People are allowed to ask - we just ask that they do so by PM, not publicly. For some reason though - and I don't understand the reasons I must admit - some people feel they must be allowed to ask publicly, as somehow that is better than getting into a 1:1 with the mods about what concerns them. I don't get the logic behind this I must admit.
On my own forums, I usually hear about it if members are unhappy with what I do. Who it is can vary depending on who is affected by my decision. We've had some regular complainers on one of my forums, who we've tried to engage with to little effect, and on the other, I've had very few questions/comments about moderation - more praise/thanks I think than commentary after some early suspicion when I was appointed.
The regular complainers have dwindled off on the first forum - not satisfied, but also I think realising that we aren't going to shift our moderating position as we don't necessarily agree with their ideas for the forum (we have grown a lot since the early days and as we have done so, so the forum has changed - sometimes, this isn't always recognised by those not involved in the management of the forum).
In a forum like Communitybuzz! what's appropriate for it is somewhat vague 'I'll know it if I see it' - we get a lot of random threads posted (our biggest mod job is actually redirecting threads to more appropriate fora), and trying to decide if something is appropriate or if not, where it should go, is more of an art than a science. We are guided in our decisions by RBPs from the members who use the forums - if a thread receives a lot, then it likely isn't that appropriate for the forum - if we disagree, we may put a note in the thread explaining why we are going to let the thread continue, and members would be free to PM to ask about that. RBPs are a great tool for letting mods get a feeling from the members as to what they like and what they don't like.
Originally Posted by Mych
I think it would be helpful to all if the decision making process of thread management was open to questions publicly without violating the TOS
What is the difference between being able to ask publicly rather than privately? Afterall, if you are simply asking questions, you'll probably get a better, fuller response in private than in public.