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Riff Raff has a specific set of rules that differ from the original rules that apply to the forums. Riff Raff is described as being more relaxed and that mods would interfere with it less than other boards. While the rules do say that 3 hour suspensions can be given out, it does not mention anything that suggests that mods can lock or move thread without permission, yet this has happened since Riff Raff was made.

This thread was moved to JFF due to "being poor" and then shortly locked. While I personally think the thread was bad, it was moved to a different board and locked in that board without any communication between the mods and the original poster. JFF has no clear rules, so whether or not that was fair hasn't been said.

Recently in the IRC, A mod wanted to suspend this user for 24 hours for "bad thread spam". Spam applys to everywhere on the site, and what is and what isn't spam is pretty easy to determine. The user made two threads, though the time gap between the threads was 7 hours.

I think that the Riff Raff rules should be updated and restrict moderation, and that Just For Fun shouldn't be moderated in the same way Riff Raff is.

OK I propose

Firstly remove the suspension thing. It's just allowing a select few members decide who they don't like and just be a general inconvenience to them.

Secondly, unless it is blatant advertising, the original post has nothing for anyone to properly respond to (like posting random gibberish) or there is an excessive amount of duplicates, Riff Raff threads shouldn't be locked.

The main difference between Riff-Raff and JFF should be the seriousness of the post and replies. If a user wants a proper response (not serious but honest or light-hearted) then it belongs in JFF. Threads where absolutely anything goes should be for Riff-Raff.

I don't see anything wrong with moving JFF threads to RR (or vice versa) if a mod sees the threads as better suited in either board. If the OP of a moved thread prefers that their thread stay posted to the original board, they're always welcome to hit up a Forum Mod and discuss it.
As for locking, mods will usually lock a RR thread if they feel there's absolutely no potential in it, (which really isn't that uncommon in RR). Again, if users feel that the decision to lock was unjustified, they can just talk it over with a mod.
However, in the case of suspending users for a longer length of time than 3 hours just because of their Riff-Raff posts seems a bit unfair. If a user is spamming what the mod considers to be bad threads, they can just lock them, and maybe advise the user to stop. I hardly think it merits any punishment.

I kind of agree with you. Where we split is on the fact that you advocate for a change of the rules. I say we should instead just get some of the mods to follow the rules already set better. The rules made for Riff Raff are totally fine in my opinion. The problem is the rules being bent and ignored over time like any set of rules is really. Like you're saying, before people couldn't be suspended for real just for occasionally making threads that some mods personally don't like and find subjectively bad. That's what the joke suspensions were put in place for. Mods shouldn't be able to legitimately suspend people for threads they don't like under the pretense of "it's spam". It leaves room for too much abuse and is impossible to enforce fairly. I don't think a few threads the mods find bad within a week warrant treating it like spam. As I said, that's why the joke suspensions were put in place. Just suspend the perpetrator and warn them about thinking first before posting stuff and they'll improve. It's worked every time before so I don't see why it should change now.

As for locking threads, at one point I was against it since it kind of messed with Riff Raff's original rules, but as time went on and incidents like these happened, I saw why they are a necessary evil. Riff Raff would only be a smoldering pile of cinders if it weren't for threads constantly being locked in there.

@Spider-Byte

I used to think the way you do, but like I said, my opinion changed fast when I saw the sheer quantity of threads being locked that would otherwise all be trending and blocking out everything else. Riff Raff would be almost worthless. While the point of the board is kind of to be a steaming mess, I'm sure the idea was for it to be an entertaining steaming mess. Even with thread locking there is still enough to make it distinct from JFF.

If a mod questions the seriousness of a thread and believes it should be moved to the other board, then they have the right to move it. Like Muffin said, however, it's really OP's decision in the end.

