This seems to me to just what marko was talking about here. There are some mods – and in my experience Ed, tomndebb, and a couple others qualify here – who are not infrequently high-handed and/or either “impolitely” dismissive (I fear to say “r*dely”, so I won’t) or just plain impolite while still wearing their mod hats.
In the long anti-rule-2 thread not long ago, I expressed the view I’ve learned from reading at length of the very subtle to blatant sociological damage caused by increasing speech restrictions on a community. Such actions have insidious effects on the entire community, the most egregious of which fall on those who enforce speech rules of any kind. And one symptom is increasing over-enforcement.
As a poster, I hold that tomndebb has contributed *enormously *to the value of the SDMB, even though we disagree about as often as we agree. But I also hold that he’s a bit of a leadfoot when he puts his hat on. My view is that the best moderation is the least moderation necessary. It definitely has a place here, but it seems to me that there is a noticeable uptick in both moderator interventions and moderator discourtesy. I admit I may be expecting it as a consequence of the extraordinary upheaval concerning new Pit rule 2 and therefore subconsciously looking for it, but I ask the reader to consider there may well be more to it than merely my imagination.
I suggest that if a Pit or GD or other forum thread begins to move into rule-breaking territory or to swerve unacceptably off topic, the mods should wait until the ordinary posters complain about it first, and only put on a mod hat to intervene if the posters fail to control the problem or they explicitly ask for it (publicly or privately).
Think of it being something like the scenario where two people are arguing in a bar. If they get angrier and angrier and louder and louder, the other bar patrons should try to deal with it themselves rather than call the cops right away. The cops are always an option if the participants themselves can’t resolve the problem, but the cops should always be the last option.