I’m probably gonna be slammed for this but every day from around 1 to 4 PM Central time, the SDMB fucks up and times me out. I have to refresh about 20 times to get to a new page and heaven help me if I try posting!
I realize the hamsters are tired and should have been either replaced long ago or had additional ones thrown on the treadmills but come on already! There is another Pit thread asking about where the promised updates are and, you know what, it’s taking too fucking long! I got a subscription because I thought this was the most informative, thought-provoking, diverse and hilarious thread on the Net today. I didn’t realize it was also the one with the worst IT staff! I’ve seen blogs with better search capabilities! There are bbs’ out there with faster update times!
Give me a fucking break! If you take the subscription fees from your most recent couple hundred subscribers, you could buy a decent server. Shit, buy a POS E-Machines and it will run the board better! And hire some more fucking tech support people to actually do some goddamned tech support! There are a lot of them looking for work and they would be more than grateful to have a job in exchange for a membership and a modest salary. Maybe they could fix the coding and put in some of the smilies people have mentioned such as bringing back the Jewish one and the puking smilies.
Maybe we could also put in a few moderators who actually moderate, not pontificate or participate? When I watch a sports event, I don’t see the referees grab the ball and attempt to score. But it is a regular event here for moderators to join in discussions. You are a referee, not a player! If you want to participate in a discussion, especially a debate, use a non-administrative alternate ID. I’ve seen moderators on other boards abuse their powers by removing or editing postings that put their opinions in a bad light (I’ve never seen that here because I’m sure we have the most honest, straightforward, trustworthy and moral mods in the world :rolleyes: ).
Yeah, I know: Bitch, bitch, bitch! But with the money this fucking board is pulling in, the least they can do to show appreciation to their loyal fans is to improve the quality of the product.
Wow. It’s like I’ve been thrown back in time to 3 years ago. Trippy.
Nope. I’m a player who has chosen to “give back” a bit to the board I enjoy by volunterering to provide a bit of “moderation” by fixing code, moving threads to the proper Fora, and, if necessary, encouraging other posters to follow the rules.
I have no idea whether we on the staff are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, or clean, (I know we’re not reverent), but we are generally pretty fair because we don’t want the other Mods to beat us about the head and shoulders for behaving like jerks.
Guard your grill, Tom. Watch out for player-haters.
So you’ve had a bad experience with some juvenile, power hungry mods so all boards have the same problem? I’ll have you know that our mods are not juvenile.
Also, you signed up 2005.10. The boards were not any faster then. What are you complaining about? Further, before the server gets upgraded Cecil has to get some bling. Being smart doesn’t pay all that well and this is the most cash he’s seen well, ever.
As long as the mods make it clear when they are operating in moderator-mode, and when not, I’m very happy for them to be players here. After, the SDMB is not some kind of competition: it’s where we all try to enlighten each other, to the best of our abilities. And the mods know at least as much as the rest of us, in their own fields of expertise.
I would reply to this thread, but it’s currently between 1 and 4 p.m. Central time, so I would inevitably get timed out.
Such a pity: I would have liked to read your reply.
You missed the memo about the high cost of hookers and blow?
Oops. Sorry. I was supposed to be moderating.
Not to mention trading in our 2006 Escalades for the 2007 models.
Nobody gets socks, not even mods, which seems fair to me: if they express an opinion, you who know whose it is. I shudder to imagine the witch-hunts that would spring up if the staff did post under alternate ID’s and the offenderati attempted to “out” every poster they disagreed with, not to mention the howls of “hypocrisy”.
I’ve been posting here for about five years, and I’ve never seen a mod edit someone’s post to make them look bad, or edit their own post to change their arguments after the fact. Further, I’ve never seen anyone accuse a mod here of doing that, and considering the crazy mod-hate a lof of posters have, that says something about their rectitude in that area, at the very least.
Also, remember that the mods all started out as posters here, and if forced to choose between being a moderator or being a poster, I suspect most (if not all) of them would rather post than moderate. In other words, if we didn’t let the mods play, we wouldn’t have any mods at all.
Maybe we should start getting paid, then. I take it you’re volunteering to triple your membership fees, right?
Right?
Because I could really use that BMW seat-warmer.
Now, THERE is a Mod who is a playah!
