Okay, since I didn’t want to keep detailing the thread on the latest suspension, I wanted to repost here the question I posed there…
“Amazingly, in my decade here, I’ve barely posted in a handful of threads about what TPTB do here. Very seldom has my opinion been one of criticism. However, it is impossible to ignore Czarcasm’s junior modding. It’s noted in a ton of ATMB threads and is complained about left and right. If no one is actually going to address that based off of his past history, then what is the recourse for us members? Would you all suggest we report his posts every time we see him do this? If so, can we take it a step further and say that we’ve done so in the thread, thus perhaps encouraging others to do the same? Maybe then, do to sheer volume, TPTB would finally be compelled to apply the same rules for him that they do for everyone else.”
There was at least one mod in that thread before and after I posted this and I got nary a reply. Perhaps it got lost in the shuffle or was considered off-topic, but if someone up the food chain can help me with this, I’d appreciate it. Thanks.
Technically I think it should be called emeritus modding.
That said, I think the boards are already ridiculously uptight about junior modding. We shouldn’t have people saying things like, “You’re going to get a warning if you keep talking to me that way,” or, “That post was against the rules, drop it now.” But the boards should encourage members to engage in a bit of self-policing and discussion of rules.
Impersonating a mod? Junior modding and a problem. Pointing out that something is skating close to the rules, or is not against the rules? Should not be a problem.
Fact is, in his contentious post Czarcasm didn’t even skirt as close to junior modding as stating the illicitness of some behavior. He wrote:
Maybe a little snide, particularly given knowledge of his past modding job, but he’s merely pointing something out — not warning against some behavior, or reciting rules, or tattle-taling. Maybe he does have a history of genuine junior modding such that this straw breaks the camel’s back (I don’t spend a lot of time in this subform). But I don’t see how the the above post justifies mhendo’s freakout or the swell of negative opinion generally.
Yes, there’s a long history of it in ATMB and the pit. I’d link to some, but have no idea how to do that on my phone. I tried going through his username and searching by posts, but Tapatalk only listed a pitiful small amount and most were in the referenced thread. If someone can help a sister out, I’d appreciate it. Otherwise, 'net surfing on a cell sucks.
In ATMB threads there are more than a few people who seem to almost always argue against the Mods and many more who are more balanced. There are a very few who almost always back the Mods. This maybe because people who want to complain about the decisions and those who like to discuss them to death are more likely to read and post in those threads.
Czarcasm happens to be one of those who nearly always sides with the Mods. Probably being a former Mod had a lot to do with that but that’s not really relevant. I don’t think that he really Jr. Mods. He isn’t telling people what to do. He is responding to other’s OPs and disagreeing with them in an arguably very annoying way. Then he defends his opinion in an arguably even more annoying way. None of this is against the rules.
I could maybe get behind a Pit thread calling him out for annoying douchy posts but not an ATMB one for breaking rules.
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. When someone offers their interpretation concerning rules or message board conduct, when does that cross the line to become junior modding?
I think Czarcasm has a pretty good grasp on the difference between posting comments about how the rules work (acceptable) and telling posters they are in trouble for violating the rules (Jr modding). Actual examples to contrary that are posted here will be reviewed and evaluated (by me anyway).
As far as actions go, if you think he is Jr modding in any particular instance, report the post so the Mods can evaluate. If he is not actually Jr modding, then he won’t get sanctioned, even if you think he is being a douche.
You can also Pit him, since his actions are no longer official.
Just don’t Pit him in ATMB. That’s against the rules.
Why don’t we wait until you get to a computer where you can do some searching? Because you seem to imply that it is general knowledge that Czarcasm is a habitual junior modder. But I have no recollection of such a phenomenon. Yeah, I have an impression that he tends to side with the mods, but that’s not the same as junior modding.
His posts seem very modish to me. And, IMHO, his posts are douchy. As are his “report me if you don’t like it” replies. How can telling someone to PM a mod rather than answer the question be anything but jr. modding?
People have a bug up their ass about Czarcasm, but they aren’t really accurate when they try to label him as a junior mod. He gets involved in ATMB and gives his opinions, but I would bet his detractors could find very few individual posts that could actually be termed as junior modding.
I post a lot in ATMB, I give my opinions, does that make me a junior mod?
No, of course not. Its no different with Czarcasm. If people dont like him giving his opinions then just pit him, but the junior mod accusations are a little silly. Though not as silly as trying to repeatedly poke sticks at him in ATMB. Just take it to the PIT.
Most of the time he is being very annoying but tip toeing the line of junior modding. He speaks for the mods when they are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves and it just gets in the way of good communication. Questions are asked in ATMB so the mods can answer. I don’t want to hear form their press secretary. Annoying but not rule breaking. Mostly. When I do feel he is stepping over that line I’ll just report it rather than take the bait.
First off, sorry, I don’t have access to a computer at all. As often as I see this complaint, I really didn’t think it would be much of a stretch for someone to help ms out. As I’m not pitting him (where the onus would be on me), I didn’t think I was wrong asking for an assist. If it was, again I apologize.
Second, saying he strongly words things as a suggestion of what others should realize, but is not junior modding seems pedantic to me. However, if I’m incorrect on that (and I may well be), I’d venture a guess that why he is able to skate such a line without being warned for it is precisely because he’s a former mod himself. Now, I realize that’s irrelevant, but it speaks to a certain mindset about following the letter of the law, if not the spirit. Perhaps that’s why some people have a bug up their butt about him. Sounds plausible to me.
