Lynn seems pretty harsh...

The BBQ Pit
21

My WAGs:

I was under the impression that only admins can actually ban someone (though I don’t know if that’s by rule or by custom). Therefore, since Lynn seems to do more of the visible-on-the-board stuff, it would make sense that she does most of the visible banning.

And as someone above said, the mods and admins communicate about stuff. If Mod X asked Lynn for her opinion on a questionable thread, and Lynn looked at the thread and found it worthy of closing, then it would make sense that she would just go ahead and do it, rather than getting back to Mod X, and waiting for him to do it.

That, and the fact that she’s a Nazi. (c’mon, someone had to say it!)

22

Lib, you give southerners a bad name! I never “slammed her” ! I thought I liked you but now I am starting to question that… :confused:

23

I would, but I’m afraid I’d fall asleep in the middle of my post, before I could even get to the ‘preview’ button. Have you been in the Comments on Staff Reports forum? It’s like a morgue in there. In a small, boring town. In South Dakota. In February. At 3 am. On Sunday.

24

Because, as I dubbed her for my Box O’ Books, she is the Fist of Justice. She smites the unholy, the moronic, the trollish, and the dumbasses. Oh! Fall down on your KNEES and beg forgiveness, lest the Eye of Bodoni turn upon you! No man alive can hold up under its terrifying gaze! Repent! The end is nigh!

25

You say Metatron, I say Megatron. Care to make a bet?

26

She is to the SDMB as is Mandos to the whole of Middle-Earth and Arda itself: The Doomsayer. The banned she keeps in her unbreachable Halls of Waiting, as Time itself wears away. There she refuses their pleas, and waits for Dagor Ignorath, The Final Battle against Ignorance. Only then will her purpose be fulfilled.

And once that purpose is fulfilled, and Zottë and VardaDiva rule together over the SDMB Unmarred, then will she ascend back to Cecil’s Timeless Halls, to sit at the feet of the AllKnower, and bask in his radiance and reflect the knowledge and glory unto the end of days.

27

Ok, now I’m confused. I thought Coldfire was the Nazi.

28

Hey D.C., long time no see, since your banning. Still jerking off to Holocaust movies?

29

Qadgop: Perfect! I bow to you!

KGS: Given that there are about 1.0x10[sup]n,000[/sup] Lovecraft fans out there in the ether, why would you think this anonymous one is actually a banned poster?

30

Pfff.

  1. The OP was hardly a slam.

  2. It’s still perfectly ok to question & criticize someone, who holds “power”, even when they have to face personal hardship, imho, ymmv.

  3. How are people supposed to know about the above mentioned hardship in the first place? Now that you mention it, I recall reading something, but since I don’t keep a file on every doper, it’s impractical at best to assume everyone has to know everything about someone else.

31

Heh she seems fine to me. Hell I even argued with her once (in a very careful manner of course :smiley: ) and didn’t even get warned. Why? Because I didn’t break any rules.

This is the pit where 99% of all meltdowns, rule breaking, trolling, and other bad behavior takes place. If I was in charge of it I’d be just as…ah strict as her.

32

Manos?

Hands of Fate.

33

Generally, I wear a pair of sandals, a pair of panties, and a pair of glasses. On the rare occasions when I must venture into the outside world, I usually wear a floral print muumuu. Sometimes I’ll wear an embroidered chambray dress. I very, very rarely wear stripes or stars. Instead, I carry with me a Staff of Attitude Adjustment with which I smite wrongdoers on occasion. Usually, I just use my staff as a walking stick, though. I’m more than a two star general or archangel. You should not salute me. Since I’m an atheist, praying will do you no good, either. Instead, you should offer me fine dark chocolate. This will make me smile upon you and wish you well.

As for the hierarchy around here…there’s Cecil, Ed, TubaDiva, and C. K. Dexter Haven above me. I’ve got seniority on the rest of the moderation staff. A couple of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board members have seniority on me, but they VERY rarely make an appearance, and are not my superiors. Now, even the most junior of the moderation staff can criticize me in mod email, and I’ll at least take it into consideration, but only the above mentioned four people can ORDER me to cool it. So far, none of them ever has. Now, I’ve mentioned something to Ed in an IM about one of our shitstorms, and he’s told me that he really doesn’t want to bring that bit of info into the discussion, but he didn’t order me not to. A couple of times, TubaDiva has told me “I really wish you hadn’t done that”, but it’s been quite a while since she’s said that. If I am unsure of what action to take, I try to get hold of one of my superiors before I take any action.

