Board Thread:Wiki Running/@comment-162.244.81.174-20150324190419/@comment-26235098-20150328002410

Yes, the case about the comment that was "insulting" the developers I saw, and I did think the admin was being a bit too serious. But I did not find the admin's reply aggressive. It only said something like, "It sounds like you are insulting the developers" ... kind of indicated that this was how they (the admin) interpreted the message, and did not really scold. If it had been another user (and not an admin) saying it, probably we wouldn't even be talking about it. So in a way here, we are saying that perhaps admins need to tiptoe around a bit, precisely because they are admins, and people are going to take them more seriously than other users.

Now, I can certainly see some who could afford to be a bit less serious. I wonder if some of the comments like that one (it was "idiot developers" I think), and rants against the game or calling stuff "stupid" might sound in another language. I imagine it might actually be much worse in some other languages/cultures, and perhaps very offensive indeed (and unacceptable). I am bilingual and I know that some things that sound like nothing in one of my languages, sound awful in the other. So, some of these "innocuous" comments might come across very badly indeed to some non-natives, users and admins both.

In another community I participate in, all the admins have to confer before taking any disciplinary action. This is to minimize the chance for misinterpretation of things,or of one admin reacting in an overly emotional way.

On this wiki, a suggestion might be for the admin who sees a "problem comment" to call in just 2 other admins, possibly from different cultures than his or her own. Then, the three of them discuss and decide together whether or not the user needs to be reprimanded, or gently nudged, or if it should be let go. I don't know if that would be doable, or too heavy for the admin team.