NationStates Jolt Archive

Time and time again, the Mods are called in to deal with Godmoding, Puppet Wank, Flaming, Intruding into Closed Threads, and General Harassment.

The rules already give the topic creator in NS and II threads control over the thread, and to dictate who can and who cannot post in it. The topic creator can also do things that other posters can't, such as create a poll.

My idea is to allow the topic creator in a NS or II thread the ability to lock the thread, or delete posts from godmoders, flamers, wankers, people who were not invited to the thread, etc., etc. This would mean fewer tasks for the Mods to perform, for a one-time recoding of the forums. I don't pretend to be a code expert, or to know what's entailed in altering the forums, but this would mean that the Mods can focus on General and UN forums, and DEAT the occasional region spammer, and it would totally end the problem of having to wait for the Mods to clean one's RP thread.

Every time I've seen someone suggest an idea for reducing the Mods workload, the answer is inevitably "if we want help, we'll ask for it".

I'm sure someone else can give you a more detailed technical answer as to why it's not possible, but I'm fairly confident that will be the gist of the reply.

The forums are administrated by the Jolt.co.uk site staff, not the NationStates moderators. Allowing users to lock their own threads requires administrator privileges, which only the Jolt staff has; and given that there are unfixed issues dating back two years now, you can see how long it would take them to respond to comparatively minor issues like this one.

/not a mod or authority figure so is not entirely reliable.

We don't own the forums or the forum software. Those belong to Jolt. They won't even give any of US forum admin access, much less code access. Technically, this will never happen while we're sharing forums on Jolt.

Even if they did, what you're calling for is a level of Thread Dictatorship that I don't think we're comfortable with. That's too much power in the hands of the original poster ... and given Jolt's time-warp antics, the OP can change at random. Not a good thing.

I also think you vastly overestimate the amount of mod resources needed to comfortably police the RP forums. In rough terms of moderator attention needed:Nationstates 2%
International Incidents 10%
Gameplay 2%
The United Nations 25%

Technical 3%
Moderation 20%
Got Issues 1%
Archive 0%

General 35%
NationStates 2 1%
Jenn Government 1%
Even with II showing at 10% on my current list, that's mostly because of a single player. Most of the time, it's closer to NS's 2%

Nationstates 2%
International Incidents 10%
Gameplay 2%
The United Nations 25%

Technical 3%
Moderation 20%
Got Issues 1%
Archive 0%

General 35%
NationStates 2 1%
Jenn Government 1%
General takes more time than Moderation or UN?! Oh boy, we really suck. <.<

Since we A) don't want this, B) don't need this, and C) couldn't do this if we wanted and/or needed it, I'm going to assume it's safe to just lock this puppy up.