Group Mod Review Info & Coaching System
UPDATED - 6/23/15
As many of you know, we have a Moderator Review form. This is a place for guests, members or fellow mods to leave feedback for you.
This system has been updated to give more focus to coaching and support for moderators. Reviews will be separated into five different categories (similar to the way listener reviews are managed). These will be as follows:
Unconstructive
♦ Feedback is not useful or constructive. E.g. I dont like this mod. with no additional info, or comments regarding other situations in a chatroom.
Positive
♦ Feedback celebrating your moderating abilities! Feedback in this category will be shared publically in the forum.
Yellow
♦ Not showing empathy
♦ Unprofessional (e.g. engaging in drama/conflict, inappropriate jokes, favouritism towards certain members)
♦ Gave advice
Orange
♦ Abusive language
♦ Sharing personal problems
♦ Imposing religious beliefs
♦ Engaging in public conflict with a fellow moderator or listener
♦ Not handling a suicidal member in correct manner
♦ Engaging in inappropriate behaviour from your member account
Red
♦ Bullying or harassment
♦ Sexual talk
♦ Over-muting/warning
If you receive a review, you will receive a PM from a Mod Leader or community manager stating what you need to improve on specifically. Our goal is to help you get better, always. We believe you are able to be successful in this role and are ready to help you get there in any way we can.
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For certain behaviours, we may ask that you take a two week break from your role as a moderator and work with a Group Quality Mentor for coaching to help further your skills and give you more exposure to the chat room. You will be speaking regularly to your coaching Mentor during this period and will be expected to work together based on your specific coaching needs. We invite you to use this time to reflect on how you can improve when you return to your role. You may also use this as an opportunity to earn the Feedback badge. In more serious cases, your moderator privileges may be permanently removed. This will be as follows:
-------> Note: Sometimes a moderator may receive several reviews from different users about a single incident. In these situations, the multiple reviews are counted as ONE review.
2 weeks of coaching with a Group Quality Mentor
➡ 2 Yellow Reviews
OR
➡ 1 Orange Review
2 week break from moderating & coaching with a Group Quality Mentor (+ 1 listener behaviour point)
➡ 4 Yellow Reviews
OR
➡ 2 Orange Reviews
OR
➡ 1 Red Review
Permanent / 3 Month Badge Removal (+2 listener behaviour points)
➡ Failure to improve after coaching
OR
➡ Abuse of moderator privileges
Note: You may reapply to be a Group Mod after 3 months without behaviour reports.
We want you to feel comfortable with moderation and the related guidelines. If you have any doubts or concerns and feel you would benefit from coaching, you can reach out directly to a Group Quality Mentor. We have an awesome group of Group Quality Mentors who would be happy to work with you! Find them here.
We do understand that reviews are not always accurate and will work with you to find the best path for your situation. The above protocol will be used as a baseline for most cases. Dont forget, you can use the Group Mod Log to let us know any time youre in a situation youre worried about.
I have 2 questions:
If someone is muted, and then a guest saying "it's *name* I was muted, but I'm back" or something similar appears, we are allowed to mute them again, right? Considering that I have seen members been muted for things like swearing, and excluding others, be muted and return frequently (most returns I can count is 7, the mod gave up and let the person stay), is it over muting to continually mute someone that comes on as a guest to avoid a mute (I call these people "boomerang members")? What are the chances that mods can lose their badges for continuously muting "boomerang members"?
Something that happens often is members accusing mods of harassment for warning them more than once. For example:
Member: ***
Mod: Please don't swear.
1 minute later.
Member: ***
Mod: Member, please don't swear.
Member: OMG why are you *** harassing me?
I think most, if not all, mods have been accused of harassment for asking people not to do things like have exclusive cliques and use this website as a dating site. The people that treat the website as a dating site, and have cliques, frequently accuse us of harassment because they continue and have continued to do those things, and we have to keep repeating ourselves and warning them, thus, they accuse us of harassment. For the sake of brevity, I will not go into detail the problems that some people that spend a lot of time in the rooms give us, but I would like to know how throughly will accusations of harassment be investigated.
Question 1: Yes, you can mute them in this case. This is trolling behavior. Over-muting is realting to people who mute for no good reason.
