Are you trying to discourage conservatives from staying at SDMB?

[rjung]

@Bryan Ekers

Don26’s a conservative? I thought he was just a schmuck.

Some would argue that those are synonyms.

[magellan01]

@elucidator

Or, you could, like, forget about it. Meditate. Go bowling. All kinds of stuff.

That too, is a good option. And it benefits from requiring less work searching, copying and pasting. I think I’ll go with that one.

By the way, I was still hoping to get an answer to a question I posed to you in the latest immigration thread. If you have the time, I’d appreciate it.

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

Everyone, please. You’re all saying the same thing about how moderators should operate around here. Can’t we please just let the other side speak up?

Time passes…

I for one hope that nobody is discouraging conservatives from staying at the SDMB (and to be clear, obviously tomndebb is doing nothing of the sort). I would hope that the stupid ones either think through their positions more thoroughly, or choose to stop posting completely foolish crap and persistently and mindlessly repeat it through a thread without thinking about what others have said in response.

Smart conservatives, your numbers here seem to be dwindling. Either that, or your stupid brethren are just being more vocal than you. Please entend an invitation to some intelligent friends who can string together a coherent position and who can engage others in worthwhile discussion or debate. It would make it more interesting around here.

[Shodan]

The last conservative moderator was manhattan, who was driven away precisely because the SDMB is hostile to conservatives. Not hostile to stupid conservatives, not hostile to inarticulate conservatives, hostile to all conservatives. Conservatives get piled on, sniped at, attacked, vilified, etc., regardless of how smart they are, in a way that liberals don’t.

tomndebb as a poster isn’t any better (or worse) than many of the Usual Suspects.

The bottom line is, if you are expecting fair treatment from the Usual Suspects, you will be waiting in vain. And the mods aren’t going to do anything about that.

But yes, the assholes around here try to drive away conservatives. Then they pat themselves on the back for it.

Regards,
Shodan

[RTA]

@Plan B

And if you have five or ten posts in a row from one point of view, perhaps a moderator could say something like: Come on guys, let’s give the other side a chance to speak.

*spits coffee

That’s funny. It could spell the end of every newbie pile-on, idiot pun-fest, and “me too” thread. I’m for it.

I have said for years that moderators should refrain from involving themselves too much in the forums they moderate - just do your job, and your general non-participation is the price that you should pay for your position. I have also seen a lot of moderators act pretty high and mighty during discussions and though abusing power is human nature, it should be avoided.

That having been said, all you conservatives can fuck off, and I do mean all.

[TheLoadedDog]

I am a fellow conservative.

I accept that this is a predominately liberal/left board, and in fact I like most of the people here who make it that way. Generally, I feel comfortable here, and I feel comfortable with the moderation here, including tomndebb’s. Not always, but often enough that I don’t feel in any way victimised or hard-done-by.

I think there is a basic flaw in the OP’s premise. Moderators do NOT have to provide a “balanced panel”. It’s often nice if they can, but they are not obliged to. It’s not as though this thing is taxpayer-funded. It’s a private site, and we can’t force the moderator team to be balanced any more than we can expect the mods on Stomfront or a hippy/Wiccan site to be perfectly balanced.

I enjoy the fact that I can be a conservative here, and as long as I’m not an arsehole about it, I feel pretty welcome.

[TheLoadedDog]

@RTA

That having been said, all you conservatives can fuck off, and I do mean all.

See? How welcoming is that?

[Crotalus]

Quiet conservative here. I don’t feel that the moderators here moderate in a way that discourages conservatives. My impression of manhattan’s departure was that the politics and tone of the general population of the board, not the moderation, was what made him lose interest.

[Crotalus]

@RTA

*spits coffee

That’s funny. It could spell the end of every newbie pile-on, idiot pun-fest, and “me too” thread. I’m for it.

I have said for years that moderators should refrain from involving themselves too much in the forums they moderate - just do your job, and your general non-participation is the price that you should pay for your position. I have also seen a lot of moderators act pretty high and mighty during discussions and though abusing power is human nature, it should be avoided.

That having been said, all you conservatives can fuck off, and I do mean all.

I should have previewed. I’m probably not alone in enjoying the fact that moderators here are active participants in the forums that they moderate. Why else would they bother? Altruistic beneficence?

