Mods shouldn't edit user posts

Some posts require things to be removed such as: Eula violations, flames of other users, links to websites that are not related to gw (or approved for our user base), etc. These posts are edited. post that contain NO relevant information are deleted.

Posts in Xunlai Market MUST contain ONLY information relating to the items/services being sold, images, post and such that do not are edited and may be deleted.

When you signed up with Legacy you agreed to this.

I don't think a no post editing policy is warranted. Sometimes it's the quickest, cleanest, most efficient way of taking care of what needs to be done. Other times, as cosy mentioned, it is the only option. What's important is that the moderator is transparent in what has been done and why, they're not altering the intended message in any way, they're not hijacking the post with their own conversation, they're not doing it rather than something else which is clearly more appropriate, etc. So long as those boxes are being ticked, I don't see an issue.

Personally I find it's something that should be done only very sparingly. As far as I've observed this tends to be the case. It happens mostly in Xunlai Market, but that's a special case due to the specific rules and such there.

If you've got criticisms about either a specific post edit or the way a moderator uses them overall (or any kind of moderation issue, for that matter), you're certainly welcome to start a private conversation with them.

The mods here only actually edit a user’s post when it’s necessary, and never to change what is being said. They only intervene when it’s needed to enforce the rules, or keep the peace. It’s the same on every grown up forum or group in the world.

Our senior mods are very experienced at this and have been doing it for more than a decade, and they are very good at it too. And as Cosy said, it was agreed to when you signup for the forum. Unfortunately, time and time again, humans have proven that without a degree of moderation and rule enforcement, forums like this very quickly descend into chaos and become unusable, or they turn into 4-chan type chaos, filled with the worst traits of humanity. As with all other forums, the mods are there to keep it moving straight and true, and we recruited ours because of their proven track record at doing precisely this on the old guru site.

We are very lucky to have the mods we do, and I am very grateful for the work they do, all on an voluntary basis, because they believe in keeping this community alive.

Max

Quote from Krschkr

It does not matter for this suggestion on how the moderators could do their job better what I agreed on.

This is your opinion, and of course you are welcome to it. However the way we moderate this forum is exactly the same as the way guildwarsguru.com was moderated. And by the same people. It worked there very successfully for the best part of 11 years and tens of thousands of users, and it has been working here for nearly two years. As such, there isn't a debate to be had at this stage on how the mods can do their jobs better, because they are already doing a very good job. We accept that we are all human, and mistakes are made, however we will not enter into any further dialogue on whether you feel Mods should be editing posts or not, and that is the end of it.

Max.

I've decided to reopen this thread, if there's a way we can better run Legacy, we're open for that feedback and in fact welcome it.

That being said, I've tried to read into what happened, and I would like to clarify a few things: the rules are there to make sure we can take action, but in any rule there's a bit of wriggle space, which is decided by the moderator - while they might make mistakes, in the case I believe you're referring to, feels like a correct edit to avoid the thread going off the rails - boards like the Xunlai Marketplace require a bit more strict handling of rules, because of the nature of the discussions.

Another thing I would like to note is that all edits to posts are saved in our system and we can easily revert back to the original post if the need for that is there - when you find that unjust action has been made, please contact me or another mod so we can take a second look.

This is something which rarely happens, but the possibility is there and we take this option seriously.

I can understand your suggestion why mods would not be allowed to edit posts, but to have healthy discussions it's often needed to intervene in small details and on it's own, that's fine - things can derail quite easily if left free. For that reason, we (and almost all other forums) allow moderator editing.

Not to control you or change what you said (that's something that we are completely against), but to make sure discussions stay a bit on track.

Deleting a post is often not the right reaction to it (though, in this case, that might have been a better option instead) as some posts often have some merit that makes that they should still be there - in those cases, it's in my opinion better to edit some out and leave the rest standing.
Deleting a post is closer to censure than what I would like and we leave the edits of posts to the bare minimum and delete/change only what is truly necessary.

Don't hesitate bringing me into it (by tagging me or starting a conversation with me) if you feel an action taken was unjust - we take these serious and you'll get feedback