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.
I do appreciate the anonymous posting ability. We don't all live in countries with free speech protections in a bill of rights. Even mostly innocuous comments might still be ones we don't want our government reading, especially with increasing levels of censorship. Anything at all political is VPN + throwaway username.
I do appreciate the anonymous posting ability. We don't all live in countries with free speech protections in a bill of rights. Even mostly innocuous comments might still be ones we don't want our government reading, especially with increasing levels of censorship. Anything at all political is VPN + throwaway username.
But not just political threads either. There was a thread yesterday asking about the link between running and erectile dysfunction, and I've seen others on pelvic floor strengthening, and on toilet timing in marathons. Those are all legitimate training questions, but ones which you might prefer to ask or answer anonymously. You wouldn't want to risk drying up the knowledge pool on the site.
Below must be what Wejo is referring to when he referred to me “trashing” Rojo as I was literally answering Wejo’s question with a reasonable response as it has 17 upvotes and zero downvotes
The esteemed Rojo has talked about running a sub 3. Considering I ran a 2:58 10 years ago, I'm starting to think this is virtually impossible.Age graded I'm curious what this is equal to.
Unlikely future events: -Rojo breaks 3 in a future marathon -Rojo runs another marathon -Rojo trains seriously for another marathon -Rojo runs more than three times per week, ever again
How about doing the proper and intelligent thing and shut this whole place down and focus on better news coverage? Maybe open the forum back up in 2027 and require registration.
Does anyone get anything positive out if this negative cesspool? I sure dont. Hardly anyone would miss it.
How about doing the proper and intelligent thing and shut this whole place down and focus on better news coverage? Maybe open the forum back up in 2027 and require registration.
Does anyone get anything positive out if this negative cesspool? I sure dont. Hardly anyone would miss it.
A 60 day shutdown to purchase a better platform with greater security, to establish better usage policies, and to properly train a new moderation team would be outstanding! I also feel that it would be a great opportunity to re-set relationships with athletes, agents, and other individuals in this sport to ensure the future of the site.
Summarizing, I see some people upset with malmo's moderating. (Honestly I often think this is the same 3-4 people who constantly complain about him despite being told it is off topic) If you have specific issues with him or any moderation issue, or specific posts, please hit the # button and send me the posts.
So this would imply most of what we do is moderate too much or inconsistently but some complain we don't do enough.
Hi Weldon,
Nice chatting with you briefly on the DFW Skylink while we were coming back from Tallahassee.
I think the biggest issue with moderation generally is inconsistency in what's allowed to stand and what gets removed. There's also unfairness in who gets banned and who is allowed to continually post here despite repeatedly violating the rules.
It reminds me of a common complaint in football, basketball, and baseball: players get upset when refs or umpires don't call the game consistently. Players just want to know where the lines are, and they want everyone held within the same lines. If this forum was moderated fairly and consistently based on the posted guidelines, then I think there would be less complaints.
With malmo specifically, I think the biggest issue is abuse of power. I've seen him personally attack people for expressing opinions that he doesn't like, then remove their replies when they try to defend themselves and call him out on his behavior. I've not only seen him do this to others; he's done it to me.
I previously emailed you and Robert to express my concern about malmo's abuse of power, and I never got a response.
As this thread has shown, there are more than just a few people who object to malmo's moderating.
^This.
Wejo, the inconsistency is the major issue that I see. Some of the stuff that gets left up versus what gets removed defies logic and sometimes your defies own stated posting guidelines / rules. I do understand that it can be hard sometimes for mods to know where to draw the line but that's up to you and your staff to work out. The perception though is that moderation on this site is often arbitrary and capricous, which is your right as a private organization but since your asking for feedback I agree with everything McRunnin posted.
Personally, I've been banned over the years for what I think is some pretty odd things. Once in 2020 I got banned for using the term "deep state" (I may have written it "derp state" at the time) which in the current political context seems quiant given Trump now uses that term all the time. This was only a 3-7 day ban though.
Most recently, during world cross, I was given a lifetime ban for apparently using a forbidden word that begins with an "s" and the ban said it was for "spam". I am too lazy and unconcerned to go out an get a VPN app so I'll take my ban I guess but if you're seriously going to look at the moderation practices these are my anacedotes for what they are worth.
1) For the next week, I will evaluate EVERYONE of Malmo's moderation decisions and posts.
Great, so you've just announced to the world, and malmo, that all he needs to do is lay low for a week and you'll walk away from that thinking everything is totally good. Wonderful strategy.
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
100%. I was excited for the Craig Virgin thread, but quickly got bored with it because it devolved into malmo rudely arguing with other people. And what are we supposed to do, report his own posts to himself for deletion?
100%. I was excited for the Craig Virgin thread, but quickly got bored with it because it devolved into malmo rudely arguing with other people. And what are we supposed to do, report his own posts to himself for deletion?
That will get you banned, I called him out and reported some of his abhorrent comments ripping our friend in Seattle for no reason...didn't work out well for me
100%. I was excited for the Craig Virgin thread, but quickly got bored with it because it devolved into malmo rudely arguing with other people. And what are we supposed to do, report his own posts to himself for deletion?
That will get you banned, I called him out and reported some of his abhorrent comments ripping our friend in Seattle for no reason...didn't work out well for me
Yup. Disagreement with him in any way will get you banned
That will get you banned, I called him out and reported some of his abhorrent comments ripping our friend in Seattle for no reason...didn't work out well for me
Yup. Disagreement with him in any way will get you banned
Same story here. I said he was overly protective of our Seattle friend. banned.
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
100%. I was excited for the Craig Virgin thread, but quickly got bored with it because it devolved into malmo rudely arguing with other people. And what are we supposed to do, report his own posts to himself for deletion?
So you're the guy who accused me of lying about training with Virgin, then on top of that accused me of lying about Virgin running a 38.5 300m? Why would I lie?
What are you supposed to do? Just dont accuse people of being a liar. That will work.
This post was edited 4 minutes after it was posted.
100%. I was excited for the Craig Virgin thread, but quickly got bored with it because it devolved into malmo rudely arguing with other people. And what are we supposed to do, report his own posts to himself for deletion?
So you're the guy who accused me of lying about training with Virgin, then on top of that accused me of lying about Virgin running a 38.5 300m? Why would I lie?
So you’re the guy who bans someone for a minor disagreement
100%. I was excited for the Craig Virgin thread, but quickly got bored with it because it devolved into malmo rudely arguing with other people. And what are we supposed to do, report his own posts to himself for deletion?
So you're the guy who accused me of lying about training with Virgin, then on top of that accused me of lying about Virgin running a 38.5 300m? Why would I lie?
I don't know what the hell you're talking about because I gave up on that thread, which is a shame. But in a thread about Virgin and World XC, why are you so concerned about yourself?
So you're the guy who accused me of lying about training with Virgin, then on top of that accused me of lying about Virgin running a 38.5 300m? Why would I lie?
I don't know what the hell you're talking about because I gave up on that thread, which is a shame. But in a thread about Virgin and World XC, why are you so concerned about yourself?
The real question is why did you lie about me? Twice?
So you're the guy who accused me of lying about training with Virgin, then on top of that accused me of lying about Virgin running a 38.5 300m? Why would I lie?
So you’re the guy who bans someone for a minor disagreement
Accusing someone of lying isn't a minor disagreement. Its something you don't do. Not ever.
This post was edited 5 minutes after it was posted.
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