# Be afraid, be very afraid **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 19, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750 "2010-12-19T20:56:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/41 "2010-12-20T08:01:54Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > This isn’t like a US criminal trial; you don’t get the charges dropped on a technicality. Well, i don’t think it’s a technicality. We’ve been told repeatedly that moderators will make very clear when they are acting as mods and not as posters. We have a case when a moderator didn’t do this, and a poster got warned for ignoring an instruction that he had no way of knowing was official. Also (to engage in a minor hijack), even when we are talking about things like criminal trials, i don’t consider stuff like “The cop didn’t read him his Miranda rights” or “The search warrant wasn’t properly executed” to be mere “technicalities.” Much of what gets termed a “technicality” when people complain about criminal trial procedures are actually things that are (or should be) at the very heart of our basic principles of justice. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/42 "2010-12-20T08:10:08Z")
No, it is a technicality. Even if we toss out the whole ignoring-a-mod thang, you’ve still got a valid warning for telling someone to go blow a cat. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/43 "2010-12-20T13:17:15Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > No, it is a technicality. Even if we toss out the whole ignoring-a-mod thang, you’ve still got a valid warning for telling someone to go blow a cat. Yup. Things like “blow me” and “fuck off” are specifically prohibited. I’d certainly think an allusion to “go blow a cat” would qualify. As would changing the text in a quote you post, but that seems to have been ignored as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/44 "2010-12-20T14:14:10Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Where’s **Liberal** and his checkbook when you need him? Ha!!! You on a roll lately, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/45 "2010-12-20T15:23:14Z")
Hello, everyone. To explain my point of view: the situation when I came upon it yesterday afternoon seemed unambiguous; **Czarcasm** , a moderator, told **pseudotriton ruber ruber** to take his issue to the Pit. He didn’t suggest he obtain a kitty and try talking to it. He didn’t extol the benefits of puppy conversation. He didn’t offer anything to the thread which was on the topic of talking to pets — which might have led to the assumption he was writing as a mere poster — he clearly told a poster who was acting up to stop it, an instruction which was ignored. Yes, he did not post bold-faced “I Am Speaking as a Moderator” wraps around his words, but I clearly understood **Czarcasm** was acting as a moderator. When **pseudotriton ruber ruber** shot back that he’d start threads anywhere he fuckin’ wanted to, to me this was unambiguously in response to a moderator instruction. We’re all grownups here. All parties in question (including me) have posted here for a long, long time. You know how to behave without a lot of hair-splitting instructions from a moderator! After reading what everyone has to say, I’d say issuing a warning for “being a jerk” would have been a marginally better choice. But **pseudotriton ruber ruber** was threadshitting and he got a warning for it, which is really what this is all about. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/46 "2010-12-20T15:39:25Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > What do you say when your girlfriend asks you if those pants make her ass look big? To quote the great Al Bundy: “… _besides, it’s not the dress that makes you look fat, it’s the fat that makes you look fa_t.” > [@FinnAgain](#): > > This isn’t like a US criminal trial; you don’t get the charges dropped on a technicality. Speaking neither as an American nor a lawyer: the great joy of the American legal system is that nothing ever gets settled for good. I’d guess in this appeal there might be reason to mitigate prr’s warning by rescinding it and issuing him an official apology. Then giving him three more for endlessly complaining. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/47 "2010-12-20T15:52:30Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > to me this was unambiguously in response to a moderator instruction Bullshit. We’ve been over this before in this forum, several times. I’m not digging it up, but we’ve been told by you moderators that any moderator action would, in fact, have “bold-faced “I Am Speaking as a Moderator”” as a label. If it doesn’t, then it’s just moderator-as-poster. This is clear. This is concise. This is unambiguous. > [@](#): > > But **pseudotriton ruber ruber** was threadshitting and he got a warning for it No, he didn’t. He got a warning, from you, for failure to comply with a moderator’s instruction - instructions which he did not receive. Stop contorting the facts. All you have to do is say, “Whoops - Czarcasm wasn’t acting as moderator. My warning to prr for failure to follow a mod’s instructions was out of line - my warning SHOULD have been for threadshitting.” That’s it! Problem totally and completely solved. Why the hell do you need to bend over backwards to try to weasel your way out of not having to say you were wrong? Did Diogenes hack your account or something? ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/48 "2010-12-20T15:59:07Z")
Have we now gotten to the point where we as posters are claiming we are unable to read the label under the poster’s name that clearly says ‘moderator’? That is pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/49 "2010-12-20T16:03:02Z")
> [@lisacurl](#): > > Have we now gotten to the point where we as posters are claiming we are unable to read the label under the poster’s name that clearly says ‘moderator’? That is pathetic. Moderators are posters first, moderators second - otherwise their experience here would be pretty unpleasant. If every opinion a moderator offered was taken as SDMB gospel, it’d be pretty sparse around here. For fuck’s sake - Czarcasm himself said he wasn’t speaking as moderator. The fact that a fellow moderator was confused on the subject clearly shows there’s confusion a need for clarity. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/50 "2010-12-20T16:05:22Z")
