Then it's the communities fault, not the activity of mods. While I agree that most EN mods are now more inactive (atleast on their mains). I'm glad there are new ones coming to fill in the void that was left.

I think the problem also lies in the fact that it takes two people to report and some 'can't be bothered' to type up report or think someone else will do it.

If some aren't bothered to report just get a friend to report with you. Afterwards it'll hopefully be dealt with then.

Otherwise I'd honestly just change room and avoid any situation that includes a hacker, if there's a hacker in every room of EN2 then try EN1 or just make a room with friends. I would say room kick them but that doesn't really help the issue -- It just moves it else where.

Yeah i kinda of wish people would realise that /ban only kicks from that room. But since it has the word ban they probably think it means just that, to ban someone. But i dont really know maybe they do it cause its faster than trying/typing report. Its the laziness that gets them :p

It's only 3 more characters to type, and the time they spend spamming "/ban user" in the chat they could have typed /report username. Laziness is not an excuse.

Is it better to use /report than using the IRC chat?

I'm not sure about that. IRC you might get a faster response because some mods aren't always online in-game and will probably login on an alt and take care of the issue when they can but if you're not on the IRC chat reporting is the way to go because mods are always and currently have more whisper spam then before.

That's just my in put on it but I wouldn't take my response as accurate.

Even though the problem lies on both ends, in the majority of the cases people instinctively use the /ban command rather than the /report command. They don't even realise moderators don't get notified if people get votebanned. Most of the time, people don't even care if a hacker gets banned or not, as long it's not in their disadvantage.

I would suggest to either merge the commands or add a /ban window in the reports screen. This way potential hackers can be traced which would otherwise remain unknown for a longer period of time, but it would also allow the creation of a history log for less severe offenses (insulting in several rooms, voteban abuse, etc.). And of course there won't be any more confusion of which command to use.

"us mods have a life with a lot more higher priorities than volunteering for a game all day every day."

I agree with you there Flipgraham, but honestly if that means that they aren't able to get online for at least like...three times a week? That means that they shouldn't be moderators.. Surely they need certain qualities to be/get a moderator but they also should have a certain activity (Not talking about you there since you seem to be rather active).

Furthermore just reporting so mods check later is not really all that useful. I mean the hackers will go on as long as no moderator is online and i don't know what kind of methods you use nowadays but sometime before there always was a need of evidence you had to provide (most of the time mod just checked) in order to get a hacker banned by a mod (don't get this wrong i am still reporting every hacker i see).

It's just that as i've read here before too if nothing gets done instantly it encourages others to hack as well. I also do agree with bringing back super moderators and that mods be able to permban.

Flipgraham a dit :

Learn to use the /report system properly because, like I mentioned in a previous thread similar to this, us mods have a life with a lot more higher priorities than volunteering for a game all day every day. Either a secret mod will handle the report, or it will stay there for a mod from another community to deal with.

I'd be elated if there was a proper tutorial on the main page how report works because most people don't understand it.

Tobse a dit :

"us mods have a life with a lot more higher priorities than volunteering for a game all day every day."

I agree with you there Flipgraham, but honestly if that means that they aren't able to get online for at least like...three times a week? That means that they shouldn't be moderators..

Well. You should know real life gets in the way of things. Or sometimes those mods are on alts. Recently, a BR mod took about a two week break from TFM because of some real life events. Was she supposed to be removed because she couldn't get on three times a week? How do you know that EN mods haven't taken breaks as well due to stuff?

Flipgraham a dit :

We don't just disappear without mentioning a reason to the rest of the team why our activity may drop from time to time.

Of this, can we perhaps have a system like BR does when they publicly announce they'll be away? Mostly to prevent frickin' topics like this.

As Anythin has stated, I personally think everyone is a part to the problem and we all are to blame. I've seen several cases when there was no Transformice mod online on a main whatsoever. While I do understand that there are some of them moderating on an alt account (+arbs that we don't know how active they are) but once there is no mod online, I highly doubt all of them are on hiding on alts. I do not mean to offend anyone in the moderation. Many of you are great at your job. However, my opinion is that if you feel like you cannot spend much time on this game anymore, you should give a chance to others. I am sure many of you have done a lot for the community, but the team could get people that are a lot more active. Life changes and we all move on.

When there is a lack of moderators and many of them are inactive, the active ones need to do a lot more work. Why? Because there is nobody to help them. This is obviously not my personal experience when I say that moderators get tons of reports, but I am sure there are times when one moderator simply cannot handle everything alone. It's nice to have arbs to help but they're not full mods, they don't have full powers and it's definitely hundreds of times different when you have an actual moderator helping you.

