Quote from Kenero;1152699:
LThe problem isn't that your system of reporting isn't bad, but rather you're undermanned right?
We're not really understaffed in that technically, if a moderator is actively browsing, there shouldn't actually be any open reports that are not being worked on. That said, the only way we can truly be "understaffed" is if there is a large amount of time in which there are no moderators logged on while a report goes untouched.
The true problem is that there are far too many cases where a report is open, there is at least one moderator logged on, and nothing is being done. From my experience and understanding, this is not something exclusive to the current staff team. There is no real deficiency within the staff. Everyone who applies promises full attention and immediate resolution to reports, but you never really understand how much pressure that is until you see some of the reports we get.
Many of these reports sit perfectly still, with tangible view counts. My team members has clearly looked at it, and decided to pretend to have not seen it and let someone else handle it. And I won't really blame them for it. Even I can't help but look at a report and think to myself "ARE YOU SHITTING ME".
I've tried many different ways to force this to work. I've added a rule that all reports must be returned with feedback, all report threads must be tagged [RESOLVED], [DISMISSED], or [IN-PROGRESS], and I've also added an anonymous feedback account. These have helped tremendously, but there are still one out of every dozen reports getting lost forever. This usually happens when the moderators play ping pong requesting each other's feedback.
Moderator 1: I don't know how I feel about this. Does anyone else know?
Moderator 2: It might be a problem, but it doesn't really break any rules...?
Moderator 3: I think it could be like this.
Moderator 1: But then it could be like this too. What do you think?
And then the thread just naturally dies without resolution while waiting for each other to take a firm stance. No tags, no feedback, just kinda fades away in to the second page.
Getting an extra moderator is... helpful, but doesn't really resolve the big problem. One of the biggest problems we face is our inability to really "draw the line" somewhere, or even to explain to someone making a report that the line we've drawn is clearly different than what they perceive it to be. Reports come in on posts that haven't really broken the rules in any way, but the reporter was heavily offended somehow. That actually really isn't our problem, but at the same time, it isn't the kind of behavior we're trying to reinforce on this forum. If the situation is ever reversed between the two people however, and we decide that it had gone too far, then we might take action.
Afterwards, we get a lengthy PM complaining about how we're inconsistent in our actions or we're playing favorites. That certain members are scapegoats. At first the moderators try to work with it, but these things happen repeatedly, and reports where choosing between [RESOLVE] and [DISMISS] starts putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the staff, and decisions become significantly more difficult to make.
At this point it is really easy for an outsider to say "wow just do your job" but it really isn't that simple. Since the adjustments made to the reporting system since I've become admin, about 95% of reports being made are properly handled and taken care of. This is a huge improvement from what I've seen in my time with guru and nation, and digging through the archives for my staff predecessors show that the kind of unresponsive behavior from the moderators is most not exclusive to any individuals. Getting that last 5% is really really difficult, and I'm always trying to think of new ways to deal with it. vBulletin is a bit limiting, though.
[SIZE="1"]Source: On my first week of becoming admin, I pretty much went through the entire report and staff discussions archives.[/SIZE]