What has happened to Catholic Answers Forum?

[IWantGod]

Catholic Answers forum is just the best. I tried to look for another forum. I failed, miserably…

Somebody even corrected my thread name on more than one occasion. I call him or her the mysterious spell checker.

 

[ShowersofRoses]

Yes.
16 caricatures

Sorry, this little typo made me snort a little. I know you meant 16 characters but for some reason my brain thought it was hilarious.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Actually, one time I was going for “characters” and it autocorrected to “caricatures” and I decided I liked it that way better

 

[BartholomewB]

The changes that I’ve noticed are broadly in line with what most other posters are saying: we are less aware these days of the mods constantly reading over our shoulders, and the online quarrels have increased both in frequency and in aggressiveness. The quarreling doesn’t worry me. If A and B are calling each other idiots or liars or heretics or whatever, let them fight it out between themselves. That’s the way it’s done on other websites I’m used to, and in my view it’s the way moderating ought to be done. People expressing strong feelings on a subject, however irrationally, is one of the main attractions of comments threads in general, here at CAF or anywhere else. A different issue is the question of posts that are offensive to all of us collectively. The worst one I’ve seen here was a thread started a month or two ago about a theology professor who wrote a book or paper in which he described Jesus as “a drag king with queer desires,” or words to that effect. That thread, in my view, ought to have been killed immediately. Of course, there may have been other threads that were no less offensive but that I never saw, either because they were quickly taken down or because they were on forums that I don’t go to all that often.

On the whole, taking the rough with the smooth, I like CAF better the way it is now.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

I would gladly chip in a nominal monthly fee to reinstate the moderators.

Moderators don’t have to be paid. They can ask for volunteers. I was once a moderator for a hobby of mine. We were an all volunteer force, but we kept the place in order. We were invited to join the team based on our activity level and our reputations. Worked very well.

I agree that this is a very different place than the one I joined in 2012. For me, it’s the moderation. Our poor moderators do the best they can, and the regulars also try to do what they can (which isn’t much). For the volume of this site, there needs to be more moderation.

 

[Mtatum1958]

Moderators don’t have to be paid. They can ask for volunteers.

Thanks for information. How are volunteer moderators reviewed or screened after the fact? I agree that a lot of the threads go wild and the topic is lost in the fray.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

Well, I can only speak from my previous experience.

There was a small group who owned the site (Quarter million members. Not a small site.). There were the administrators. They met together and made final decisions on major issues including who got to be a moderator. Often times, an existing moderator would notice that someone seemed very active in a particular sub-forum. They might note said person would flag problems, and was always very reasonable in their explanations of why something should be moderated. That existing Moderator would mention to the admin team that they thought such-and-such member would be a good moderator. From there, the administrators would talk it over, review that person’s history, etc. and make a decision.

Once approved, an invitation was sent to such-and-such member asking if they wanted to be a mod. If they agreed they were in.

After that there was a training period and then you would be introduced to the forum members and go live.

Moderators were autonomous within their assigned sub-forum/fora, but we worked together on big issues. And, we helped out if things went pear-shaped while the assigned mod was offline. We always consulted on things like whether to recommend someone for banning, and when a thread, post, or person was borderline, we would discuss what action to take. As a team, we worked very well together.

 

[grotto]

This is Purrfect!