Third, although I do see lots of frequent commenters in ATMB that strongly word their opinions about moderation, I’ve only seen a couple be called out for junior modding. I think that speaks volumes about those folks. Rightly so, they’ve been warned upon occasion, but to my recollection Czarcasm has never even been noted. I find that interesting and wonder what the difference is if the posts appear basically identical in tone.
Last, I have no beef with Czarcasm in general. *Unfortunately though, when he teeters right on the line to the point that even saying what he does (the original offense that got a warning for being insulting) can ultimately lead to a suspension (because the [unjustified] warning pushed someone over the edge), I think that his behavior should be looked at. In my humble opinion, of course.
*I understand how cumbersome that last sentence was. Try as I might, I couldn’t think of a better way to word it. Hope you all get my gist. If not, I’ll certainly try to jumble it up again more clearly.
I would bet you’d be wrong on that one. I plan to sit and watch, but even I know it wouldn’t take much digging to find him Jr Modding all over the place. It’s annoying and obnoxious.
I know I’m not the only person who didn’t realize he wasn’t a mod for a quite a while.
Loach snuck in there while I was posting and there’s no preview for us Tapatalkers. Anyway, he brings up my original point…
Is it better to simply report the post every time we see him do it? Can we then post in the thread that we have? If we do report him multiple times, will we be considered habitual reporters and be ignored? Because I’d rather avoid the latter, if at all possible. Hell, I probably haven’t reported a dozen posts in my time here and I’d like to retain (whatever tenuous) credibility I have.
Exactly. ATMB isn’t here so we can get or address Czarcasm’s take on things. If he wants to express an opinion, fine, but he needs to knock off the fault-finding and instructional tone when it comes to non-mod posters.
You don’t have any access to any real computers, anywhere, at all? You don’t have a public library? Your mom’s house? A friend? Hell, one place where I get my oil changed has computers with internet for free use while waiting.
Be that as it may, I don’t care who posts the examples. I would like to see specific examples, because I see a lot of bitching about Czarcasm, but I do not recall any examples that I have seen of him Junior modding.
Sure, he defends the mods a lot. Sometimes to the point of stupidity. I get that he can be annoying. Sure, he posts his opinions about moderation events, just like many other posters. Sure, he posts his understanding and opinions about the rules here, just like many other posters. But none of that is junior modding per se.
So I want to see the examples.
Underline added for emphasis. I disagree, the warning was totally justified, and Czarcasm did not give the warning, so blaming Czarcasm for the warning is bizarre to me. mhendo gave a hijacking rant against Czarcasm, he got called on it. And then he had the audacity to follow that up with a direct attack against a mod. Both in the thread, and we are told in PM. None of that is Czarcasm’s fault.
You’re free to post an example. I am still waiting.
I am not a mod, so my responses are my impression of how things work, not “official answers from on high”.
If you see him Junior Mod, report him. You are free to report him as often as you see him junior mod. However, here is the key point. Make sure is behavior is actually junior modding, or at least a reasonable facsimile, rather than merely you not liking him agreeing with the mods or not liking the intensity of his comments or not liking some other aspect of what he says. As long as you are usually correct, the mods won’t think too much about it. However, if you report him frequently but are wrong, and you only seem to report him and don’t report other posts that violate rules, then you could get a reputation as a **Czarcasm **stalker. That could lead them to dismiss your reports. If you’re consistently wrong and reporting all the time, that becomes the “cried wolf” syndrome.
I suspect that the mods won’t be thrilled if you post in the thread that you reported him whenever you do. That starts to cross the line from a useful comment to the thread (I reported the spam, I reported the incorrect forum, I reported the messed up link) that keeps others from having to duplicate the effort, to stalking.
A)I don’t really care that much, I just plan to watch the thread develop, at least for now. I might toss a couple of cents around later. But I don’t have much interest in doing any research.
B)It’s going to be a real PITA to find that since he actually used to be a mod and in threads where he was modding his user title will have reverted to whatever it was today. I have no idea when exactly he was a mod and/or if he used “Mod Tags” to make such a search easy or if it’s going to be hard to tell when he was Jr Modding and when he was actually modding.
C)Finally, Even if he never actually crossed the line, it’s not like this has never come up before. There’s certain other people that haven’t actually broken rules but have been asked to dial it back, there’s certain other things that we’ve asked TPTB to change around here but they won’t for undefinable reasons. Well, maybe this is one of those things that it doesn’t have to be defined, he doesn’t have to cross a specific line, but it’s been complained about often enough that it’s time something was done. From what I’m gathering, all anyone is asking is that when he sees people doing something that would require mod action, he hits the button and walks away, no need to make any comment at all about it. Hell, doesn’t even have to hit the button. He could just mumble to himself that they’re breaking a board rule and click the back button…or join in the conversation and not worry that someone else is breaking a rule. The mods will stumble upon it on their own…or not and everyone will survive.
Didn’t anyone ever have a tattle-tale in their class? The person that ran to the teacher every single time anyone did anything at all wrong, or would at least say “I’m gonna tell on you” or “You can’t do that”. There’s nothing wrong, technically, with telling people that what they’re doing is wrong, their’s nothing wrong with telling on them, but I’ll bet, at some point, the teacher told the kid to knock it off because no one likes a tattle tale.
Even if the person never told on anyone, they just stood around and said “You can’t do that”, at some point, the kids are gonna get annoyed and the teacher is going to pull that student aside and explain why the other kids are annoyed and try to help them fit in better…ya know, by not acting like the teacher’s pet all the time.
Oh I have no doubt that all such reports will be ignored. I happen to like the modding here for the most part but there does seem to be some institutional blind spots. I just plan to report, not address the issue any more and try to keep my interaction with Czarcasm on board issues down to a minimum. I like him as a poster everywhere else.
