Is there any way to say “If you act like this you won’t get along with the people here” without someone straining to read it as “There will be official consequences”?
I’ve seen other people make junior mod posts, and they pretended to some official status, which Homebrew did not.
Yeah, Nightime, there are ways of putting such a comment across. Your example of “If you act like this you won’t get along with the people here” is way better than “you will not do this again”.
Luckily Homebrew never said that.
He said “If you want to get along on this board, you will not do that again.”
I am all the way behind Cajun Man on this, and personally I wish there would be a much harder official crackdown on the Junior Modding.
It gives this board a really unfreindly feeling of intelectual snobbery and jerkish elitism. A newbie post three out of 100 words in leet and every jumps down their throat like they kicked a puppy. For all the open mindenedness most of this board pretends to too, There is this obnoxious longterm game to be the first to jump on any newbie’s mistake as hard as possible, which always seems like a childish pecking order thing like the former outcast in school picking on the new kid to make someone lower than them.
And I’ll still never get the 'Hey dumbass you posted in the wrong forum crap." You can’t change anything so what is the point of piling on somebody before the mod gets there to move it. Do you guys stop by broken down cars on the interstate yelling “Hey dumbass you should have checked the coolant, now you gotta wait for the tow truck to get you going”?
When I read the post in question I had two thoughts
First was “Boy that is a harsh choice of words” and then after looking to my left and seeing the word member my second thought was “Junior mod huh? I’ll bet he gets spanked for that”
Even though the intent was absent, the wording was poor. I’m with the Cajun Man on this one.
Really? That’s terribly interesting. Do you know that when I was new, no one jumped on me for newbie mistakes or bitched that I posted on the wrong forum? In fact, I got a pleasant reception. Have things changed since March? Or am I just special?
Or chaging WILL to past tense (WOULD) to make it more passive. All in the choice of wording here. I saw it as giving a head’s up that a newbie needs once in a while.
I’m picturing Mod wannabes, dressing like mods, wearing mod badges, having sirens on their computers.
Should I say it? Should I? No! I can’t! Oh, damn…
The Mod Squad?
Nope. Still doesn’t fly, Nightime. No “luckily” about it. In fact, it’s sounding all the more “mod-like”. Your own “If you act like this you won’t get along with the people here” is still the winner in the diplomatic “I’m-a-member-not-a-Mod” stakes. Pat yourself on the back.
Rick, I too looked left to see if it was a mod or admin when I read Homebrew’s post, and had the same reaction you did. I can understand Tripler and Homebrew’s argument that it was merely an attempt to help a newbie, but that’s not how it came across to me. Phrasing a lot closer to Nightime’s would have done the job much better, and not provoked a warning, it seems to me.
I’d second GMRyujin on the tolerant-to-newbies treatment I’ve observed here. Typical newbie errors, from what I’ve seen, don’t get the posters treated like inferior scum. My own initial blunders on the SDMB were kindly pointed out and gently corrected, and nobody told me in effect to shape up or ship out. About the only thing lacking to make my SDMB intro perfect was a “Welcome to the board!” from someone.
Anyone.
Still waiting… 
I did. But I wanted to know as soon as possible, sometime mods are too busy (they have lives ya know) and don’t get there until after the problem has gotten bigger.
On that note I’d like to say tht I don’t think remarks like that are jerkish or snobby, I think they nip the problem in the bud. I once was a newbie and made several no-no’s that almost got me banned, hints from other posters allowed me to shape up before action was required by the mods.
I’m not saying coldfire shouldn’t have given a warning, just not as harsh as he gave it.
Belated welcome to the boards Sanguine Spider
I enjoy your posts a lot.
uhmmmm I have no idea why I did that. I meant eddyteddyfreddy don’t know what came over me.
Heh. Maybe, Chavardz, it’s because SanguineSpider and I have been killing each other off with gleeful ingenuity and at great length in MPSIMS lately? 
Right you are, ETF - and I’m the last one standing! Dying, I mean…
It’s probably best to leave warnings to the mods/admins.
Zenster wasn’t banned (at least in entirety) by acting as a “junior Mod”, I must disagree on that point - that’s a rather simplistic view of the whole event.
I believe it is possible for us members to correct and redirect newbies, or even longer-term members who are falling into bad habits, without playing junior mod or being insulting – and I for one think that a less aggressive approach is more effective.
Not to blow my own horn unduly (okay, okay, so I lie ;)), but when I noticed one relatively new member was twisting usernames in arguments, an offense which could get him banned, I started a thread about mangling monikers, playing with my own and inviting others to do the same. When the poster I had in mind replied, I explained what I thought the reasoning behind such a rule might be, without claiming to know the reasons, just offering my own take on the matter. Ably seconded by Blonde, what I said got the message across, without insulting and throwing on the defensive a person who sincerely believed what he was doing was not a problem. Also without arrogating to myself any sort of authority.
My gut feeling is that the mods and admins would be okay with that sort of approach (though they may wish I weren’t so longwinded :p), while frowning upon a direct sort of “You! Knock it off or you’re in deep doodoo!” sort of post. I believe it all comes down to showing the same respect to other members that we would hope they’d offer us.
That thread seems as if it happened so very long ago, ETF! Right you are. It all comes down to respect, in the end.
I just assumed from the wording of Homebrew’s post that it was a moderator’s mini-warning – only most mods would have been a little more polite than to post that first sentence to a newbie. I hadn’t even noticed who had posted it. I was surprised when I discovered that the post was not from a mod.
Maybe Homebrew didn’t intend to sound quite so stern, but it is easy to come across as hostile – especially when the initial greeting is “What the hell is that?”
He may well have been, but that’s not what he said:
I didn’t even notice the leet-speak. When I see that sort of thing, my mind just blocks it out. I wouldn’t have been distracted by it at all if Homebrew hadn’t jumped him. Homebrew is not in a position to judge whether or not the OP would have gotten along with me and I can’t speak for anyone else.
It’s a fine line here, and one that is easy to cross.
Personally, I would have said something along the lines of "Honey, whatever that [insert j0O 4|23 4//3$0|/|3!!!/insert]IS, (and I am informed it is “leet speak”, whatever the Sam Hill THAT is) I have to tell you…it is very annoying to the rest of us who don’t SPEAK this language. It would be much easier to get your point across to the majority of the people reading it by speaking a language you can reasonably expect they will understand.
I would very much appreciate it if you would DO this."
But, that is MY style. I don’t think Homebrew meant anything different, he just phrased it differently.
But there has been a lot of “junior modding” going on lately, and I expect the mods are getting posts reported to them right and left. I think it is good to have it clearly indicated where the line is.