… for, among other things, being a tattletale. The claim is that Shodan told me that Idle Thoughts had started an “ask the SDMB mod” thread on another board, and that this led to IT’s departure.
This is inaccurate. The sequence of events was as follows:
Idle Thoughts, an SDMB moderator at the time, posted an “ask the SDMB mod” thread on another board. IT mentioned a number of SDMB posters by name in this thread, Shodan among them.
Shodan sent a private message to IT and another mod saying he thought it was inappropropriate for an SDMB mod to discuss SDMB business in an off-board venue, and objecting to his (Shodan’s) name being mentioned in said thread. However, he said if the offsite thread IT started was approved by the mods he’d let it be. I wasn’t a recipient of this PM.
Idle Thoughts then emailed the SDMB staff to complain about Shodan and disclosed that he’d started a thread on another board about moderating the SDMB. I wasn’t initially aware of this discussion. Due to the volume of staff email I don’t routinely read all of it. Instead, I’ve told the staff to let me know when there’s something I need to be aware of.
In the ensuing email discussion, the other mods were unanimous in telling IT they thought it was unwise for him to post about SDMB business offboard, and that I had explicitly instructed SDMB staff not to do so (more on this below). IT disagreed and said he had the right to post what he liked in non-SDMB venues. The exchange stretched out over many hours. IT remained adamant that he had done nothing wrong and blamed Shodan. The other mods said Shodan had nothing to do with it - the real issue was that IT had violated a mod rule.
Finally one of the mods decided the time had come to kick this upstairs to me. When I read the off-board thread and subsequent discussion I wasn’t happy. SDMB staff guidance is available privately online and staff members are expected to familiarize themselves with it. One of the items is a detailed list of rules by which staff must abide. (This is different from the rules for regular posters, but it’s in the same vein.) These rules were posted many years ago. One rule is that SDMB staff is not to discuss SDMB business in off-board venues.
It’s possible this rule had slipped **IT’**s mind. However, despite being repeatedly reminded of it by the rest of the staff, he insisted that he was within his rights to post about SDMB business offboard. I found this disturbing.
I discussed this matter with IT on the phone. We came to a parting of the ways.
I’m told IT now blames** Shodan** for his departure. To emphasize, Shodan had nothing to do with it and certainly didn’t rat out IT to me. Shodan initially took up the matter with IT and another mod, and IT himself then informed the staff. IT’s departure stemmed solely from his violation of a written staff rule he was supposed to have known about and which was brought to his attention.
We don’t normally publicize staff discussions and don’t plan to do so in the future, but felt it was necessary to clarify this matter in the interest of fairness.
First all in all I’ve found Idle Thoughts to be a good mod. Having said THAT…I did get a warning from him(I think it was him)…that was part of the “evidence” that lead to a suspension for me (though I think his part was mostly not reading a post carefully and noting the details of posts time stamps…which I let slide…).
But IMO taking ANY SDMB business here “elsewhere” is big no no. If he/she does that and does NOT go “hey, my bad, not going to do that again”…well that mod needs to go as mod.
And for that matter, all the posters here that take stuff “elsewhere” and have detailed “behind the scenes” discussions of other posters and “lists” and the like…
Well, IMO…what a sad sorry bunch…all you all may think me an ass…but I’m an honest ass that ain’t saying anything private that I don’t say in “public” here…
PS. Ed (if that is your REAL name )…thank you for the clarification of events…
Thank you, Ed. It’s good to hear both sides. A little explanation when it happened might have prevented the ensuing Pit thread and any further drama. My apologies to Shodan for whatever I was thinking of him.
There’s one difference. SDMB moderators, intentionally or not, do represent themselves as staff members and should be on their proper behavior, and i agree with them being punished if they violate a stated rule. Regular members don’t represent anybody except themselves and do have the right to express opinions about other people any time they want off the SDMB site. It’s no different than insulting somebody here in our own BBQ Pit.
Thank you for your time, Mr. Zotti … we all appreciate all your hard work at StraightDope … and taking all of The Master’s physical abuse … it’s just not right that the best copy-editor in the world should have to be always ducking staplers, printers and coffee cups … just not right …
I’m not sure we anticipated the details of Mod discussions getting out. Once the Pit thread started and we realized the misconceptions that were held among the members we felt clarification for Shodan’s sake was warranted.
I know he posted he won’t be posting here any more. And he wouldn’t be the first mod who wanted to pull away from the board for a while when their mod time was up. However he is still a member in good standing and if he wishes to come back and post here he can.
I am genuinely unsure if this changes my feelings much if at all. While the thread may have been ill advised, Idle went out of his way to be positive about the SDMB in said thread and spoke no ill of any poster in it. I don’t know if he even mentioned anyone by name other than to defend them, as he defended Shodan, when they were brought up.
While I understand the perspective of the board I am nevertheless disappointed in all parties involved and still think that Shodan was acting as a bully in his involvement, even if it was tangential.
)…thank you for the clarification of events…