Question 2: We completely understand this may be an issue. In this case, maybe a lack of empathy was used. Empathy should always be used even in a warning. Saying "Hi, XX! I am not sure if you know, but swearing in Group Chat isn't allowed. Just wanted to let you know! :) Hope you are well." has a far less chance of being reported as harassing than "Please don't swear." or "Don't swear". Does that make sense?
Hope this helps! :)
I understand about empathy, but the example conversation was anextremely watered down version of what happens. There are cliques we have been trying to break up sinceJanuary. They knowthat they should be inclusive, but they don't want to, so they ignore us. There is a couple that go to the same school, and they bring their relationship in the chatrooms in a very inappropriate way. These people accuse us of harassment each time we tell them of the rules, but they never stop breaking them. They only stop when we give them a "final warning," and then they start when mods change, or after a few hours.If a mod lost their badge each time he or she told these people not to habitually break the rules, there probably wouldn't be any more mods.They push as far as they can, but never far enough that we can actually mute them. I know that you're probably thinking that I'm exaggerating, but you can ask the mods that hang out in the rooms the most, and they can also tell you of the problems these people cause. I have a feeling that a lot of mods will lose their badges due to illegitimate harassment claims.
I completely understand. :) We will always listen to each side of the story before making any badge removal decisions. We understand (just as we do with coaching moment emails) that member reviews could be false and will work with you in such a case. I don't want you to worry that this will be unfair or wrong. We actually have been using this same system before but now it is just formally written out. Thank you for voicing your concerns! Seriously. We need to consider all concerns and address them. :)
I see, thank you. I also want to thank you for adding "imposing religious beliefs," I've seen that be a problem.
I was wondering what would go into "muting too much?"
I do think it's all relative to the room at the time. I only mute trolls and people who are blatantly disrespectful towards people in the community (repeatedly), but there's no telling if that number in a given day is going to be 1 or 8.
Hi, @Cadence! In this case, we just mean if you are muting for no reason. Over-muting is referring less to the quantity of mutes, but more to the quality of them. Did they get a warning? Why were they muted? etc. etc.
Hope helps! :)
It does. Perhaps reword it to avoid confusion? o:
Regardless, yes, thank you for clearing things up! <3
Just a few points I would like to raise , There have been instances when trolls have used the feedback form to get moderators to lose their badge it is a possibility. We have seen spammers,trolls taking out their misguided anger on moderators by calling them names it will become very easy for them to take revenge by giving a false review say one which attracts a permanent ban (red category)so what I am trying to ask is @heather will moderators be adequately protected ?if say a moderator who has been there from a few months and whose behavior hasn't been reported gets such a review what will be the consequence ? If we start casting a shadow of doubt over reviews which may or maynot be true I personally feel it will lead to serious loss of morale . I am sorry if this comes out more of a rant than its supposed to but I tend to be pessimistic and imagine the worst case scenario .
I saw this happen just yesterday, and to be honest im now afraid of being active and giving warnings when I suspect there's a troll. I havent acted upon that (dont worry) but i dont think i should feel that way. If it wasnt so important that these people are removed, I'd just stay on my member account.
same...I often have situations where a person is trolling/being inappropriate but when given the "verbal" warning they do a 180. "I'm the most supportive person here" etc and go back to being abusive as soon as the mod leaves. I am not always able to scroll up far enough to see what has happened and have "proof" (often a regular would pm me informing me there is a problem) as many times the chat scroll up shows history of the previous day for some reason.
I am nervous about moderating now but hoping for the best :)
@Poeticguy - If a moderator has been around for a while with a clean record,then we would definitely not jump to remove their badge without verifying what happened. We don't want to take badges away and hope that each one of you will be successful in this role.When removing mod badges, we look for a pattern of repeated behaviour before taking action. The only exception to this would beif a very serious report comes in wherebyprompt action may be needed. As I mentioned, this system is a baseline and each case will be considered individually.
Additionally, I updated the Mod Review forms last week so that reviews cannot be left anonymously. This should reduce the number of troll reports.
I've come across a few moderators being stripped of their moderator badges over false allegations, is there any way of getting their badge back following this?
@Sharry - If any mod feels they've lost their badge over false allegations they are very welcome to discuss this further with me!
