Or have they somehow decided the What Were you THINKING? thread is somehow their purview to mod? Because that’s a couple of times now they’ve been modding that thread, specifically.
I am not a Pit mod.
I have chosen to spin a few conversations out of that thread.
I think it would be better if another mod made those calls, as you yourself are very active in the same thread and therefore are not objective on what constitutes a hijack or not.
Am I very active?
I make a few comments on poster related stuff, I generally don’t participate in the off-topic tangents. Also there is only 1 Pit Moderator and they are @Miller. I believe he is generally OK with other Mods spinning conversations out of some of the pit threads when they are off-topic. The What Were you THINKING? and Trolls R Us threads are the only pair I’ve done this to.
My turn, why does this bother you? You’re having a solid conversation that is well suited to its own thread. I’m pretty sure I didn’t refer to the new thread as a hijack. Miller himself spun one off to Great Debates recently.
BTW: I checked, I’ve done this 4 times in said thread, At least twice with explicit permission from Miller first. Miller has done so twice and @puzzlegal twice. You won’t find too many other instances of these splits in the Pit.
You comment on trolls and trocks all the time. That it’s mod-related isn’t relevant.
I think the Pit should be more loosely modded than other parts and that includes the hijack rules.
Agreed.
Could you at least give it a better title?
I would request something like “Come See The White Fragility In Action” but I doubt that would fly, so how about “Whiteness and Capitalism Go Hand In Hand” as that was the original post.
Sure, I fully admit to sucking at thread titles, I used what you quoted as the title.
Changed.
Thanks.
Disagreed. I agree with breaking off what has since become an interminable conversation into its own thread, even though I participated in it once. I think that thread (WWYT) specifically was established with a particular useful purpose (I think of it as a sort of housekeeping) and if there are a lot of other kinds of conversation in it, the original purpose can get lost. Also, I can stay out of the spun-off thread without losing access to the What were you THINKING thread contents.
So thanks, W_E.
If there had been multiple complaints about it being a hijack first, giving people (me included) space to move or stop, that would be one thing - that’s happened in the thread before. This one, there was exactly zero warning, just a move.
Why isn’t it preferable to have it in its own thread? It had gotten off topic for the regular thread. Full disclosure: I reported it as a hijack and request that it be made separate because the topic was interesting to me and I thought it was better suited that way. You’ll note that I have defended you in the new thread.
It is not just that. What_Exit brings his own personal bias’ into his moderation, and now is moderating in the Pit. I think there is a conversation loop mods can use to talk to each other, you don’t just moderate another thread where you don’t belong. But What_Exit does now. Maybe he should consult other mods first.
Which brings us to another issue. What_Exit then takes these conversations to the Giraffe board where there is a special snark thread where he is an active participant. SDMB users may not be aware that there is a special thread there to make fun of whatever is posted on the Straight Dope. And What_Exit is active there.
This is very inappropriate for a SDMB moderator. But there is no administrator here any longer and no one is paying attention. I probably broke a rule about mentioning the Giraffe at all, but I think users here should know about it, and who is posting there.
That is very true.
But all Mods can Moderate any forum or thread. So What_Exit did nothing wrong in that thread.
And this is total Bullshit and a complete misrepresentation. I do not snark on posters over there. It also has nothing to do with this thread.
When I was a mod, moderators were assigned different forums and did not moderate each other’s forums.
I don’t know if that is still a rule and I don’t know if the Pit has more lax rules around who can moderate in there.
Yes, but I have been around here for a while, I know they they CAN do it, even tho they generally do not. Sometimes with a “I am not a PIT Moderators, but…”
That is generally the rule. There are some exceptions. I have asked Miller specifically about the thread in question to spin off conversations that are off-topic. I decided to move this one.
I think I also have done it twice with the troll thread. No others.
Some of the exceptions are generally typos, being in the wrong forum and of course handling troll posts. The other exception is flags over 24 hours old. Those that can be fuzzy. Oh, and tagging is another exception, but that isn’t really moderating.
First, all moderators have bias, because we’re only human. We have a veritable stream of ATMB threads about it. We also all try very hard to second guess ourselves, and establish if our own bias is informing the decisions. And we often reach out to our fellow forum mods, or all the mods, to get a second guess.
Second, we only have so much time in the days, our schedules don’t match, and especially for forums like the Pit with only a single mod, it’s not practical to reach out in a timely manner. In the vast majority of cases (touching on @DrDeth and @Spice_Weasel’s) point, we do not take action in other forums unless it’s something not requiring a judgement call (requests by OP to move to the correct forum, typos, mis-posts, suspected spammers, etc.) but very rarely we pause the thread until an forum Mod is available (most common) or in occasions where a forum mod has previously given permission. I am not saying that in this exact case @Miller explicitly approved the split, but he has in several prior occasions.
Not that it has any bearing on this instance, but as the one who long ago created the thread in question and carefully laid out the premise, I personally as a poster, not a mod, appreciate it when extended sidetracks get moved out, not that I have “ownership” of the thread. Reading a sidejack for 5-10 posts is fine, but we’re had it hit hundreds of posts.
I like that new term “sidejack”!
Of course hijacks and sidejacks are my personal weakness, mea culpa.