Does anyone here know about the mod hierarchy at TWoP?

[Rainytown]

Hello,

I have run afoul of Howard at TWoP. I'm wondering if he or she has a supervisor, and where I might reach that person.

Thank you in advance for any help or advice. ;-)

[charmedjenny]

I don't have an answer for you, but I would like to say that it is my deeply held belief that Howard (and most of the TWOP mods with the exception of Demian) can suck a bag of dicks. That is all.

[Arete]

I don't have an answer for you, but I would like to say that it is my deeply held belief that Howard (and most of the TWOP mods with the exception of Demian) can suck a bag of dicks. That is all.

^What she said.

[ljohnson2006]

I've been banned by TWOPHoward. She needs a midol ASAP. The rules are confusing and not properly explained.

[Coconut Flan]

It seldom does any good to complain about a mod. The easiest thing to do is get a free email account and then a new TWoP account.

[Rainytown]

I've been banned by TWOPHoward. She needs a midol ASAP. The rules are confusing and not properly explained.

He or she is now editing posts for grammar and incorrect capitalization. I shit you not. In other words, he or she is not obeying TWoP's site rules and making them up as he or she goes.

He or she said I was "rude" in my response to a poster on The Little Couple's forum. My response was tame in comparison to what I wanted to write.

I especially do not enjoy answering to an entity it's not possible to have any type of meaningful dialogue with.

:angry-banghead:

[Coconut Flan]

Grammar and especially capitalization are in their rules somewhere or at least used to be. They are all over the excited exclamation marks, too.

[AmericanAmigo]

I don't recall the specifics but I was actually surprised at the polite & calm reminder the moderator gave regarding undue speculation about David Waller's sexual orientation. It was sometime last week. Either she or he had a good day or there was a substitute moderator. I have never posted on that site because some moderators are rude, act like they are running a nursery, the rules are all over the map & some have a a big stick up their _ _ _ !

[Curious]

Grammar and especially capitalization are in their rules somewhere or at least used to be. They are all over the excited exclamation marks, too.

I think there is value in having at least fairly good grammar when you are using a medium to communicate where writing is your only vehicle to get your point across (ie: no tone, body language, etc). Capitalization is good, too, but not as important. I've been known to be lazy with capitalization depending on my mood.

On a forum the size of TWOP, though, I can't imagine having actual rules about that stuff. Actually unless you have a forum dedicated to grammar, I can't imagine having rules relating to those things.

Even with the number of mods we have, I doubt that between us we read *every* post. Being forced to read every single post to check for grammar/caps mistakes would be hellish and if I was going to do that, I better be getting paid whole lot of money.

We could implement that kind of rule here and would have very little problem. Our members tend to post very readable posts (which makes sense, as it's kind of the point of posting on a forum in the first place). However, it's not something that I can imagine ever doing.

That is an insane amount of control over a forum, particularly about one based on TV shows.

[Daisy]

The mods all stick together over there. It doesn't do any good to complain. And yes I agree Howard is just awful

[Coconut Flan]

The mods at TWoP don't read every post. :D That would make for an even worse horror story. They respond on the turn in your fellow posters system. Once in a thread, the mods seem to read a few posts before and after the one reported. That's one reason I think the moderating seems so uneven. If a thread doesn't have any tattlers on it, then things go along without interference. But if a poster gets on other people's nerves or if an opinion is offensive to someone on a thread, then lots of reports may go in.

[ljohnson2006]

The TWOP mods need to chill. I have a right to free speech. I still have no idea what boards on boards are, but apparently I did it a lot.

[Coconut Flan]

Free speech doesn't necessarily apply on boards and blogs. The owners have the right to, well, censor content as they own the space.

If I get it boards on boards it's talking about that board or other boards. So saying Free Jinger thinks we're nuts is boards on boards. Saying Free Jinger is nuts I like it here (on TWoP) is boards on boards. Saying you people who think Jim Bob is a loon are crazy is boards on boards. Talking about someone else's opinion is boards on boards. If you think Sally Smith is a nut job you can't say that. You can't say the opinion she stated is outlandish. You can say I don't think x,y,z is true, I believe a, b, c. You can't boss other people around and tell them what topics are acceptable even if it's stated as your opinion. It's a catchall kind of thing. No clearer?

[Daisy]

Pretty much all you are allowed to say there is "I saw this on the show . This is what I think about what I saw on the show."

And yes free speech doesn't apply to blogs and boards. It just means the government can't tell you you can't say something

[sparkles]

I was never a prolific poster on TWOP and still ended up getting my hand slapped twice for infractions that made no sense to me even after they were explained. I quit posting long ago because of the heavy-handed moderation, which definitely got worse as time went on. Their playground, their rules (although they seem to change on a whim), not much I can do about it.

I did google "Boards on Boards" and found this in TWOP's Help section.

Why can't we talk about the boards on the boards? And what does that even mean?

