Arbitrary moderation?

[zapta]

Is there a way to make a sub-forum blocked from the unread list?

Not that I am aware of.

Does this helps?

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2975

"This modification allows the categories, boards and topics of your choices to be removed from the recent post lists."

Are you looking for this? https://www.eevblog.com/forum/profile/?area=ignoreboards

Am not sure, this may be a different mod:

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1451

[EEVblog]

Does this helps?
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2975
"This modification allows the categories, boards and topics of your choices to be removed from the recent post lists."

Perhaps, but what Geoff said is true.
And then you still have other issues:
1) Also, what about the stats? e.g. most popular forum thread.
2) Users end up getting into fights in there and then hating each other etc that perhaps otherwise wouldn't have happened. This animosity can then spill into the main forum.
3) Users searching through a users post history, does it still hide it then?
4) New users might go check out this politics/free-for-all section, see all the inevitable vitriol and then leave thinking that the rest of the forum is like that.
5) Increased moderation workload

and probably other issues.

You basically can't hide the fact that off-topic crap will eventually get seen by people, and it will always detract from the appeal of the forum in some way.

So no, it's not going to happen, I'm not going to allow this forum to be used as a general off-topic free-for-all. No good can come from it.

[GeoffS]

Sorry if I misunderstood.

Isn't the better way to not have OT postings rather than having to have some mechanism to ignore them?

[EEVblog]

Why not just set up a 'sandbox' where the people here who know each other to some extent, can waffle on about anything? If we do not complain to a mod about any posts, then why not leave us be?

Because this is primarily an electronics forum.
There is absolutely, demonstrably, no good that can come from letting users lose in a free-for-all section.
Even if it's private and locked away, it still can, and almost certainly will ultimately create bad will between users that otherwise would never have been the case if we just talk about the stuff that brings us together in the first place, electronics.

[tautech]

As previously explained, a moderator doesn't have the luxury of ignoring forums, posts or users.

Well, you have certainly made that assertion before, but I don't recall you actually "explaining" the reason why EVERYTHING that happens on the board has to be monitored/moderated. If no other user flags a post for moderation, why get involved?

Why not just set up a 'sandbox' where the people here who know each other to some extent, can waffle on about anything? If we do not complain to a mod about any posts, then why not leave us be?

Surely the bandwidth isn't an issue? Maybe its a power thing?

Maybe, mods don't seem to muck around if there is something they think needs doing.
Received a PM from one recently, all very polite, conformed with his wishes, replied with a request.....reply?
No they are above us all it seems.
So we have to have a thread like this to air our dirty laundry.
Messy IMO
OP +1

[Simon]

The moderators come from around the world, no agenda's and we are all individuals. If you want "consistent" then tell you what, just flince into something vaguely non electronic and we will delete it - oh wait then we will get accused of being over the top! just can't win can you ?

[zapta]

[2) Users end up getting into fights in there and then hating each other etc that perhaps otherwise wouldn't have happened.

Better than hating the staff. ;-)

One thing that will help with the current structure is to give sincere explanations when closing a thread. Just stating 'non electronic content' where there are many other non electronic threads that are left intact looks disingenuous and arbitrary.

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

According to this definition this topic on what is offtopic is an offtopic by itself and therefore must be deleted. 

[GeoffS]

[2) Users end up getting into fights in there and then hating each other etc that perhaps otherwise wouldn't have happened.

Better than hating the staff. ;-)

One thing that will help with the current structure is to give sincere explanations when closing a thread. Just stating 'non electronic content' where there are many other non electronic threads that are left intact looks disingenuous and arbitrary.

The majority of threads are locked  without any explanation at all.
You only have to read most of these threads to see why they have been locked.

[Simon]

The problem is that there are 3 of us, we rarely talk and we need to take a decision at times before things get out of hand and in case no one ever noticed this takes time

[rolycat]

When normal people have a conversation sometimes the topic drifts. That's the natural way human conversation works. It isn't a problem or something that needs to be stamped out, or a reason to lock a thread.

Except that when normal people have a conversation about deeply held beliefs nothing anyone says is going to shift them. If they happen to have opposing beliefs their efforts to defend them almost invariably descend into shouting matches, and that's a problem.

No offence, but if you can't make a good decision maybe you should leave the decision making to other people.

Preceding comments with 'no offence' doesn't magically stop them from being offensive.

[EEVblog]

At the of the day there are very few complaints (as in like a handful a year maybe) about the moderation here. So we must be doing pretty ok?
BTW, it's impossible to get zero complaints!

