I didn’t stutter. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then don’t respond. It’s not your mission to toady for the administration.
If you’re not being willfully obtuse (as opposed to using that incredibly lame debate tactic of “I don’t know what you’re talking about”), what I’m saying is that it is a waste of mods’ volunteer time making them police posts to the extent they do. I think having umpteen complaint threads (and mods having to respond to those, too) about this stuff is not something to shrug off, it’s a clear indication that the rules aren’t set at an efficiently manageable level.
It’s not unreasonable to expect that rules are applied with some attempt at consistency, and that when a failure to do so is exposed it is dealt with promptly, and without the attitude that they shouldn’t have to deal with it.
It doesn’t matter what the cause, the level of action suggests a problem. The easier solution is a rules change, not trying to make a thousand horses drink.
There are always going to be posts that borderline whether too far or not, and it’s impossible therefore to be consistent when moderating those kinds of posts. We don’t need rule changes, things are going just fine. There is never going to be a way to keep every single poster happy.
I think it’s easy to look at ATMB and get the sense there are a ton of complaints, but I don’t think that’s the case. We have a lot of posters and a lot of threads, and at any given time we have a couple of active ATMB threads with questions or disputes or complaints. On an average day I would say the mod staff gives one official warning and a handful (give or take) of mod notes. The basic rules have been in place a long time here and I think most posters have a good sense of what they are, as evidenced by the fact that most long term posters here don’t get warnings and even fewer have multiple warnings.
I think that if anyone believes the rules aren’t being enforced fairly, he should report the offending posts to the mods. It’s not realistic to expect the handful of mods to police the threads the way hundreds of posters, collectively, can.
It sort of bothers me that the rules might bump out someone like mhendo, but how hard it is to post here and NOT send “fuck you” PMs to the mods? I can’t say that the thought of doing so has ever crossed my mind.
I didn’t like it when Diogenes got banned, but again, I saw that more as his fault than the fault of the rules. They’re just no that hard to follow to the point of not getting banned.
Ok, I can see that. Did you look over both the warnings Mhendo got within a week? The second linked one given by Marley23 (the first chronologically) was warrented IMO, and given that he sent 2 moderators abusive PMs after getting warned, I think giving him a suspension was correct. None of you who are upset with how things are being run have sent abusive PMs to the moderators, have you? Seems to me you’ve found a way to speak up that doesn’t invovle that. Mhendo could have done the same, but didn’t. Not having seen some of the events alluded to here, (due to a lengthy hiatus) I guess my perspective is somewhat different. It is interesting to see the viewpoints expressed from my perch here. One side says “the system isn’t broken” the other says “the rules are being applied unfairly, the system has broken down”. I’m leaning towards the idea that maybe it isn’t the system is broke so much as it needs tweaking.
I think that is exactly right. One of the reasons why I like to post here is because its basically civil. The rules and the moderation are a big part of that. Which is why I feel it is important to voice my opinion in those instances I disagree with the way things go.
There was a claim made by PlainJane that you apparently agreed with. Specifically that snark and sarcasm had declined at the SDMB. I disputed this claim above. I furthermore mentioned that I didn’t understand the basis of it.
Also, perhaps you might acquaint yourself with the forum descriptions. ATMB is, “For all questions, comments, and complaints about the SDMB.” You commented. I commented. If you intended for your remarks to be seen only by mods, I am puzzled by why you didn’t use the PM method. Then you wouldn’t have your opinions challenged by other posters.
