Count me on that boat. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes everytime I heard about a thread being closed because there were complaints.
This board cranks out thousands of posts a day, of which I read probably less than a hundred. I can’t imagine going out of my way to open a thread I don’t care about to see if it is offensive and then report it. Too many clicks to spoon water out of the ocean.
I think an impostor trying to goad other people is lame. The smartest people on the internet getting all wound up by an obvious troll is the part I find amusing. All matters of taste.
I do indulge in some anonymous arseholery elsewhere. That is entertaining in its own crooked way. Some boards can only work because they are anonymous for all different reasons. Some boards encourage non-anonymous arseholery and only work because they are not anonymous. Anonymity has nothing to do with this.
I do like this board because it seems that most members do care about their reputations here. This is not a board for pot shots.
I also like that the modding here is overall pretty good. Some of us are prone to goofing around and someone has to keep the standards.
These two are the reasons why I am so surprised that the modding suddenly slips so badly as it has done a few times. But hey, we are all humans. We err. As long as we recognize and learn from our errors, it is all fine.
Two words for you: Eva Braun.
The mods have always tried to enforce some level of standards. It may not be perfectly applied but nobody here has convinced me that “Which hotties shave their pubic hair?” and “Wow!!My first morning boner!” aren’t below those standards.
I guess the low water mark on “raising the tone” of the boards was during TubaDiva’s resume polishing days. If anyone wants to compare and contrast the closings at that time, they were discussed in Esprix and Scylla Pit threads. Seems Tuba backed off back then, but Scylla’s thread at least wasn’t as creepy as Evil Captor’s or childish as bbs2k’s, IMHO.
As I understand it, those aren’t just CYA in case of an actual lawsuit; it’s actually a point of professional ethics to explicitly disclaim that you are giving legal advice if you aren’t.
As for IANAL and such, I think those are useful. Many of us here dabble in all kinds of fields to such an extent that we aren’t just talking out our ass, but we aren’t experts either. When I use that acronym, it’s not out of fear of being sued; it’s as a courtesy to the person, so s/he knows where I’m coming from with what I have to say.
Anonymous color commentary might have its attractions. Using an anonymous forum as a staging area for sock, trolls, and manufactured drama elsewhere is something entirely different, and I couldn’t begin to think of a redeeming quality.
In the end, I’ve never had a problem telling people what I think to their faces. And before someone puffs out their chest to say, “I’m sooo big/tough/smart/bitchin’ that you’d never say that to my face!” Try me. You’d be surprised what I’m like I person.
Fascinating reads. Funny how some people have changed so much, yet things remain the same.
That’s pretty much how I feel. Quite frankly, I find a lot of the stuff around here to be offensive. Not in the “oh my goodness, now I’ve got the vapors” kind of offensive, but more like the eye-rolling, “how immature can you be” kind. If some people get their jollies from starting crude threads, my philosophy is to ignore them & they’ll slink away. I mean, who cares? It’s like TV…if I don’t like what I see, I change the channel. Here, if I don’t like what I see, I don’t open the thread.
I’m not really the type to report a post just because it’s childish or incredibly stupid, but Sapo and Sarahfeena make me wonder - I thought what a lot of the people liked around here was the attentive moderation. Do you guys, or others, think that the mods should stick solely to breaking up fights and rousting trolls? All complaints should be ignored?
I don’t like it at all. I’m not even sure mods should break up fights…let people settle their own differences. I was banned from another popular board, apparently due to someone’s sensitive feelings coupled with heavy-handed moderation, and it kind of makes me annoyed that people can’t be a little more adult about these things. In real life, we don’t have moderators running around making sure people get along…they just have to figure it out on their own, you know?
Of course, it’s not my board, and they can run it the way they want to, but if I were setting board policy, I would probably not go for closing threads because of complaints that of tastelessness…I would probably let more of a “free market” rule prevail…if you don’t like it, don’t participate. If enough people do that, the thread will die an untimely death.
