Backseat Moderating

[Strawberry]

I'm sure we've all come across members who like to remind everyone else of the rules as they are either aspiring to become a staff member or are kissing up. What are your thoughts on those who backseat moderate? Is it written into your forum guidelines that this is prohibited or do you allow it as you find those doing it are essentially doing your job for you?

On the flip side, have you ever been guilty of being a backseat moderator yourself?

 

[Cedric]

We used to deal with that a lot on InvisionFree / ZetaBoards. Kids/teens tend to have that in them to act interesting and backseat moderate. I have yet to see a grown up do that, but anything is possible. I think it also depends on the way they are backseat moderating. One could point the offender to the rules while the other could threaten to get a fellow member banned or warned. I wouldn't mind someone pointing out the rules if a member is breaking them. But anything beyond that is not ok.

 

[Strawberry]

We used to deal with that a lot on InvisionFree / ZetaBoards. Kids/teens tend to have that in them to act interesting and backseat moderate. I have yet to see a grown up do that, but anything is possible. I think it also depends on the way they are backseat moderating. One could point the offender to the rules while the other could threaten to get a fellow member banned or warned. I wouldn't mind someone pointing out the rules if a member is breaking them. But anything beyond that is not ok.

Yes, I agree you are probably more likely to have younger people doing it. On another forum, I've seen grown adults posting replies to threads like 'There is already a discussion on this <link>, this will probably be merged or closed', and I just think my goodness grow up. I'm very much 'report and move on', flag it to a moderator who will make an informed decision.

 

[Cory]

I used to indeed backseat moderate a lot when I was younger, but the more I was told not to do it, the more I stopped doing it. I suppose I felt it gave me a sense of control over what people are posting when in reality it didn't because it's the staff's job to take care of moderation duties and the report button always exists for a reason.

As for what I think of it overall, I wouldn't say it's anything major like spamming, trolling, and flaming. A member should probably be verbally warned before being given an actual warning on the matter, I think.

 

[Kale]

I don't see this as an issue much nowadays. I know some people who also did backseat mod a lot when they were younger, but most of those people moved on from forums or grew out of acting that way etc. I do think a verbal warning in PMs could work, btu if they kept up after then I'd do an official warning.