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Forum excessively moderated

Printed From: IslamiCity.org
Category: General
Forum Name: Comments & Complaints
Forum Description: Comments & Complaints
URL: https://www.islamicity.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23505
Printed Date: 19 March 2024 at 5:39am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: Forum excessively moderated
Posted By: danieldemol
Subject: Forum excessively moderated
Date Posted: 16 July 2012 at 5:02pm
Assalamu Alaikum,

Forums which treat people as guilty until proven innocent are in my view unjust.

It is easy to ban people and delete posts if they break the rules, and there is a report button to draw attention of the moderators to nasty posts, so it would make more sense to acknowledge that the majority of people are good and not handcuff their posts unless they step out of line. You (presumably) wouldn't handcuff an innocent person in real life on the off chance that they commit a crime, and it makes no sense to abuse good people online that way either.

Kind regards,
Dan



Replies:
Posted By: Abu Loren
Date Posted: 18 July 2012 at 3:25am
Walaikkum As'alaam

I've been around a few Muslim forums and any subject that challenges or criticizes Islam is not tolerated nor the person given any chance for apologising. Some forums go straight for the BAN button.

In my view any subject should be open for discussion even atheists and anti-Islamists should be welcomed because then we can put them straight with the beauty that is contained in Islam. You never know they might start seeing the light and convert.

What they all say and agree is that Islam has been going for over 1433 years and nothing should be changed or challenged. What I've also found is that particularly reverts ask difficult questions and they would rather by-pass it than give a straight answer.

Allahu Alum.


Posted By: Matt Browne
Date Posted: 22 July 2012 at 3:48am
Abu, I couldn't agree more. But there's the inability of some devout Muslims to counter valid criticism. Deleting posts is just simpler.



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A religion that's intolerant of other religions can't be the world's best religion --Abdel Samad
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people--Eleanor Roosevelt


Posted By: nospam001
Date Posted: 04 October 2012 at 5:59pm
Hi Abu, I wish you were one of the moderators.

My recent questions about the Qur'an have been approved but only after long delays of 1-2 days each. By that time they no longer qualify as 'active topics' so are unlikely to be read or 'put straight'.

Technically it's not censorship, but the result is the same.

Are there any similar forums where users can 'opt-in' to see fresh postings that the moderators think 'might offend some'?


Posted By: Ron Webb
Date Posted: 06 October 2012 at 9:14am
Just for the record: I have posted more than 1300 messages on this forum.  As an atheist, I have been extremely critical of many aspects of Islam and have probably questioned just about every one of its tenets at various times.  I think I've been politely cautioned a couple of times when my sarcasm has become a bit too abrasive, but I have never had any serious difficulties with the moderators.
 
I do agree that delaying the messages of new members is frustrating for both newbies and veterans.  I'm sure the moderators had their reasons for imposing these restrictions, but I wonder if it might be time to reconsider.  I suspect this policy must be a significant barrier to membership growth.
 
How about this idea?  Why not allow Starter members' messages to appear on the forum immediately, but give all Senior members the ability to move them temporarily to a hidden "quarantine" area if they are obvious spammers or trolls?  The moderators can then review the quarantined messages from time to time and decide whether they should be restored or deleted.  I don't know if that is technically feasible but I think it would be better for everyone.


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Addeenul �Aql � Religion is intellect.


Posted By: icforumadmin
Date Posted: 08 October 2012 at 12:39pm
Thanks for the suggestion. Technically a bit difficult.
But most of the time we approve less than 24 hours. Just sometime during weekend no moderators on-line so a little bit late (not that often though).
 
Admin


Posted By: Ghazzali
Date Posted: 08 October 2012 at 11:53pm
May peace be on the guided ones. I think forums like these where religious discussion takes place need to be heavily moderated. Otherwise, we will not have discussion at all. All we will have is bickering among various communities, which in extreme cases like the youtube trailer, may lead to riots in the streets. In this age of globalization, the consequences could be far reaching. And although many people might behave properly in the real world, a great many would use the virtual world to express their hatred for other communities, since their identities are masked. Just look at all the anti-islam websites. 

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The world is a dangerous place to live in, not because of the bad people, but because of the good people who does not do anything about it.


Posted By: Matt Browne
Date Posted: 09 October 2012 at 3:00am
Interesting, Ron. I wish my experience had been as good as yours. 

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A religion that's intolerant of other religions can't be the world's best religion --Abdel Samad
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people--Eleanor Roosevelt


Posted By: Caringheart
Date Posted: 10 October 2012 at 8:52pm
Originally posted by Matt Browne Matt Browne wrote:

Interesting, Ron. I wish my experience had been as good as yours. 
 
Me too.


Posted By: nospam001
Date Posted: 05 November 2012 at 1:55pm

For each post, how about showing the date approved as well as the date submitted?

A simple change, I know, but it would be good enough for me. I really don't mind if most of my questions remain hidden for days, as long as I eventually get a sensible answer.

Disclosing the 'latency' on each post would also help reassure prospective supporters, especially those who see absolutely nothing to gain from dialogue with non-Muslims. At least they could see tangible evidence that something real is being done to address their concerns.