Just to clarify, will we get an email or a PM if something has come up? Thanks :)
@Jake @Heather
For a Yellow-type review you will get a PM. For a orange or red-type review, you will get an email. :)
I know that the Mod Review Form featurehas been incorporated to ensure better quality of moderators in chat room. Basically, to point out the faults in a weak moderator & encourage the good work of a strong moderator.
This feature can be exploited very easily. Any member/listener who enters the chat room can release their day's frustration by leaving a negative review for a moderator (which is just another bad alternative to pooping in the comment section of YouTube videos).
I can understand that the website's system is not perfect and I find that the "moderator review form" is just another loophole for trolls to interfere in the task of innocent moderators who are playing their role in accordance to the Mod guide.
Although the Mod Review Form asks for a name of the person who fills in the form, I'm sure that it's not a difficult task for a person to generate fake member profiles just for trolling the mods (and I can assure you that there exists people who have that much amount of free time). And by that privilege, a person can single handedly get any of my fellow mods into trouble by... how? well you get the idea, right? (the more the number of fake profiles, the more the number of yellow, orange and red cards issued).
A lot of moderators that I've come across have worked to keep the chat room hospitable & sending them a sugar coated PM or Email to IMPROVE based on a silly review (that may be real or fake), will mostly only lead to discouraged and "felt cheated" moderators. Also after certain number of (very few) cards, the mod will be suspended or removed. That's not fair at all.
I haven't voted against any idea on this website but this is too bad to be taken seriously.
I don't want to come out as a villain in your idea of making the Mod Review Form rather I would like you to ponder on what I said and how the Mod Review Form could be a rather bad idea.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
I would also like to know what other mods think about what I said.
@Therapinto, as a group mod, I want to let you know that I personally think this is a very good point to raise. I know a mod who was stripped of their badge because some troll didn't like them, which is ridiculous. I think the mod review form could be a good thing, but it also has the possibility to be a bad thing. Perhaps a person should have to provide screenshot proof if they're trying to prove something bad is happening. That might be difficult, but it reduces the chance of people actually using the form to get rid of mods they don't care for.
I appreciate your opinion and support on what I said.
Providing screenshots also cannot be a full-proof method as screenshots can be manipulated, but yes it will make itmore difficult for a troll to fulfill his/her wishof removing a good moderator. Maybe letting the person PM@Heather or some higher listener directly about the mod they find is doing something wrong, and then after the higher listener verifies the complaint by talking to the mod under inspection itselfand doing some other verification, can take the required steps to handle the situation.
^^ @Cadence
@Cadence, could you ask that mod to contact me directly about this please?
@therapintoI can see that this seems to be a really big concern and I hope that other Group Moderators will join this discussion since from what you have said there seem to be quite a few who feel that injustice has been done.
I would like to encourage everyone to brainstorm and offer ideas, since it is not that productive to only raise issues, and it would be great if we could use some problem solvingskills together and offer ideas and suggestions that could be alternative to the system we now have.
Also, as I've already stated elsewhere,I agree with you and others who are worried that system is not perfect and needs to be improved. Here is the link to thatother thread.
Now, @Cadence, regarding screenshots, that seems like a good idea but not sure how doable it is since our first concern is privacy and we are proud to have such system where everything is confidential and messages are deleted. Encouraging people to make such 'evidence' of conversations as a way of monitoring and disciplining doesn't seem right to me for that reason, but again this is just my honest opinion and I would like to see opinion of others.
Well said@Maku - if anyone has feedback on how this system can be improved I'mopen to hear it!
Screenshots are one solution, but can be manipulated so are still not 100%.
@Heather , may I pm you about screenshots ?
Of course! @Ace13
Thanks for providing your opinion on my and Cadence's post.
And I am awarethat only quite a few mods are concerned about this issue as it the Mod Review Form is a new thing and the effects take time to show up whenever something new emerges.
I would sure provide a solution to this if any good idea crosses my mind and yes I shouldn't complain and use my problem solving skills to deal with the issue.
Raising this problem here will allow other mods to give their opinion on the issue. That's why I posted it here.
