I don’t think most of us would view it that way. Like I said, we regularly run any of our decisions we feel may be questionable by the rest of the moderators to get feedback. (However, I’ll say that I don’t recall ever having been contacted by a poster regarding another moderator’s decision).
I will accept that you wouldn’t find it sneaky if you say so; however I do think that you (whether it’s you individually or if you are speaking for all moderators) are slightly pecuilar in having that viewpoint - I think my way of thinking is closer to the “norm”.
Perhaps it is something that could be added to a “complaints procedure” thread.
I can’t imagine a whole lot of people who are in any sort of position of authority (even one as minor as “Volunteer Message Board Moderator”) who would prefer a public airing of someone’s grievance with them, over an attempt to work it out in private with another person in authority.
If I were an office manager, and one of the people I managed was upset about one of my decisions, I’d much rather he talked to another manager, then complain about it all over the office. I mean, if I were a cop, and I gave a ticket to a guy who thought he didn’t deserve it, I’d much rather he talked to my supervisor, instead of trying top organize a protest rally. If I were a politician, and one of my constituents were angry at me, absolutely the last thing I’d want him to do about it is make it a public issue.
I don’t think your way of thinking is anything close to the norm on this one.
I’m speaking both for myself, and from what I know of the other moderators (most of whom I’ve worked with for five years). Moderators are chosen in part for having fairly thick skins. We’re generally pretty receptive to the viewpoints of other moderators.
As Miller says, in the real world almost anyone would prefer to deal with a dispute in private rather than in public. Most public complaints in ATMB seem to be more for the purpose of garnering sympathy from other posters, rather than for actually getting a decision reversed.
Because people like to bitch, even if the original participants have gotten their answer and have moved on. People come late to the party and want to have their say as well, even if all they have to say is the same things that were said earlier.
I think you are right with respect to something like an office manager. However, I don’t consider message board moderator to be a position of authority and even if it is, the main “job” of a moderator, here anyway, is to be a poster. This is a social space after all.
If moderators here did nothing but moderate and were paid members of staff I would agree with you.
Gosh, you’re right. O how I long for those glorious olden days of ATMB* where we’d have indepth discussions of technical issues of the most super-interesting variety. Let’s return to those happy golden days of yore.
Poster 1: Im new here does html work? <b>bold</b> <blink>blink</blink> <u>underline</u>
Poster 2: We use VB code here. So it’s [ b ]for bold [ /b ] and [ i ] for italics [ /i ] but without the spaces.
Poster 1: LOL so html is off lame!!! But I get it. how do u do underline i dont use itacs. How do u do blink???
Poster 3: Spelling and punctuation is an important part of our culture here too. Maybe you should lurk a bit.
Poster 1: u r so stupid–im txting this on my phone lol!
poster 2: Underline is [ u ]like this [ /u ] without the spaces. Blink sucks and everyone hates it.
Mod 1: Poster 1, this is ATMB and we don’t permit flaming here. Please don’t call people stupid or other names outside of our Pit forum.
Poster 1: This is STUPID. i was attked first by poster 3 who said i cant spell or punctutate. why cant i figth back?? Also every cool mssgbrd uses blink.
Mod 2: Perhaps you would be so kind to list every one of these “cool” messageboards that allows the blink tag?
Poster 1: Y? If i do, youll just ruin it too cuz your stupoid. LOLOL 
Mod 2: So you’re saying that anyone who doesn’t spell or write like you is stupid? Could you validate this theory by showing us your degrees in English?
and so on.
I heartily invite you to print out the above exchange, post it to your monitor and read it whenever you long for those pristine days when ATMB was all about pure intellectual pursuit.
*Keeping in mind that I think the new “Discussion of mod action is ATMB fodder” rule is terrible for the board.
It’s off topic for this thread, but why are you rolling your baby blues at me when I all I did was ask a question that nobody would answer?
edited to add: On second thought, I don’t care about your off-topic attack-this thread isn’t about me.
If it’s off topic, why aren’t you reporting me instead of apparently playing junior moderator? You were a mod (albeit the worst mod I’ve ever seen), you should know that the “correct” SDMB response to off-topic posts is to report them.
ETA: On second thought–I don’t care about your mean ol’ post either. I’ll just leave my reply up though, so I can do a douchy passive-aggressive rebuttal like you.
Okay you two – take your argument elsewhere.
(This is why we can’t have nice things.)
Any more of this bickering from anybody and I’ll close the thread.
Once again, if you have a disagreement with another poster on the board, ATMB is not the place to air it out. Go to the Pit.
I don’t really understand this point of view. If people are still talking about an issue and nobody’s breaking any rules or being a jerk, why close it down just because someone arbitrarily decides “you guys have talked about this enough now”?
No, they are about gaining sympathy so that you will see that you are being unreasonable. Sometimes you are, sometimes you aren’t.
But for some reason, with a few exceptions, the ability to actually rethink what you believe in light of everyone else disagreeing with you is not a trait desired in moderators. For some reason, you like your obstinate people who confuse having a thick skin with never being wrong.
Note: the “you” here is plural, not singular. The point is that any reasonable person would see that, if everyone disagrees with you, nine times out of ten I’m wrong, and there’s nowhere near nine times out of ten where moderators reverse their decisions.
And, anyways, you punish people in public, so it’s not exactly fair that we have to deal with you in private. People also prefer to be punished in private, as a general rule.
Unreasonable assumptions here. If by “everyone else disagreeing with you” you mean that the 10 people who post their discontent in a thread in ATMB as to why a moderator made a bad decision, then you’re relying on those people’s perception as to the rightness or wrongness of the decision.
And, of course, that’s wrong.
There are possibly 40 posters who are reading the thread, but don’t post their opinion. Perhaps 30 of them believe the moderator to be correct.
Just because you and your other ten sycophants believe the moderator decision was incorrect doesn’t make it incorrect.
< And Justice For All/Al Pachino >
You’re incorrect! YOU’RE incorrect! This whole forum is incorrect! They’re all incorrect!! That mod, that sick, crazy, depraved mod, insulted and humiliated that poster there, and he’d like to do it again! He told me so! It’s just a show! It’s a show! It’s “Let’s Make A Deal”! “Let’s Make A Deal”! Hey Sam, you wanna “Make A Deal”? I got an insane mod who likes to publicly moderate the shit out of posters! Whaddya wanna gimme Sam, 3 weeks suspension?
< /And Justice For All/Al Pachino >
This dramatic recreation was brought to you by FenCo[sup]tm[/sup]. FenCo[sup]tm[/sup]: A supporter of the arts, however badly mangled.
And, to put a finer point on your post, are you suggesting that Ed Zotti, who passes on the final selection of moderators suggested by the Mods/Admins, is chosing them based upon “the ability to actually rethink what you believe in light of everyone else disagreeing with you is not a trait desired in moderators.”
If this were the case, Diogenes the Cynic would be a moderator today. Do you see him around here?
Nah! You’re on of the good guys, no matter what you may think. Wish you’d post here more often, although not in ATMB. That get’s tiredsome.
Hey! 10:30 at night, some scientific mumbojumbo, and you expect me, after six beers and a bottle of wine(required for reading the board on a Sat. night) to respond? Maybe when I sober up.
Hey, I posted it while drunk, least you can do is answer it the same way! And it’s only about 8:30 at night in the important part of the world.