(Myself? I don’t do hookers and much prefer single-malts and Belgian ales to blow.)
Thank God. Someone’s finally developed the balls to pit the slowness of the SDMB. Thank you, good sir!
:rolleyes:
Hey, I know I’m a new member but I’ve lurked for a few years and kept seeing the refresh/timeout problems. Now I’m a paying member so I can throw in my two cents (actually it cost more than that) about the problems I see. Besides, where else on the SDMB can I complain like this?
I’m not the only one bitching about problems with this board. I know hookers, blow, Escalades, Cristal and Real Dolls cost a lot, but can’t you guys brown bag it for lunch once in a while and chip in for a Commodore 64 to improve the processing? I mean SnakesCatLady posted on 10/16 the same complaint about timeouts on that thread.
I’m sure the mods here would never abuse their privileged status by doing something unsavory, but I get a little squeamish about people in positions of power. You know, “Power corrupts, absolute power fucking rocks!” Or words to that effect. I would like to see a distinction between, for example, moderator Giraffe posting to a thread and member Giraffe posting. (No, Giraffe I have nothing against you or any of the mods. It’s just that your name had the most recent entry on this thread) Sure, you can tell us “moderator hat on” or words to that effect, but it still gives me a slightly queasy feeling, like when Congress investigates itself. Sure, you expect them to do the right thing but there is always the chance…
I have nothing against the mods. They have not ripped me a new one or even called me an ignoramus when I said something opinionated or said something that could be interpreted as an asinine, ill-informed statement. We really do have some of the smartest people around on this board (gratuitous ass-kissing to get out of any hole I might have dug). I just believe there should be some distinctions for clarity sakes and no possible appearance of impropriety.
Oh, since I mentioned “distinctions”, why do we have a class system on what is arguably a relatively liberal board? OK, you have guests, members, SDSAB and moderators. That makes sense. But do we need to have Charter Members? “OOOHHHH! He’s a Charter Member! He’s been here since Cecil was enlightening the Mesopotamians!” So what! You are a member with no more rights or privileges than me. It’s like saying you are a member of the DAR or your ancestors came across on the Mayflower. Who gives a rodent’s rectum? We have 5 billion threads about how such and such group shouldn’t be oppressed or some other facet of society shouldn’t be given preferential treatment. Well hello kettle, this is the pot. And guess what? If you really believe in what you are saying, put your money where your mouth is and ask to have your status changed from Charter Member to a lowly Member to prove that you don’t think you are better than anyone else.
There. I’ve spewed my venom for now. Let the symbolic trampling of my carcass begin. Hang me in effigy. Hang me in a effing tree, I don’t care.
So, you’re the one Doper who admits to owning an Escalade, huh? Next thing you know, a Doper will admit to owning a purebred dog, someone will say they proudly display a ribbon magnet on the back of their car, or a man here will admit that they are actually more attracted to women who wear a size 6 than those that wear a size 18.
Seriously, on most message boards, mods are regular members who, because they want to play a larger role in an online community they enjoy, volunteer to help run things. I think it’s quite clear when a mod is posting as a regular user, versus when they are wearing their mod hat. Despite the strict rule enforcement here on the SDMB, the moderators are far more tolerance of “mod sass” from members than on other message boards I’ve visited.
Most fortunately, we don’t have absolute power. Ultimately, a bad moderator can always be removed. Ultimately, this isn’t like other boards - the SDMB is the Reader’s, not any of ours. Moderators can be publicly taken to tasks. Posts aren’t allowed to be removed for content. And so on.
Oh, sweet temptation! 
Remember that we’re volunteers. If my posting privileges were to be revoked to become a moderator – and I’m probably one of the most lurkish of the moderators – I wouldn’t have accepted.
How else do we Moderators know which people get to abide by the Special Charter Member Extended-Privilege Rules and who must be strictly held to the Regular Member Barely-Above-An-Indentured-Servant, Independent-Thoughts-Must-Be-Crushed Rules?
Ok, it’s really just because we promised the members who signed up from the beginning that they’d keep the title and they’d get half price as long as they kept subscribing. Believe me, the hell we would pay if we got rid of Charter Members is best never imagined.
Your concerns are noted. And stupid. Are you seriously worrying about a hypothetical abuse of power on an internet message board? Have you considered not being such an idiot?