Weekend Mods

[vryxnr]

Would it be at all possible to hire a part-timer (or hand pick a volunteer) to act as a "mini-cube" or a "ravenous bag of devouring" in order to be available on the weekend for forum moderation?

There are folk out there who seem to thrive on causing drama, spam, and breaking the forum rules... and they also generally seem to know that the weekend is their time to strike (often times creating a new account just to spam all weekend long until the get banned Monday morning). It doesn't happen every weekend, but it happens frequently enough that many of us know it as a thing.

It would be great to have some of the semblance of order and control that we experience during the week also extend into the weekend.

Thanks,

vryxnr

[Annex]

I must admit, I take guilty pleasure reading the Weekend Funnies.

Vexie the Cheeky Dagger: Whoa! Who are those guys over there?

Sophie the Cat Burglar: They show up every weekend. I'm not really sure.

Vexie: They look strange and talk funny.

Quasi-elf-o: The Reapers! THE REAPERS! They have ruined EVERYTHING!

The Elephant Dwarf: The Bugs! Bugs everywhere! Can you not SEE THEM!

Sophie: *walks up to the group* Is something wrong? Do you need some help?

Quasi-elf-o: No help! No help at all! Where is customer service! Where have they gone???

The Elephant Dwarf: I cannot fall asleep! The ticket! THE TICKET! THEY WILL CLOSE IT!!!

Vexie: Sophie, these guys are nuts. If they try to touch you I am getting all primeval on them.

Sophie: Shush, you.

Quasi-elf-o: No! NO! They must hear us! THEY MUST HEAR US! WHERE ARE THE DEVS! WHERE HAVE THE DEVS GONE!

Sophie: Sorry. I was shushing...never mind. Was someone supposed to help you? Are they late?

The Elephant Dwarf: Late? LATE??? It is TOO LATE!!! Once you embrace Pay to Win, forever will it dominate your DESTINY!

Vexie: What does that even mean?

Sophie: Maybe they took a wrong turn somewhere. The people who were supposed to help you.

Quasi-elf-o: Where is the Player's Council??? THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US! VILLAINS! TRAITORS!

Vexie: What the heck is a player's council? Is that those Tieflings who always hit on you and the Succubi at the night club?

Sophie: No. No. I think I understand. These are players. Old ones. They have been here a long time.

Vexie. Well, you obviously understand crazy way better than me. These guys are nuts. Someone should call the Watch.

Sophie: They were adventurers. Like us. But the world changed. The adventures they loved changed into ones they no longer enjoy. It twisted them.

Quasi-elf-o: Too many past lives. TOO MANY!!! DO YOU SEE WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO ME???

Sophie: They are now prisoners, lost in their memories of better days, struggling to cope with the way the world works now.

The Elephant Dwarf: The end game. Gone. Gone. It was so beautiful. THEY RUINED IT!

Sophie: They are stuck. Like insects in amber. They cannot escape this universe. They cannot let go.

Vexie: They look more like poorly cut hunks of dead meat to me.

Sophie: This is what could happen to us.

Vexie: Is that why you just bought that cool spaceship?

Sophie: Yes. *offers The Elephant Dwarf a flower*

The Elephant Dwarf: I AM NOT A BROKEN BUILD!

Sophie: They are Waiting for the Devs*. But the Devs never come.

Vexie: Whatever.




* For those who are not well read, this is a reference to Waiting for Godot.

[TDarkchylde]

I need more of Sophie's Dagger in my life.

We also need some kind of weekend moderation just as much. General can be horrifying to try and read while the malcontents believe/know the mods are away.

[Amundir]

Game is open 24-7, but support is weekdays 9-5. Never made sense to me, honestly.

[vryxnr]

I need more of Sophie's Dagger in my life.

We also need some kind of weekend moderation just as much. General can be horrifying to try and read while the malcontents believe/know the mods are away.

I would say it wasn't just horrifying, the general forums basically shut themselves down yesterday. No one but the one miscreant was posting, and he was spamming new threads so that almost the entire first page of the general forums was nothing but his posts/threads, all toxic topics (several with swear words bypassing the language filter in the title) with barely any views and 0 replies. That last part (where no one was replying) is good though. It means people were taking the good ol' advice of "don't feed the trolls" and/or were putting him on ignore. I did not put him on ignore because then I'd not see his posts, and if I can't see them, I can't report them for the moderators to eventually see them when they do get back online.

Though that was still the case where the general forums basically had no real activity, and any new person coming in to check things out would see nothing but that spam and an empty (activity wise) forum. Why do I care about new blood? Because I care about this game's survival into the future, and in order to thrive a game must keep new blood coming in (supporting the vets is also important, but it cannot be one or the other. You need both. Eventually the vet cash-wales grow old and move and real life happens, and the new blood needs to take their place).

However, there was a thread elsewhere where Cordovan weighed in on this, so I'm quoting that here as it's relevant.

Thing is, I do check the forums most weekends, so while weekend trolls get maybe up to 12 hours or so to do their thing, I nuke 'em as soon as I see them. I was not around yesterday, though. Keep in mind, I've been reading these forums for 10+ years, and actually do it on my own time for fun and to enjoy this part of DDO (yes, I am that crazy.)

We've thought about volunteer moderators in the past, but there are just too many issues with it, both as a business and for community reasons. It's possible we could utilize some of Daybreak's contract moderators, though, in the future, if needed. They are already on contract to do off-hours/weekend work, so we could get in on that maybe.

Overall, though, outside of issues like the ones this weekend, it doesn't seem to be - too - big of a problem.

[Chai]

This needs some serious consideration. There is some obvious pattern based trolling which ramps up on Friday right after office hours and stops early Monday morning, like clock work.

[vryxnr]

...and a new weekend warrior troll as emerged.

le-sigh

...and I don't have time to report all of it due to the 60 second timer between reporting posts for being rude/spam and I have to leave home soon.

weee?

[JP457]

The problem with giving someone mod powers during non-working hours is that whoever is picked will not be the guy you want. Do you honestly want certain people on this board to have mod powers?

[psykopeta]

The problem with giving someone mod powers during non-working hours is that whoever is picked will not be the guy you want. Do you honestly want certain people on this board to have mod powers?

and what's the worst could happen?