Actually if I had felt any sympathy towards your hurt feelings I would definitely have lost it after that comment of yours.
Okay, here’s the source of my confusion: How does closing a thread with a well-written OP about pretty common bodily functions serve to raise the tone of the board even a little bit? It has the opposite effect than that intended, I’d think. So many people dig Scylla’s posts because he’s articulate, intelligent, and funny, pretty consistently. Isn’t that the kind of example we’d want to set, if we’re trying to raise the tone? I mean, fuck subject matter, that has little to do with erudition or whatever beautiful thing we used to have in the Golden Age that we’ve now lost sight of. Want to raise the tone of the board? Ban people who pluralize with an apostrophe-s.
You type “lol”? Banned.
“How you doin’?” Banned.
Five paragraphs of variations on “goat-felching, cum-gargling, flatworm-squicking etc. etc. etc.”? Banned.
You get the idea. Talk of naughty things like pee-pees, or hoo-has, or a ticker-tape parade of jism like your mattress just won the World Series are not evil in themselves. Blunt, dumb, unoriginal talk of such things may be. And shit, even that has its place, sometimes. Posts like Scylla’s, far from being shunned in this hazily-defined Great Leap Forward, should be our polestars.
That’s what I think, anyway.
I just took a look at the closed thread, because I missed it completely. I am completely unimpressed by the shot taken at Scylla, and I found it highly ironic that Tubadiva characterizes herself as “humble” in her sig. There’s no humility in taking nasty potshots at someone. Even if the thread hadn’t been closed, what Tuba said was utterly unconstructive and wholly insulting. Why bother, especially while simultaneously carping about raising the tone of the boards? Talking frankly about the funny, ironic issues faced in everyday life (a lot of people deal with infertility and the often embarrasing, ridiculous aspects of treatment for it) is not okay, but insulting regular, well-spoken posters is?
That kind of behavior from mods and admins bothers me much more than closing threads arbirtrarily. Insults, sniping and unnecessary nastiness by mods has sent me fleeing from a number of other boards, I really hope that the SDMB doesn’t go in that same direction. I really, really hope.
Well tlw, in all honesty I see that post she made as more of an anomaly than a continued pattern. Let’s try not to paint her with a broad brush based on that one post (of course, if I’m missing all the hundreds of similar curt posts, I should be reprimanded).
dantheman, I didn’t suggest that it was a pattern, in fact, I think I pretty clearly said that I hope that it doesn’t become one.
Hm, must be just me - didn’t get that from your post initially, though I see now you must have intended that with your second paragraph. Sorry.
Anyone care to place a bet on when the Reader is going to say “To Hell with it” and shut down the board?
It’s not new guidelines, it should be the same OLD guidelines, we’ve just gotten away from them.
This is not the first time this has happened and probably not the last. The mods or Ed yell at you to clean up your act, y’all comply for a while, then things degenerate and here we are again.
Why did I close Scylla’s thread? I had complaints. I cannot keep up with every thread, let alone every post (not with a couple, three thousand a day, no one can) and I tend to act on threads that are specifically brought to my attention. Like that one. Blame it on the squeaky wheel, all too often that’s what gets action around here. Mostly it works out okay, but perhaps sometimes not so.
In retrospect, an email asking for some restraint might have been more in order. In my opinion, the thread was not funny nor clever or even risque, juvenile might have been a better description. Your opinion may vary.
A couple things that may have bearing upon this situation. First, seems like every thread that is brought to my attention lately is something that is disgusting, annoying or just plain stupid. I know y’all are capable of far better – heck, one of the greatest things about what I do here is finding the best and the brightest and displaying it to the rest of the world – and usually that is a joy. It’s been difficult lately diving for the gold in the cesspool.
Secondly, I admit I may be a tad more judgmental. I’m seriously looking for paying employment. The Straight Dope is listed on my resume as this is where I’ve spent a fair amount of my working time the past few years. The board does not always reflect well on us and I can imagine some personnel manager from outside stumbling in here and getting an eyeful. Doesn’t look good for me, not at all and in these difficult times makes my job of getting a job that much harder and it’s tough enough already. I wonder if some of this excess hasn’t sailed my resume into the big circular file. While I’m entirely capable of not getting hired on my own merits (or lack thereof) I hate to think I might be having a little help here. This makes me look at content with a much more critical eye and may tend to make me jump higher and faster.
