Why were my threads closed? What did I do wrong?

Hi,

I began a motivation thread on the motivation board "Wagon Jumpers" the idea is to have a general discussion thread where we can have general discussion and talk about next steps with the group as well as a weekly challenge thread.

At the end of the week (yesterday) I closed down the first week's thread, and began the second week's thread. 

There is no inappropriate language on the threads, people seem to be happy with them, the problem seems to be that there are two threads.

I've been told that the thread is in violation because there are two of them. I can't verify that because I can't find the posting guidelines posted.

First, I understand the board should not be cluttered, which is why I took the precaution of e-mailing everyone in the group with the link to the new weekly thread and posting it at the end of the last weekly thread. 

The challenge on a message board typically tends to be keeping enough interest in a thread to keep it alive.

I would have at the very least appreciated a notice when I began the two weekly + general thread that this would not be allowed. 

This is pretty demotivating to say the least, I now need to let the moderators know when I want to open these threads?

I think I've been a good and constructive member of this site since 2006 and while I appreciate all of the tools this site provides (and that I will continue to use and be thankful for), I don't want to enter into a bureaucratic process where navigating and using the forums will be unpleasant and complicated. 

I would appreciate if:

1. I can continue to have the two concurrent threads that I started, my general discussion thread for the group: Wagon Jumpers - Anyone Need a Lift? and the weekly thread which is currently Wagon Jumpers - May 11 - 17, 2008 and which I will update weekly.

2. I will commit to posting the new weekly thread to every member who is involved through PM as well as posting the link at the end of the last thread. 

3. If the moderators feel a need to lock the weekly threads despite my best practices I can't argue, but I do not want to have to get permission and notify all of the moderator as well as the members of the group. If the moderators want to clean the board, please let that be their discretion and do not assign it to members. 

Thank you for your help, I look forward to your reply I will let my group know that our status is pending. 

Cheers,

Sara.

This is the note and my reply from the moderator in regards to my threads. It does mention closing the weekly thread but not the general thread.

Respectfully I disagree with your decision.

First, I am a bit upset that if these weekly threads + general thread were against the posting guidelines that I was not contacted / they were not shut down or moderated when I began them. 

Second, although I can't find the formal (thread) posting guidelines anywhere the only ones I can find when I begin a post is that posts should not be repetitive, this the closest that I could find. I read this to mean (especially since it is in the same line as not using offensive language) that posts should contribute to the discussion and avoid the "yes it is / no it isn't" unproductive conversation. 

Third, I thought I was being responsible and taking enough precautions to avoid board clutter by notifying all of the participants by PM of the next weekly thread and by posting the next week's thread at the end of the previous week's. 

I realize that it is just one more step to have to notify the moderators each week, however running a group is already ownerous enough (something I volunteered for).  I don't want the added responsibility of having to notify the moderators each week as well, because I can't guarantee that I will consistently remember and I just don't want to be contacted every other week with some polite but irritating note letting me know I forgot (again), which I would likely do (that's why I have a list on my thread of who to contact and ask the other members to do so). 

If the moderators feel it's necessary to close the weekly threads despite my precautions. Then they get closed. 

I would however like access to my general discussion thread. This was our planning thread, which I think will be necessary for this group as it gets bigger and as I run out of weekly ideas to plan what can be done in the next week without cluttering the weekly activity. 

I've noticed that this board no longer allows friend lists to be sorted into groups where this could be done so this was my next best fix.

I've posted an appeal to Erik and Igor on the calorie count thread, and let my participants know that the group may not be able to continue. 

Sorry for the trouble I honestly thought this would be a positive contribution to the board, and did not think I was posting against the guidelines. If necessary I am happy to move this to another community where some of your members may or may not benefit from this concept.

Cheers,

Sara.

----Original Message---- 

Edit: Removed at moderators request. 

Okay, now I'm just really hurt, angry and confused. 

