Feel free to email me to discuss any moderation issues. We've made some good progress from email in this thread.mailto:wejo@letsrun.com
This thread went off the rails a bit with 1 particular poster hijacking it and trying to make it about one moderator so we have locked it.
Before I give my takeaways, if you have concerns about moderating, or posts, please report them or email me directly. We make it very easy to be heard at LetsRun.com and reach us. But if you sidetrack threads by discussing moderation, those posts will be removed and can lead to temporary bans as they ruin the discussion for everyone else.
But some takeaways. 1) Dealing with the problematic posters/troublemakers isn't easy but we need to make sure in dealing with them we do not go too far and harm the experience for other posters 2) The filters often flag people by accident. Exempt SC members from the filters at the very least. 3) Consider creating a toggle so people don't have to see "this post was deleted in a thread". In the posts where the trouble makers try and takeover, these notifications start to ruin the experience. 4) Consider moving some posts out of the main forum. 5) Look at limiting how often people can post in a thread. 6) Try and get a better handle on the use of VPNs by people posting, reporting posts, upvoting, etc. 7) I will actively monitor all of malmo's moderating and posts for the next week and give him feedback. We already actively communicate but some of your points and emails were helpful.
You repost your "coaching" posts because you are not a real coach. There is no one in real life to learn from you. You view letsrun as the DM for your role play.
This is what people don't like. Either be your real self or create an anonymous character for your role play.
Your rules are good. Require the mods to enforce them. Personal attacks are the biggest violation. They are permitted to happen constantly. Yet post on topic negatively about Brosnan or Tuohy or a few others and the post disappears. Those are not insults of posters. But post borderline racist, porngraphic, or other disgusting things and the posts remain. Bottomline, review your rules every 6 months and resend the rules to the moderators. Tell them to enforce the rules and not make up their own rules. I would like to see the bizarre posts disappear but that is impossible without requiring registration. I coach high school girls and I do not mention this site to them. If the site was more running specific and adult type content not allowed, I think your visits would actually increase.
Instead of having one ongoing thread about moderation or tips to improve the forum, we should have a thread once a month discussing the forum for a few days. Have a nice discussion, then we'll lock the thread and do the same thing next month.
As always, we say the best way to get immediate feedback is to email us, but we're even reachable by phone.
This thread will be open at least through Friday. My email is
From my big-picture perspective (which is biased because i spend a lot of time dealing with bans etc) the things that bug me the most are: 1)The true troublemakers 2) The people who personally attack other posters and/or moderators 3) Spammers (but I'm putting those in the true troublemakers category)
But I see the same people creating problems, attacking each other, etc.
It really brings down the level of discussion. Disagree with someone's ideas, not them personally, is the way I see it.
It seems like any mention of Jamaicans gets you banned these days, even if a plain and simple reading of the words would connote nothing sexual to any reasonable person or AI. Are mods projecting their perversions in their reading of posts?
The bar should be that if there’s a reading of a post that isn’t sexually explicit or vulgar, and it is related to the subject matter of the thread, it should stay. A sense of humor would also help.
If Malmo would like to have a civil discussion about this matter (and others) I am open to doing so. That’s what an ADULT would do. Or just ban me again like a CHILD
Hes not willing to do that. You are speaking about someone who is not a fair individual and not of sound mind.
Robert and Weldon, you are good journalists. Your news coverage, despite misspellings, its really professional and thorough. What I dont understand is why you are willing to throw everything that you and your brother built down the drain over a disgruntled employee who uses our community as a punching bag. Your customers/clientele here are being rampaged left and right by the same belligerent forum monitor. We arent going to beg to be part of your community and as good as your news articles are, the negativity associated with a certain someone's moderating behavior totally downcrushes any positivity that your news coverage produces. I visit this forum, often in disgust, and its obnoxiously obvious that your most experienced moderator is doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing.
You are rapidly flushing the business that you and your brother built straight down the toilet. Its your company and its your fate, but you are running the inherent risk of even Runners World composing an article on how demeaning and degrading 1 particular message board monitor is to all of us. It is imminent that in the not-so-distant-future, multiple major meets are going to ostracize and humiliate and even forbid you a media pass to cover the meet, all because of your refusal to listen to your customers which you obviously care diddly squat about.
Instead of having one ongoing thread about moderation or tips to improve the forum, we should have a thread once a month discussing the forum for a few days. Have a nice discussion, then we'll lock the thread and do the same thing next month.
