a member reports a post, complaining that the gif posted within gives them a migraine. how do you respond?
That would really depend entirely on the nature of the gif posted. In the rare case that it was an epilepsy inducing kaleidescope of neon horror, then I doubt there would be any objection to just deleting the offending image outright from the post and leaving a message in the edit explaining why the action was taken.
95% of the time though, this isn't going to be the case and the tough breaks are that if you don't want the migraine, don't stare at the gif. Just scroll right over it and continue reading the thread. No harm is done. people who find the gif funny can continue to do so and you can continue reading the thread migraine-free. This scenario isn't really the kind of thing that merits any significant action.
That said, if there was any malicious intent behind either of the two then scenarios then it probably merits some kind of warnings or infractions. Spamming seizure and migraine inducing gifs is enough to give the entire forum a headache.
A member claims they are being treated unfairly by certain moderators on the forum.
What do you do?
First of all, this is the kind of thing that should absolutely be handled by a staff member outside of the one in question. There was been a bit of a history with this kind of sentiment on the forum, so having a third party investigate the accusations would do a lot to assuage any potential outrage or drama before the shitstorm whips up something fierce. How things are seen to be handled is as important as how they are actually handled when it comes to keeping the peace.
Secondly its important to understand what the offended party means by 'picked on'. It can come up as a range of different types of behaviour, some much more severe than others. If you find that its always a particular moderator getting on your back with infractions and warnings then maybe its on you to look more carefully at the type of posts you make.
If its something more serious, such as being personally derisive or dismissive of the member then that staff member probably should be approached in private to find out what his deal with member X is.
The ideal resolution to this would be to encourage both member and staffer together on an external medium. Something like msn or skype or even the new private feedback forum (though this wouldn't be my first choice). That way they can have a more casual, free-flowing dialogue about what the issue really is, free from the member/staff/drama/enormously-longwinded-posts trappings of the forum. As we've seen recently, simply changing to a different program for communication can make the world of difference to how problems are resolved.
The key is to make sure that the dialogue does not remain locked up in the staff room never to be seen again, the two parties actually need to get in touch with each other and hash out whatever problem they might have. Letting these kinds of things fester is neither healthy for them as people or the forum as a whole.
I didn't even know I had been nominated till this morning ;.;
