Would you tell the forum administrator?

[AllTheThings]

I'm wondering whether it would be appropriate to basically tell a forum administrator that the moderators are causing people to leave en masse. If so, how would you say it?

I belong to a forum that is mainly for a TV show, however over time the off topic section has also become a very popular place for forum members to socialize, tell funny stories, etc. The admin still owns the site, but now leaves moderation to others. Since these moderators started doing their jobs, many people have left the forum due to their absurd moderation policies. For instance, they will lock threads that have any disagreement at all, even if everyone is being completely respectful. They suspended a guy for writing a political post, even though all he did was mention that his new coworkers freaked out when they realized that he was much older than they thought, as he was old enough to vote in the 2000 election. I got suspended myself for writing a "fake story." I was writing about my first roommate, who was annoying and treated me badly. I mentioned that my friends and I joked about doing an incredibly hilarious, yet complex and likely impossible revenge scheme that would get her kicked out of school. The moderator thought I had actually done this, and told me how horrible I was for doing that. When other posters pointed out that it was clearly just a joke, the moderator got angry and tried to save face, saying that the joke aside, I had clearly embellished the story (none of the things I wrote about were that unusual).

So clearly, the moderators are overly reactionary and don't read posts all the way through. Should I say anything to the admin?

[NyaChan]

Do you have a way to contact the forum administrator?  How do you know that they aren't monitoring the way the site is running or the moderators are acting at all? 

To be honest, I tend to take the view that it is the administrator and the moderator's house - Don't like it? Don't go there.    It sucks in general to see something that is fun and that you enjoy go in a bad direction, but in truth, it is their place to ruin, and the forum users are just guests.

[Moray]

If I were the forum administrator, I'd absolutely want to know. I may not agree with you, I may not take action, but I'd want to know.

That said, I don't know that I'd use your "fake story" as an example, because I don't know how you'd phrase it without it sounding like sour grapes.

[AllTheThings]

Do you have a way to contact the forum administrator?  How do you know that they aren't monitoring the way the site is running or the moderators are acting at all? 

To be honest, I tend to take the view that it is the administrator and the moderator's house - Don't like it? Don't go there.    It sucks in general to see something that is fun and that you enjoy go in a bad direction, but in truth, it is their place to ruin, and the forum users are just guests.

The administrator hasn't logged on in awhile, but they do have an email address. I don't think it is really the moderators' house the way it is the admin's. The admin owns the site, the moderators just help. I consider it similar to telling a party host that the person who is helping set up the food is spiking the punch.

[NyaChan]

Do you have a way to contact the forum administrator?  How do you know that they aren't monitoring the way the site is running or the moderators are acting at all? 

To be honest, I tend to take the view that it is the administrator and the moderator's house - Don't like it? Don't go there.    It sucks in general to see something that is fun and that you enjoy go in a bad direction, but in truth, it is their place to ruin, and the forum users are just guests.

The administrator hasn't logged on in awhile, but they do have an email address. I don't think it is really the moderators' house the way it is the admin's. The admin owns the site, the moderators just help. I consider it similar to telling a party host that the person who is helping set up the food is spiking the punch.

haha that's a good way of putting it.  I guess under the circumstances, it couldn't hurt to send an email, just be prepared for the possibility that having abdicated the running of the forum to the moderators, they may also be taking care of the site's administrator email for the site.  Also, they may turn on you and block your access to the site.  So I guess it is a balancing choice - do you want to stay more than you want the site to go back to normal while risking getting banned?

[AllTheThings]

Do you have a way to contact the forum administrator?  How do you know that they aren't monitoring the way the site is running or the moderators are acting at all? 

To be honest, I tend to take the view that it is the administrator and the moderator's house - Don't like it? Don't go there.    It sucks in general to see something that is fun and that you enjoy go in a bad direction, but in truth, it is their place to ruin, and the forum users are just guests.

The administrator hasn't logged on in awhile, but they do have an email address. I don't think it is really the moderators' house the way it is the admin's. The admin owns the site, the moderators just help. I consider it similar to telling a party host that the person who is helping set up the food is spiking the punch.

haha that's a good way of putting it.  I guess under the circumstances, it couldn't hurt to send an email, just be prepared for the possibility that having abdicated the running of the forum to the moderators, they may also be taking care of the site's administrator email for the site.  Also, they may turn on you and block your access to the site.  So I guess it is a balancing choice - do you want to stay more than you want the site to go back to normal while risking getting banned?

I guess I'll just hope that the email listed is just a personal one that the mods don't have access to. If I send an email, I'll use an address that I don't use anymore, which I didn't sign up to the forum with, so if the moderators do read the emails, they will not know who sent it. But I am not sure how to word it. It is probably not a good idea to be overly blunt about how awful these people are when the admin is the one who picked them.

[Shoo]

What could it hurt?

[CaffeineKatie]

I went through a similar situation about 10 years ago; the admin sided with the moderators, and many of us left.  After 2-3 years, we all got an email from the admin; site traffic had slowed so much he was losing money hosting the site, and if we didn't come back he would close it.  By then, we had found another room to chat in, and so no one cared.  His loss.  So, yes, I would think the admin would want to know if people are leaving, even if they choose to not change anything.