As always, we say the best way to get immediate feedback is to email us, but we're even reachable by phone.
This thread will be open at least through Friday. My email is
From my big-picture perspective (which is biased because i spend a lot of time dealing with bans etc) the things that bug me the most are: 1)The true troublemakers 2) The people who personally attack other posters and/or moderators 3) Spammers (but I'm putting those in the true troublemakers category)
But I see the same people creating problems, attacking each other, etc.
It really brings down the level of discussion. Disagree with someone's ideas, not them personally, is the way I see it.
It seems like any mention of ____ gets you banned these days, even if a plain and simple reading of the words would connote nothing sexual to any reasonable person or AI. Are mods projecting their perversions in their reading of posts?
The bar should be that if there’s a reading of a post that isn’t sexually explicit or vulgar, and it is related to the subject matter of the thread, it should stay. A sense of humor would also help.
My registered name was banned for no good reason. I emailed lrc and they said 'you are restored' but I'm not. Still banned for life.
So I have to use anonymous names now.
Maybe it's ok to kick people off the website unfairly if it cleans up the forums, but I suspect I'm not the only one who posts anonymously not by wish, but because they can't register a name anymore because of faulty moderating.
I don't understand your denial of the Malmo problem. Just look at what he deletes...on this thread alone!
When he enters into a discussion and offers pretty salty takes, he cannot be a moderator. It's just a conflict of interest, and he should've been relieved of these duties LONG ago. As for the 430...why is he allowed to continue to be on this cite, but malmo can ban anyone who offends him (or disagrees with him) even in the slightest. I don't know the history of the spamming...but I assume it's the same person that posts about Nico Young? I think Nico is one of the best things that has happened to US running since Galen, Ritz, Teg etc...It's great to see a new generation of talent duking it out with the very best africans. Yet one of our very best is allowed to be named and drug down.
Imagine if a message board poster were doing this and naming a female runner, or a professional athlete from another sport. I agree with the poster above who commends your and your brother's journalism. You guys do a great job covering the sport, but for some reason won't solve your 430/Malmo problem. I just don't get it.
LOL - can you actually keep a straight face when turning everything upside down? You don't provide facts, you make up stuff, typically embedded in "quotes" of tiny fragments of a sentence, surrounded by your own obfuscating words to turn the facts into the opposite.
You don't seek facts, you argue against and ignore facts. For you, all the scientists are wrong, all the experts are wrong, all the coaches are wrong, all the judges are wrong. all the ... You know everything better—without ever proving it—because you have Google in basement. Civil? Calling people dumb + childish + naive + delusional + trolls, while having posts pointing out your lies deleted is your "raison d'etre".
And you can never admit anything, and must have the last word, always. Hence all the rekrunnering forever and ever.
Wejo - just open any doping thread for a demo, and read the last 5 - 10 pages.
You spend a great deal of effort talking about the thoughts of others, but you get two things wrong. Often, it is not the scientists, experts, coaches, and judges who are wrong, but the posters rephrasing the words of these experts, as understood by them, who are wrong. In any case, I don't much consider the opinions of these credentialed experts as much as look for the facts and evidence that could support them.
It is the discussion of the facts that I find interesting.
Instead of having one ongoing thread about moderation or tips to improve the forum, we should have a thread once a month discussing the forum for a few days. Have a nice discussion, then we'll lock the thread and do the same thing next month.
As always, we say the best way to get immediate feedback is to email us, but we're even reachable by phone.
This thread will be open at least through Friday. My email is
From my big-picture perspective (which is biased because i spend a lot of time dealing with bans etc) the things that bug me the most are: 1)The true troublemakers 2) The people who personally attack other posters and/or moderators 3) Spammers (but I'm putting those in the true troublemakers category)
But I see the same people creating problems, attacking each other, etc.
It really brings down the level of discussion. Disagree with someone's ideas, not them personally, is the way I see it.
Positive:
It really is a wealth of information that we can't get anywhere else.
Negative:
Armstronglives
Too many trolls- the really "stupid" but hurtful comments should just be deleted.
Example the guys who thought it would be funny if Femke Bol bombed her first 800. That's just a useless comment from a loser that serves no purpose.
The moderators have to have to guts to delete any drug accusations that don't have factual proof to back them up.
Hes not willing to do that. You are speaking about someone who is not a fair individual and not of sound mind.
