njvack wrote:Wait, are there devs who are not also mods? I think everyone with an orange name should be able to moderate at least GDD.
Well, if there are devs who don't want to bother with moderating Tavern at all (which is a perfectly understandable position) then they shouldn't be made moderators.
I also don't think the main problem is *useless* posts, exactly, but unnecessary hectoring. Sometimes those hectoring posts actually have very useful tidbits of feedback or actual insights/ideas hidden in them. Moderation should primarily be about improving the level of discourse, rather than punishment per se, so I think that pruning out the ad homs and inappropriate stuff but leaving any legitimate points intact, with a private warning to the perpetrator in cases that seem malicious (rather than just exasperation / losing one's patience), is probably the best general approach to cutting down on derails and making the discussion in GDD better. It isn't a very good environment right now and a somewhat higher level of moderator involvement is likely called for.
EDIT: Oh, and the flip side of the above is when a newly posted GDD thread is really low content—most common offenders being lack of any justification ("What does this fix or how would this improve the game?"), or the proposal being in such a state of under-development that there isn't yet anything to really discuss. People should feel GDD is a place to flesh out ideas, but you need some substance to get things going.