These are fair points raised. It's about having a transparent system. Though again, there's no need to explain every silence. I've seen silences in WC where people genuinely asked what the silence is for and mods have shut them down saying to appeal to devs if they disagree. I know not every silence comes from a mistake in WC. But rightly or wrongly, it can make the mods appear secretively. Not saying that can be fixed or you have to say 'yes it was me', just the way it can appear. But appearances aren't everything And I agree on your second point. If you lose interest and aren't fulfilling the mod role, resign from it.
Taking responsibility of silencing someone? That is their job is to silence people. They already have it on record who silence that person. Mods enforce the rules has place so if they have anything to complain it should be to ATA and only to ATA.
In response to moody I am fully aware of the hate mods and vks get however there is a difference. Vk is a rank where you aren't expected to fulfil any criteria after you get it. Mod on the other hand is a role you have applied for. You should be an experienced player applying to a mod so you should be aware of the positives and negatives of the role. If you can't handle that then simply put don't apply for the role. If you don't like war then don't join the military. If you don't like blood don't be a surgeon. I know that if you aren't visible you aren't necessarily doing nothing but that's how it appears and overall the mod team need to make themselves appear to be something positive to the community. It's pretty hard to do that hiding away in your own little bubble.
Fact about moderating from someone who has modded. We as a moderator team moderate all differently and try to cover everything on KaW as a whole. Obviously some of us are on more than others, and others mod more than others. For the most part we (as a whole) keep KaW pretty clean. But obviously, we are human and make mistakes and or have limits to what we can do. Any feedback on moderators (good or bad) can be sent to support@athinkingape.com or even our walls. We can take feedback and improve on it, or yanno, delete it. We volunteer our time (whenever we have it) to help y'all. Some of us are visable, some of us not so much. But we didn't get the position because we bake the best cookies or can persuade the developers the best. Be patient with us and we will do our best. Finally, thanks for the feedback. I'll probably be lurking this thread to take in on community needs/expectations from your local mods. Cheers Kez!
Please reread your first post on this thread. You commented about mods wanting to play as normal players with a bit of responsibility. This is what I replied to, I mentioned nothing to you about mods taking responsibility for silences. You said 'And have you thought those mods that don't talk a lot want to play with just a normal experience as is players just have a little bit of responsibility to help the community? Why do they need to sacrifice that' If mods are interested in playing as normal, they shouldn't apply to be a mod. Of course they still play like the rest of us to an extent. But they have extra responsibility and expectations that regular players don't. Which comes at a 'sacrifice' of a normal game. Their decision. They know what they take on when they apply. And hats off to them, because I probably couldn't do it. But they can't play normally because they do have extra responsibilities. Mods are volunteers and I respect they can't be on 24/7. Most of them do a pretty good job. It's nice to see interaction with the community. Tbh, I think without it would be worse. There's less communication from devs but mods are helping plenty. Which is good.
Not a bad thread OP. I have mixed feelings about this. Generally, the mods don't get paid enough to socialize with us. On the other hand, some like pandageorge begged to be mod only never go be heard from again. Same with Dillybar. @Moody Stop your whining you little tool. If it is so hard for you, quit. No one gives a crap about VKs anyway. Devs never should have introduced that into the game in the first place. So many more important things to with their time.
Get paid enough!? There is no payment. Mods socialize because they want to. Same as anybody else. If a mod is in a grumpy mood but still on KaW, they might not want to talk to people, but if they see infraction are still responsible to take care of it. #modsarehumantoo
The KaWmmunity is a fickle beast at best. You never know the way it's going to go from one day to the next. When it comes to "taking responsibility" for a silence, it's been mentioned already that we are in no way obligated to announce our rhyme or reason as to why we've silenced a player because once we've silenced a player it's between the silenced player and support. However, remaining anonymous doesn't help to educate the rest of the KaWmmunity as to the reasons why a player was silenced. I lurk a lot these days and it has nothing to do with not wanting to be known as the mod that silenced a player. It's simply nothing more than not feeling very sociable. Which yeah, normal players yada yada. We speak out often enough, we get criticized for wasting speakers or being dev puppets, we don't speak enough we get criticized for not doing our jobs well enough. Just depends on what kind of mood everyone wakes up on any given day. As a side note, I do feel that at least some KaWmmunity presence should be mandatory. There are those of us that.. Well even I never ever see. Anywhere. Period. Our roles aren't just to silence or forum ban.
So drgn, if some mods are never seen, why is there no policy to have them removed? It seems modship is permanent unless you break the rules or ask for it removed, no matter how useless you are.
Thanks for the insight, Drgn. I can imagine finding a balance is very difficult. I know we as players can be very harsh on the mods at times. But there still needs to be some presence. There are some mods I have never seen. Ever. I wonder, if devs see a mod isn't doing anything, do they speak to the mod or...? I dunno the process of what goes on.
Personal opinion, but I'm fairly biased on this. Knowing Drgn for a while he's always been an exceptional mod. He was once more active towards the interaction side but the KaW community treats mods like crap. I'm fairly disgruntled about how Drgn was treated because he put forth a significant amount of effort to help everyone. But players are jealous of what they are not and try to drag others down. People are rude and brutal; there would be complaints of mods defended themselves from the community. But they cannot hence why you see them interact with the ass hats that you all are. In regards to Slayerbob, my opinions obvious I would think. But regardless of my personal opinion of either in any aspect other than modship, he's still not my fav mod.
You have to realise not all mods can be in wc. Some are on their knees, others are lying on their back, others might have their hands busy, others could be doing the downward dog and others might not be able to talk. There are lots of reasons why people became mod and we don't know what that is or what their purpose is. So leave them alone. I've noticed no more karma bill notifying war signups are closing once he got mod.
Well, I can say firsthand that I know we must show some sort of presence within our mod group from time to time, but as far as in-game I have no idea. Generally if a mod is believed to be inactive they're usually called out by other mods and then I believe their accounts are looked at to check for certain. Actual policy is that if we are going to be inactive for a specified period of time then we need to inform support/devs and we'll either get a leave of absence or get demodded. Inactivity is entirely different from not being sociable though. In either case though I think at times both need to be looked at. We aren't given 5k speakers for nothing.
They don't have to be in WC 24/7. But never? Consider this. When people need a mod, they either think of one off the top of their head or they check WC to see what mods might be online. The mods that are most active and talking are the ones (I think) that people are more likely to ask for help for because they've seen them around, they're more familiar. The ones who never show in WC and forums are less known by the community therefore people are less likely to ask them for assistance. So the ones we see active in WC/forums will have a bigger work load than the mods who barely talk. This might be right or wrong, but logically I think this is what probably happens. Which doesn't seem fair to those mods.