You were banned from somewhere?
:eek:
Regards,
Shodan
Yup…and I don’t even think I was a member for a week.
Was it the anti-vax board previously discussed? (I think it would be a no-no to publish the name).
If so, neener neener - I lasted almost a full month.
Regards,
Shodan
as Shodan said, You were banned from somewhere?
Aren’t cops moderators of real life or those self-appointed busy-bodies that want to censure TV and Radio and books. Judges are almost like Admins in a way, but of course with real power.
I have defended **EC ** a few times and like you I just ignore the threads he starts that seem tasteless to me. However, I can’t get worked up about the closure of his pubic thread. I guess I just don’t care if it stayed open or closed.
Jim
No, I just lurk there.
It’s a very well-known board with a focus on TV.
I was banned without pity.
I see. Never been there myself, and now I’m scared to.
Just don’t get banned from here.
Regards,
Shodan
I’d go more with a Laissez-faire attitude. So, you were banned somewhere? Whoa. Potty mouth, I assume? 
[QUOTE=What Exit?]
I love that this is a big surprise to people. I’m a total badass when I’m not on the SDMB, really.
Sure, cops will break up a fight if there’s violence involved or a chance that someone will get hurt…that’s not likely around here. I am not talking about one-sided attacks, which should probably get the moderator smack down, but just an argument that gets heated.
I’m not as down on fight-breakups as I am on the thread closings, though…if it’s just tacky content, please…aren’t we all (well, most of us) adults here?
Well, I’m not going to bat for someone in particular, especially if I found the thread tasteless, as well…if I think it’s tacky, I’m not going to open the thread, and I’m probably not going to spend any time defending it to the mods, either, but I certainly wouldn’t report it.
They are assholes…I wouldn’t recommend that you bother with them.
I will try not to! Aren’t I always sweet as pie? 
Of course! No, actually, I’m not completely sure why I was banned, but it had to do with a thread about that crazy 16-children family (I think it’s 17 now). I said something about not getting the hostility towards large families, and the next thing I knew, BANNED!
I swear to god, it was nothing anyone around here would have blinked at.
But I digress. 
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena]
Heck, I even reported myself today for a post in this thread. I just wanted to verify if I went too far in a post. I did. I won’t do it again.
The mods ask us to report posts. No one knows for sure what is and isn’t a problem. So, we report questionable posts/threads and let the mods decide. Obviously we all have different judgments on what is questionable. Outside the Pit anything flaming or trolling is well worth reporting. (Though we skirt the living hell out of it in GD.) If someone posts too much of copyrighted material, the mods seem to appreciate a heads up. I can understand why some poster would report EC’s thread. I just know I wouldn’t bother.
I am still having trouble reconciling the idea of you being a badass to your reasonable level of discourse on this board. However, I will take your word on it.
Jim
See, now that, I think, is a good way to use the report feature…nothing wrong with wanting to be sure you don’t come off in a way you don’t wish to (sometimes it’s hard to tell when you’re typing, I think…at least, it is for me).
I guess I don’t run across any posts or threads I find enough of a problem that I feel I need to say something.
I feel uncomfortable accusing people of trolling…I just assume that everyone is operating on an upfront level. As far as flaming, I once asked a mod about a post where I was directly insulted, and the mod said he was “keeping an eye on the thread.” At that point, I just decided that if anyone insulted me, I would deal with them in my own way…generally by ignoring them.
I guess…I don’t tend to notice many of those.
I guess this is what I really don’t understand, out of all of your examples. It’s not personal, it’s just his usual tasteless crap. If he’s going to be a member, I guess I don’t care if he tries to steer the conversation in the direction he wants it to go. I take comfort in the fact that around here, that kind of thing doesn’t seem to get too far, even without mod intervention.
Uh…the badass part is a joke. I’m pretty much the same way IRL and on other boards as I am here. Well, in real life, I do swear more, but my demeanor is pretty much the same.