Hey, I appreciate the mods telling threadshitters to knock it off. I hate threadshitters. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/51 "2010-12-20T16:09:17Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Why the hell do you need to bend over backwards to try to weasel your way out of not having to say you were wrong? Did Diogenes hack your account or something? I’m not weaseling or bending over backwards, **Munch**. I explained what I did in response to things as I saw them. You might disagree with the conclusion I came to, that is your right, but I’m not contorting anything, and I don’t believe that I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/52 "2010-12-20T16:17:02Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > I’m not weaseling or bending over backwards, **Munch**. I explained what I did in response to things as I saw them. You might disagree with the conclusion I came to, that is your right, but I’m not contorting anything, and I don’t believe that I was wrong. Sure you are. Czarcasm said he wasn’t speaking as moderator (see quote below). You still maintain the position that he did. Your opinion on this matter is poorly informed and misguided. There really isn’t any wiggle room that I see where you could possibly be correct. > [@Czarcasm in this thread](#): > > No, I didn’t make an official proclamation and decided to take the informal route…you used to be able to take a hint What’s your definition of “informal”? How about “take a hint”? If you’re going to say that hints are now to be taken as official moderator instruction, I’m going to have to say that maybe moderating isn’t for you. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/53 "2010-12-20T16:18:13Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > I’m not weaseling or bending over backwards, **Munch**. I explained what I did in response to things as I saw them. You might disagree with the conclusion I came to, that is your right, but I’m not contorting anything, and I don’t believe that I was wrong. You said: to me this was unambiguously in response to a moderator instruction. \*\*Munch \*\*says: Czarcasm himself said he wasn’t speaking as moderator. I’m confused. One of these has to be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/54 "2010-12-20T16:19:32Z")
It wasn’t _that_ long ago that posters appreciated unofficial reminders from moderators regarding their behavior-in fact, I recall being thanked for allowing posters to correct before we went all official on their behinds. It was called friendship, camaraderie, what have you, and posters took it in the spirit it was intended. Now we have posters that insist that every time we deal with them we do it officially, and that supposedly means that if we don’t cross every t and dot every i in the procedure not only do owe them a public apology, but they are also entitled to throw all civil discourse out the window. \*I’ll start what I fucken well feel like starting, kay? \* Forget the fact that I am a moderator-that response to _any_ poster in IMHO was totally unacceptable, and if I had been the first to respond to it, that response would have been so official you could have seen the watermark through the screen. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/55 "2010-12-20T16:22:46Z")
I thought we’d left Junior High well behind years ago. Apparently not, given the number of similar posts I’ve run across. People seriously get their knickers in a twist over being chastised by a mod on an internet forum? That really ruins your day? I detest the phrase “get a life”, but in this instance I am sorely tempted to use it. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/56 "2010-12-20T16:24:47Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Forget the fact that I am a moderator-that response to _any_ poster in IMHO was totally unacceptable, and if I had been the first to respond to it, that response would have been so official you could have seen the watermark through the screen. I guess that’s where I’m confused - why does Ellen Cherry think she needs to defend her incorrect mod decision when there’s a blatant violation staring her in her face that she didn’t address? ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/57 "2010-12-20T16:26:31Z")
> [@saje](#): > > I thought we’d left Junior High well behind years ago. Apparently not, given the number of similar posts I’ve run across. > > People seriously get their knickers in a twist over being chastised by a mod on an internet forum? That really ruins your day? I detest the phrase “get a life”, but in this instance I am sorely tempted to use it. > > :rolleyes: The vast majority of posters here have never received a mod note, warning or suggestion because they know how to behave civilly and reasonably. Some don’t and are constantly butting horns. It’s always been that way and always will. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/58 "2010-12-20T16:27:09Z")
> [@saje](#): > > I thought we’d left Junior High well behind years ago. Apparently not, given the number of similar posts I’ve run across. > > People seriously get their knickers in a twist over being chastised by a mod on an internet forum? That really ruins your day? I detest the phrase “get a life”, but in this instance I am sorely tempted to use it. It seems to be worse than that-some are complaining that we don’t making all their warnings official. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/59 "2010-12-20T16:31:37Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I guess that’s where I’m confused - why does Ellen Cherry think she needs to defend her incorrect mod decision when there’s a blatant violation staring her in her face that she didn’t address? Unlike your previous claim, I never said I was “confused”(as you put it), and I don’t think **Ellen Cherry** said her mod decision was incorrect, so perhaps your confusion arises from a habit of rewording the posts of others to fit your responses. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/60 "2010-12-20T16:32:34Z")
Like I said, be very afraid. Whenever you see a moderator posting in a thread, you may assume that he is acting in his official capacity, and whether he actually gives you instructions or not, just do what he says, start a thread somewhere, go pound salt up your ass, whatever. This is total self-justifying bullshit, and in this case it could have been resolved by leaving it alone. I had my fun with **Kyla** , I had said my say, I was ready to move on, but instead alll this drama ensues because \*\*Czarcasm \*\*can’t remember whether he’s wearing his mod pants or not and issues instructions to do something that he’s not authorized to do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750.md?page=4)