Blocking Mod Communication Can Get You Suspended

[shriekingviolet]

It didn't occur to me that I'd ever have to spell this out, but it appears that I do so I'm going to say it here. It is not acceptable to put any member of the mod team on your block list for PM communications. Moderators need to be able to contact you for administrative purposes, and to block them is to become an obstruction to their job here. To make a mod go through another mod or admin to get in touch with you when they have a legitimate need to get a message through to you is not okay.

 

I went through the contact table in the database today and changed any records I found (not that there were many at all) where a regular member had a mod on their block list. Those affect can consider this announcement their verbal warning. In the future, blocks against mods will removed and the membered will be admonished by pm. If that member is ever found blocking a mod in the future, they risk receiving a temporary suspension from accessing the board.

 

The block feature in the software is designed to block harassment should it ever occur. I find it unlikely that one of my mod staff will merit this feature be used against them, but should it happen, you should bring it to the attention of another mod or admin and if need be, we will ask said mod to refrain from contacting you for any other reason apart from doing their job.

 

That said, I should also advise against putting a mod on ignore for similar reasons, though doing so won't merit punishment because you can still access posts of people you ignore and I couldn't assume that you weren't still making an effort to keep current on board policies, etc. simply because the mod is on ignore. It's still not a good idea though.

 

Sorry about the terse announcement, but I feel pretty strongly about this and think it's very important. Allowing the mod staff to perform their duties is part of being a member here, as you wouldn't have a board to post on if I didn't have the help I do to run the board.

[ipb]

This has recently popped up as an issue, and so I wanted to remind y'all that blocking a moderator from PMing you about moderating issues (duplicate topics, swapping outside the swaps area, etc) and can result in a warning and/or a suspension from the forum.