disappeared). It's a little tricky really to decide wheter or not a topic should be locked or not really. I can't really explain it but from what I've seen most of the locked threads deserved to be locked. Not all perhaps but it's not exactly a critical thread of sorts.
 
That said, just follow the rules and you'll be fine.

" MB should lock this. Nobody fucks with MB. "

I appreciate the mods on any forum, their job is the worst.

While I agree a lot of moderators are assholes on a power trip.  I rarely see it here, if ever, which is an extremely nice change.  However, there is one massive fanboy troll that never gets reprimanded which is annoying.
 
I remember you got one of your threads locked and were have a hissy fit about it.  Thus, probably the REAL point of you making this thread.  Not because of some "innocent" amazon thread you speak of.

You probably should have just PMed MB, or the other mods, this. They're doing fine.

" @JJOR64 said:

" @Bombs_Away: Every time we have a thread of this nature, it usually just gets locked. "

This is one of my points, shouldn't the community have more say in all of this? I'm not causing problems in any way, I am simply bringing an important issue to the fore. "

" I think there's only 3-4 that actually do their job. "

" I think there's only 3-4 that actually do their job. "

The only ones I've ever seen actively do stuff are MB, Kane and sometimes Matty. Some other positions seem a bit...needless. Oh, and Hamz.

" @handlas: How long ago was that closed? I spoke to the Mod privately and we dealed with it. If you think I'm lying about what I've said you can check for yourself, it is all true. "

" @TheMustacheHero said:

" I think there's only 3-4 that actually do their job. "

There's only 3-4 that do their job well. "

Some mods seem a little lock happy, but most of them are doing fine. Matty is a great mod.

" For instance, yesterday, somebody started an innocent thread asking some questions about Amazon, wanting to know how selling on it worked. I consider this perfectly acceptable for the off-topic forum. However the moderator, MB, told him to phone customer service and locked it. What is the point of having a community that can't ask each other for help. It's not ok to ask serious questions, yet when there is yet another thread about "Who's your favorite Actor?" or "Do you smoke?" these are allowed to stay.   And at the same time as the Amazon question, JoeRiccadonna started a thread saying that America should go to war with Yemen, because there are Al-Qaeda members there and he believes his uncle got cancer from 9/11. This then sparked a thread of hatred, with insults being thrown left right and centre. Yet this thread is still open.

I will look into that Yemen thread for you guys.  While I am doing that, my fellow moderator comrades will speak their mind on this subject.

i'm glad we're slowly getting into a serious discussion on this, not panicking like the first few posters. Hopefully we can get some good ideas going.

 
Topics on GiantBomb should be constructive. We try to stray away from discussions that are either ignorant, silly, or a waste of GiantBomb's space and potentially burying important topics. If someone is obviously uneducated on the matter, then we'll help them out. However, if a user is just making a lot of noise, prepare for a lock.
 
That Yemen topic should probably be locked though...holy crap!

Let them do whatever. As long as they don't unnessarsarily shit on SFIV threads that are productive I don't care what they do.

They do what they do. I don't have an opinion on their work or criticize their locks because it's notmy business. The topics that get locked are locked for a reason.
 
I let them do what they're supposed to do and I keep myself away from their bad side. I think I've done pretty good so far, and I'm nearly two years in.
 
That's gotta be some kind of record for me.
 
A lot of you give them shit for how they do their job. Have you tried moderating a forum? It's painstakingly tedious.

I've said this before a few times. I think the mods here for the most part do a very good job when they are around, but often there is no one on to lock the spam threads as they show up. 

 Really? You want to have a mod popularity contest every month? You think that an individual moderator's value to the site can best be summed up in a user poll? 

Did we not already have a mod efficiency discussion a few months ago?

They have the right touch of leniency with some of the threads here.