Hope this makes things a little clearer.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Thank you very much. That’s a line of reasoning I can understand.
Good luck with the job search. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.
Tuba, thanks for a sincere reply.
Does this mean that in your opinion there is more bad than good on the board? In other words, if a personnel manager did come here to check up on your hard work and randomly sampled some threads, do you believe he or she would come away with a rather low opinion of the board based on the content contained within?
I understand that with some of the more risque, gross, disgusting threads that this may be true, but there seems to me to be a great deal of beneficial threads throughout the boards, and it seems to me that the chances of someone coming on here and finding mostly crap are relatively low. In fact, I really would go so far as to say that even some of the worst threads on here are positive in one way or another. If I were running things here, I would be damn proud of the content, not embarrassed by it. For example, there are few threads in which risque subject material is covered that do not contain thoughtful, considered analysis - you don’t have a series of giggling-teenager posts.
No, there’s not more bad than good. If I thought that I wouldn’t even be here.
However, I’m not sure that someone passing through can see things clearly. It’s human nature to look at awful first and I can imagine very easily someone seeing that and not bothering to check out the stuff that is meaningful. Of which there is quite a lot.
your humble TubaDiva
It seems like a case of-there’s a lot more good out there, but it’s the bad stuff you remember.
You had complaints? OK. Were they sensible complaints?
Because shutting down a thread that seemed right at home because you got complaints, with no reference to who made the complaints, no discussion of whether the complaints are justified, etc., seems to me like compromising between the kid who wants the whole pie and the kid who wants half by giving the first one three-quarters.
So the clarification is that there is no clarification? 
**
Tuba, I’m not sure what kind of job you are looking for but this simply isn’t going to happen if your prospective employer is even passingly familiar with the Internet and message boards. Believe me, no one with with any basis of comparison is going visit this board and conclude that it is badly run and full of worthless content.
In any case, you ought to be making it clear to prospective employers that your job as an adminstrator is to ensure that the massive undertaking that is this board runs smoothly, that it maintains its popularity and that it is adminstered so as to protect its owner from any potential liability. This you do, in spades.
Most employers will want to hire you for your good judgement and your efficiency rather than whether or not your existing clients have good taste! In fact, it’s probably a plus if you can separate your own sensibilities from what your clients want.
The content rule of the SDMB really ought to be, “If it’s properly labelled, not illegal and doesn’t scare the horses, knock yourself out!”
BTW, if there is one thing a potential employer might be concerned about, it’d be snapping at your clients. As you know, you have enourmous credit with us and nobody here took your comment to Scylla too seriously. A potential employer doing a search on your posts might, though.
BTW[sup]2[/sup] If you happen to need any references, I know where you could get about five thousand!
Tuba:
You probably did the right thing closing it, because I can only get my email late at night, and if you had sent me something I wouldn’t have seen it for 8 hours or so.
For future reference should I assume that threads like Ewes Sluts, Sperm Count of Doom, and Goat Porn would no longer be welcome in the current environment, and that I should stay clear of such material in the future?
Sigh
Somehow, I find the thought of Scylla morphing into Andy Rooney to be just terribly depressing.
Okay, the real question is:
Do you plan on listing all of us as references?
Well, now that word has come down from on high, I guess things are a little bit clearer.
Just as an aside for those who may be worried about the SDMB becoming “child friendly” let me add something that may clear up the blueangel incident.
I worked at an internet company that, among other things, helped students plan for high school and offered tools that allowed them to plot out all the important classes for their entire high school careers. For various logistical reasons, much of this functionality was password and account protected.
Well, I can’t quote the law, but our lawyers told us that there is a law that prohibits us - or any company - from gathering personal information from persons aged 13 years or younger. I’m not exactly sure what the penalties are, but I’m pretty sure that the Reader doesn’t want any part of them and I’d guess that that is why we have a 13 year old rule.
Which isn’t to say that the Reader doesn’t have an interest in protecting the kids, but I don’t think it’s time to play the “they’re needlessly censoring us” card yet.
So the new standards are that Tuba, personally, finds it funny, and that it not offend any of her prospective employers?
Well, that’s helpful.
Tuba, if you’re so worried about the effect the SDMB is having on your job hunt, p’raps you shouldn’t be listing it on your resume.
And here I thought an explanation would make me feel better… 