Will $30/year get me noticed on the forums?

[aa_koch]

If you're subscribed to the forums, are you guaranteed a response from the moderators to a request made via @mail? Because in my opinion, the moderators that rule AnandTech Forums should feel obligated to respond to any kind of serious inquiry, whether it be via @mail or the PM system.

I have been reading up on Forum Issues for the past few days, and I am amazed to see how often people mention the moderators' unwillingness to respond to @mail. (I've also experienced this first hand, so I know what I am talking about.) People seem to accept the fact that the moderators do not bother with @mail if they don't want to. How does one justify this stance? Of all people, a moderator should know that communication is the key element in keeping a community like this one successful.

We are reminded each time that AT Forums is much like a real-life community, and that as such we need to abide by a set of rules in order to "make it work for everyone." Well, in the real-life community in which I live, it is considered extremely impolite (to put it mildly) if those who are in charge do not deal with our issues when we draw attention to them. It's a matter of decency and good behaviour -- exactly what is expected of us when we make use of the services provided by the forum. So why should these rules only apply to us, and not to those "in charge" of the forum?

I'm sure some of you do not agree that the above-mentioned 'issue' is a serious problem, and that I have no right to 'complain.' But I don't see why I should pay $30/year to sponsor a community that doesn't even take me seriously. Faster access, higher PM limits, and Buddy Lists are nice and all, but what are these features going to do for me if there is no one to deal with forum issues in a serious manner?

 

[Azraele]

I don't think it's so much that they just don't respond to email as that they are limited in replies. I'm guessing here, but I don't think all mods have access to the moderator email, thus limiting who does have access and creating a bottleneck and a lot of confusion as the box gets flooded. It's an ineffective system that needs revising imho.

Mods do, however, respond well to pms and oftentimes respond well to serious inquiries in FI (Yours may well be locked due to the way in which it is worded, however, it sounds sort of condescending to me).

A few reforms/ideas that may help matters greatly would be:
1) Email sent to a member subsequent to banning describing reasons for and length of ban.
2) Members may want to include read receipts when emailing the mods so they know at least that their email has been received and read and that it's being considered
3) Mods discuss with each other the limitations of the email system and brainstorm for solutions
4) Members offer serious solutions on their own to help throw around ideas

 

[Geekbabe]

On the few few occasions that I've needed a MOD I've found that using pm to contact them works much better than email.
I don't know how this site is setup but I suspect that pm is more readily accessible/visible to the MODS than email is.

 

[RossMAN]

I've also found that PM'ing a mod is usually more expedient than e-mailing them.

If I have already established e-mail correspondence with the mods or they e-mail me first then I pursue the communication via e-mail.

 

[gopunk]

yea, although it's pretty hard to PM the mods, if you're banned... *cough cough* 😉