First off, let me take this opportunity to give a giant shout out to Prime32- I honestly don't know what we would've done without him on the boards lately. He is really the only active mod right now, and even went so far as to call out this thread to me to chime in on. So kudos and thank you.
I'm going to address a couple of points, but I think most of you made the points for me. Again, thank you.
I believe in the hands off community- mostly because when I was active on WotC, even as a mod, I got really frustrated that people weren't allowed to be given the chance to solve their own problems. I believe that if the problem CAN be solved by the people involved, it's healthier for them and the forums.
An example- I manage a group of people at work (my real work). If one comes to me and says "I didn't like that Annie did X!" I respond with "Did you talk to Annie?" "No..." "Ok, then I can help you figure out how you'll talk to her, what words to use, and how to clarify your issue, but you need to talk to her yourself. And I'm going to follow up with you at the end of the week to make sure you did."
Every now and then people aren't mature enough or professional enough to figure it out themselves. That's when other measures come in.
Here's the Hierarchy of Moderation for the BG boards:
1. Moderate yourself. Be professional. Be mature. Would you say this at the gaming table? Are you being a decent human being?
2. Others just ignore Poster X's bad behavior. We all have bad behavior at one time or another, and maybe this is Poster X's first time being doucy. Maybe he's having an off week. Ignore him.
3. Posters moderate Posters. See all of the advice above- you guys know what you want, tell Poster X to knock it off and tell him why his behavior is douchy. Send some PMs. Do it in context, point of "service".
4. Report the post and the mods step in
5. Report the post and Meg steps in
I'm the LAST resort, the last step when everything else has failed. Deal with it yourself if you can, use us if you can't.
Another thing to note though- don't feel like you shouldn't use the Report button. That's all I go by, honestly. Prime is around, but all I read are those reports for the most part. If I suddenly get 3 reports on the same thread, you can bet your butt I'll check it out. Same goes if some of the names that I respect and WANT to have a good time here report the thread- their voice is more important to me. I want this to be their community and if something is pissing them off, I'll check it out. It's not favoritism, it's giving power to the people who have put the time in and proven themselves, so do that and I'll listen to you too.
Finally- here's a general list of my priorities, in order, in life in terms of what I spend the most time on (not counting eating, sleeping, etc)...
1. My job - I'm an executive and work a bunch of hours.
2. My daughter
3. My husband
4. Twitter
5. Our podcast
6. Video games
7. TV
8. Weekly game night
9. Spur of the moment games
10. Facebook
11. Family
12. The dog
13. Farting around on my ipad
14. These boards
15. Staring out the window
16. Reading magazines in the doctor's office
I used to be a total forum-whore. Twitter sort of replaced that. I don't spend much time here at all, so don't feel like I'm ignoring you... it's just so low on my priority list.
That being said- if you ever want to get ahold of me- if you've sent a report and it's gone unnoticed or if there is something abrewin' that you think I should step in for- send me a PM or a Twitter. PM's go to my email so I get them and twitter is a great way to talk directly with me. @bg_meg
Does that help?