As Green Bean said, there’s quite a bit of mod communication, and we ask each other’s opinions on posters, threads, the board as a whole, and non-board matters. In addition, not only do I moderate the Pit, but I’m responsible for the whole Straight Dope Message Board. I frequently read other forums, both for my own enjoyment and to see if there’s a problem brewing. If I see a spam post, for instance, I’m not going to worry about which forum it’s in. I’m going to hide the post or thread and, if the spam is a new poster’s first and only post, I’ll ban that poster. No warning, no discussion, just BANNED.

I get tons of email each day. I classify the letters as urgent, nonurgent, fluff, and spam. Urgent gets acted on or replied to as soon as possible. Nonurgent gets acted on or replied to when I get around to it. I rarely answer fluff letters. Spam gets deleted, sometimes after being reported.

Lynn
Cecil’s own Angel of Death

34

If you suspect that a banned poster has returned with a new name, please use the REPORT button or email a mod or admin. As it happens, this doesn’t look like that particular poster.

Lynn
For the Straight Dope

35

Oh, get off it Lib. The fact that she’s got health problems doesn’t change the fact that she does lock more threads and issue more bannings than the other powers that be. The question is not “Why is Lynn such a vicious bitch?” but rather “Why does Lynn lock more threads and issue more bannings than the other mods?”

It’s a legitimate question, with legitimate answers that have nothing to do with Lynn’s personality or health issues. If Lynn’s health makes her too delicate to deal with legitimate questions about how this board works, it makes her too delicate to continue as an admin. If she’s healthy enough for one, she’s healthy enough for the other.

36

I just wanted to point out that my above comments have nothing to do with Lynn being too busy to respond to email right away, but center purely around Lib’s contention that her poor health means anyone who questions or criticizes her actions as an admin is automatically an asshole.

37

Poor, poor Lib. He’s still making up for the time he went off and bitched and moaned about all the Mods. Don’t begrude him his ass-kissing – he’s got a lot of making up to do.

38

Remember also that Lynn is an administrator, and only administrators can actually ban members. Moderators can only refer someone for banning, IIRC. So it’s natural that she would do more actual banning. And, as has been noted, the Pit does seem to bring out more banworthy behavior.

39

And I am here to tell you, she DOES. I met the lovely Lynn, and she didn’t smite me…not even ONCE! [sub]of course I carried much chocolate, which probably increased my chances of emerging unscathed.[/sub] We had a lovely dinner and bonded forever when we discovered we both had an affinity for being owned by Siamese cats.

She is a sweetheart of a person. Of course, a person who has a responsibility for a place has to be stern on occasion, [sub]and Lynn isn’t shy about doing what she has to do[/sub]…even if they are a sweetheart. Which in my totally unbiased opinon she IS.

If this message board REALLY wanted to have a dictator running things, they’d have a Siamese cat in charge. THEN we’d see mass bannings on a whim. Based solely on how much kowtowing was being done in the matter of catering to any and all passing fancies said Siamese cat had at that given moment.

It boggles the mind. :slight_smile:

Basically, this would mean that sooner or later we would ALL be banned…even Lynn!

40

H’m…she can seem a little touchy. As a former admin on a now-defunct gaming board, I can understand a little touchiness. Adminning can do that to a person. As far as health problems are concerned, I’ll leave that to Lynn’s physician to decide. Doctor/patient confidentiality and all that.

I’ll agree that she does lock too many threads. My philosophy was that a thread remains open, no matter what. If it’s getting out of hand, it got moved to Flamer’s Paradise (our equivalent of SDMB’s Pit). Nothing got locked, ever. Dunno if that would work on SDMB as it did on a gaming board three years ago, tho.

Admins do take a lot of abuse. Respect them, and they respect you, if they are worthy of their position.

If all warnings are sent via email, no problem. If no email is sent, the warning doesn’t count, or so I’ve read. If a mod/admin is banning people without emailing them warnings, that person should not be a mod/admin.