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God has the right to remain silent. For His advocates, however, each resigned shrug is a missed opportunity to win new converts.


Posted By: icforumadmin
Date Posted: 05 November 2012 at 5:34pm
Dear Nospam001,
 
In general will be posted less than 24 hours, however, specailly on weekend, sometimes (AGAIN JUST SOMETIMES) take longer. So you can expect 24 hours for weedays, and SOMTIMES take 2-3 days max on weekend. But again most of the time even in weekend less than 24 hours. If you count, out of 37 posts that you have done so far, only few posts that took more than a day.
 
Thanks,
 
admin


Posted By: Rational
Date Posted: 29 December 2012 at 3:06pm
I'm a new member as you can tell. Thanks for your forum which seems to be very good. I've been using many forums over the years as i'm sure many of you have too, but I must be honest about my experience so far here over the past few days. Frustration to say the least! How do you expect anyone to enjoy and learn from a debate whilst having to wait upto 24hrs to add a post, then waiting another 24hrs to get a responce? And all the posts get mixed up because users are submitting posts all at once. I mean common! I can't understand why you would do this. I'm a web developer. I do alot of Usability work too and let me tell, you are losing alot of potentially loyal users with this approach. And you create more work for you this way. This is so 1994!!!


Posted By: Abu Loren
Date Posted: 01 January 2013 at 1:36am
Originally posted by Rational Rational wrote:

I'm a new member as you can tell. Thanks for your forum which seems to be very good. I've been using many forums over the years as i'm sure many of you have too, but I must be honest about my experience so far here over the past few days. Frustration to say the least! How do you expect anyone to enjoy and learn from a debate whilst having to wait upto 24hrs to add a post, then waiting another 24hrs to get a responce? And all the posts get mixed up because users are submitting posts all at once. I mean common! I can't understand why you would do this. I'm a web developer. I do alot of Usability work too and let me tell, you are losing alot of potentially loyal users with this approach. And you create more work for you this way. This is so 1994!


I agree with what you are saying and the Forum admin's favourite response is that nobody is available during weekends. You would think that in this day and age where mobile internet is available that admin would be able to log on any time they wanted to. Such a shame.


Posted By: nospam001
Date Posted: 03 January 2013 at 2:45pm
After accumulating 40 posts I can now post directly, at least to some topics. But not this one...


Posted By: Rational
Date Posted: 05 January 2013 at 10:41am
Originally posted by Abu Loren Abu Loren wrote:

I agree with what you are saying and the Forum admin's favourite response is that nobody is available during weekends. You would think that in this day and age where mobile internet is available that admin would be able to log on any time they wanted to. Such a shame.

Assalam brother. Yes, users shouldn't have to wait at all. It's very easy to use the "report" post button, allowing everyone to contribute on content moderation. If a post is reported by a user, it would be marked for review by an admin. Simple. This way you are putting trust to the very users that are generating the content on the forum. The idea is to make users feel at home and give them all the reasons to come back and stay. Weekends or weekdays it doesn't matter there is no excuse for making your users wait for anything. By forcing each and every post into a pending status is overkill and isn't clever at all. Not only that but it's ineffective because a user can edit the post without having it reviewed and post whatever they want. So why bother having a "pending approval" in the first place? Defeats the purpose and slows everyone down. Beggars belief! Unless there is an agenda which I'm starting to think there might be. Censorship? For what reasons? Who is controlling this forum and to who's interests? Allaho aalam. I'm not prepared to trust a forum that is not prepared to trust me.

Those making the decisions need to reconsider.


Posted By: Caringheart
Date Posted: 28 January 2013 at 11:55pm
It really messes up conversations when replies are not allowed to post as they are submitted so that they can be read in order rather than some appearing several posts later.

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Let us seek Truth together
Blessed be God forever
"I believe in Jesus as I believe in the sun... not because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.: - C.S.Lewis


Posted By: Angel
Date Posted: 04 February 2013 at 6:29am
Originally posted by Rational Rational wrote:

It's very easy to use the "report" post button, allowing everyone to contribute on content moderation. If a post is reported by a user, it would be marked for review by an admin. Simple.
 
This is true and I think the report button does get used, well it used to be.
 
Quote This way you are putting trust to the very users that are generating the content on the forum.
 
I think the trust is there but when this rule came into effect there was a lot of hate filled people against muslims and islam, and some muslims themselves were not of best behaviour either.  many even resigned up after being banned. There were a lot of complaints. Checking posts before they got posted was a way of controlling the situation.
 
The checking posts is for newbies for x amount of post anyway.
 
Trust me the board was very active, it seems it is not so at the moment.  
 


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~ Our feet are earthbound, but our hearts and our minds have wings ~


Posted By: Angel
Date Posted: 04 February 2013 at 6:38am

Hi admin, maybe you can give thought about relaxing the checking posts, give it ago, trial period and see how things go, you can always revert back if need be Wink



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~ Our feet are earthbound, but our hearts and our minds have wings ~



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