A moderator on my forum...

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DBieniek

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Feb 6, 2007
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A couple of graphic design people on the site recently started a "signature of the week" competition. One of our moderators registered 4 accounts to boost his number of votes on the poll. When we confronted him about it, he denied it claiming that it was his "brothers" from next door. He later changed that story referring to them as "friends."

Should we drop him as a moderator?
 
DodgeFB

DodgeFB

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dreamerinexile you are absolutely right there. Even when no one cheats it just smells bad.
 
PalePhoenix

PalePhoenix

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dreamerinexile said:
Yes and to be honest staff shouldn't be allowed to participate in comps anyway.
Click to expand...

Yes and yes. It looks extremely bad when staff take part, even when their actions are above-board. There will always be someone who'll lose and suggest it was fixed. However, it IS just a SOTW contest, and not the be-all, end-all of forum contests. If there's a middle ground to be had, then ban the mods other accounts and tell him not to do that again. If he's just fond of lying, then that's probably a more important reason not to be staff than trying to stack a sig competition.
 
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DBieniek

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Feb 6, 2007
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That is mine and the website owner's biggest issue. If he wouldn't have lied about it, we would have probably just told him not to do it again.

How can you trust someone who lies over something that tiny?:bonk:
 
Hazel

Hazel

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Demote him, immediately. Not for creating alts, but for lieing to you.
 
Orp

Orp

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Be careful of the fights you pick. From what you've posted it all sounds as if it was in fun. I agree he needs confronted on the lying, but sometimes banning or demoting might cause more turmoil on the forum than letting it go.
If he is a leader that others follow he could cause you lots of lost sleep if he wanted.
If this is a contest for mods only, the fine, but otherwise I would not allow mods to participate in contests like that. Give mods other 'bennies' as you can but keep them out of general membership contests as they should be helping you with the judging and such.
 
ubuntumatthew

ubuntumatthew

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Mar 24, 2007
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I would demote him and ban all the accounts...the short term grief will be worth it in the long run. If you and your staff are consistently honest and fair, users will trust you.

If he had come clean when you asked him, I would have advised a public confession and mercy.

I would also echo the statement that staff shouldn't be participating in the competition.
 
tristan_SMM

tristan_SMM

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He should not only be demoted for lying to you, but he should also be banned in addition, seeing as he did something like that while in a position of trust, which makes it 10x worse.
 
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shalo

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Jun 5, 2005
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Be courageous even if the member is popular and do what needs to be done. It always works better when you do the right thing. I've had many times where I didn't do the right thing and I'd argue that would backfire even worse.
 
Nicole510

Nicole510

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Mar 16, 2007
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If you would ban a regular member for the same thing (violating rules, lying, etc.) then the moderator should at the very least be demoted. You don't want to set a precedence of having a different set of rules for those in 'power'.
 
T

T3chn0

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Apr 13, 2007
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I'd let him slide, and keep an eye on him.

Also DON'T let moderators participate in member competitions, only let them participate with other moderators. And to check if it wasn't lieng about the other accounts, how about checking the e-mails used to register those accounts, and sending one of them an e-mail under a fake name or something, and see what happens.
 
S

shesulsa

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Jan 19, 2007
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DBieniek said:
A couple of graphic design people on the site recently started a "signature of the week" competition. One of our moderators registered 4 accounts to boost his number of votes on the poll. When we confronted him about it, he denied it claiming that it was his "brothers" from next door. He later changed that story referring to them as "friends."

Should we drop him as a moderator?
Click to expand...

I think this depends upon the agreement your moderator had to "sign" when you hired him,his performance thus far and length of service, and the terms and conditions of your moderating staff.

Questions to ponder:

1. Has he done anything like this before? Been with you a while or not?
2. Is he a volunteer, vested or paid?
3. Is he absolutely clear that this kind of thing is not acceptable?
4. Do you have a reprimand system in place?

You might consider giving him a warning, explaining the terms of his moderation, and give him another chance, maybe put him on probationary status for a while. If you do the latter, he may quit and save you the trouble.

I wouldn't let this go without some kind of discussion at the very least.
 
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