I respectfully disagree. I enjoy many of the moderators’ comments as posters, and I would miss their participation in threads. It also would put the mods in a bit of a spot: what if they’re already participating in a thread when someone comes in and starts acting like a jerk? Do they have to ask another moderator to deliver a smackdown, or do they do it themselves and then bow out from the rest of the thread? I wouldn’t want a moderator to be reluctant to moderate a thread because they’d like to participate in it, or be reluctant to participate in a thread because they already have – or think they might need to – act in their capacity as moderator. Hell, who would volunteer for the job if it meant restricting their posting?
Huh. Well, one of my closest friends is 6"6, and maybe 170 soaking wet. He’s sweet, gentle, quiet, and calm. And extremely funny. And Mr. Lissar is 6"3 and was about 160lbs when I married him (before I started doing all the cooking), and he’s definitely not a jerk.
So my random sample says no, tall skinny men aren’t jerks. Or at least, no more inclined to be jerks than anyone any other height.
And yet, directly flaming large numbers of Dopers is perfectly legal in GD.
Posters can say, for instance, that conservatives enjoy killing innocent people,
Or come right out and say:
[
](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9844468&postcount=64)
Or:
[
](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9844612&postcount=67):
In fact, that particularly vile poster who habitually flames other Dopers in GD, and gets away with it, received something of a complement rather than being modded, because he was “honest” enough to say that his flames were his opinion.
So come on. No, this thread didn’t have to be moved. And no, it certainly didn’t have to remain open for a Pit-type pile on if its OP didn’t intend for it to be that sort of a thread. Don’t act if if the SDMB has actual rules that the mods actually consistently follow, and use that fabrication as a justification.
You can’t pretend that we have anything other than a makebelieve rule that says ascribing ‘negative personality traits’ to people belongs in the Pit, when GD mods routinely allow overt flaming.
A mod, subjectively, felt like moving this thread. So he did. There is no actual rule against flaming, let alone talking about “negative personality traits”, and you shouldn’t pretend that there is.
A mod wanted to do something, a mod did it.
That’s all there is to it.
Don’t dress the pig up and pretend it’s a ballerina.
I actually came to this here rally to second Mr. Duke’s purely anecdotal evidence. As ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE* only, I can say that all of the black people I’ve known in my 27 years have, to a man, been either thieves or rapists.
:rolleyes:
There’s a possibility that there’s somebody the above could be true for. That doesn’t mean he should go around saying it. It really just sounds… bad.
(6’4", 190lbs., not generally an asshole, I think, maybe.)
The mods put their mod hats on when they are acting in an official capacity - I think that’s enough for separating their mod duties from their posting as a regular dude. And I agree with The Weird One - no one would moderate if it restricted their posting. Well, except for some people, and those are truly the ones we don’t want moderating.
I expect the mods here to explain why they did whatever it is they did. That’s what happened here and I don’t really see the mods hiding behind rule books.
Also, I’d hate to see mods not be able to participate in threads they’ve moderated. C’mon! Far be it from me to suck up, but mods here don’t get to be mods without having first been fairly well respected contributing posters, and I for one, want to continue to hear what they have to say.
Exactly what I was gonna say. 
GD is for political and religious discussion, topics where viewpoints can easily be found offensive by members of groups toward whom the opinions are directed. I’m not a GD mod, and you clearly have past issues with GD moderation, so I’ll leave it at that. IMHO, however, has rarely if ever allowed threads like “why are members of group X jerks?” to remain without moving them to the Pit or closing them outright. If you feel that Czarcasm’s moving of the thread was arbitrary or capricious, then I’d be interested to see some counter-examples of threads like that that were left open in IMHO. Otherwise, I disagree with you.
Nothing to do with being a jerk, but a very tall friend of mine (6’4") was in a bar with me and saw another very tall guy. He then started going on about how he didn’t want to have the “tall guy” conversation with him:
“How how tall are you?”
“About 6’4"”
“Hey me too!”
“Were you the tallest guy in class?”
“Sure was? Did you play basketball?”
“Yeah but I sucked!”
“So did I! Haw haw haw!”
“Do you ever have trouble finding clothes in your size?”
and so on…
Two pages in and I can’t tell if this is all one big whoosh. I mean, I guess being a gawky teen might alienate some people, but… really?