@Therapinto, I agree with your concerns. While well meaning, this whole thing strikes me as reactionary, which is almost never a good idea. I would also wager that 90% of these issues are caused by 10% of both mods and guests alike. I'm not sure there will ever be an effective way to handle these types of situations, especially when guests can hide behind anonymity so easily and mods have a big old green target on their backs. I suppose it is possible that a small percentage of mods abuse their roles. It's also more than likely that a small percentage of guests are using this to create an us vs them dynamic. You see this happen all the time in real life at mental health institutions. The only real way to combat it is for mods to police other mods. If I was working at a mental health facility and there was a similar policy in place, nobody would have a job after a month. This is literally a case where the inmates are allowed to run the asylum. No, the only real solution is for mods to monitor other mods. Even this can be tricky, but you can't realistically have a system where mods are supposed to enforce the rules, knowing that they will almost certainly be subject to harsh and often erroneous scrutiny. Rarely is someone muted and they go yep, I was out of line there, you got me. No, sorry, doesn't work that way. These trolls that people speak of are often people with personality disorder or severe mental health issues. While they have a right to a voice, I'm not so sure this is the best way to let them air their grievances. What will end up happening is 7 Cups will see a sharp decline in mods, because why bother? I mean this seriously. Why bother to be a mod at all when the deck is stacked against you? Give the group mod leaders the authority to act and use complaints from guests as little more than guidelines. Just my two cents.
Thanks for putting it in a better way Sir. This is way more clearer than I could ever explain. I totally agree with the solution you've provided and the reasons you've given for the Mod Review Form being a bad idea.
Although only a few guests and members would be misusing this feature, the fact that a single pest can cause huge menace cannot be denied.
thank you for bringing up that it can be mods too. I feel like mostly just the idea that mods are unfairly stripped has been brought up, but I haven't seen any talk of the idea that sometimes it is mods fault too. I say this in reference to you saying mods should police other mods, so I apologize if I misunderstood your post.I know I am not perfect and sometimes I've had to step back, and I'm sure other mods have had the same issue. Sometimes it's just a bad day, but most mods I think are good, so hopefully we can find some more solutions to figure out how to have a good fair system for everyone.
@Therapinto - Thanks for your feedback. I hear your concern here.Weunderstand that troll reviews are a possibility and this is something wewould hope a moderator would let one of usknow about if they felt it had happened to them. As well as considering troll reviews, it's important to consider that the majority of reviews are nottroll reviewsand it's important that we ensure the chat rooms are a safe place.None of us are perfect and we all have room to grow.
Whenreviews come in about a moderator doingsomething completely with in reason, but thatleft a member upset, we do not take any action against that mod. In fact, a significant number of reviews are marked as non-constructive. These are the ones none of you hear about.
If any of you feel you are likely to be the target of a troll, please do contact myself or a mod leader to discuss.Ihate removing badges and only do so after careful consideration.Very, very few mods have had theirsremoved based on reviews alone.Most of these had their badge returned within a coupleweeks. I would also like to remind everyone that the above system is a baseline. We will consider the content of anyreviews and your overall track record as a listener and moderator before taking any action.
Please note: There is a 10 group chat per month target. If you've had your mod badge removed without receiving an email, it's likely because we thought you were inactive. Please contact myself or@Jake to discuss.
If you guys read my first post I have tried to raise similar concerns about mods losing morale,they being unfairly targeted etc,etc. But since @heather has assured us that they won't be arbitrary in decision making or jump to take away badges.I would say let's give this system a chance,she has said that the mods past record will be taken into consideration and that they will hear our side of the story ,which I think is fair and that we should give this system a chance . If we see things are not working out and mods are losing their badges unnecessarily then let's look back and introspect again. Just my two cents
@poeticGuy - I am not taking away the the chance ofthe Mod review form to exist. I just want them to make some changes to it so that it does not blow awayin its intial days itself. An idea shouldn't eat itself, right?
This is my personal opinion I don't think the idea will blow away nor will it eat itself .the rules according to me are quite fair ,I was just worried about implementation (trolls using the form to target mods).I feel @heather and the the mod leaders have been able to effectively address my concerns by the assurances which they have given. So I feel that the idea in its current form should be given a chance
@poeticguy Thanks for your opinion.
@Heather - I know that you don't remove mods just like that. I don't know, I just found the "Group Mod Review Info & Warning System" forum post quite an unjust move towards the moderators.
