Introduction
Tribalwars Forums. Useful interaction platform for people with a common goal: To discuss the game they love. This post is all about the behind-the-scenes of the forums at Tribalwars with an aim to give regular posters a bit more insight into the dealing and wheeling that happens behind the scene.
My background
I come into my latest role as the forum moderator for Worlds 17 and 18 with a long Tribalwars history, I started playing when W2 was relatively new, by now that makes me one of the longest-playing people in Tribalwars (although I just deleted my W35 account!) I joined the TW team shortly after starting to play, Hoodoo liked my application and pulled me in from a large group of applicants. I started on the forum but soon moved into the role of multihunter and have had various positions on the TW team since.
Spirit of the forum
I have witnessed many changes to the game, but one thing remains stable throughout, the problems of making sure the forum is a level playing field for everybody, from newbie to noobie to decorated war-veteran. To ensure a standard the code of practice, or rules, for posting on the forum has evolved over the years, but in the end it is the moderators’ responsibility to ensure that his/her forum is operating in the spirit of the rule and the game.
Some mods prefer to do this by infracting everything that goes into the rule, sometimes taking the written word a bit too strict and upsetting people which results in regular posters abandoning the forum and a reduced activity overall. Other mods, like me, interpret the rules for specific situations. Sometimes resulting in swift banning, but frequently ending in a warning for poor understanding of the rules, warnings that usually end up in a “thank you for not infracting” message from the recipient.
This result is possible because regular posters know that the other category of mods (the strict ones) exist as well, together we form a team that ensures optimal performance of the moderating. Balancing this is down to Wim, aka Lord-Haste, who does a great job in supporting and managing a large group of mods, compared to when I started the team of mods is now at least ten times larger!
The forum-moderators now operate in a hierarchy, a so called elder-mod ensures that when I am not able to fulfil my role, it still gets done, the elder-mods in turn are managed by Lord-Haste. The elder-mods are experienced hands, guys and girls that have been around TW for a long time and know the game inside out.
Things to do and not to do…
The things I look out for when modding are numerous:
Language
The forum is frequented by children, this is something that should be in the back of minds when posting at all times. Unfortunately it frequently is the case that the children we aim to protect are the ones that think swearing makes them look tough. It doesn’t and when I spot it I will infract. Thinking that hiding swearing by using alternative characters is OK, is daft.
Spamming
Spamming comes in different categories, I don’t object to the occassional off-topic remark in a thread, it adds to the liveliness of the forum and I will only warn if it is out of context entirely. Usually, when a thread derails, I will notify the posters in that thread that I expect it to get back on track, when that fails I will lock it. The sort of spamming I detest, and for which I will ban without exception, is when two or more people think it is fun to derail topics on purpose and go off on a so called spam-fest. As four people in the last week will testify, a two month ban is on offer for those that think they can get away with it.
trolling
People that make it a hobby to haunt other posters, to wind up other posters and to be derogatory to other posters. This is an image that builds up over time, as a mod it is impossible to read all posts, but certain names will keep coming up and this results in building reputations with mods. A mod can easily see all posts by one poster, a useful tool to find out what the overall tone of the poster is. If and when I identify trolls, I will warn them to alter their attitude, if that does not work they will get banned.
Flaming
Two types of flaming: one is when one tribe is at war with another and tries to get the moral upperhand by fiery posts that trick the other tribe into losing their cool, fine. The other type is when a single player is continuously singled out by one or more posters, not fine. There are different ways to deal with this, but frequently this will end in a warning with a follow-up ban.
learn to speak English!
I thoroughly detest people telling other people that their English is not good enough. Frequently this is done by people with a superiority complex that fail to see that other posters can have a variety of backgrounds which cause them to not speak English well, dyslexia, poor education, or most often, not being a native-speaker. I will warn for this as it is unsavoury, however there is no rule against it, merely a moral etiquette. Please adhere to it!
Reporting
Our most effective way of finding posts that have gone bad, is by other posters reporting them, please do! It helps us keep control and it helps you keep a forum that is worth visiting! There is always a group of ‘core-reporters’ these are the names that will end up being nominated for functions as mods.
Appealing
If you do not agree with an infraction or a warning and you want to appeal, please feel free to do so. Contact the infracting mod, if the answer is not satisfactory, contact the elder mod and if that is not conclusive contact Lord-Haste. But remember to keep your argument clear and fair. Appeals from people that reduce themselves to a swearing and insulting heap of pity will get ignored.
I hope you gained some insight in the way modding the TW-forums works, feel free to PM me on the forum with questions or ask them in reply to this blogpost.