[justanothercanuck]

As a former moderator of a linux distro forum, I have to say that the guys here do a pretty good job under the circumstances.  I might not agree with everything they do, but it's their forum to do with as they please.  If they don't want geo-political or religion-based threads, then that's their choice.  There are plenty of other places where we can voice our displeasure of worldly matters.  This is an electronics forum, we should be lucky we even have a generic sandbox category for OT threads.

[EEVblog]

When normal people have a conversation sometimes the topic drifts. That's the natural way human conversation works. It isn't a problem or something that needs to be stamped out, or a reason to lock a thread.

Yes, of course, and that is why off-topic posts are allowed here, because that's just a natural outcome of forums. It would be foolish to try and stop them.
Every forum I have seen that tries to enforce 100% on-topic fails miserably.
But, almost every forum I have seen that has zero moderation (e.g usenet) just self implodes.
So in practice there has to be a balance, and I think we do a pretty good job here by:
- Allow occasional off-topic threads, but generally encourage mostly on-topic.
- Ban the real nutters (on here it would maybe be a handful a year at most?)
- Don't allow personal attacks (the major rule here)
- Very occasionally lock threads that will almost certainly lead downhill. (1200 threads a month, how many are locked, a couple?)
- Very occasionally delete really offensive posts. (16,000 posts a month, how many are deleted, a dozen?)
- Mostly try and lead by example.

[rolycat]

I think the moderation is pitched just about right.

I wasn't surprised when the carbon tax thread got locked - I was mostly curious to know what Dave felt about it, but thanks to his tweet that itch has been scratched.

Incidentally, has everyone seen the third "What If Google Was A Guy" video?
It has a nice example of confirmation bias in action.

[Stonent]

From what I can tell 90 percent of the moderation seems to come from 1/3 of those who can moderate.

[GeoffS]

From what I can tell 90 percent of the moderation seems to come from 1/3 of those who can moderate.

It's a matter of availability.
Both Simon and Dave have full time jobs and other demands on their time.
I'm retired, it's the middle of winter so I spend a lot of time at my desk indoors where it's warm.

[GeoffS]

A quick count reveals 25 locked threads since December last year. 5 or 6 of these were threads were locked at the OP's request (this also includes about 5 threads originated by rolandpenplotter  which no one would argue  needed locking  )

Currently there are (about) 80 posts in the pending deletion forum (deleted posts are moved here prior to permanent removal). The majority of these are posts have been deleted by the poster and not by moderators. This represents about 30 days worth of deletions.
I don't have any stats as to total monthly threads/posts to put these numbers into perspective.

[Fsck]

BTW, it's impossible to get zero complaints!

[joseph.anand]

As much as I love conspiracy theories, I visit this forum purely to read up on electronic stuff. I do not contribute much in terms of posts. I had been on vacation for a few days and was not aware of the TI offer on the Chronos Development Kit. If it was not for the moderated website (arbitrary or not) , the post/discussion would have been buried in otherwise mundane OTs. For most of us time is important, and would not like to waste a lot of time trying to catch up on the important discussions/posts related to electronics.

Fixed quality control generally involves having a threshold that would rather kick out good posts/threads than allow a bad one to get in. So in this regards having an arbitrary moderation is far better than having too rigid a policy.

[8086]

The thing is, while this is an electronics forum, it's also a community of people.

As much as we like electronics, it's nice to talk about other things sometimes.

Perhaps let the general chat be off-topic, and stop posts from that subforum appearing in the new posts list, so they don't clutter it up?

[zapta]

A quick count reveals 25 locked threads since December last year. 5 or 6 of these were threads were locked at the OP's request (this also includes about 5 threads originated by rolandpenplotter  which no one would argue  needed locking  )

If there are so few locked threads it shouldn't be to difficult to give  sincere explanations why they are closed. Otherwise it looks arbitrary.

[Biff383]

  I'm sorry for posting the airline thread. At the time I had no idea what had happened to make Iit crash. I was thinking that it could have been carrying li-ion cells or something.  I was interested in if it would give a clue as to what happened to the other one.  I did not think it would be a controversial topic. It looks like the i did not think part was the main problem.
 I'll ban myself for a while.

 Ron.

[GeoffS]

 I'll ban myself for a while.

 Ron.

No need Ron, I can do that for you 

[zapta]

  I'm sorry for posting the airline thread. At the time I had no idea what had happened to make Iit crash. I was thinking that it could have been carrying li-ion cells or something.  I was interested in if it would give a clue as to what happened to the other one.  I did not think it would be a controversial topic. It looks like the i did not think part was the main problem.
 I'll ban myself for a while.

 Ron.

It's not you. Many other non electronics thread are left intact, for example the Buzz Aldrin thread which evolved into what is art, when violence is justified and astronauts pay scale (and was a fine thread IMO).

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/sat-july-26-meet-buzz-aldrin/