While I think your idea sounds good, I agree with Sirbomber. We really need to have some very clear rules for moderators to follow, but we also shouldn't take too much power away from the mods, there are some cases where posts should be removed right away. If this system could be implemented without taking too much power away from the moderators, it would be great!
What I really want the most is more communication from the moderators to the community. The way moderation is done at the moment leaves the community in complete darkness, and can trigger a huge rant by some members that get upset because their posts just disappears and they don't know why. This has happened before, atleast once as far as I know.
Deletion of posts: Moderators
When moderators remove posts, they should leave a message saying why the posts were deleted. This is done in pretty much all other forums I have been too. If some one flames another member, the moderator either deletes or edits the post, removing either the flammatory or all of the posts content.
If the mod deletes the post, he makes his own post, leaving only a short message like:
"Post deleted - don't flame"
or if he edits the post, he leaves a <snip> to show where the post was edited, and leaves a message at the bottom of the post:
edit - please don't flame, "mods name"
Preferrably these messages should be in a different color then regular text. Gold text is often used.
editing posts rather deleting is preferred on many forums, even when removing the entire posts content, because it show exactly who made the post and where it was located. The deletion of posts is mostly used when there are alot of posts containing flames, it's a waste of time for the mod to edit every single one.
Exceptions to these rules should be possible to make, but only in a very few certain cases. Some posts should just be removed from the forum right away.
Like advertising threads, like that guy that made a post in the IRC section, advertising some anti-spyware programs. This was even the guys first post on the forums, he just signed up to advertise. This method should very rarely if ever be used on regular members.
Deletion of posts: Regular members
Another problem I currently have noticed, is that regular members can delete their own posts, no matter where in the thread they are. This is also a bad thing and is also done different on almost all forums I've been too.
Regular members should only be allowed to delete their posts when their the last one in the thread, and maybe there should even be a time limit for how long you can delete it. This is if members post something, that they immediatly regret (for what ever reason that may be) can remove it again without anyone noticing.
By making posts undeletable by members, we will never experience that posts just disappear into thin air, which will leave the community member that have seen the post, with a question in their head about what happened to it. Also, no members can use this against moderators, like deleting their own post and accusing a moderator for doing it. (mod abuse)
Discussion of moderation:
Another problem, is that it might cause topics to go off-topic, if people disagree with the mod. Therefor there should be some clear rules about the discussion of moderation.
Discussion of moderation should not be allowed in the thread the posts were deleted in. However, members that feel they've been treated unfairly should be allowed to raise a complaint.
We could have one or members who get the job of looking through complaints from members. Members send in complaints, these guys receive and review them, possibly through some special report system. If they find a complaint severe enough, they and only they can make a post where it can be discussed. Whoever has the job of looking through the complaints should not be a moderator, and should be seen as fair and trustworthy by the community. The downside to this is that sometimes a member may really feel it's mod abuse but the reviewer disagree's, so the community never see's the members complaint.
Another, most likely much better solution is only having a certain section of the forum where it is allowed to post complaints. It's not absolutely necessary to make a new forum section, we can use an already existing one that is suitable for it, like General/Issues/Other. This way, every members voice can be heard!
Anyway, these are just ideas, but I really feel that something like this would be a major improvement to the community, especially for the regular members!