Robert and Weldon, you are good journalists. Your news coverage, despite misspellings, its really professional and thorough. What I dont understand is why you are willing to throw everything that you and your brother built down the drain over a disgruntled employee who uses our community as a punching bag. Your customers/clientele here are being rampaged left and right by the same belligerent forum monitor. We arent going to beg to be part of your community and as good as your news articles are, the negativity associated with a certain someone's moderating behavior totally downcrushes any positivity that your news coverage produces. I visit this forum, often in disgust, and its obnoxiously obvious that your most experienced moderator is doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing.
You are rapidly flushing the business that you and your brother built straight down the toilet. Its your company and its your fate, but you are running the inherent risk of even Runners World composing an article on how demeaning and degrading 1 particular message board monitor is to all of us. It is imminent that in the not-so-distant-future, multiple major meets are going to ostracize and humiliate and even forbid you a media pass to cover the meet, all because of your refusal to listen to your customers which you obviously care diddly squat about.
I await the day malmo says the same thing to my daughter that he says to other youth on this site. He is the #1 reason I dont allow her to visit this forum and have it blocked on her iPad.
I replied to Rojo on the Craig Virgin thread. He had quoted Virgin using the word "bullsh*t", but I couldn't reply to Rojo because in the nested quote (from Rojo) was the word "bullsh*t". So I had to take out the i and replace it with an asterisk. Sure, I guess I could remove the nested quote, but why was it okay have it in the original post but not be able to quote it?
My registered name was banned for no good reason. I emailed lrc and they said 'you are restored' but I'm not. Still banned for life.
So I have to use anonymous names now.
Maybe it's ok to kick people off the website unfairly if it cleans up the forums, but I suspect I'm not the only one who posts anonymously not by wish, but because they can't register a name anymore because of faulty moderating.
I was banned on Safari for "spam". I posted a link (Facebook no less) that permanently banned me...of a video of a historic 1500m race from the early 2000s. clicking on the ban link now:
"The appeal request was granted. This account was unbanned at [time]" but I still can't post on safari because I'm banned for "likely spam detected". I need to post either in private browsing or on chrome.
Hes not willing to do that. You are speaking about someone who is not a fair individual and not of sound mind.
Robert and Weldon, you are good journalists. Your news coverage, despite misspellings, its really professional and thorough. What I dont understand is why you are willing to throw everything that you and your brother built down the drain over a disgruntled employee who uses our community as a punching bag. Your customers/clientele here are being rampaged left and right by the same belligerent forum monitor. We arent going to beg to be part of your community and as good as your news articles are, the negativity associated with a certain someone's moderating behavior totally downcrushes any positivity that your news coverage produces. I visit this forum, often in disgust, and its obnoxiously obvious that your most experienced moderator is doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing.
You are rapidly flushing the business that you and your brother built straight down the toilet. Its your company and its your fate, but you are running the inherent risk of even Runners World composing an article on how demeaning and degrading 1 particular message board monitor is to all of us. It is imminent that in the not-so-distant-future, multiple major meets are going to ostracize and humiliate and even forbid you a media pass to cover the meet, all because of your refusal to listen to your customers which you obviously care diddly squat about.
I await the day malmo says the same thing to my daughter that he says to other youth on this site. He is the #1 reason I dont allow her to visit this forum and have it blocked on her iPad.
If Malmo wants to participate in the threads to the extent that he does, including going other of his way to insult other users, then he shouldn’t be allowed to be a mod. It’s one of the other
Malmo will often "take over" a thread if it's on a topic that is personal to him--races or runners from his time.
In these threads, he will delete posts and ban users for: disagreeing with him in any way; or for not disagreeing with him but merely participating in the thread, bc doing so takes away attention from Malmo.
But when I bring something like this up to Wejo, he just tells me that all of these posts/users malmo has deleted/banned were attacking him.
Malmo will often "take over" a thread if it's on a topic that is personal to him--races or runners from his time.
In these threads, he will delete posts and ban users for: disagreeing with him in any way; or for not disagreeing with him but merely participating in the thread, bc doing so takes away attention from Malmo.
But when I bring something like this up to Wejo, he just tells me that all of these posts/users malmo has deleted/banned were attacking him.
It's exhausting
I grew up watching/following track during Malmo's time. What I've found is that when he "hijacks" a thread it is because he's correcting misconceptions that others posted.
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