This does, somewhat tangentially, bring up a possibly serious problem:
Okay, they made it clear enough that if one wants to post in a thread, one should read all the mod posts in the thread first (with some allowance in the case of really long threads). Miller even found it worth his while to say so seven times in one post.
What about all the other mod notes and warnings and instructions in all threads in all forums since Day One? The requirement that we all know about the banishment of paper towel tubes from this board seems to imply that we must have a working knowledge of everything every Mod In Mod Hat has every posted.
It’s just like case law vs. statutory law. We have a few statutory rules to read, but since mods necessarily play it as it goes a lot, we have years and years of case law. How are we all supposed to keep up with that?
Suggestion: As a start, there should be separate specific forum (or an on-going omnibus thread) in which ALL Mod in Mod Hat posts are copied, so at least we’ll have an easily findable compendium of all Mod decrees ever.
Without commenting on the current specific Paper Towel incident, but I didn’t know the topic had been totally banished. General snark from one poster to another is more-or-less tolerated here (depending on the forum and the gist of the thread), and I would not have known that Paper Towel snark, in general, has been declared a warnable offense.
What Senegoid said. Paper Towel comments are common. I had no idea they’d been sent to the corn field. I’m sure there are a number of other similar faux pas we’re likely to make.
Given the history of the Dope, I have no idea how you’d even compile the case law. Or expect us all to keep up with it. It’s a bit of a puzzler, to be honest. I’m not trying to be difficult. I don’t know how anyone would be expected to know all Mod rulings, especially on Forums they’d don’t frequent.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting you remember any mod note ever given. In the transgender topic case, the note was simply a handful of posts up thread and the poster has posted before and after it and had previously posted on that topic. Plus he said he saw the note and chose to ignore it, so it was clearly not a case of an old note, long past that he missed.
With regard to the paper towel issue, again, it was warning because the poster had been involved in discussions where the usage was deemed problematic. He knew.
There’s a danger in extrapolating too much from the very, very specific to the completely general. I know we say context matters a lot, but I’ve really learned as a new mod, how very much context does matter.
Talking about or mentioning or referring to paper towels is not against the rules. You can do so without worry.
What GrandWino did was bring up a specific instance of paper towels that applies only to Starving Artist based on something SA has posted regarding paper towels. He did it to make a jab at SA.
When it’s used in that way, then yes, it’s against the rules.
Chances are, if someone mentions paper towels, they are not going to be talking about Starving Artist unless they know the history. Those who don’t know the history/reference, won’t ever be equating SA with paper towels.
I believe this has come up before in a few different threads and in a few different ways, but I don’t really know how people can have a discussion in ATMB on something like trolling* (especially if we’re talking about whether or not a specific poster is trolling) and not mention that word.
Take a topic like “Why isn’t [poster] getting warnings?” or, better yet, say someone starts one saying “I got a warning for trolling” or something like that. I’d fully expect to have a lot of posters (not just staff members) replying to it with posts like “I think/don’t think that’s trolling” or “How is this/that not trolling?”
It’s just not something that can be avoided, as far as I can tell, although blatant and repeated use of calling someone a troll in a thread would still be frowned on, even in ATMB.
*I realize this thread is not talking about trolling in itself, but it is talking about someone who got a warning for doing something seen as trolling
I really do not understand how GrandWino was warned for mentioning “paper towel tube” in a post to Starving Artist, but didn’t even get a “knock it off” for mentioning “butthurt” in a reply to Colibri. He was doing the same thing both times.
It actually seems to give credence to those who thought SA was getting special treatment.
(And, yes, I already reported it. No action, no PM’d explanation for why I was wrong. So to ATMB it goes.)
FYI, Engineer_comp_geek, who gets ATMB reports is out for a bit with an injury, so some reports may be slow to respond to since the rest of us don’t automatically see them.
Ah. I just assumed that, in those cases, someone was temporarily reassigned. Or that there were people who got the ATMB reports in case someone was out–even if they normally don’t act on them.
Makes me regret at least that second paragraph. Sorry.
Am I allowed to say that Drunky was trolling when he said it’s okay to call people trolls now because DrDeth said GrandWino was trolling and didn’t get modded for saying he was trolling?
He let us know but ATMB doesn’t have the back up that the other forums have since it’s (generally) slow. It’s been a busy these last couple of days so we’re trying to keep up!
Unfortunately I don’t know the backstory about that comment you were referring to, so I’m no good to you, but I’ll mention it in the mod loop. Sound good?