Moderator responses
 

Hi Randy, how ya doing?

I have an issue with a moderator on one of the forums failing to address issues.

Note, I am NOT disputing actions they have taken (which would be in breach of the FT T&C's) just as to how they handled it.

Firstly, by way of background, a large number of people use my computer (about 20, at the current count).

Unfortunately, up until recently, I left FT always logged in. Some of the people who used my computer were also FT lurkers, but never posted. One of those lurkers apparently saw a post they did not like, logged me out of FT, created a new account and then proceeded to abuse the poster concerned.

Not surprisingly, this was traced back to my computer (using, presumably, IP addresses) and I was hit with a 30 day suspension.

I attempted to contact the moderator concerned, NOT asking for the suspension to be lifted, but merely asking for the dates and times when the incident occurred. (As a moderator on other fora, I know what tools are available to moderators, and I also know that, in these circumstances, I would not lift the suspension unless compelling reasons were provided).

I needed dates and times so that I could investigate and ascertain who actually did the deed in question.

Can I reiterate, I was NOT asking for the suspension to be lifted.

Emails were sent on 11 March, 15 March, 18 March, 31 March. Eventually, a reply was received on 2 April, three weeks after the original request for information was sent. This is, of course, far too late for me to determine who it actually was that created the duplicate account.

Now, to the crux of my query.

Surely it should be incumbent on moderators that, if they suspend or ban a member, they should respond to said members emails in a timely manner? I consider a response on 2 April to an email sent on 11 March to NOT be a timely response, even considering that this is a travel board, and we are all constantly travelling - three weeks just doesn't cut it for a moderator, if you are out of the system for that long, then you shouldn't be a mod, as you can't allow enough time for your duties.

I would submit it was a case of "I can't be bothered", and that has, unfortunately, denied me the ability to ascertain who it actually was that did this.

Your thoughts please Randy.

Dave

Thanks for asking Dave, I'm doing well. And I trust you are doing well as well, with the change in seasons I trust that this Summer will be your best ever.

I have just printed out your dialogue with the moderator in question and wanted to make sure I have your background on this and appreciate you offered it up. It does start with a bit of the "The Dog Ate My Homework" but glad you acknowledge that it may not look all that good from another side of a keyboard. Anyway, let me rummage over the words here and there and see what my thoughts might be. The first thing that came to mind when reading this is that I think you are aware, is that it is not really a moderators role to get involved in anything questioning their actions, that goes to me as an appeal. And while I totally appreciate you were attempting to do some due diligence on your own end, I likely could have gotten that for you. This of course is fairly long standing since I never like our volunteers to get involved in defending their actions or trying to play cop, etc. They are here simply to assist members in getting more out of FlyerTalk and on occasion when called for, protect our members from being interrupted. However this turns out, I sure hope you and I can join together in making sure that this other person understands that creating an account solely to "abuse the poster concerned" is totally not cool. It happens and leads to other problems, but whatever the outcome, let's remember that the volunteer did not initiate the domino effect that may have caught you up in a disruption of your membership privileges.

Anyway, let me get on with this and it certainly would have never been too late to send out the "appeal" alert.

Again, thanks and let me get to more of my words on this.

Cheers,
Randy