I notified my participants that we were told that the thread was against posting guidelines and that I'd posted an appeal to this thread. I was at least hoping that I would get a reply here before the thread was shut down. I was just adding the latest new member and now it's gone completely. I don't even get any sort of note!

This thread was a good thread. People were happy with it. It was motivating! It was working for several members. It was written in positive voice. It was brining people together.

I am extremely disappointed and frustrated. This was such a great site when it first started. I had so much success and met so many good people here. I can't believe this is no longer allowed. 

I just don't understand why this was so wrong!

I'm looking through the motivation thread,

There are groups based on weight, height, age, achieving goals, weekend motivation challenges, challenges to get motivation to work out.... why was mine different? Why was mind cancelled?

Sara,

I am responding to your thread right now and will post it shortly.

Please understand that the Volunteer Moderators are not all on the boards at once and not on the boards at all times.  We also do not have a chance to read each and every thread so it does take time for us to respond sometimes. 

Your patience is greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,

UTR
Volunteer Moderator

Hi Supersized,

If your Weekly threads are indeed challenges, then they will need to take place in the Games and Challenges forum in accordance with the forum set-ups. 

I have unlocked your *main* topic.  I have also moved your Week 1 and Week 2 threads to Games and Challenges. 

Please understand that "repetitive" includes duplicate threads.  When I hosted my first challenge, I too, would PM a moderator (before I became a moderator myself) to lock my previous week's thread.  This helped ensure that previous weeks were not brought up again as well as help keep the boards with minimal threads of the same challenge.  We still do ask that you contact us when you create a new challenge thread so that we can lock the previous.  We do this for all challenges that start new threads each week although most members prefer to keep the same thread open for the entirety of the challenge.

In no way did the moderators want you to feel like you could not continue your challenge and we apologize that you interpreted it that way. 

You can still sort your friends into groups by visiting the Privacy Filters.

In the future, for a quicker response, please PM a moderator or contact the Team directly using the Contact Us button. 

Please understand that the Volunteer Moderators are members of the community who have volunteered their time to moderate the forums.  We are not on the forums at all times and not able to read each and every thread.  Sometimes it will take us some time to respond to each and every issue or evaluate a thread.  Your patience is greatly appreciated.

If you ever see a thread that you feel may be in violation of the Posting Guidelines, please use the Report Violation button at the top of the screen or PM a moderator.

As for the threads that you are referring to in the Motivation forum, can you please send me links (in a Private Message) to each thread that you came across and we will evaluate each thread individually.  If they are indeed challenges, then we will move it to the appropriate forum.

Thank you and please feel free to PM with any of your questions, comments, or concerns.

Take Care,

UTR
Volunteer Moderator

Thank you for your reply.

I don't understand how this is a game or a challenge thread.

My opinion is that this is a motivation thread in the same genre as the threads on the motivation boards that are based on weight ranges (180's, 190's) weight goals (loose 8 pounds by XX date), age (women 50+), motivation to keep on track for weekends, motivation to exercise. This is simply a thread for motivation for people who have a problem with consistency. If there was ever a motivation issue consistency is a fairly big one. 

This is not a challenge with incentives, rankings, teams, deadlines etc...

I want to do something positive for me and positive for this community. I think if you ask any of the people who joined me on these threads they would feel the same way. 

I understand that people are volunteer moderators, but there should be a place I can appeal to and reason with in that case. I moderate several boards and unless the poster was being offensive or cruel to another member I would never remove, move, alter, close or change someone's postings before having a discussion with them. That is basic manners. 

I'm not interested in hosting a challenge and all the work that involves. I was heavily involved in the first team challenges when they first ran and I'm not up for volunteering for this kind of work.

I would appreciate your help in creating a positive experience for me and the people who joined me in the motivation forum which is where we are located. I think there is room for conversation and understanding here and I think there is more than one way to see this thread. I think it is of benefit to people the way it was and I am willing to do the work required to keep it that way and to not bother if the weekly thread is shut down, but I cannot handle the work required to run a thread on the challenge page. 

