Moderation in MQA Threads

I’m puzzled why this post (#90) was flagged. @moderators

2 Likes

Agreed. There are far worse posts than this in this thread.

3 Likes

It was flagged as being off-topic in this particular thread and I agreed with the flag.

This link to the Audiophile Style review of MQA has been posted several times in the past in other threads discussing the pros and cons of MQA, and it is still available in those threads.

1 Like

Actually, it seems rather ON topic since MQA is what sells Tidal.

MQA arguments seem to draw out the flag throwers.

3 Likes

The link to an analysis of MQA quality is, strictly speaking, off topic in this thread so I can see the justification for flagging and hiding it. My intent in this post was not to wade into the controversial and complex comparison between MQA and other formats but to simply reveal my experience with my library and the number of hi-rez matches in the services I subscribed to. Qobuz had many more titles available that matched my library. I was surprised at that. Others have confirmed that with their library while some have had a different experience and Tidal matches are better suited for their taste.

However, in my experience perusing the forums here, it appears that any posting in any thread that links to one of these articles disparaging MQA gets flagged and hidden. While it may be true in most cases that the comment was off topic, it may also be true that there is an effort to mitigate user displeasure with MQA. I don’t know. It seems a little extreme to me and almost every thing I read on these forums has off topic comments that do not get flagged and hidden.

But, I intentionally tried to make it clear from the beginning that this post was not about that.

3 Likes

We are not pursuing a policy of mitigating anti-MQA displeasure, but trying to be even-handed and prevent axe-grinding on both sides…

(and to conform with the new Community Guidelines that say that comments about moderation should be made in the Roon Community Forum category, I’ve moved these posts across to a new topic in this Forum category. Feel free to discuss further how we can improve moderation of the MQA topics :slight_smile: )

MQA is certainly a hot topic and one that touches on user subscription preferences. I appreciate the efforts at moderation and have no objection to a balanced attempt at focusing topic conversations. Would it be feasible or easy to improve flagging and hiding of off-topic comments by including a link to the post or posts where that comment would be appropriate? That is, make it easy for a user to view a discussion about what was flagged and hidden? Maybe that is not easy or maybe there is already a way to do that I am unaware of. I was interested in reading more about MQA pros and cons but found that many of the posts I thought would discuss that had comments addressing that issue flagged and hidden.

I think it would improve moderation if there were a “Refer to topic” link when easy and available.

This is actually available to everybody, but it’s somewhat hidden in Discourse (the software application used for the Forum), so not many of us know about it (including me, until recently). See here:

3 Likes

You guys don’t want to discuss moderation. You have rules in place now that decimate any concept of open and free expression. Roon wants to control all speech on this forum so that no one is offended…not even Roon. I am sure I will get reprimanded and maybe even silenced over expressing this opinion.

11 Likes

:+1::+1:
What he said…in buckets!

7 Likes

The forum has certainly changed over the past year or so. Not for the better either. It does seem like free expression of ideas gets wayleyed whenever somebody doesn’t like the forum response. Tit for tat flags are just as bad as tit for tat responses

Also seems like flagging volume has increased on this forum. I’m on several other forums and the flagged comments seem far higher than other venues.

6 Likes

I am a firm believer in not posting anything online in any forum that you would not say out loud in person say in a bar or similar venue with other people present in the discussion.
Tbh I have seen very few outrageous comments ever posted here and of late some of the posts flagged and removed( mine included) have been so innocuous as to make me wonder if it was a mistake!
And Lord above do not try to inject any humour into a discussion because, you know, people NEVER have real life discussions that involve/ include humour.

9 Likes

I agree that there doesn’t seem to be any toleration of humour that in my opinion is sorely needed in some of the threads. Bile spewing however is often left in.

5 Likes

I’d add another voice of concern over what feels like a humour clampdown. For me it’s often the best way to defuse a topic that’s threatening to get heated. I’m not sure humour is the problem, or that more forum rules is the answer. Over moderated, polite small talk doesn’t make for interesting debate.

8 Likes

Seems like some people are pretty upset with the moderation. I can’t really say if they are justified, being completely ignorant of the circumstances. But I can say that I believe moderation plays a valuable role in refining and focusing discussions and that moderation of a conversation is a lot more difficult than many think. Probably mistakes are made, or anyway, decisions are made that could go either way, they may be difficult decisions. I cut moderators a lot of slack.

As for this thread, I believe it would be more productive if we offered ways to improve moderation or to augment moderation or to alleviate any of the downsides of moderation. Basically, I think it would be productive to offer constructive criticism and helpful suggestion rather than just airing a personal grievance or blanket condemnation. That is, if we don’t like it, let’s make it better.

Every moderator, in fact every human performing any task, has an internal system of values and beliefs and unfortunately for us humans we also have a really excellent highly developed ability for self deception and confirmation bias. So lots of the time we do not even know when we are being biased or self serving. That is why we have things like science to try and get to some understanding of objective reality without coloring our views too much with personal bias. In the world of moderation this role is fulfilled by guidelines for moderation. Most of the flagged and hidden comments I have seen result from being off-topic. I want that guideline to be followed. Most of the threads I have seen are filled with off-topic comments. It’s a significant waste of my time to read those topics. So why aren’t we encouraging the moderators to flag and hide even more content? I want this guideline to be followed.

But, I also think that comments about the quality of MQA could reasonably be seen as on-topic when posted in a thread about the value of Tidal’s service. So I would have argued against flagging and hiding some of those MQA comments. But, like I said, moderation is not easy. It could have gone either way. Chill out. Haha!

1 Like

Good luck with that. The Roon folks have made it clear that it is their way only. To make it “better”, Roon would have to think there was a problem. They want to control speech and have published rules that make that abundantly clear. They are not interested in our opinions unless they are supportive of the changes. Every moment here must be a Kumbaya moment or it will be dealt with…

1 Like

Hi Ron,

You’re fairly new here. Believe me when I opine that the forum has changed. Moderation is a tough job, but the forum has evolved and not for the better. I don’t purely blame the mods either. The rapid flaggers are a bigger problem.

4 Likes

To be clear I have no issue with the forum mods. They’re just hear to enforce the rules and I think they do a good job. I’m generally of the opinion that if your modded you should be asking questions of yourself, not the mods.

It’s not even the rules themselves ATM. I am a little concerned that while adding rules might seem to be the obvious course of action, it won’t solve the problems in practice. Arguments will still happen, there’ll just be extra ones about the rules and more work for the mods.

This just made me giggle

but endless Kumbaya on a music forums no laughing matter.

Given the subject, it’s probably a good opportunity to say thanks to the mods for the work they do here. It’s a pretty thankless task and somebody has to do it.

4 Likes

Completely agree!
From someone who used to be a mod on a site whose forum often covered some very contentious issues it is indeed a most thankless task!
Still I enjoyed the forum and we never had to get too heavy handed, sometimes a few gentle nudges and reminders worked wonders.
Introducing new and stricter rules did not help tbh.

5 Likes

I’m seeing more and more posts flagged these days. More often than not, when I click on the show hidden content link and read the post I’m baffled as to why it was even flagged in the first place.

12 Likes