I know there are staff from Monzo contributing to this forum but are there any community moderators?
As the number of users rises, there are an ever increasing number of new threads started on the same topics. On other internet forums, moderators frequently combine threads to keep things tidy and easy to read but there doesn’t appear to be the same sort of moderator housekeeping going on here? Just scrolling down the first page today you can see a number of posts about the same thing and as a result information and helpful responses get lost between posts.
Nope, Discourse (the software used here) does have a sliding scale of permissions and a lot of them can be earned over time but things like merge and delete can only be applied manually.
A few of us did hint at the idea to @Naji at the Monzo name launch but there’s a lot going on over there right now and one of the critical rules of becoming a moderator on the internet is that you never explicitly ask for the position!
I’ve talked to @tom and @bailey about this. Their response was that it’s not quite needed yet. Which I agree with, the community isn’t big enough. And the number of times where intervention was needed isn’t high enough.
Maybe in time it will be needed but remember that part of the criteria is that you never ask to be one. Who knows what @Naji will do in time
To be honest, Discourse has enough built in measures and permissions granted in the ranks that true moderators are only needed to modify or remove the posts of others. It’s one of the nice things about Discourse, you naturally get some basic cleanup powers (such as thread renaming) just by being a regular, high quality contributor.
Everything else is handled through flagging posts and with enough flags, posts get automatically hidden by default until a moderator has a chance to review it. Enough flags and a user gets punished in subtle ways by being marked internally as a low quality poster. It’s a kind of democratic, soft self-moderation. I really like it.
Indeed, right now I’m mostly just cross-linking threads and posts. Merging with a private message to explain to the person that it happened would be nice. Previously spent too long in places where duplicate topics were simply trashed without warning or notice!
@tomsr following on from yours & Richard’s comments -
In the meantime, the level 4 users can close threads. So they’ll be able to add a comment to the thread with a link to the existing post, something like, “this post is a duplicate, please continue this discussion here”, close the thread & could also send a private message.
Obviously if the person who’s posted the ‘duplicate’ thread points out it’s not a duplicate, the level 4 user can delete their comment and reopen their thread
What I do enjoy doing on a forum is working out who is angling for moderator rights. There’s a certain way people post when they think there’s a chance they’ll be able to get the status of moderator.
Nope, I would say it was the diplomatic answer of someone who wanted to make a statement without naming names. There’s no need for me to state who I think is trying to make an impression for moderator rights if/when they are needed. I’m sure there’s others rolling their eyes at the very same people.
So if you’re uncomfortable about sharing examples because it’s not in the community spirit, perhaps inferring that the users who’re posting those posts are doing so because they have ulterior motives isn’t in the best spirit either?
You wouldn’t mind sharing the posts if you’d commented that you’ve seen some high quality, useful answers from users who could potentially be considered as moderators.
The only reason I stated I was uncomfortable giving examples is because you asked me to, albeit in a jokey manner.
However; my responses seems to have touched a nerve with you.
I’m not here to name and shame the people who I find annoying on the forum. I’m here to see the progress of a bank in the making. If Monzo ask the community for Mod nominations then I’ll happily throw some names in the hat. At present they’re not so I’m not going to big up anyone.
