I think the moderating at Head-Fi is by and large very good. Only a couple things annoy me. First, as kelly said, there is some inconsistency. For example, MacDef wrote Quote:
... [the thread] wandered off into lengthy discussion that was no longer very relevant to the topic of the thread. In addition, the thread itself was very old, and didn't look like it would ever get back on track. ... I then closed it. |
I've seen this happen in similar situations a few other times. Now let's jump to the present and the Cables, Power, etc forum. What do we see? A 652-post (and counting), five-month old thread proclaiming to be about a certain power cable, but really being about everything from the maker's complete line up of power cables, interconnects, and digital cables, as well as DACs, amps, vibration damping, and just about everything else in the audio realm.
The reality is that there is not 652 posts worth of stuff to say about a power cord. If MacDef moderated this forum, I presume it wouldn't have made it past the 100-post mark. But I'm glad that it's still there, as much as I don't understand the rantings of power-cord tweakers. People want to discuss stuff that evolved from that topic, and no moderator should come in and shut it down because it's 'off-topic.' How can it be off-topic if that's what the posters want to write about? I can understand splitting threads and starting new ones, but closing a thread for any reason other than a Head-Fi policy violation (and even there a better solution is generally just to delete posts) is ridiculous.
My other complaint is about moderating in the Member's Lounge. Every now and then someone'll start a nice political or religious discussion, and it'll go along for a while, then get shut down. I know people get touchy when we start discussing real, substantial issues, but why are these threads being closed? The people who participate in them do so because they want to. If things get touchy, they can leave. If they don't leave, it's because they don't want to. I can understand if moderators just want to preserve harmony and keep everyone civil. But I have never seen anything from a political or religious thread spill over into an audio thread. And until Head-Fi has a policy about deleting posts that are controversial or incite spirited discussion, these threads should remain open.
Moderating should be a pretty easy job. Let posters write whatever they want except in very specific circumstances:
- when a commercial entity violates Head-Fi's advertising policy
- when a poster writes something that is flagrantly hostile with no other purpose or content
Easy enough.
I will not post again on this topic. I apologize to those who took offense. It was offered in sincerity.
kerelybonto