Suspensions that are longer then 3 – 4 hours should be used, if ever, if a user legitimately spams of the board. Spamming should be named as more then 5 threads in a spread of 3 days. Whether they are bad or not should not be taken into viewpoint when considering the suspension, as opinionated lengthy suspensions are silly, especially in a board like riff raff that supposed to be a loose, non moderated board.

This thread was moved to JFF due to “being poor” and then shortly locked. While I personally think the thread was bad, it was moved to a different board and locked in that board without any communication between the mods and the original poster. JFF has no clear rules, so whether or not that was fair hasn’t been said.

I moved it to JFF to see if there was some progress possible in it considering that it had a topic in a way. If people could follow the topic, the thread could stay. It was only after the thread was reduced to telling the OP his thread sucked (given, I am guilty as well) that I decided to lock it.

I gave it a second chance, didn't work out, so it got locked.

I think that the Riff Raff rules should be updated and restrict moderation, and that Just For Fun shouldn’t be moderated in the same way Riff Raff is.

Then what is the difference between the two boards? If they follow the same (lack of) rules and moderation, how is the existance of two boards necessary? We re-added JFF exactly because not everyone felt comfortable with the lack of moderation in their fun.

I don’t see anything wrong with moving JFF threads to RR (or vice versa). Currently the boards have a different approach, with Riff-Raff being a /s4s/ and JFF being more for the normal 'on-topic' fun.

Firstly remove the suspension thing. It’s just allowing a select few members decide who they don’t like and just be a general inconvenience to them.

Regardless that I am one of the few mods who actually hands out fun suspensions, I would have no trouble with disallowing this.

As for locking threads, at one point I was against it since it kind of messed with Riff Raff’s original rules, but as time went on and incidents like these happened, I saw why they are a necessary evil. Riff Raff would only be a smoldering pile of cinders if it weren’t for threads constantly being locked in there.

Ditto. Riff-Raff isn't an "anything goes" board, because that gives free game to shitposters who do feel the need to clog the thing. Locking is a necessary evil.

I feel like something must have changed while I have been gone.

I thought the idea of Riff Raff was to give people a safe place to post garbage, so that nobody would make garbage on JFF, General or anywhere else.

So I always had a "live and let shitpost" policy with Riff Raff: If a thread was harmless, I let it be as crappy as it wants. Even if I would have locked it if it was in JFF

To this date, I have only locked maybe 2 RR threads, and that was when the Particle Mare threads were getting out of hand. Overall, I treated it as a playground where users can have control of thread direction without worrying about mod intervention.

Is this different now? Have we decided that the freedom to make shitty threads was not as fun as we thought?

On one hand, I do agree that a line needs to be drawn somewhere to avoid RR getting clogged with useless threads. Too many unusable threads counts as spam. And spam is still very illegal in RR

On the other, I still think that mods should not be permitted to lock RR threads for the sole reason that they personally thought it sucked . That goes against the core philosophy of RR, which is more user freedom from mods.

As for moving threads out of RR to JFF. I think that's always warranted if a mod thinks a thread is better suited for JFF (EG: It's actually fun and not just shit). Same policy as always regarding thread moving: we can always decide better locations for thread topics at our discretion

I never liked the suspensions either. I made one joke suspension, felt wrong. Didn't do it again. Not gonna advocate removing that, but this is one mod that stands by only suspending and thread locking when necessary

This is basically what I think. Only suspend and lock in the worst situations when Riff Raff is being polluted, not just anything that is seen as bad. It might as well be JFF if anything seen as bad is locked immediately, and it almost got to that point recently.

This is a minor thing, but is it just me or do mods don't like birthday threads? I've seen at least two Bday threads get locked immediately or almost immediately, and one of them was even getting replied to and seemed to doing fine… What's wrong with birthday threads?

Birthday threads are just another "hey! look at me! i'm a special snowflake!" thread, and in general we don't really allow self-promo threads. If everyone made a thread for their birthdays, we would be flooded with them. I wouldn't mind adding a birthday general, but I doubt it would stay open for more than a month.