I will notify my members that the thread is temporarily closed until there can be some sort of agreement. 

Supersized ~

You mentioned in your OP that the Weekly thread is a challenge.  This is where I derived that your weekly threads were challenges.

Original Post by supersized:

Hi,

I began a motivation thread on the motivation board "Wagon Jumpers" the idea is to have a general discussion thread where we can have general discussion and talk about next steps with the group as well as a weekly challenge thread.

Please see the ~ How Challenges are Handled ~ thread in Games and Challenges for details on how challenges are handled.

Also, here is the Announcement thread that was posted in the forums when we started implementing how Challenges were handled:

ANNOUNCEMENTS -- How we handle "Challenges" (NEW!)

We have already notified the team and asked them to respond to your thread.  Please give them the opportunity to review and respond in a timely manner.

Thank you,

UTR
Volunteer Moderator

Okay so "weekly challenge" was a poor choice of words. However:

1. There is only one part to the "challenge" members must post at least one time per week.

2. Considering that there is only one very low requirement "challenge" I think it is clear that it is more about motivation than "challenge".

3. I think our goals, posts, and topics are a much better fit with the similar topics on the motivation forum than on the challenge forum which seem to be more about idle games than about accomplishing any actual weight loss or eating change.

4. The weight loss challenges (proper) that go on are much more involved than the post once per week Wagon Jumpers thread I, as a OP am not up to running a full scale challenge on the challenge thread. I would not be able to meet the challenge requirements and keeping it there is the surest way to kill it.

5. People who want to do challenges would be disappointed by the Wagon Jumpers thread because it's not a proper challenge with goals, targets and tasks. 

Here is the appeal I'm sending to Erik, Igor and Comments

Hi Erik / Igor / CC Contact (whomever that may be)

I've been a member of CC since 2005, I've been with you a long time, I've always had a lot of success here, the tools are great, very helpful and I've enjoyed being a part of the community. I know this community has grown a lot since it started and there are now a lot of volunteer moderators trying their best to be be helpful to keeping the community going. 

I am writing to try to appeal the decision of a couple of moderators and to suggest some best practices.

I started a group on the motivation thread called "Wagon Jumpers" that was intended to be a support group for people who have issues with consistency in healthy eating choices. The group was a fast success with 17 members in the first week.

In advance of setting the group up my idea for the group was to use weekly threads. I did this for a few reasons. First, because the super long threads are hard to sort through and are a deterrent to new members. Second, because I thought a fresh thread was a source of motivation for members who have trouble with consistency to celebrate that they had reached a mini-consistency goal. Third, because part of the thread was to make sure we contacted people who had not participated each week an that is easiest to accomplish when the threads are only a week long rather than tracking where the week begins and ends in a long thread.

This seemed to be going well for the past two weeks (set up + week 1) until I arrived this morning and found that my general thread had been locked and I now needed to contact a moderator each time I wanted to post a new thread. 

Let me say that I understand moderating groups is challenging. I moderate 3 online communities and two business associations (that have websites and forums as well). I'm not a stranger to how hectic it can be. To that end to keep the community happy one of our best practices is where we think there needs to be changes or alterations to any online content we contact the OP or author in advance of changes and give them a chance to give some input into the changes. (Except in cases of bad language or abuse). 

I appealed to the CC-plus forum to have the general thread unlocked, and to not hold me to another step of notifying moderators each time I posted a new week. I am already taking the precautions of notifying each member by PM of the new weekly thread and posting the new weekly thread on the old one. If the moderators wish to lock the old weeks, I think that can be part of regular clean up, but I don't know that I can commit to remembering each and every week to contact group and moderators. 

Which brings me to my second problem, when I appealed to the CC-plus form things went from bad to worse. As I posted when I went my to the open weekly thread I found that it was completely gone from the motivation thread. I was angry to say the least, there was no notice, no chance for the appeal, no nothing. I notified all of the members that the thread was not gone and I was trying to appeal to someone.

