Mini-Modding.

[Dragalge]

I've been in several situations where I've seen people get scolded for mini-modding. I don't think its fair, that just because people point out things that moderators may not notice, and instead of being appreciated, they get in trouble. I mean, there have been several situations where people could have figured it out without them pointing it out, but for example, a while ago there was a Sprite shop and two people pointed out that they were just using https://pokemon.alexonsager.net/.

Shouldn't we have to right to point things out in case the moderators don't notice?

I want to hear your guys's opinions.

 

[Aquacorde]

Alerting the moderator to the issue by report best way to go about it. Members are always asked to report rule-breaking or borderline rule-breaking posts rather than take matters into their own hands. By reporting, staff will be alerted and they will look into the matter. Normal members do not have the power to enforce rules. Normal members could have a rather questionable knowledge of the rules. Users often don't listen to people who don't have authority- this could lead to fighting between members and cause the problem to escalate. So pointing it out isn't exactly helpful and could actually be detrimental to the situation.

Beyond that, pointing things out doesn't alert staff to what's actually happening. It doesn't magically make them pay attention to that particular situation. Some mods read every single post that is in their section. Others actually have a life or a busy section to take care of and aren't able to oversee every little detail. Reporting is the best way to bring attention and closure to a questionable situation.

 

[Plumpyfoof]

I agree with Aquacorde, we're just going to start a flame war and risk both people offending rather than just one. A simple report is enough to alert the mods and they'll be onto it.
I'd like to liken this situation to vigilanteism in modern society. If you witness someone stealing a car at night it's a better course of action for you to take note of the thief's appearance and the car and rego plates than to run over guns-a-blazin' and potentially get shot, stabbed or get in a fight with the person and risk being sued for assault.
It might take a little longer but justice isn't our job we should leave that to the authority.
I hope you're listening Batman

 

[Oryx]

I agree with Aquacorde, we're just going to start a flame war and risk both people offending rather than just one. A simple report is enough to alert the mods and they'll be onto it.
I'd like to liken this situation to vigilanteism in modern society. If you witness someone stealing a car at night it's a better course of action for you to take note of the thief's appearance and the car and rego plates than to run over guns-a-blazin' and potentially get shot, stabbed or get in a fight with the person and risk being sued for assault.
It might take a little longer but justice isn't our job we should leave that to the authority.
I hope you're listening Batman

It's not so serious as all that.

I think when we're so against minimodding, often it's just because it's the rule - it's very unlikely that a user is going to flame you for letting them know something's in the wrong section. It's just very, very annoying. To me, it just doesn't contribute to the conversation whatsoever. I browse PC by clicking "new posts", and posting to tell someone something is in the wrong section bumps it into new posts without any new content. I find it annoying but it certainly isn't so dire or risky as it's set up here.

Although I think the OP showed the problem here, just when he said "two people pointed out" - why did two people need to point it out? There's an issue on PC where people feel the need to say the same thing as someone else even if it's already been said, which when combined with mini-modding is basically the most annoying thing ever. You're already not contributing to the thread by just saying it's wrong, you make it worse when you're not even the first person to say it's wrong.

In the end though, it's just annoying, thus why basically no one gets any real punishment for it.

 

[Olli]

Personally, I've never seen any cases of mini-modding escalate into flaming, so I wouldn't say that's quite the problem here. It's more because, like most people have already mentioned in the thread, that it actually isn't helping the problem. Since the mini-mods don't have any power, they won't be able to do anything other than point it out, and generally that'd be handled a lot better by simply reporting the post and letting a staff member deal with it. Everyone doesn't need to know that x person did y wrong, so simply letting staff know through reports will give way better results. Another reason why it's also annoying, is because it'll usually make the mini-mod a bit of a hypocrite. In their attempts ot point out exactly why a post was breaking the rules, they'll usually ignore the topic of thread, making their post spam. Which again, isn't helping anything.

As someone who's been both a subject and culprit of mini-modding, as well has having dealt with quite a few cases of mini-modding during my time as a mod, I'm fully aware of why people do it, how annoying it is to be subjected to it, as well as how complicated it can make things. I'm not opposed to letting people point it out in PM's, since that way it'll serve more as a friendly reminder rather than throwing the person onto a pedestal of shame to show that you're aware of the rules. But in the end I'd still say reporting it to staff is the better option.

 

[Timbjerr]

Another thing to point out is that posting in a thread simply to say:

This is breaking the _____ rule.

counts as off-topic posting and spam, which is itself an infractionable offense ironically enough.

 

[Sydian]

It generally comes off pretty rude when a new member makes a thread that doesn't belong there and some member feels entitled to burst into the thread and say, "This is the wrong forum and Sydian is gonna lock your thread." Yes! That is a true story. Way to make the new member afraid of me before I have even met them. But yes, that happens and it's pretty rude. It's best to just report the situation. The moderator or a higher staff member will see the report and handle it accordingly. Trying to do a job that we already have people for, especially when done wrong, just isn't looked highly upon.

 

[Fairy]

You mean this thread, where I very politely reminded the users not to mini-mod? :(

I hope you know that no one was actually issued a warning or infraction in this case.