Welcome to the V&C Moderation Discussion Thread. This is the place to post comments or questions about the moderation of the Venues and Communities Forum. If you have any issues on moderations, put them here, and not in the particular thread that the issue arose in.

Everyone is welcome to share their thoughts on topics here. As with all the threads throughout V&C, personal insults and demeaning or disparaging comments in either direction will not be permitted. Keep your posts focused on the issue to be considered/resolved, and not on any personal slights or attacks.

We want the V&C Moderation Thread to be a valuable conduit to raise issues, discuss pros and cons, and when appropriate modify policy. The goal is to continue to improve our forum, to make it as welcoming and enjoyable a place as we can. We encourage anyone with ideas to make the forum better to bring them up.

A situation came up where a poster made a post in a venue thread about a player who owed him money and refused to pay him back, naming him by his real name. Posts like this present several issues, so after getting input from other mods and higher ups, the policy going forward is this:

No posts concerning a player not paying back another player will be allowed in the forum. Any posted will be immediately deleted, so please don't post them in the first place.

There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that anyone who lends another player money, no matter how apparently trustworthy or financially solvent they appear to be, runs the risk of getting stiffed. It is just a fact of life in the poker community. So if you lend money, understand there is a greater than zero chance you can kiss that money goodbye. It is not a situation unique to any particular poker venue, and is not a function of the operation of any poker venue. Therefore a thread about a poker venue is not the place to pursue the collection of said debt.

Often these posts cite the desire to alert others as the reason for posting; "it's too late for me but save yourself!" But almost always any resolution as the result of the thread comes with a "pay if post deleted" clause which would negate any warning value. In a live venue it is simple enough to alert other regs who might get asked to loan a person money about there failure to pay. Word of non-payers spreads quickly.

Other issues arise such as should we allow someone to accuse someone of not paying, using their real name, while at the same time posting under a screen name? And how much proof should be required? We are not in the business of adjudicating personal loan payment problems. The forums are not intended to be a vehicle for publicly shaming someone over what is essentially a personal dispute. So going forward please refrain from posting about debt collection issues. It's part of the risk you accept when you loan money to anyone, and esp to poker players.

This post is from a venue thread. It applies to all V&C threads.

I deleted the posts related to an alleged collusion situation that included images of the alleged players involved, and some names. These types of posts are similar to ones where a player at a venue posts about someone not paying back a debt. In both types of posts, we usually have the person making the serious allegation using a screen name rather than real name (and in this case a brand new account); we only get one side of the story; and the accused party may or may not even be aware of this forum. And in this forum we do not allow identifying information (whether images, names or descriptions) to be posted.

Often the reason given for the post is to warn other players. But in actuality, a matter of this seriousness should be brought to the attention of the venue management. Given the confidence the poster has in his evidence, the room management would likely take appropriate action. And I have no doubt that word of this incident will travel faster amongst the regs in person versus this forum.

But since internet posts can take on a life of their own, with no later clarifying information attached, we do not want our forum to be a source of accusations identifying specific players, nor to become a "peoples court". I appreciate the usually well-meaning intent of posts like these. But we don't have the ability nor the interest in having to try and verify the accuracy of such posts, and determine their intentions.

So for those reasons I have deleted them. Please refrain from any further posts on this topic. If you would like to discuss the overall policy concerning these types of posts, feel free to comment in the V&C moderation thread.

And to clarify, if someone wanted to make a post about the fact that they witnessed collusion, and players confronted them, what the room management did, etc that is fine, as long as no personally identifying information is used about anyone involved.

Thanks.