I have a bone to pick with the moderation in the Cat Avatar thread. Did anyone seriously perceive Wolfpup’s playful joking as threadshitting??? Was it reported as threadshitting? Are cats really this thin-skinned that light-hearted teasing by a dog gets their fur up?
I’m baffled that he’d be modded for joking in a thread where people are already joking about the supposed superiority of cats, and where people are joking back with him.
In post #5, Tibby wrote
So Wolfpup playfully responds. And others were seeming to enjoy it. Was someone’s fur really rubbed the wrong way?
Threadshitting is when you use a thread as a litterbox. That didn’t happen here. Wolfpup even tried to help someone fix their cat avatar, which isn’t easy for a dog. Please don’t mod the fun out the board. Or mod to the lowest level of humor-impairment.
I was thinking of starting a thread about that decision, but you beat me to it.
Wolfpup has been joking about cats and dogs for years now. It’s a hyperbolically exaggerated pose that everyone has fun with and usually responds to with equally hyperbolic claims.
As the subject of the mod note, I’m biased, of course, but I have to agree with the sentiments in this thread. I’ve never otherwise had issues with @puzzlegal’s moderation, but the mod note seemed uncharacteristically humourless. Unless one seriously believes my claim that I’m actually a dog, and therefore instinctively predisposed to disrupt cat threads. I mean, I’ve laid claim to canine heritage a number of times, but I assure you it’s not literally true. Can we please be a bit more lighthearted around here?
Special thanks to @needscoffee, for the quoted bit.
ETA: There might – maybe – have been a point to the mod note if that really had been a heartfelt thread about cat appreciation. But it was a thread about cat avatars!
Naw, I say throw the bum outta here. The SDMB is no place for flea-bitten caninedians who lack the couth to even use a litter box properly! This place will be purrrfect without him and his kind. Bad dog!
Well, i think it had become a cat appreciation thread, and started out adjacent to one. And i was reacting to a report by an annoyed cat lover. But I’ve heard real cat-haters say things like what you wrote. I was a bit surprised to see your say those things, as your tend to be upbeat about pets.
I apologize for not getting the joke, but note that i was not alone in that. So maybe the joke had gone on long enough.
It wasn’t a formal warning. Maybe we can bathe each other’s faces and make up.
I reported it. I did not see it as humor and it pissed me off. I just wanted to talk about cats and avatars, and ended up feeling compelled to defend them. I have no problem with it in a different thread, one not dedicated to cats. Hopefully, it can get back on topic now.
I didn’t consider it a threadshit, but it was something of a minor hijack, which the mods have been really Really good lately (depending on your POV of course about stomping out). And it was a note - if it had been a note about not hijacking the cat and cat love, I think few people would be in this thread, but the specific charge of threadshitting felt innapropriate.
Just my two bits. I wouldn’t have (and didn’t) report it, but not going to say Helena330 was completely wrong.
You can’t. Once you start a thread, it belongs to the community.
I just want to point out that hijacking is only expressly prohibited in Politics & Elections and Great Debates. There is no prohibition in any other forum, so far as I know. Although I don’t recommend it in Factual Questions, either. There might be a rule about it there but it’s not one of my forums and I don’t find a prohibition based on a cursory review of the rules.
ETA: We’ll still moderate hijacking in threads where it is done in a deliberate way or if there is a course of conduct for it by a poster. But inadvertent hijacking isn’t against the rules, although some might consider it poor form.
I totally agree with the OP. @wolfpup has picked, poked and cajoled me many times about my evil Siamese.
I’ve never took umbrage. He’s funny and a very pleasant poster who really is a canine, I think.
And that exactly what the cat avatar thread was. A silly thread where people for people with cat avatars to come in and be silly and make jokes. @wolfpup’s posts were in the same vein, playing around because he has a dog avatar.
The playful tone of the thread was established fairly early on. If someone wanted a thread to discuss cat stories, that’s how the thread would have started.
I have nothing against wolfpup. He’s always struck me as an amiable guy. My objection is to his posts in that thread. I don’t know what you mean about targeting your post. Certainly not my intention.
In view of the prevailing feedback in this thread and the explanation that I and others have provided that my intent was just to add some lighthearted humour, I would think that the right thing to do would be to rescind the mod note, especially the completely inappropriate accusation of “thread shitting”.
about stomping out). And it was a note - if it had been a note about not hijacking the cat and cat love, I think few people would be in this thread, but the specific charge of threadshitting felt innapropriate.