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AO3 collections moderation queue "bug"
Jan. 10th, 2019 02:35 pmThis is a conversation I'm having with AO3's AD&T, through Support; I'm posting it here because the outcome may be of interest to other AO3 gift exchange moderators. tl;dr: there is a thing, relatively minor, that I don't want AO3 to do, and I am attempting to further argue the case.
Obviously, this post has an agenda. I am hoping other moderators will also say, to AO3, please don't do the thing. There is a difference between "Morbane gets a bugbear; these are the wishes of one user" and "Multiple users have demonstrated the utility of a function in several different use cases" - not that I expect AO3 to ignore the wishes of one user, but I expect them to prioritise the latter more. But, if other moderators mind less, that is also useful to know.
( Background: works in the moderation queue of an AO3 collection )
( Correspondence with Support to date )
As I did not indicate any urgency to those follow-up questions, I have not yet heard back.
My chief issue is: this is a useful, reliable thing that works to help moderators do a thing they want to do. I'm sure it's possible to abuse it, but given it's worked this way for years and coders did not know that, I feel that reports of its abuse must have been rare to nonexistent.
And their fix does not make it impossible for me, or another moderator, to abuse it - it merely makes it hard, at the same time as making other things hard. If it's a power that can be abused and they want to do something about it, why leave me with that power? After their fix, I could still go mad with power and go back and hide a single work in each of Yuletide 2010, 2011, 2012, etc, etc. The poor author and recipient might not notice for months or years, and then be very dismayed when they did. If that's the kind of abuse they mean (and abuse it would surely be!), then the fix would in no way remove my ability to do it.
Thoughts and suggestions very welcome - including if you disagree with me! And if you're a moderator who also would like AO3 not to "fix" this "bug", please tell them so.
( ETA: further correspondence and thoughts )
NOTE: In replies others have received, CJ suggests grouping multiple comments to this issue in single documents/emails to aid Support in processing comments on this issue. The original support ticket I was assigned is## 206703 ## . If you send a new comment to AO3 about this, I suggest quoting that ticket in your subject line.
Reply, post-pondering
( My third reply. It's long. )
Obviously, this post has an agenda. I am hoping other moderators will also say, to AO3, please don't do the thing. There is a difference between "Morbane gets a bugbear; these are the wishes of one user" and "Multiple users have demonstrated the utility of a function in several different use cases" - not that I expect AO3 to ignore the wishes of one user, but I expect them to prioritise the latter more. But, if other moderators mind less, that is also useful to know.
( Background: works in the moderation queue of an AO3 collection )
( Correspondence with Support to date )
As I did not indicate any urgency to those follow-up questions, I have not yet heard back.
My chief issue is: this is a useful, reliable thing that works to help moderators do a thing they want to do. I'm sure it's possible to abuse it, but given it's worked this way for years and coders did not know that, I feel that reports of its abuse must have been rare to nonexistent.
And their fix does not make it impossible for me, or another moderator, to abuse it - it merely makes it hard, at the same time as making other things hard. If it's a power that can be abused and they want to do something about it, why leave me with that power? After their fix, I could still go mad with power and go back and hide a single work in each of Yuletide 2010, 2011, 2012, etc, etc. The poor author and recipient might not notice for months or years, and then be very dismayed when they did. If that's the kind of abuse they mean (and abuse it would surely be!), then the fix would in no way remove my ability to do it.
Thoughts and suggestions very welcome - including if you disagree with me! And if you're a moderator who also would like AO3 not to "fix" this "bug", please tell them so.
( ETA: further correspondence and thoughts )
NOTE: In replies others have received, CJ suggests grouping multiple comments to this issue in single documents/emails to aid Support in processing comments on this issue. The original support ticket I was assigned is
Reply, post-pondering
( My third reply. It's long. )
