The forum I post in doesn’t have a moderator listed. Does that mean there’s no moderator for it?
The brief answer is: no.
The long(er) answer is that the majority of forums don’t require constant monitoring. Conflicts are often resolved by constructive dialogue, fellow posters provide respectful replies to misconceptions, off-topic posts fade out or are brought back on topic by a fellow poster who adds an on-topic comment to their reply and so on.
On the moderator side, assigned forums can bear a number of risks: (unconscious) biases can develop, there’s no check on any action that is taken on posts that don’t go through the report center, moderators who aren’t assigned to a specific forum may feel discouraged to voice their opinion or their opinion may be more likely to get dismissed (often, also an unconscious act).
On the guidelines side, forum specific guidelines can make it more difficult for posters to navigate the forums. Sometimes differences were minor, while at other times forum-specific guidelines were a repeat of the community guidelines. Either way, having many different sets of guidelines means many things to keep track of which make avoidable mistakes more likely.
Therefore, the decision was made to move away from “turf“ oriented moderation and toward universal moderation. Or, differently put, all moderators are responsible for all reports.
So, just because there’s no assigned moderator, doesn’t mean anything goes.
The forum-wide community guidelines apply to all forums. (We’re aware that a number of individual forum guidelines are still up. They’ll be adjusted or removed in cases where they’re just a repeat of what’s in the community guidelines).
When posting, posters should be mindful of any individual’s humanity. Differing opinions are welcome and important for growing a healthy community, however disagreements should be handled with respect, consideration and empathy. Racism, hate speech, homophobia and other forms of prejudice and discrimination will not be tolerated anywhere on our forums.
Please PM @CM-CrispMtAir or one of the moderators with any questions you may have or ask them in the Bugs, Questions and Suggestions section.
Thank you,
CrispMtAir