I haven’t noticed you before, but my first impression is that you are stupid and rude. I’m not planning on “fucking off”.

[David_Simmons]

@Lynn Bodoni

We’ve had very conservative mods on the SDMB before. Dex is pretty conservative, and he’s an admin.

I’ll take mahattan.

[What_Exit]

Congrats tomndebb, you are racking up the Jackboot points. You are apparently TOO religious and TOO anti-conservative.

I’ll say it again, **Tom ** does a fine job of separating his views from his modding. He indicates when he is doing his mod duties as opposed to when he is attempting to smack down a poster as poster for a view he disagrees with.

I agree with everything Crotalus said.

I think both RTA’s post is asinine and **Shodan’s ** is whining. Oh but as **Shodan ** has set his post up in such a wonderful way, I am just providing proof of how he gets sniped at.

Question for you Shodan, the board has a clear liberal tilt. You do get challenged on a lot of what you say. Many give you a hard time, and yet posters like **Crotalus ** and **Bricker ** are conservatives that generally get respect and minimal sniping. Are you sure it is not you that incite the sniping and not the just your conservative views. I see Sarahfeena get challenged but not sniped at. I will gladly concede that some posters will just snipe any conservative post, but most do not. Maybe you should take some lessons from Crotalus, Bricker & Sarahfeena.

Jim

[Freddy_the_Pig]

@Plan B

I’m not going to get out my Websters for this one, but I’ll briefly say that I’ve always understood a moderator’s job to be to assemble a balanced panel and to keep an interesting and lively discussion going.

Yeah, tomndebb just can’t get the A-listers to post in his threads any more. I think he needs a better agent!

[Mangetout]

Oh! It’s true, there’s such a [whatever tomndebb happened to say] bias here! or an anti-[whatever tomndebb didn’t happen to say] bias. Terrible! Where will it end?!

[Crotalus]

@Mangetout

Oh! It’s true, there’s such a [whatever tomndebb happened to say] bias here! or an anti-[whatever tomndebb didn’t happen to say] bias. Terrible! Where will it end?!

In tears, inevitably.

[Mangetout]

Or bedwetting.

[Lord_Ashtar]

@RTA

That having been said, all you conservatives can fuck off, and I do mean all.

Right back at ya, sparky.

[Crotalus]

Hentor - My impression is that the stupid are more vocal on both sides of most issues. I find Great Debates to be worth reading despite that. Maybe sometimes because of that.

What Exit? - You may be giving me too much credit. I am nearly a non-entity politically around here. I read almost every thread in Great Debates, but I rarely take part by posting. I find it interesting to read the arguments on both sides of issues, but I rarely feel that I have anything of value to add. This has kept me off of the radar screens of most ardent political types around here, to the extent that I usually preface my posts in GD by identifying my political persuasion up front. When I do post in GD, I do my best to remain polite. Here, not so much.

[black_rabbit]

@Shodan

The last conservative moderator was manhattan, who was driven away precisely because the SDMB is hostile to conservatives.

Or maybe it was because reality is hostile to virulent jackassery.

[Muffin]

@Crotalus

Quiet conservative here. I don’t feel that the moderators here moderate in a way that discourages conservatives. My impression of manhattan’s departure was that the politics and tone of the general population of the board, not the moderation, was what made him lose interest.

From the thread that discussed his departure: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6198005&postcount=115

@Muffin

When Bricker or Sam Stone posts, I listen very carefully, despite my being on the opposite side of the political spectrum. If either were to leave, I would not enjoy the boards as much as I do. With Manhattan, however, often the signal to noise was way to high for there to be meaningful communication, and often the level of rage he put forth ruined otherwise interesting threads. Putting politics aside, I found Manhattan getting more and more viscous in his posts.

So where did it lead him? Being frustrated by being a conservative on a liberal board, or being frustrated from conflict resulting from his viscous aggression, or combination in which the one fed upon the other? If leaving the boards helps him better deal with his over-the-top aggression, then good for it. As far as the health of the boards goes, one less bully, of any political bent, is a good thing.

[Muffin]

@Crotalus

My impression is that the stupid are more vocal on both sides of most issues.

Very true. Which means that on a board that generally generally leans to the American left, someone one the American right might find the signal to noise ratio very high.