My vote goes to Ellen Cherry. I wish we could clone her and make them all mods.
I would hazard a guess that the mod community doesn’t bother to keep track of the number of complaints. They just find a justification for each individual incident and discard it from the collective memory.
The bottom line is that twickster often issues a mod note or warning for things that bother her, whether or not they violate the board rules. There’s a total lack of objectivity that produces the arbitrary and apparently hypocritical behavior that posters have noted here. She’s done it to me, and judging by the frequency that these threads appear, she’s done it to a ton of other posters.
The question, then, is what can be done about it - and I suspect the answer is ‘nothing’, sadly. The behavior’s been reported again and again, to no effect. Perhaps the rest of the mod team (rightly) believes that there will be personal variations in how each mod enforces the rules, and (wrongly) believes that twick’s actions fall within the acceptable range. We have some good moderators on this board, but I can’t reconcile my good opinion of their judgment with the lack of action on this point.
The only recommendations I can make are “move to another message board” or at the least, “don’t post anything to MPSIMS”. “Don’t be a jerk” should be enough to protect you, but not there.
My point was that twickster is probably the most ATMBed moderator on this Board. I don’t think there’s any other moderator that gets nearly as many complaints as twickster. Sure, this time I don’t think that she did anything wrong. But if you look at her history (which I explain quite well right here), then it shows that she doesn’t practice what she preaches.
I didn’t have anything against twickster here. I was just saying as a general comment that all moderator actions against other moderators should be publicized. That way they will screw up less due to the humiliation factor involved. I actually think it was a good call by twickster to moderate samclem in public, and in my opinion, we need more that kind of thing.
And with minimal animosity: Is FoieGrasIsEvil in the top 5% of poster when it comes to complaining about moderation. If so, does it tell us anything?
The generic answer (for your concluding question and mine) is not much, it could just be how things evolved. In the specific case of Twickster, she probably makes more blunders than other mods, but it has barely any effect on the overall SDMB experience.
Because your opinions about a mod don’t turn a very typical and acceptable warning into a rules violation. You’re welcome to your views on any mod note or warning and any mod, but that doesn’t mean twickster can’t say something the rest of us say all the time.
See Ellen Cherry’s mod note on page 1.
My point is: So? There have been some valid complaints, and then there is this.
You’ve been here since October; twickster has been on the staff for 3 1/2 years. Please don’t tell me about the history of people I know better than you do.
What I don’t get is why she can’t just be replaced. The SDMB is providing a service for (an admittedly quite nominal) profit. The SDMB’s customer base is generally not fond of her moderating, so just get somebody else to do it. It’s not as though there is a shortage of applicants.
Yeah, Anonymous User, you’re a newbie so your opinion doesn’t matter. Also, stop telling the truth. We don’t care about the truth around here unless you’ve been around for at least as long as the mod who’s screwed up several times.
Has it actually been shown that the SDMB customer base itself isn’t fond of her moderating, or is it a select few repeat customers and those that frequent threads like this one?
Any of us can be replaced. Nobody ever said twickster is on the staff only because we can’t find anyone else. She’s on the staff because we want her on the staff, and that’s because we feel she does a good job.
This isn’t even close to what I said. If you’re not interested in this thread topic - and based on your posts, you’re not - there are lots of others for you to post in.
That’s a good question. You should start a poll on that so you can find out. Unless, you know, you don’t really want to know.
What sort of person frequents threads like this one?
Well, you are wrong because I am interested in this topic which is why I am posting in it.
If you want to see all the topics I’m not interested in go look at all the threads I don’t post in.
I like to think I’m pretty impartial on the issue of moderator action. I mean, I’ve never complained much about moderating that affected me, and I tend to be fairly supportive of moderators generally. However, it is essentially impossible for me not to conclude that twicks (the mod) is deeply, deeply unpopular.
Glad to hear it! In that case please read a little more closely next time.
"Unpopular is not a synonym for “wrong”. I notice that in this thread there are posters that admit that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her most recent decision but still make it a point to throw in a dig at her expense. Are you adding posts like these to the list, although they are nothing more than vague repeats of old claims?
She doesn’t necessarily have to be wrong. If her moderating style is perceived as being arbitrary or jerkish, then she should be replaced.
I happen to have a different opinion because I’m not big on mob rule i.e. “As long as you don’t make any unpopular decisions you’re all right with us.”
Is there a history of the dope falling prey to mob rule?
I didn’t say there was-I’m just against conditions that might lead to it, like popularity contests for moderators. Perceptions can come naturally, but they can also come from active campaigns and a bit of momentum.