Although you mentioned that this protocol will only be used a baseline for the mentioned cases, I find that the number of cards required to suspend a mod for 2 weeks ORfor permanently taking away their badges is too less. I mean only 2 yellow cards (for least negative reviews) and the mod will be asked to take a leave of 2 weeks. And for 4 yellow cards (again the least negative reviews) taking away the badge itself isreally not right. Maybe suspending/expellingafter certain number of ONLYorange or red cards would make some sense. But suspending/expelling after yellow cards? Seriously?
(I don't know why I feel like my forum posts are going to end up inme being a Mod no more)
Could we add in to this that reports here will also count as behaviouralreports on your 7 Cups listener account.
@Heather ^^ sorry, forgot to tag you!
This feature WILL be exploited very easily. Any member/listener who enters the chat room can release their day's frustration by leaving a negative review for a moderator...Sometimes members just hate mods for enforcing the rules. Time and often I have seen members hold mods to ransom by saying they will leave them bad reviews. it actually worked. THREE good mods lost their badges because of trolls. Then I think they left the site. the guests keep coming back despite mutes. Mutes should be IP based for guests for 3 hours instead of 24. that wil stop troll guests easily.
I really like the idea, but the implementation...I have very high reservations regarding this. With what has gone down in the past, I really dont know how this is going to go down. Make screenshots mandatory for reporting. that way itll be easier to check what actualy went down. You can ask group mod leaders to ask mods their side of the story with regards to reports.
I mute atleast 10-12 trolls all the time, and with the amount of them who are threatening..I'll probably be waiting for emails.
The idea is super awesome, but I have a few reservations about it. Above was just a rant. I hope that it turns out well. As far as I have seen most members dont even know they can review moderators...this fact should be included in that bot which guides new members and listener.
Best of luck implementing this.
@hopefulTree78 - This system has actually been in place for a few months! As you can see, it was updated last week and is now much more generous towards moderators, to allow more learning and growth opportunities. Additionally, I have created the Group Mod Log, which you can use to report incidents with members where you were threatened. The intention here is to create a system that is as fair and balanced possible.
I'm curious to know which three mods lost their badges due to troll reviews. Only one case like this has been mentioned to me (and that mod now has his badge back!) It would be great if you could PM me thenames so I can check what's happened here.
I'm actually really glad that we've got this group mod log... I was wondering, could we use it to note down when members are breaking the site rules, rather than the chatroom rules?
@Mobbsy - Yup, there is actually a specific "Report a Member" area on this form for that purpose. Most behaviours should be manageable by warnings/mutes, but I'm aware there are some exceptions to this.
I'd also really like you all to use the Group Mod Logto let me know if you're threatened at any time. This is something I will be able to cross-reference when processing mod reviews.
Facepalm - I even checked out the form last night and remember seeing it lol! Cheers
@heather they both made an entire thread about it and members showed up to defend the mods too... I dont have a link handy but I guess its taken down by a forum mod now? I have no idea. Any case we lost threegood listeners
As far as the reviews go...I can hope for the best!
@hopefulTree78
In that case, I have to fully support the mod leaders because the group modstold their side of things, which may or may not have been true, but we don't know what actually happened... From what I've heard about the reasons behind it, the removal of the badges was fully justified.
In any case, starting a thread in the way that they did was unprofessional, and unhelpful, particularly on the member side. Members know less about the procedure of reporting etc than we do, and so they could've had even less idea than we do...
Oh ...yeah the way you put it is correct as well. huh. Do I sound very anarchist-y??
Thanks for clearing it up.
Haha, that's no problem! I was extremely guilty of doing this before I actually thought about it... Like, I would always be annoyed at things, until you actually look top down, rather than side on... It's not anarchial:p just being human that you base your opinion on what you know...
What happens to positive reviews?
Heather has a thread in the group mod zone part of the forum where the positive reviews are shared. The title is something like Discussion Leader Reviews. @SilentSerenityy
@SilentSerenityy just going to slip the Discussion Leader Reviews thread in, in case you wanted to check it out
@ZaraSmiles
It was based on my moderating, not a discussion? I wasn't leading a discussion at the time.
@SilentSerenityy then here, it's the Group Mod Positive Reviews Thread that you need :)
@ZaraSmiles
Thanks, but it hasn't been updated since June. :(
@Heather
@SilentSerenityy - A lot of these have been mixed in with discussion reviews. Sorry about that! Just adding the most recent mod reviews to the thread now :)