The other issue is the community. There are two extremes when the room either reports a player that wins a lot of firsts because "They are doing too good to do it without hacks" or when they don't care about a hacker at all.
The hacker is fine as long as they don't start stealing firsts.
The community does not respect the fact that once the hacker actually annoys them, the moderator is not a bot to ban the user straight away. And mainly not when there was a new hack released and they don't know what to handle first. And why do the users have to wait so much for their report to get resolved? Two reasons: A mod is way too busy because there is no one to help them / Nobody else used the report command because they either didn't know how or couldn't be bothered to do it.

Yes, I do support Flipgraham's statement that some mods spend their time trying to get money or education. However, that is a thing you should expect when you have a mod team. You need to respect the fact that your moderators have their own lives. If they start feeling exhausted, it is time to hire some new mods to help out. Once your mods start feeling over-worked, you will start losing them. Their lives are more important than this game and mostly when they're volunteers and you don't pay them. I am happy to hear that there are some more mods to be hired, but I personally think you could have a bit more faith in your arbs and promote them earlier to start helping out. And if you don't have arbs, try opening the applications again.

I do realize the application process is quite difficult as well. You probably have high expectations, this game is full of underage players which is not a surprise if you think about the game itself. I know myself that it is not easy to find good candidates, mostly in smaller communities. Have you ever considered being a bit less strict on the applications? I do understand that you want to get great staff members full of experiences and great language/communication skills. However, I think that if you try to give a chance to the weaker applicants, they could show you that they can do the job as well. It might not be the best option, I admit that, but it's always better than not hiring anyone and letting the game drown in the sea of hack and spam. You need staff in order to keep the game work correctly.

As a conclusion (or for anyone who didn't feel like reading this wall of text :P ) I'd like to claim that this whole issue is a big circle. There is a problem in the community which has an impact on the decision of admins which influences the job of moderators that seems to be a lot more difficult and the community sees it as they're slacking.

Haruhitastic a dit :

I'd be elated if there was a proper tutorial on the main page how report works because most people don't understand it.

Minniemoussy made a tutorial for the Dutch Community about the report feature in Topic-304083 . It can easily be translated into English and be put up on these forums, granted that there isn't a thread like this already.

Sabusha a dit :

. However, my opinion is that if you feel like you cannot spend much time on this game anymore, you should give a chance to others.

Inactive moderators are not preventing new recruits to be given a chance to become a moderator. There isn't a limit to the amount of moderators in a community, at least not in EN. So if there is a need for new moderators, they will get hired regardless of the current amount of moderators. You make it seem as if there won't be any hirings because all moderator positions are filled. Even if a moderator is inactive, he/she can still be of value for the moderation team.

Anythin a dit :

Minniemoussy made a tutorial for the Dutch Community about the report feature in Topic-304083 . It can easily be translated into English and be put up on these forums, granted that there isn't a thread like this already.

Do you mean this thread? Topic-374544

Anythin a dit :

Minniemoussy made a tutorial for the Dutch Community about the report feature in Topic-304083 . It can easily be translated into English and be put up on these forums, granted that there isn't a thread like this already.

There is one but I asked for one on the Transformice page. Sorry, should've been more specific. ;A;

Anythin a dit :

Inactive moderators are not preventing new recruits to be given a chance to become a moderator. There isn't a limit to the amount of moderators in a community, at least not in EN. So if there is a need for new moderators, they will get hired regardless of the current amount of moderators. You make it seem as if there won't be any hirings because all moderator positions are filled. Even if a moderator is inactive, he/she can still be of value for the moderation team.

Yes, I admit that you make a point. However, the reason why I worded it this way is that (for example) you have 10 mods in a team and 7 of them do not have much time for moderating anymore. The community/staff is going to make you recruit the staff faster when there are only those 3 mods in the team rather than having 10 and expecting them to do something when they simply don't have time.

It's not only the EN servers, i play in the ES ones and it happens the same... Lots of hackers, and i haven't even find the first ES mod online... and the few times they are they got their whispers blocked. I always contact other server mods, but it happens the same, either they don't respond, don't understand or they just got their whispers blocked aswell.

MODS LIKE, NEVER COME OUT. Most of them are lazy and don't care.

Lolziemep a dit :

MODS LIKE, NEVER COME OUT. Most of them are lazy and don't care.

It's not that the moderators are lazy, it's because they have lives outside of TransForMice. Such as trying to make money and get educated. Moderators are like us, they have lives in the real world. Just because they're not on 24/7 doesn't mean they're lazy and don't care.