Those noobies don't know how to help people express their opinions.
"Moderators" are there to stop people from using persistent personal attacks each other or preventing people from voicing their opinions. That is all. If they wanna attack moderators, I direct them to anger management training. I don't ban them or anything, except if other users want us to.
In the case of a school forum, the "moderators" now have to stop people from using persistent "personal" (or even just direct criticism) attack against the school.
The issue is that everyone represents one interest. No one is neutral at all which means no one is a true moderator. So any hostility or strong criticism directed at the school or "student council" is always interpreted as attack on the students running the forum.
Moderators must not be there to censor anything. The most one does is sort the discussions into nice categories.
If the place is censored, then on a free net, users will move away and use other means to voice opinion. Unfortunately, the elitists can't be bothered to read other stuff for a multitude of reasons, and so some things are never heard.
Let's just say that people don't have to use the forum if they don't want to. You wanna do some serious complaining? Go write to SCMP and have them post you major school complaints on their young post.
Or if you hate this school, go somewhere else. It's your education, your choices and your parent's money after all.
How does a good moderator deal with complaints? You let them keep talking, and you improve. Of course I'm assuming you run most of the stuff.
South island claims that it is "educating the international leaders of tomorrow"(TRADEMARK). It can be observed without doubt that they are also educating the international little tyrants of tomorrow.
My view of "learning futures" is that while its goals are relatively noble, it is not something a school can teach. Hence, a waste of time. Today's kids should be good enough to learn it themselves.
ICT on the other hand, is rather useful, even though I don't think kids attached to their laptops need that.
PSE helps too, who knows when you need to use that sex education.
I don't see how students are questioning what they were taught. It's the kind of criticism students throw when they feel they didn't need to learn something. Well, you do. I reckon most guys can't successfully use any of the contraceptive devices without being taught how to.
"Senior students" love to think they are like mentors, when in reality, all they ever were are a bunch of crooked elitists who give a poor impression that they know what they are talking about.
In the real world, "The way I moderate is none of your concern, stay on topic and be constructive or do not bother to post." makes you an asshole. Moderators are by default evil.
Finally, the main issue with this forum concept is simply that there is no place to discuss exactly how the forum is run. If this is done, the forum becomes much more useful and peaceful for everyone.