When a moderator says something is "boards-on-boards," that means that instead of being about the show, the subject of your post is the site, the posters, or the trend in the conversation.

Here are a few examples of how boards-on-boards conversations can get started:

"I don't get the hate (or love) for CharacterX."

"The HatedCouple fandom always acts like..." or "Of course, I can't say anything because the fans of HatedCouple will attack me."

"Most of you seem to be watching the show so you can nitpick and complain; I just want to be entertained."

"Wow, the comments here are very different from those at SomeOtherSite. You all are so funny!"

"I just read the posts in AnotherThread, where everyone's complaining. They're just bitter because they like that character. I'm glad to see that people in this thread are happy about what happened!"

"I've noticed that the posters at TWoP are more focused on this aspect of the show than others."

"I know this is TWoP, but I think it's sick that you people are joking about this actress being infected with the dreaded lurgi. My mother died of the lurgi and I think it's disgusting that anyone finds this sort of comment funny."

We ask you not to discuss the boards on the boards because this is a site about television, and the discussion should remain about television -- or about something of substance. Once the discussion starts being about the site and each other, it's very easy for the site to slide into irrelevance.

We also ask that you not discuss other boards on our boards. You may certainly link to them, but conversations taking place on other sites should not become the foreground of the discussion on TWoP.

Simply replying to, or mentioning, another poster is not boards-on-boards. "PosterX said this scene was pointless, but I think that it was important

[Lillybee]

The head mod is a bitch named Strega, apt name if I do say so myself. She shut the RHONY board down mid season and kept it locked until the next season.

Howard has be dinging people for "tone" whatever that is.

It bugs me that the mods don't even watch the shows the moderate, so how can they know what if off topic. For example, on the Duggar thread, it was claimed that the TFDW was off topic even though that wedding was shown on the show.

[YPestis]

Don't get be started about Strega. She's a nasty piece work. I had the misfortune of being on a few boards she moderates and gave up TWoP because of her. I've never gotten in trouble with her, probably because I'm anal about typing out complete sentences, but I'll be going along reading the boards and BAM! See Strega bully someone for saying something innocuous. It just ruined the entire thread for me. There's no recourse for misbehaving moderators if Strega is in charge. She was cruel and vindictive as a regular moderator, I can't imagine she's gotten any better since. Sorry, I couldn't be of more help. TWoP is a bit like Westeros....you will see no justice there, just a bunch of dicks running the place.

[shedemei]

I've never been on TWoP and I'm curious as to how this modding strategy evolved. Was there a problem being addressed that resulted in mods with an inflated sense of power, or is this something that the corporate overlords put into place to ensure that they get the best free and uncontroversial content from their unpaid contributors e

[FJismyheadship]

What is TFDW

[Flossie]

TFDW = The Fabulous David Waller

[YPestis]

I've never been on TWoP and I'm curious as to how this modding strategy evolved. Was there a problem being addressed that resulted in mods with an inflated sense of power, or is this something that the corporate overlords put into place to ensure that they get the best free and uncontroversial content from their unpaid contributors e

I don't know the exact history but the growth in moderator power is probably due to lazy management. TWoP has grown a lot since it's Dawson's Creek days. It has an extremely active forum and requires extensive moderation. With so many posters, it's easier to be draconian and ban anyone that pisses you off than have a fair system at play.

The power that be at TWoP could have set up a mod hiearchy, trained the mods properly, chose mods who has a good history on the boards, allowed for feedbacks and appeal boards. But all that would take time and effort. It's much easier to just give mods a lot of power and let them rule each board as their own fiefdom. There's a reason why feudalism has been the system of government for much of human history.....

[Boogalou]

I stopped reading TWOP years ago when the 19 Kids and Counting thread kept getting shutdown in between seasons. I migrated here and my life has been infinitely better :D

I do still read their Survivor boards though. They are a lot more readable than Survivor Sucks, they keep spoilers out of the regular threads, and the conversation is actually readable. It's moderated by Pembleton who is usually pretty fair and they actually watch Survivor, which is nice. The most they ever say there is "topic please" and it all works out. However, I don't post there so there could be a lot of stuff I don't see.

[lilwriter85]

I stopped reading TWOP years ago when the 19 Kids and Counting thread kept getting shutdown in between seasons. I migrated here and my life has been infinitely better :D

I do still read their Survivor boards though. They are a lot more readable than Survivor Sucks, they keep spoilers out of the regular threads, and the conversation is actually readable. It's moderated by Pembleton who is usually pretty fair and they actually watch Survivor, which is nice. The most they ever say there is "topic please" and it all works out. However, I don't post there so there could be a lot of stuff I don't see.

I remember that. IIRC, didn't one of the shutdowns happen right after Michelle's last miscarriage?

[smittykins]

I think so. After her miscarriage, there was some discussion on TWoP about who might be "blamed" for it by DimBulb(a la "sin in the camp")and the mod went apeshit and locked it.