This. I can think of a couple of occasions when I have disagreed with comments by current moderators (once when I got a mod note, another time when a mod was just posting as a poster and the comment made was rather personal). That is so trivial that I only mention it as an illustration of how we tend to have long memories for perceived slights on the internet. In the greater scheme of things, both occasions were ridiculously unimportant.
I have been a moderator for a different board for the past 8 years or so. While it is calm now, due to the general trend away from message boards toward other forms of social media, for a good 5 years while I moderated, it was HELL ON EARTH. And it was a far less complex ecosystem than here at the SDMB.
Being a moderator is like being a parent: before you personally have the experience, you may think you know what it’s like. But really, you don’t.
I’d like to add a fourth point, which I’ve recently learned isn’t completely obvious.
If you want to discuss a post with the moderators, please report it, and use the “something else” tag. It is enormously easier for us to click on the link the report generates than it is to find a post from a description like “it’s about x”. And “something else” allowed you to write whatever it is was you wanted to say to start the discussion.
Another option, if you want to discuss multiple posts together, is to send a DM to @moderators and include links to the multiple posts you want to discuss. But that’s a lot more work, and if you report a couple of posts and explain how they are related, we’ll figure it out.
It was leaked to me that my name came up in early discussions at one point believe it or not. One of the other staffers quickly (and probably wisely) blackballed me so it never got close to me getting an offer. Now that I think about it, none of the people in this story are around anymore. It was some years ago.
I agree completely, and that’s why it’s always funny when an Aggrieved Asshole* flounces into ATMB and predicts that this is definitely absolutely the end of times for these boards because this time the moderation has gone too far.
Seriously, I want to add yet another voice in the chorus of praise for our tireless mods. I try to close most of my flag reports with a sentence close to this. Which I think hits pretty well.
Thanks for all that all of you do for all of us every day. It does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated.
So I’ll say it again here and now in front of everyone:
Thanks for all that all of you do for all of us every day. It does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated.
) to this site.
