The problem is certain mods (and former mods) do not hear and answer to criticism. By failing to do that they lose any moral high ground, and entitlement to better treatment than other posters.
God help me for posting in ATMB, but I would view a PM’d “fuck you” the same way I’d view shoving a referee: no matter how wrong the ref’s call was, you just don’t do it; it crosses a very bright line.
I didnt’ realize we’d hired the Replacement Refs to moderate the board. (link to SNL spoof video from last night.)
*** My Bolding ***
This is a public message board. While we’re all bound by the rules posted you know where, it very much smacks of Russian Revisionist History to punish a poster for private communications. We all see something, we can debate the legitimacy of a punitive action ( here ) or unload foulmouthed anger towards the punitive action ( in the Pit ).
When told that it all happened behind closed doors, democracy and communication is replaced with " who do you people think you are to question the punitive action?? We are telling you it occurred. It occurred. We are angry. We have reacted. That is all. "
Not really how The Straight Dope Message Board functions, leastways till recently. In fact, as a '99er I am comfortable saying that IMHO, it’s not how SDMB has ever functioned. Until recently.
Sad, that.
And, a point of clarification: What happens to a Doper who is re-instated after, say, a one month’s suspension who offers to clear things up by sharing all PM’s in question with any other Doper who wishes to see them? I wouldn’t mind reading the PM’s in question, but of course would mind it very much if it would wind up costing me my membership here.
Yes, there are eerie parallels to the time Yezhov was executed and purged from the historical record for sending a “fuck you” PM to Stalin, and… wait, what?
This is a nice upgrade from the Peron comparison last week. 
What a poster does with his private message conversations is his business.
I don’t see how. He was punished for repeatedly abusing the staff. What does it matter whether it happens in public or private?
Glad to be of service, Comrade ! 
Thank you for this official policy clarification.
Frankly, if he was punished for “abusing” the staff the way he was punished for “breaking the rules” then it’s a big deal.
Mods demonstrate their judgment by modding in public. I have seen good judgment and I have seen lousy judgment. How do I know which judgment is at play when it was a private interaction?
You can be a raging racist on the SDMB and promote views that people should be enslaved for their ethnic background, but calling someone “condescending and self righteous” is beyond the pale? Is this site run by gentlemen stormfronters or something?
:eek: You think it’s gotten bad enough that the mods might fib about something like that? 
I have seen such things at other boards…
Since when has the Straight Dope ever been a democracy?
You’ve been here for three-plus years and I assume you’re more familiar with the rules than this comment indicates. It works like this: you can argue for pretty much any point of view no matter how transparently wrong or dumb it is. You can’t insult other people unless you’re posting in the Pit.
Fib? I don’t know. Have incredibly bad judgment? Possibly. I have seen calls made by the moderation team here that were absolutely laughable in their incompetence, and furthered by a culture of defensiveness and hide-the-ball explanations.
People have my trust until they do something to lose it. At that point, they need to earn it back if they want to have it again. Let’s just say that the team here has not earned it back.
This is not to impugn all of the moderators. I think many of them get most of the calls right. There are exceptions, though, and their continued presence either on the team or as accepted accessories to the team make the whole team less than squeaky clean.
You do not consider “You should be enslaved” an insult?
Before we go too far down the rabbit hole, has anybody ever actually said this? We’ve had a few racist posters over the years, but in the three or four years I’ve been moderating GD I have never seen anyone espouse slavery or anything close to it. If I saw someone making a pro-slavery argument I would probably consider it trolling. Speaking more broadly: you can say negative or insulting things about a group of people, yes. If you’re insulting people on racial or ethnic lines you’re likely to get moderated for hate speech.
I think she’s discussing the principle. If I’m convinced there’s a reason to post the PMs, then I’ll do so. But for now I won’t because I don’t want to hear from someone else later on that they don’t want to discuss some issue with the staff because “you posted mhendo’s private messages!”
Good point. We should vote on whether to make the Dope a democracy or not.*
And if we do make it a democracy then I vote for Marley and Miller as co-Kings.
*[McBain]That’s the joke.[/McBain]
[QUOTE=Marley23]
I think she’s discussing the principle. If I’m convinced there’s a reason to post the PMs, then I’ll do so. But for now I won’t because I don’t want to hear from someone else later on that they don’t want to discuss some issue with the staff because “you posted mhendo’s private messages!”
[/QUOTE]
I think it would be a wise decision NOT to post them. Please. Either people trust what you are saying in broad terms about the PMs you received or they don’t, and IMHO nothing good can be gained by you posting private messages to you guys in a public forum.
Just my two cents worth, and cheap at triple the price!! 
I, for one, would like to post my unequivocal support for the moderators in the mhendo situations.
I totally agree the threadshitting call in TokyoBayer’s post. I totally agree with **Twickster *for calling out mhendo for his personal attack on Czarcasm in the Diamonds thread. It was a personal attack in ATMB, and it was also a hijack of the thread, to boot (and that wasn’t called). I totally agree mhendo was violating the rules even more with his response post in that thread. I totally agree that the mods shouldn’t have to take abuse for their actions as mods, even in PMs. Kudos all around for the moderators and the moderation.
I guess the only** grounds I could see for discussion is whether Czarcasm’s response of “Pot” stepped over the line to personal insult as well. He’s essentially saying “you are, too”.
- I guess that makes my support not completely unequivocal?
** And that, too?
I haven’t read all the relevant threads, but generally agree. I’m kind of amazed by the people who don’t see it that way. I’ll even go further and say that Czarcasm’s “Pot” did not rise to the level of an insult.