Mac_Fife wrote:I certainly don't disagree on that. The point I was trying to make was that in some forums, where the moderation has been criticised, those making the criticisms probably have little or no awareness of some of the more banal tasks that the mods are obliged to perform, and that eat into that fixed time that the moderator can provide.
Your point is well taken. For instance; several of us were in a spat on another forum about a post being deleted. Several taking the side it wasn't and others that it was. Technically it was down for a short period while moderators were reviewing. But many never saw it being down. Only a few did and they used it unfairly for ammunition to support their criticisms. They were surprised and I suspect did not believe the mod when they posted what had happened and the amount of down time, not much... unless you were holding your breath.
While I think it is unfortunate people behave in such ways, they do. My belief is it will take more than requesting patience. Patience is not the problem. The problems are much deeper and more complex. Understanding transference is part of the foundation of knowing how to handle some of these problems. Then there is agenda and propaganda...
While I think it is good for a moderator to tell someone when their post is being or going to be edited or deleted, there is a problem of what to do while a thread is suspended for review.
Is it possible to notify everyone in the thread?
Is notification even desirable when the decision may be no change?
Do we want to put that much work on moderators?
If a thread or post needs to be suspended for review, some time is already being spent. Is it worth the additional time to post a note saying something about the down time and why it was considered for delete or edit?
Or is the whole thing handled another way?
Some forums allow suspension of a thread and others only a single post. If a post is suspended and members can't see it then it could through the thread's flow of context off. On a commercial/business forum I would probably consider suspending posts/threads a necessary part of the operation. On OU I see it as only necessary if one is breaking the rule, and that is unlikely going to be suspended.