# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/61 "2010-12-20T16:34:45Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > It seems to be worse than that-some are complaining that we don’t making all their warnings official. No, that’s not it at all. And for the record, I do not fault you at all for the way you handled that thread. It looks like you were trying to diffuse the situation without going all official, and I think that was perfectly appropriate. The problem is that **Ellen Cherry** then decided to enforce your informal suggestion as if it were a formal instruction. That’s not fair. As others have noted, we have been told over and over again that if the mod hat is not on, you are acting as a poster. Here, the mod hat was not on, therefore you were not moderating, and **Ellen Cherry** should not have issued a warning for violating an instruction you never gave. ---
**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, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/62 "2010-12-20T16:36:17Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > 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. I didn’t say you were confused, or that you said you were confused. The “fellow moderator” in that post is Ellen Cherry. On that, you seem to be confused. 🙂 And I agree with Oakminster - I have no problem at all with you trying to diffuse prr in an unofficial manner. The fact that he cannot seem to take a hint is the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/63 "2010-12-20T16:52:15Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Sure you are. Czarcasm said he wasn’t speaking as moderator (see quote below). You still maintain the position that he did. I think there is a misunderstanding here: \*\*Ellen Cherry \*\* didn’t say **Czarcasm** was acting as a moderator. She said that _at the time she gave the warning_, she believed he was speaking as a moderator. She then explained the reason she interpreted his post that way. She’s not contradicting what he is saying in this thread. Like **Ellen Cherry** already said, it would have been clearer if it had been a warning for being a jerk instead of ignoring instructions. A warning was deserved either way as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think anybody needs official moderator instructions to realize that the comment about blowing a cat was not appropriate. ---
**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, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/64 "2010-12-20T16:53:11Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I didn’t say you were confused, or that you said you were confused. The “fellow moderator” in that post is Ellen Cherry. On that, you seem to be confused. 🙂 > > And I agree with Oakminster - I have no problem at all with you trying to diffuse prr in an unofficial manner. The fact that he cannot seem to take a hint is the problem. Actually, as I just said, I took the hint fine, and was about to bow out of the thread on my own accord. I took exception to the officious “instruction” to go start a Pit thread that made things worse, not better. ---
**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, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/65 "2010-12-20T16:56:22Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > the comment about blowing a cat was not appropriate. The comment about blowing a cat was that I thought that was crazy behavior. But the comment about coming into the thread and saying things \*\*DianaG \*\*did not believe just to annoy me, that was fine? I’m just checking, because who knows, maybe I’ll feel like coming into a thread sometime just to piss someone off and saying things I don’t believe just to annoy someone. That’s cool now, correct? ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/66 "2010-12-20T16:58:00Z")
**Czarcasm** , **Oakminster** and **Munch** - Isn’t the word you want defuse, rather than diffuse? ---
**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, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/67 "2010-12-20T16:59:28Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Whenever you see a moderator posting in a thread, you may assume that he is acting in his official capacity… That sounds perfectly reasonable to me, if the post is a comment on someone’s behavior. In fact that sounds like a no-brainer. PS **pseudotriton** - I meant to thank you for pointing out another ‘fun with pets’ thread! I’d missed that one, and I do so love a chance to schmooze with critters and critter-centric people 🆒 Thanks, man! 😃 ---
**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, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/68 "2010-12-20T17:01:16Z")
I’d hand you a shovel prr, but you seem to be doing a fantastic job digging that hole with nothing but your hands. It’s quite impressive. > [@Marley23](#): > > Like **Ellen Cherry** already said, it would have been clearer if it had been a warning for being a jerk instead of ignoring instructions. A warning was deserved either way as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think anybody needs official moderator instructions to realize that the comment about blowing a cat was not appropriate. Thanks for your explanation. So why NOT officially change the warning into for being a jerk? Is Ellen required to commit seppuku if she admits being slightly wrong? I mean, if she’s going to spill her entrails because of it, I completely understand - let the warning stand as is and we’ll never speak of it again. But it’s clear to me that prr is going to jump on any perceived loophole and continue his threadshitting ways until he’s banned sometime in Spring 2011 (which will, oddly enough, be in a thread \*about \*seppuku). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/69 "2010-12-20T17:01:21Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > The comment about blowing a cat was that I thought that was crazy behavior. We all got it the first time. > [@](#): > > I’m just checking, because who knows, maybe I’ll feel like coming into a thread sometime just to piss someone off and saying things I don’t believe just to annoy someone. That’s cool now, correct? Despite your many questions about the rules these days, I think you know what they are. ---
