Marley, you're letting your opinions and interactions as a poster influence your modding.

[Garfield226]

It would be awesome if you could ease up on that a bit, maybe let somebody else take care of it. I’m not saying another mod wouldn’t make the same calls, but it looks improper.

Has Obama spent a million dollars to hide his birth certificate?

[Irishman]

You want to be more specific in your examples (say cite the post numbers)? Because I’m not reading an 11 page thread to pick out what you think is possibly unfair to see if I agree.

So far, case not made.

[Oakminster]

Gotta vote with Irishman on this one. I suppose it is possible that Marley did something he shouldn’t have done somewhere, but I can’t be arsed to wade through 11 pages of a thread I’m not involved in to figure out what it might be.

[Marley23]

I’m sure he’s talking about my moderating of ivan astikov. I moderated a bunch of posts in that thread, but most of the others were comments to Don123 about copyright rules or notes telling people to avoid personal insults. Here’s how the exchange with ivan astikov went:

@ivan_astikov

If some of you would remove your tongue from Obama’s ass a moment, you might just get enough light to see that if the shoe was on the other foot and you were Republican’s - forgive the ridiculous suggestion! - you would likely be reacting in a similar way.

@Marley23

You’re not in the Pit, ivan astikov. Knock it off. If you want to attempt an argument, do it without the childish comments.

@ivan_astikov

It’s called “straight-talkin’” where I come from.

@Marley23

And where I come from it’s called insulting and moronic. If you want to tell people they have their tongues in Barack Obama’s ass because they disagree with you, do it in the Pit.

@ivan_astikov

Btw, if you want to call me a moron, do it in the Pit in future, ya know, just for fairness’s sake?

@Marley23

I’m running out of patience with you. Drop this now.

@ivan_astikov

Relevance, please? I’m not really interested in your personal opinions. Now, if you mean you and the rest of the mods are running out of patience with me, just say so.

@Marley23

I told you to drop it, so this is a warning for ignoring my instructions. If you have questions, do what you’re always supposed to do and either send me a private message or start a thread in ATMB.

[CannyDan]

Yes, I watched the whole thing unfold. **Marley23 **was neither unclear nor out of line in his moderation of ivan astikov.

[Garfield226]

Some of that, some of Don’s. Can’t grab cites at the moment as I’m at work.

Heck, I don’t necessarily think the moderation was out of line, just that you were posting hot and heavy with everyone else (not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course), and then turning right around and modding responses to your posts as a poster.

I just think that should be avoided when possible. It’s easy to get the impression that discussions and arguments you get into when you’re a poster might influence the interactions and decisions you make as a mod.

[Marley23]

I get that people don’t want the moderators to put their fingers on the scale to give an advantage to their side of an argument. I try not to do that, but at the same time if I see a potential rules violation in a thread, I don’t think it’s necessary for me to ignore it and potentially let it get out of hand while I wait for another mod to check the boards. I don’t think that’s a practical approach. If this were a paid gig and some moderators were always online, I’d be fine with it. And in some cases I will bow out of a moderating decision and leave it to others. But in general I think it’s okay.

The other posts were three mod notes to Don123, all about posting very long quotes from other sites (sometimes with attribution that was a little confusing), and these two notes about personal comments:

@Marley23

@silenus

Can the Moderators just give these lunatics a custom label (like “Racist Moron” or something similar) when it becomes obvious what they are? It would save a whole lot of skimming.

Comments like this belong in the Pit, not here. Or ATMB if you’re making a semi-serious suggestion.

@Marley23

This goes for everybody: considering this thread is probably a waste of time to begin with, I will shut it down if the insults continue.

[Skywatcher]

Quoth ivan: I’ll keep throwing them to you, you keep trying to knock them out of the park.

[ivan_astikov]

@Marley23

And where I come from it’s called insulting and moronic.

This right here is the important bit of that exchange. I made a remark from a personal perspective regarding a group, none of whom were named specifically. Now, is Marley23’s response a personal perspective aimed at a specific individual, or not?

I’ll let you decide for yourselves on that one.

[ivan_astikov]

@Lute Skywatcher

Quoth ivan: I’ll keep throwing them to you, you keep trying to knock them out of the park.

What do you think that means?

This might be semi-interesting.

[Marley23]

@ivan_astikov

@Marley23

And where I come from it’s called insulting and moronic.

This right here is the important bit of that exchange. I made a remark from a personal perspective regarding a group, none of whom were named specifically. Now, is Marley23’s response a personal perspective aimed at a specific individual, or not?

I’ll let you decide for yourselves on that one.

You don’t need to name the individuals. You made it clear you were talking about people who disagreed with you - apparently all of them. And you said something about them that was more appropriate for the Pit than Great Debates, so I told you to stop that. Your response was that you were keepin’ it real. Or “straight-talkin,” I guess. I don’t know if that kind of defense works anywhere, but it doesn’t work here.

[Skywatcher]

@ivan_astikov

@Lute Skywatcher

Quoth ivan: I’ll keep throwing them to you, you keep trying to knock them out of the park.

What do you think that means?

You tell me. Without games.

[ivan_astikov]

No, Lute. You are attempting to make a point, so lay it out now.

[ivan_astikov]

@Marley23

@ivan_astikov

This right here is the important bit of that exchange. I made a remark from a personal perspective regarding a group, none of whom were named specifically. Now, is Marley23’s response a personal perspective aimed at a specific individual, or not?

I’ll let you decide for yourselves on that one.

You don’t need to name the individuals. You made it clear you were talking about people who disagreed with you - apparently all of them. And you said something about them that was more appropriate for the Pit than Great Debates, so I told you to stop that. Your response was that you were keepin’ it real. Or “straight-talkin,” I guess. I don’t know if that kind of defense works anywhere, but it doesn’t work here.

Still doesn’t address you getting all personal on my ass.

[Oakminster]

@Marley23

I’m sure he’s talking about my moderating of ivan astikov. I moderated a bunch of posts in that thread, but most of the others were comments to Don123 about copyright rules or notes telling people to avoid personal insults. Here’s how the exchange with ivan astikov went:

Thanks for posting the exchange.

Looks to me like you handled the situation just fine. I find no fault with your moderation in this instance. Or generally, for that matter.

[Marley23]

@ivan_astikov

Still doesn’t address you getting all personal on my ass.

I was straight-talkin. And when did you get so sensitive? You’d just told a bunch of people they had their tongues up Barack Obama’s ass, and you’re bothered that I called the same comment moronic?

[Munch]

@ivan_astikov

@Marley23

And where I come from it’s called insulting and moronic.

This right here is the important bit of that exchange. I made a remark from a personal perspective regarding a group, none of whom were named specifically. Now, is Marley23’s response a personal perspective aimed at a specific individual, or not?

ivan, it has been board policy for as long as I’ve been here that you can call comments moronic, but not call the poster a moron. If you haven’t heard that distinction made, now you have. Get over it.

[ivan_astikov]

I have. Thanks for the support, Munch.

[Oakminster]

@ivan_astikov

I have. Thanks for the support, Munch.

Dude, you do not get support when you’re in the wrong. I call em like I see em. Almost every mod here has been on the receiving end of my displeasure at one time or another, but when they get it right, I acknowledge that, too.

Here, Marley gave you every chance in the world to just let it drop. You refused to do that, so he threw the flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. Instant replay shows that to be a good call.

[ivan_astikov]

The initial call on my ass-licking comment was a reasonable one, but he went and spoilt it by getting personal himself - albeit in the “I’m aiming it at his comment, not his person” stylee that seems to be acceptable - in his very next line.