I’m with Vision. Your post count is not just some number on a screen. It’s a validation of your importance and worth to the world. Most valuable of all are those posters who have large post counts. There is research which shows that post count is directly proportional to ability to satisfy a lover. Any lover. Armed with this datum we march out into the world secure in our status as sex gods and goddesses, with scientific formulae to back up our claims. Citizens of the internet, unite! You have nothing to lose but your inability to form a committed and meaningful relationship with a partner of a gender of your chosing!
When your OP is titled “My post count is messed up!” and ends with “What gives?”, that’s not pointing out a problem and trying to help. It sounds a lot more like a ‘fix it/explain it’ request than a heads up. In his final post to that thread fishbicycle confirms that he was asking a question, not reporting a bug.
If he was reporting a bug and got that treatment, I’d be with you. He was, IMHO, demanding answers from the admins about a thoroughly trivial problem, and got put in his place for it.
I think Tuba can’t cough or scratch her ass without somebody accusing her of starting World War III, basically. Her comment was mild and if, say, Giraffe had said it, I doubt anybody would mind. fishbicycle’s response was completely over the top. If he’d felt she was rude, he could just say so without the histrionics.
I’d much prefer Tuba sit around and scratch her ass all day long than do some of the insane shit she’s done to fuck up the boards and create ill will among the membership. If Giraffe had said it, maybe nobody would mind, but then Giraffe doesn’t have quite the history with screwing up customer service (you know, ione of her specific “job” functions here) that Tuba does. Sure, fishbicycle’s response was over the top, but there’s a little thing called “responding in kind.”
I read fishy’s post before Tuba made hers and I didn’t read it that way. He then clarified his position a few posts later, again before Tuba shat in that thread. After that, Dex gave a sensible and reasonable answer to the question. The thread should have ended there but an hour and a half later, Tuba came along with her out of line comment. She is an Admin here and was out of line and incorrect.
Hmmm… I personally thought fishbicycle’s OP was kind of disproportionate – IMO postcounts don’t matter a whole lot. However, he asked a question, and I volunteered as good an answer as I had available, from casual knowledge of how VBulletin and related software works, and of how staff handle troll-started threads – one that Dex validated later. As noted, fishbicycle clarified that he was not hung up on a post count, but curious as to how he’d come to lose some posts.
Tubadiva’s comment seemed a bit snarky to me, but not out of the ordinary. Let us not forget that these guys are volunteers*, real people, with their own life. To cite a random example using another staffer, Samclem may be wondering if the (hypothetical) several thousand he has tied up in Carson City gold pieces is going to be profitable or leave him with a net loss. It’s quite possible that Tuba had a particularly lousy day, week, or month. I happen to know, in confidence, about some serious problems she had a couple of years ago, which never made it onto the board AFAIK. Everybody has their own hot buttons; everybody has the right to have a bad day, and be on edge. And I might point out I’ve said the same thing about non-staff who were banned for what seemed to me to be insufficient reasons (realizing I don’t know all the background).
Now, would someone please add a little cream and two lumps to the teacups here, and see if that will act as a calmative for the tempests in them?
Yes, Tuba gets a small stipend from the Reader for services to the Straight Dope website, as opposed to the message board. She is a volunteer as regards this board. I seem to recall jdavis posting an OP in GQ some time ago; his job for the Reader involves keeping the hardware and software working right. He is also a member with the right to ask questions, voice opinions, etc. And so is Tuba.
Well, that depends on if you want to look like a retard. If you enjoy looking like a retard, then you certainly don’t have to explain yourself, and indeed, explaining yourself might be counterproductive.
I rarely hear the word “feisty” be applied to people who are unnecessary hostile or rude. It seems like a bit of a misapplication of the term.
I appreciate that they are volunteers, I would hope that if they have a bad day and act regrettably that they are able to muster up the dignity to apologize, because in the end…your problems are YOUR problems.
One of the first things you learn when you have a customer-service job. It’s one thing to come up with a comment like Tuba’s and say it in a face-to-face encounter, which, while regrettable, might be understandable as a quick, thoughtless reaction. It’s another to deliberately click on one of the reply buttons (possibly wait for another page to load, if she didn’t use Quick Reply), type out the post and submit it. That takes a certain amount of thought, doesn’t it?
I suppose there’s the possibility that a smilie was intended to be inserted, but somehow, I don’t get that feeling. IMHO, it was just rude. I agree that an apology is warranted (perhaps from both participants, as the reply to the initial comment was rude in return. Two wrongs and all that!)
Isn’t ATMB the place to ask about odd, possibly trivial events related to the board? It’s unusual for software to screw up a simple incrementation like that without an underlying reason. It could have been important. I think I’m glad I’m not so observant about details like post counts - I wouldn’t want to get shot down like that.
You know, every time one of these TubaDiva threads comes up, it seems like this is the same excuse given for her every single time. She can be as rude and as bitchy as she wants because she’s volunteered a lot of time to the Reader and to this board.
I honestly think that’s bullshit. One - she does get paid (as you noted). Two - why is it that tomndebb or Dex or the majority of the other admins/mods don’t feel the need to answer valid questions or concerns with outright, inappropriate snarkiness the way that she does? If they do, I have no problem brushing it off as a ‘bad day’ because it’s simply not SOP for them.
I don’t think I’ve ever made one comment in a TubaDiva thread when this issue has come up before, and I’m sure there are thousands of other members who’ve never commented, either - but that doesn’t mean that the behavior goes unnoticed. And to be honest, I’m tired of seeing it excused. There’s simply no call for it. I don’t expect anything to change with her behavior because obviously, she’s been called out on it many, many times and it continues, but it doesn’t go without notice.
The first definition isn’t a terribly common one. But if that’s the case, then I agree. And obviously, then, our admins need to tone down their “feistiness”, since being quarrelsome is certainly not appropriate to the job.
