Just to start this off, this isn’t a post to criticize moderation, but to clarify how things are handled.
Several months ago Shodan posted an answer. It was a little snarky, I believe. Then Bone came in and in pretty firmly told Shodan to knock it off for threadshitting. I thought it was wrong because IMO others say things every bit as snarky and off subject every day.
I went to some of the other snarky threads and reported them. I promptly got an email from tomndebb telling me that I don’t understand what threadshitting is and need to educate myself.
Here is the part I am questioning. The email, I think, said something along the lines of if I wish to question the ruling I can do it by replying to the email or something else. I am guessing it was start an ATMB thread.
Am I correct in assuming that if I disagreed with tomndebb’s email that I could try to solve the disagreement privately by email or by starting a thread and getting everyone involved?
Generally speaking, you can contact a moderator either by e-mail or by PM. If you ever have a question about anything on the board you can also start a thread here in ATMB.
For a specific question about an e-mail that tomndebb sent do you, it’s probably best to e-mail him in response. If you have a more general question about something like what is considered threadshitting and what isn’t, an ATMB thread is probably a better way to go.
Some background which I didn’t know before I came on board. Every reported post generates an email. The email has various useful links in it, but makes it easy to find the post that was reported. If we want to respond to the thread, we go the thread and respond, but from the email there is no easy way to respond directly to the person who reported the post.
However, the registered email of the person reporting does come through on the post report, so often for ease of replying, if I get a report that I want to reply directly to the person about, I’ll reply via email. I think this preserves the link in the post report so we’re all on the same page about what is being replied to. Alternatively, I can reply by PM, but then the context of the post report doesn’t come through and I usually add a bit of background, 1-2 lines or so.
So if a post report contains a question, often times I’ll reply by email to the registered email of the person reporting the post. Just a reminder to keep the registered email current.
OK thanks, like I said I wasn’t questioning anything about actual moderation, just the email showing up surprised me. I had figured that I would get a PM.
You are always free to approach me in e-mail or by PM. I tend to respond to issues in posts in e-mail because that is how I receive Reports from threads. It is simply easier to do a cut-and-paste on addresses already in the e-mail than it is to exit e-mail, open a separate communication in the User CP, and initiate a PM.
Whether to address me (or any Mod) privately or in an ATMB thread is simply your choice as to whether you wish others to see your points or others to comment on both of our points.