:eek: Do you get a lot of comments? When I was in my late teens/early 20s I was 6’4", 155lbs and people commented constantly, and it wasn’t always nice. Now I’ve gained ~30lbs and I still occasionally get people telling me I need to gain weight.
Mmm…cobbler. I prefer cherry, with a scoop of nice vanilla ice cream.
Fair enough, here are a few, the search function is up to its normal Dope levels, so you’ll have to excuse the fact that I’m not exactly providing you with an avalanche here. Or not.
Are people who split checks evenly when they don’t order food evenly clueless or conniving?
Here’s a thread that asks, in the context of a discussion about being rude in the course of discussions: “So I know it’s not just an isolated problem.
What, dear Doper men, is the problem with men?”
How about "Are people who buy lottery tickets idiots?
Here’s a thread. asking in polite terms, if Dopers are generally bigoted against Southerners.
Or a thread talking about “fundie ignorance” in thinking that being gay is a choice and how thinking that makes people “assholes”
~shrugs~
I’m sure you could respond that some or all of those threads weren’t reported, and I suppose I have no way of knowing about that ahead of time. But sure, threads that ask offensive questions, or make offensive statements, are often allowed in IMHO, at least from what I’ve seen and what I remember.
And the point, in this case, is that this thread could have just as easily been closed with a mod instruction in a final post that any disagreements should be taken to the Pit, or could’ve been closed once it was taken to the Pit and the OP confirmed that insulting specific people wasn’t his point. I don’t have a problem with that one way or another.
But a thread can be moved and kept open because a mod feels that it’s the best course of action. And rather than saying that it’s the right course of action because unwritten rules, which are violated anyways, would compel such a course of action? I’d personally find it much more refreshing if mods would just come right out and say “I did it because I felt like it, and I’m not going to bother rationalizing it.”
/$.02
As it applies to message boards, that’s ridiculous.
I used to be 6’2" and 127 in high school. I’m about 6’2" and 200 now. Other than that, not much difference.
Sure, but there’s only the three of them. This is more like a boxing ring with twenty or thirty boxers, all of whom are fighting each other, and five or six refs who are also boxers fighting the other boxers and each other, which is way, way cooler.
Oh hell yeah. Though I did grow up to look old way before my age (at 17, I was usually taken as well into my twenties) I still get a lot of looks. Not a lot of comments from strangers, but “fatso” was my nickname at High School for the people who half-knew me. 
(I do get the looks from strangers, though, and I hate wearing shirts because they unfailingly slink to my waist and make me look like a woman, unless they’re slimmed. Give me a shaped sweater with a banded waist, any day!)
I do need to gain weight - doctor’s orders, told me to see him in another 20 kilos - but I can’t afford to.
How about you? I found it got better once I got into college - a lot better - and it did help the “Aha! This guy must surely know computers!” impression a lot
Well, age worked its magic on my metabolism, plus a lot of other factors. Quitting cigarettes packed on a few pounds, marrying a pastry chef packed on a few pounds . . . now if I didn’t exercise I would naturally be about 200lbs but I do enough to keep myself down at a somewhat atheletic-looking ~185. Still slim, I still occasionally get comments but they’re mostly from older women and a lot nicer. When I was really underweight people didn’t have a problem telling me to “eat a fucking cheeseburger.”
I guess I don’t think moving a thread is such a big deal. Closing a thread seems like a far stronger rebuke than merely relocating it to a different forum.
As for your examples, I don’t think they’re quite the same thing. I do see how it would be possible for someone to be offended by them, but the title and tone of the OPs weren’t so negative as to make it likely they would provoke hostile responses. The possibility of offending someone isn’t what is discouraged – IMHO wouldn’t be a very useful forum if you couldn’t ever ask for or provide any opinions that might offend someone. Instead, we try to selectively move threads and jump in when needed to keep things from getting too heated, but also leave things alone and see how they do. It sounds like you’re frustrated with what you see as inconsistency on our part, but I personally think that when it comes to moderation, striving for consistency over judgment is a huge mistake. We try for both, but if I had to err in favor of one it would be the latter.
Honest question: I’d like to know if there is precedent for an OP asking to have their thread closed and being told no. I’ve been around here for awhile, as you can see, and I have never seen this happen. Quite the opposite, I’ve seen plenty of instances of the OP vaguely suggesting a thread might be better off closed, then changing his/her mind and continuing with the discussion, and a mod comes along and locks it anyway.