**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, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/70 "2010-12-20T17:04:52Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > **Czarcasm** , **Oakminster** and **Munch** - Isn’t the word you want defuse, rather than diffuse? Nope. Diffuse is perfectly acceptable - it’s spreading out the hostility and aggression to near-imperceptible levels. Defuse works as well. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/71 "2010-12-20T17:07:04Z")
He should have picked up the warning for using the word “fucken.” That’s no kind of word for a college professor to use. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/72 "2010-12-20T17:48:04Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > 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. Now look what you people have done! **Czarcasm** has been driven to doubling up on his Mod flags. Sheesh. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13262151&postcount=3](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13262151&postcount=3) > [@](#): > > [Mod mod]Changed “What” to “What’s” in title.[/Mod mod] I, for one, prefer a little less strict, and a little more friendly. (Not that anyone asked me.) ---
**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, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/73 "2010-12-20T17:53:39Z")
> [@Lare](#): > > Now look what you people have done! **Czarcasm** has been driven to doubling up on his Mod flags. Sheesh. > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13262151&postcount=3](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13262151&postcount=3) Funny 😃 “Mod mod” is short for Moderator modification, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/74 "2010-12-20T18:56:27Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > He should have picked up the warning for using the word “fucken.” > > That’s no kind of word for a college professor to use. 😛 Got something against fish-duck-chickens? ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/75 "2010-12-20T19:16:35Z")
I really don’t understand the threadshitting accusation on its own merits. Kyla says “I do X. Does this make me crazy?” Kyla starts an entire _thread_ dedicated to asking this question, and soliciting opinions as to the answer in a forum explicitly intended to solicit opinions. PRR says “yes, doing X makes you crazy.” He does so in a way that’s oblique, sure, and rather more colorful than a simple sentence, but essentially, his post is a direct answer to the question that was the point of the entire thread. Has the threadshitting occurred yet? If someone posts a thread in Cafe Society asking “Did you like _Inception_” and I respond with a paragraph about how, in fact, I thought it was dreadful, am I threadshitting? Or is it a question of what percentage of the thread (or board) disagrees with my opinion? And then **Diana** comes in and clearly diverts the subject of the thread to be about PRR’s opinion; PRR responds more or less in kind. But PRR is warned and Diana is not? That sounds ridiculous to me, and I don’t even _agree_ with PRR in the first damn place. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/76 "2010-12-20T23:20:57Z")
I hear you, **storyteller0910** … I actually hesitated to post because I wonder “what’s the point?”, and “why do I care?”, but I decided to go ahead and post because this whole scenario rubs me the wrong way. I’ll explain. \*\*prr’s \*\*OP explaining why he’s posting in the first place helped explain his point and made me interested in the thread and its outcome; the rest of his posts after that have made it more and more difficult to care about \*\*prr’s \*\*anger on a personal level. So, I change \*\*prr \*\*to “ **Poster X** ” and it makes it a bit easier. Up front, I will state I have no ax to grind with anyone mentioned in this thread. I recognize a few names, but I don’t know most people’s posting styles, so I don’t support one side or the other just based on the posters alone. With that said, I think **Poster X** has a point. There are a couple of issues here. **Czarcasm** , I believe, was not doing anything as a moderator. If he was, he would have (or should have) prefaced it by identifying it as a moderator action. As many have pointed out, this can be a bit annoying, may not be required by all, but has, on more than one occasion, been defined and agreed to by the moderation staff on this board. This was to show, under no uncertain terms, how the moderator/poster in question was acting and in what capacity. Mod or poster. Simple. **Czarcasm** did not, unfortunately, state that his post was in the capacity of a moderator, so by default, it was as a regular poster. \*\*Poster X’s \*\*response was more than a little abrasive, but I don’t know him or his posting style, so perhaps it wasn’t meant to be. What do I know? I know how **I** read it, but I’m not **Czarcasm** , and the post wasn’t meant for me. Then, **Ellen Cherry** pops into the thread and decides to be offended and annoyed on behalf of **Czarcasm** , issues an official warning because she thinks\*\* Poster X\*\* has not only behaved badly, but didn’t follow directions from a mod. Except, as defined by countless threads and posts discussing this, \*\*Czarcasm \*\*was not, by definition, acting as a mod. Instead of\*\* Ellen Cherry\*\* just retracting the warning and admitting a mistake, she goes through a painful justification post that makes her look terrible. I