Moderation and keeping threads balanced

[Joint Account]

I’ve been thinking about how to balance moderation on the threads. I know it’s caused a bit of friction and I completely understand the different perspectives, but I think there’s a way to meet in the middle rather than it turning into a back and forth.

It makes sense to keep the informational threads strictly focused. That helps new patients find what they need quickly, which is really the core purpose of MedBud.

At the same time, conversation naturally drifts and evolves. It’s not always realistic to stay perfectly on topic, and when people get called out for that it can start to feel a bit unwelcoming, even when it’s done politely.

So I keep coming back to what most forums already do, an “anything goes” style thread. We do have the general life thread, but that feels more like a space for non MC topics rather than general chat or the usual day to day discussion that ends up happening most of the time.

I don’t want to suggest creating another thread that just gets ignored, so I wanted to check whether others feel the same way. It might also be something the mods are already against, I’m not sure. But the idea would be a relaxed space where as long as site rules aren’t being broken, people can just talk freely, share memes, MC chat, or whatever comes up.

Curious what people think about having a dedicated space like that.

 

[Muiredach]

Well reasoned, and I largely agree. We do already have an entire forum for off-topic posts here that members can use how they please:

Off-Topic Discussion

Discussion of all other worldly matters, not directly related to medical cannabis.

forums.MedBud.wiki

The sub-forum "Quiet Space" is the same, but isn't visible publicly and only to logged in members.

So I keep coming back to what most forums already do, an “anything goes” style thread. We do have the general life thread, but that feels more like a space for non MC topics rather than general chat or the usual day to day discussion that ends up happening most of the time.

I think the best solution may be that when a thread goes off-topic, moderators instead of deleting off-topic posts with warnings, instead split those particular posts into a new thread, with a new title, in the off-topic section?

That could encourage more off-topic posts though, if members know staff will always clear up after them.

@OldBloke's raised this in the staff chat already, so I'll defer to the rest of the team for a final decision. Feel free to leave other comments/feedback/suggestions here folks.

 

[Joint Account]

Well reasoned, and I largely agree. We do already have an entire forum for off-topic posts here that members can use how they please:

Off-Topic Discussion

Discussion of all other worldly matters, not directly related to medical cannabis.

forums.MedBud.wiki

The sub-forum "Quiet Space" is the same, but isn't visible publicly and only to logged in members.


I think the best solution may be that when a thread goes off-topic, moderators instead of deleting off-topic posts with warnings, instead split those particular posts into a new thread, with a new title, in the off-topic section?

That could encourage more off-topic posts though, if members know staff will always clear up after them.

@OldBloke's raised this in the staff chat already, so I'll defer to the rest of the team for a final decision. Feel free to leave other comments/feedback here folks.

Thanks for in the input boss.

I can't say I disagree with any of that myself, splitting the posts into new topics could be a really good idea.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

Turns out that the people making comment. make the content that your site relies on not bots spewing product information.

I will not be posting here for a month or so to see if the moderation improves as what happened at the weekend left a very bad taste in my mouth. Conversations deleted that were on topic discussing patient issues and concerns. Albeit with some humour.
Then to have suggestions I made mass deleted with no reason and look what happened you have a ghost town of a website.
The issue was not the site users.

 

[Muiredach]

Turns out that the people making comment. make the content that your site relies on not bots spewing product information.

I will not be posting here for a month or so to see if the moderation improves as what happened at the weekend left a very bad taste in my mouth. Conversations deleted that were on topic discussing patient issues and concerns. Albeit with some humour.
Then to have suggestions I made mass deleted with no reason and look what happened you have a ghost town of a website.
The issue was not the site users.

I've only just caught up on this myself, and I apologise to you @Fiddlesticks - I agree it was handled incorrectly, and we need better policy. I'm discussing with the moderators at the moment.

Clinics Post in thread 'Medicann UK'

15th Jun, 2026

Right ladies and gents, I've seen @joint_account and @Fiddlesticks make remarks on this, and I've just gone through the posts here properly that were removed yesterday.

I don't think it was the right thing to do. While the thread was starting to go 'off-topic' from being relevant to the pharmacy, it was important discussion that I feel should have just been moved elsewhere instead of being removed entirely. The mod team here have been under my instructions to try keep things on-topic more strictly, but we definitely went the wrong way about it here overall.

They've all now...

• Muiredach

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[Fiddlesticks]

I've only just caught up on this myself, and I apologise to you @Fiddlesticks - I agree it was handled incorrectly, and we need better policy. I'm discussing with the moderators at the moment.

Clinics Post in thread 'Medicann UK'

15th Jun, 2026

Right ladies and gents, I've seen @joint_account and @Fiddlesticks make remarks on this, and I've just gone through the posts here properly that were removed yesterday.

I don't think it was the right thing to do. While the thread was starting to go 'off-topic' from being relevant to the pharmacy, it was important discussion that I feel should have just been moved elsewhere instead of being removed entirely. The mod team here have been under my instructions to try keep things on-topic more strictly, but we definitely went the wrong way about it here overall.

They've all now...

• Muiredach

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I love you all. Make sure you tell the moderators that.
I do take personal responsibility for the way I engage with things on a joking basis. Even the conversations earlier the weekend about suppositories was based on the genuine point that there are no reviews either on forums or from influencers.
Its really hard to judge things between community and informational and we are all trying to protect each other after all.

I will not mention this again now as the matter has been acknowledged and I can see the focus is not just on the site users as the problem.

