Can I see a dessert tray?
Right away, sir. I live only to serve my magnificent benefactors, the rich handsome men and women for whom seven and a half dollars is such a mere trifle that they can part with it on an annual basis for the paltry pleasure of my inadequate service. Serving such fine people is far more reward than such a pitiful servant as myself deserves.
I paid fifteen dollars, so don’t lump me in with the low-rent hoi polloi.
Oh. You’re “new money.”
<sniff>
That sounds really correct. Except for the need for a space between “he’s” and “absolutely.”
Of course, a restaurant will only give better service if the clientele demand it with their dollars…
Honestly, if I go to a restaurant where part of the fun is that folks are constantly throwing insults at one another and behaving in a rambunctious, no-holds-barred fashion, and a member of the wait staff takes off his apron, clocks out, and wades into the fray, I’d absolutely not expect him to treat me politely.
If I go into a restaurant, I don’t expect to be insulted by anybody. That’s the difference between the Straight Dope and a restaurant.
Daniel
I guess it depends on whether one considers “loathesome bitch” more or less insulting than “vile.”
Mea culpa, you are absolutely correct. TubaDiva said in this thread:
Still, I found it humorous, especially for the WTF factor. I have no idea if any of what he called Dave was correct, but it was an awesome asside for no particular reason. Was it uncalled for? Probably - but it was still funny, to my feeble mind atleast.
Well, that and the food service.
Here’s a shiny sixpence for your trouble, my good man. Be sure not to spend it on gin, now.
That’s bullshit. If you can’t get your brain around the fact that they sometimes post as regular members, and sometimes as moderators, then that’s your problem.
The late GQ mod manhattan and i had plenty of run-ins in the Pit, and hurled insults at one another on a regular basis. I didn’t like him, and he made no secret of his dislike for me.
But i never felt that i needed to be extra careful in GQ because of this, nor do i recall ever feeling that our Pit encounters were likely to make him target me unfairly in GQ. And my confidence in him as a mod was never compromised as a result of our personal animosity in other fora.
Maybe i’ve been dreaming for the past few years, but i was under the impression that you had been around long enough to know, and were smart enough to understand, that this message board has never placed any real restrictions on its moderators’ abilities to post as regular members, as long as they make very clear when they are acting in an official capacity.
And in the thread in question, there is no doubt in my mind (nor, apparently, in the mind of anyone else in this thread) that Frank was posting as a regular member and not in his capacity as a moderator.
Why don’t we address that issue if and when it ever comes up, rather than engaging in stupid speculation and mindless assertions?
Would you like something to go with that whine?
Plus the lack of refills on the chips and salsa.
Waiter! There’s a joke in my Pit thread!
The question is (and I hope this doesn’t sound too idiotic), are moderators held to higher standards of behaviour than regular posters because of their position of power?
Meh, just dump the lot of them (even the ones I like), Admins too and restart the whole thing with new blood, new focus, new beats. Like nuking the fucking colony from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
Depends on the context. When posting as a regular member, they enjoy no special protection, have no special powers and are subject to the same standards. When posting as moderators, they enjoy special protection, have special powers and are held to higher standards.
Works for me.
Oh yeah, and put Newt in charge.
Can I be in charge. I mean, I was a newt but I got better.
Our tubadiva has said:
So in the original comment was Frank, who has the label “Moderator” automatically under his name, acting as a staffer or as a member in that particular comment in question?
Look at what was said:
Advice about being less stident is usually pretty sound. But there are some who might accuse this ordinary poster of "junior moding.
One of the biggest problems with this advice to Pjen from a person labelled “Frank, Moderator” is that it is contradictory and ironic. Pjen will certainly receive mixed messages from this post because a “Moderator” suggests that he or she shouldn’t bash others while in the same sentence said “Moderator” calls another poster bitter, bilious, vile and vicious… At the very least he should have followed his own advice and made his point without the bashing – unless the bashing was the point, of course.
Maybe Frank should not confuse what he does as a member with what he does as a staffer! That would help to keep us from confusing the two.
I have no beef with Frank and I often disagree with weirddave. But none of are not mindreaders. If I had have been in weirddave’s shoes, and there was no indication that Frank had taken off his moderator’s hat, I would have been “confused” too.
I don’t see it this way at all. He’s still wearing the nametag, after all.
There were two things involved in my starting this thread. Number one, Frank saw fit to insult me out of nowhere, it was my feeling that he was calling the tune and wanted to dance, so I obliged him. Number two was that I feel that random, unprovoked personal insults are not something that a moderator should be slinging around lightly. Nobody, or at least not me, is saying that Frank can’t discuss, argue with or even insult another poster if he wishes when he is simply posting as a member. However, for weal or for woe, he always has that title “moderator” under his name, and with that comes, IMO, a certain expectation of decorum. If he was responding directly to me, he can say what he wants and I’ll respond as it deserves. In this case his post was in it’s entirety directed at another poster with the exception of his snide shot at me. As my British friends say, it’s bad form. As I said in my OP, if Frank has an issue with me, he’s welcome to start a pit thread or to address me directly. Airing a personal dislike for me out of the blue in a wholly unrelated thread is not the type of behavior that is commensurate with being a good moderator. A moderator is in a position of authority on these boards, and with that comes some responsibility not to act rashly. Suppose there was a judge who was overheard to say to his clerk “Man, I sure hate niggers”. While this might be his personal opinion, one that he has every right to hold, should it cause people to doubt weather he would treat black dependents in his courtroom fairly? I think it should. To refine it even further, and perhaps bring it more to the point when dealing with an individual, if he went around town saying that dependent X was a bad man, he would be obligated to excuse himself should dependent X ever appear before him. This is the same situation.