don’t know her moderating style at all, but from this one example, it would seem that she made a knee-jerk reaction, and will not admit a mistake. If she would, this nonsense would be over. The fact is, like it or not, **Ellen Cherry** went overboard, and even if she wanted to give **Poster X** a warning for being a jerk, it’s too late for that. Just apologize, **Ellen Cherry**. Rescind the warning. Chalk it up to experience, and no one will look badly upon you. One final note: If you want to give an official warning, I believe, based on what I understand about trolling and being a jerk, \*\*DianaG \*\*deserves one for making her admission of trolling. I remember admitting that someone was on my ignore list \*\*\*outside \*\*\*of the pit, and was given an official warning. OK, I broke a rule. The fact that it is a stupid rule doesn’t make any difference, I was told. Posting that someone is on your ignore list outside of the pit is simply a no-no (which I didn’t know-know). How is \*\*DianaG’s \*\*admission of trolling **Poster X** appropriate? Is that not breaking a rule, by \*\*DianaG’s \*\*own admission? If **Poster X** admitted the exact same thing about **DianaG** , wouldn’t **Poster X** have received an official warning? Is this about consistency, poster favoritism, or what? I don’t think this is difficult. All is required is to be consistent, a little bit of common sense, and a small reduction of ego. ---
**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, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/77 "2010-12-20T23:57:28Z")
I don’t understand how DianeG was trolling: Poster X said “this thing people do in real life - it annoys me”. DianeG said “I will now do this thing in real life specifically because it annoys you.” That’s not trolling. Trolling is doing something \ ***online** \*to provoke a reaction. Poster X can’t be provoked because he has no idea when it’s happening out in meatspace. If DianeG comes back and posts every single time it happens and directs Poster X’s attention to it - sure, that’s trolling. As it is, Poster X is just trying to drum up yet another loophole to continue acting the way he’s been acting for the last 3 months while continue to collect warnings like PSXer collects laserdiscs. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/78 "2010-12-21T00:06:51Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I don’t understand how DianeG was trolling: > > Poster X said “this thing people do in real life - it annoys me”. > DianeG said “I will now do this thing in real life specifically because it annoys you.” > > That’s not trolling. Trolling is doing something \ ***online** \*to provoke a reaction. Poster X can’t be provoked because he has no idea when it’s happening out in meatspace. If DianeG comes back and posts every single time it happens and directs Poster X’s attention to it - sure, that’s trolling. As it is, Poster X is just trying to drum up yet another loophole to continue acting the way he’s been acting for the last 3 months while continue to collect warnings like PSXer collects laserdiscs. Maybe I need to re-read the definition of trolling, then. I thought that when we post out here is we are, by definition, online. It just seemed to me that when \*\*DianaG \*\*said > [@](#): > > I never have before, but I just gathered them up and told each of them their life stories, **mostly to annoy prr** , whose “people who love their pets are crazy” shit is getting tiresome **bolding mine** seemed to me to be a direct act to annoy another. If that’s not the definition of trolling, fine (I’ll have to brush up on that.). But it’s clearly being a jerk, since she is admitting to posting to annoy one particular poster. Not only a waste of time, but clearly posting just to annoy **Poster X**. That’s a bit odd, but to each his/her own, I suppose. ETA. I see now. I re-read your post and see your point. I thought DianaG was talking about doing that on this board, not in meatspace. Thanks for the correction. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/80 "2010-12-21T16:55:39Z")
Am I still supposed to be afraid? Because I’m just not feeling it. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750/81 "2010-12-21T17:09:06Z")
1.) **prr** , my friend, drink a juicebox. You are getting way too worked up over everything these days. Certain mods may be overly harsh on you, but you’re pushing really, really hard these days. 2.) **Czarcasm** , please be clear about what of your comments are Mod Notes (not Warnings, but Notes, i.e., official suggestions) and which are just coming from you as a poster. 3.) **Ellen Cherry** , back down and admit that you were wrong. Refusing to start a thread is not and never will be against the rules of this forum. \*If \*\*\*prr \*\*had continued to threadshit, then you could have warned him for that. But responding to a post that was ostensibly just a suggestion with the assertion that he will not start a separate thread (which could just as easily mean “I’m done with the subject” as “I’m going to continue telling the OP she’s crazy”) is completely, absolutely, and inexplicably out of your jurisdiction. And you didn’t warn him for a post that was mocking the OP: you warned him for a post that was a response to another poster that just said he wasn’t going to start a thread. And even if \*\*Czarcasm \*\*had made his suggestion a formal one, there would \*still \*be no room for a warning, because, again, \*all \*\*\*prr \*\*was saying \*at the point he was warned \*was that he wasn’t going to start a new thread over it. > [@saje](#): > > 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. You realize that the main definition of threadshitting is to post to a thread just to tell people how stupid they are for posting in it, right? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-afraid-be-very-afraid/564750.md?page=5)