This was followed up by a response on the CC-plus forum (after the action had been taken, with no notice to me that any action has been taken) that the moderators view the thread as a challenge / game thread not as a motivation thread.

I think the only argument for this is that I'm trying to make it a more accessible thread by keeping it to a week, and not letting it get into the 100's of pages. Other than that it is not a challenge. It does not have any specific goals, deadlines, criteria to meet.

I think this thread has a lot in common with the threads where people post in weight ranges (180's club, 190' club), weight goals (anyone want to get to 150-160 lbs), loss goals (loose X pounds by Y date), age ranges (women 50+), keep motivated on the weekend challenge (on the motivation thread), keep motivated to exercise (on the motivation thread). 

In the same line as those threads this thread was about motivating people to stay consistent in their efforts, or simply put to stay motivated. 

The games thread has a lot of posts about "change the last letter game", "change the last word game", "song game", "wrong answer game". I simply think Wagon Jumpers makes more sense, will be more easily found and fits better with the Motivation forum. 

I was one of the original organizers when some of the multi-team challenges started. Running a challenge requires a whole different level of time commitment and thread moderation. I am simply put not up for the task of running a full scale challenge. 

I think wagon jumpers was a motivating and positive group for a growing number of your members. I think if you contact any of our members they will let you know how useful it was to them already. 

Please, please, please let us continue as a responsible low maintenance group on the motivation forum. 

I don't want to disappoint the people who I've already started with. I am not trying to make the moderators lives difficult, I am trying to do a positive thing and I just feel like I've been treated worse than people who flame, swear and much worse on threads.... at least they just got a warning post, or at least got a warning post before action was taken. 

This was a great community, lets work together to keep it that way. 

Cheers,

Sara.

Please reconsider. 

Can someone please let  me know what the official decision reached with this thread has been?

If it is to leave it in the games forum, please let me know so that I can either take it down or find a replacement to run it.

Thanks,

Sara.

Hi Sara ~

From the very beginning, we never intended to "shut down" your Wagon Jumpers threads.  We locked the previous threads as they were repeats of the previous threads and left the latest thread open (Week 2's).  Please understand that we do this for all groups and challenges alike that may start a new thread each week.  After that, it appears that there was some confusion as to what our intent was.  Your thread, in itself, is a great thread and group and we wish it much success.  At no point in time was your thread "cancelled" rather previous threads were locked (still accessible just not post-able).  I also immediately opened back up the "general topic" thread after you posted your appeal. 

After you posted this topic and referred to your Weekly threads as "challenges", your Weekly threads were then moved to Games & Challenges in accordance with the way the forums are set up.  The decision was made to move your threads back to the Motivation forum as requested once you clarified that your threads were indeed for motivation purposes and not a challenge as you originally mentioned. 

Please be understanding that we took your issues to heart and spent much time evaluating the situation.  We apologize that we could not provide you with a quicker response but are sure that you appreciate the fact that we were diligently working on your issue, trying to provide you with a fair and reasonable response as well as decision.

Again, please note that there never was an issue with your threads and their content.  We apologize that the intent may have been misinterpreted.  Your group (as well as all the other groups amongst CC) is motivating and inspiring to many members and we would like to see ALL of these groups remain. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding of the matter.

UTR
Volunteer Moderator

Thank you very much for all of your help as well as the other moderators who took time out of their personal lives to review this issue and my appeal. I understand that moderating is a hard job at the best of times, let alone when it is a volunteer job.

Thank you again for posting the thread back to the motivation thread. The thread will continue on it's motivation direction and I will be vigilent to keep members posting on current threads as a discussion topic and keep any challenge themes out of the thread as much as possible (including in my own writing). 

Thank you again for all of your work and the very quick response you and the other moderators gave to this request.

Cheers,

Sara.