I have been a volunteer mod on 4chan in a past life and if something goes offtopic it just gets moved to a general /bant thread which lets conversations meander out without stifling/censoring the conversation. I think that is the solution you are moving towards. I just wonder if technically this can just be one thread rather than needing to create a new one with every "Offtopic"

 

[Lank72]

I saw all this happening in real time at the weekend. I didn't want to weigh-in and make things any worse at the time they were happening as I'm conscious that everyone here is a patient, and therefore suffering / struggling day-to-day, whether site-affiliated or not. We are all struggling here, and many of us here can also be hyper-sensitive to criticism.

Overall it made me sad to see how it went down and I decided to have a little posting break and see how things developed because it made me feel like I didn't want to engage honestly.

I will not mention this again now as the matter has been acknowledged and I can see the focus is not just on the site users as the problem.

I think the above comment is a good one and I think we should leave the MedBud team to mull and respond, and so I will continue to not make comment on any aspect of what happened in the hope this leads to an amicable solution which can re-instate the community feeling and we can just move on instead.

But since @joint_account raised it I did want to share my perspective at least.

 

[OldBloke]

I apologise for any upset caused, I deleted the posts as they were showing MedBud in a bad light as well as being way off topic, I suggested moving the convo to the relevant flower thread ( where I believe it started) and gently warned twice.

As you know I'm a "jokey" person but my second warning's humour was poorly judged in haste. It was, as you saw, not a reply to a specific comment but a general comment.

At that point I asked for staff advice as I was not able to move posts as have not been shown how, could cause a lot of damage if blundered into. . None was available rapidly ( Mods and admins have lives too!) so I went ahead being between a rock and a hard place.

I've been modding, admining, sysoping ( is that a thing!) on BBS since before the internet began. It's a hard job as you have to make rapid decisions that may upset some people and please others.

imho the best way to move forward is to realise that we can all also "self-moderate", think before posting, is this the right thread and so on? Paying attention to staff actions,requests and suggestions is also key to that, without control of some kind the site would collapse into a jumble, like Reddit! We are all learning here.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

I apologise for any upset caused, I deleted the posts as they were showing MedBud in a bad light as well as being way off topic, I suggested moving the convo to the relevant flower thread ( where I believe it started) and gently warned twice.

As you know I'm a "jokey" person but my second warning's humour was poorly judged in haste. It was, as you saw, not a reply to a specific comment but a general comment.

At that point I asked for staff advice as I was not able to move posts as have not been shown how, could cause a lot of damage if blundered into. . None was available rapidly ( Mods and admins have lives too!) so I went ahead being between a rock and a hard place.

I've been modding, admining, sysoping ( is that a thing!) on BBS since before the internet began. It's a hard job as you have to make rapid decisions that may upset some people and please others.

imho the best way to move forward is to realise that we can all also "self-moderate", think before posting, is this the right thread and so on? Paying attention to staff actions,requests and suggestions is also key to that, without control of some kind the site would collapse into a jumble, like Reddit! We are all learning here.

Moderating should be a group effort first and admin level last resort like you said. That is what my vision of any healthy community is. Online or real world.
The fact that this discussion is taking place is enough for me to move on as posted. Most people come here for reviews and information not running social commentary. I will try my best to remember this!
My last suggestion would be if moderators had an anonymous mod account to mod from rather than it being tied to your personal profiles. Just to give you guys the freedom to not feel personally attacked by people raging at the "system".

 

[Fisserablemucker]

from my perspective the community relies on the good faith of the members. its purely transactional on your part as you guys are getting information, advice and opinions for free from us the experienced user. Which draws traffic to your site. our reward for this is little glimpses of joy when we help someone or make them laugh and feel better about themselves nothing more apart from a llittle human connection.

if you want robots flood the subs with ai chatbots so you can programme them what to say. I for one feel like i no longer wish to help if our responses are not going to fit your corporate model and be pulled apart for all to see. 3 members were left asking if the issue was them personally and got no answer

Hugely disappointing

 

[Muiredach]

if you want robots flood the subs with ai chatbots so you can programme them what to say. I for one feel like i no longer wish to help if our responses are not going to fit your corporate model and be pulled apart for all to see.

Holly's just here to announce new reviews and stock changes, there's no sinister 'corporate model' or nefarious intent behind it, I feel that comment was unfair. It was simply just the best solution to have a bot which announces relevant changes.

I think it's fucking annoying personally, and made comments before I wanted to remove pharmacy updates via Holly. I finally put a poll up earlier today:

Suggested Thread '📊 Member Poll: Turn Off Holly Updates for Pharmacy Threads?'

15th Jun, 2026

Title pretty much explains it in one. I've made the comment before here that I think Holly's stock updates should just be moved to the main database (in a table), and removed from pharmacy threads as updates by @Holly. I've read frustrated comments from users again today about threads getting clogged up.

Simple poll to make sure this is the right decision before we commit.

• Muiredach
• Replies: 11
• Forum: Feedback & Suggestions

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[S.O.H™]

I love you all. Make sure you tell the moderators that.
I do take personal responsibility for the way I engage with things on a joking basis. Even the conversations earlier the weekend about suppositories was based on the genuine point that there are no reviews either on forums or from influencers.
Its really hard to judge things between community and informational and we are all trying to protect each other after all.

I will not mention this again now as the matter has been acknowledged and I can see the focus is not just on the site users as the problem.

I have been a volunteer mod on 4chan in a past life and if something goes offtopic it just gets moved to a general /bant thread which lets conversations meander out without stifling/censoring the conversation. I think that is the solution you are moving towards. I just wonder if technically this can just be one thread rather than needing to create a new one with every "Offtopic"

Redirect all off piste topic thread traffic to (please see below) where this can be filtered, fragmented and once and for all finally forgotten about...

SOH Pharma®​

...its funny that, isn't it. When you're running out it all starts tasting top shelf..?