I’m now here. (How long can I keep using this excuse?)
I lurked for a year before posting.
In the Pit, Uncle Beer, one of the Moderators, shot at another user, “No Shit, Dick Tracy.”
I don’t get it…
I respect the right of the Moderators to post their own opinions on real issues. But how does it serve the BBS for Moderators to post rudely?
I highly respect those moderators who will say “moderator hat on… moderator hat off…” to make sure that their opinions are separate from their regulatory actions.
But isn’t it incumbent upon a Moderator to behave in a moderate manner, and to refrain from succumbing to the temptation to shoot from the hip with a facile slur?
To be sure, the person Uncle Beer took the shot at was being a jerk… But isn’t the role of a Moderator to help pour oil on troubled waters? I asked Uncle Beer, “How does this help?” He answered, “What makes you think I was trying to help.”
But isn’t that his job?
I lurked the SDMB for a year, and started posting only with great trepidation. This is a slam-dunk, no-holds-barred, knock-down, drag-out, smash-and-grab debate area…and my own preferences are more sedate…
On the other hand, there’s more collective knowledge here than in any ten encyclopedia! So I think I’ll hang around for a while!
We don’t call them moderators because they are moderate (the noun), it’s because they moderate (the verb, meaning they keep the board on an even keel, not necessarily themselves).
And as already discussed in the other thread- the poster in question opened a MPSIMS version of a PIT thread he wasn’t doing so well in. This was a bad idea, and a violation for the forum descriptions. Unclebeer was pretty mild with him actually.