I’m really reluctant to do this. I’ve seen how this works. Somebody makes a complaint, there’s a partisan pile-on, drama ensues, the rule will get repeated to me like I’m a foreigner who could understand English better if it was shouted at me, and this thread gets linked to the BBQ Pit.
nightshadea is not so good at grammar and punctuation, and he typed a joke about a department store owner who pleaded with God to win the lottery. bob_2 quoted the joke and copy edited it. This goes against the rule of altering the text of a quote. I understand why that’s a rule. There is no need to repeat it to me infinitum.
This occasion however, was not done to misrepresent or misquote nightshadea. bob_2 got a warning which in my opinion was not warranted. He had no malicious or deceptive intent. I thought the edit was funny, keeping in tone with the thread’s humorous intent. Furthermore, if he hadn’t used the quote feature, it would have passed muster. I protested and was told to take my concerns here.
This Zero Tolerance approach is disruptive, nonsensical, and only contributes to an unappealing draconian reputation that the SDMB can’t afford to maintain. In addition, bob_2 is now on some mod shit list through no fault of his own.
For ignoring the mod’s note to you and arguing in the thread, you were fortunate to not get a warning yourself. ECG was kind. Honestly that one was pretty clear cut when you continued to argue.
I very much doubt bob_2 is on anyone’s shit list. Again, it was just a note.
This seems like a lot of work over a simple little reminder to not alter someone else’s post in a quote box.
So, maybe this will help.
We have suspensions of various length, usually requires multiple warnings or something pretty bad to get one. Though a one day suspension is a much lesser thing. Little more than a warning with a time out.
We have warnings, they are clearly labeled as such and recorded in two different ways in the SDMB system. Also posters get a PM sent to them with the full details.
Then we have notes. Notes are basically temporary, though once in a rare time, we add a user note also. This still isn’t a warning but as an example we had a user for a while that kept linking directly to downloads and before he got the warning, he had a user note entered about it so when he did this again a week later, the other mods knew to now warn him. He quickly built up to a suspension if I recall correctly and never returned.
I often include this on my notes,
This is just a guidance, not a warning. Nothing on your permanent record.
But that is just me, and not all the time. It is a little macro (canned reply) I made up.
No mention of a warning anywhere. In addition, the mods do not keep track of mere notes, unless people continue to violate the rules or ignore mod instructions. bob_2 is not on the mods’ shit list, or on a list of any kind.
On the other hand, if we don’t take a zero tolerance approach to quote boxes, then we start having rules lawyering and some people will say this and that was acceptable and this other thing wasn’t, and it becomes a nightmare to moderate. It’s much easier for everyone to have a bright line rule in this case.
And as for draconian, if you aren’t doing it to be malicious, all we usually do is hand out a mod note, which is exactly what was done in this case. I wouldn’t call that draconian. If we had actually issued a warning, you might have a point. But we didn’t, and normally don’t for this type of situation.
bob_2 is definitely not on my shit list. I seriously doubt that he is on any mod’s shit list. Seriously, this wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just a mod note.
Rickjay’s instruction to take it to ATMB was apropriate.
ECG’s reminder to take it to ATMB, saying that a violation would result in a warning, was appropriate.
Hari_Seldon’s note, 2 hours later, in the post immediately following ECG’s post, and saying the exact same thing, was ridiculous. Doesn’t he ever read the threads he moderates?
That does look poor but was he possibly posting it at the same time? (I can’t tell, the timestamp to me just says both were 7 hours ago, that could be within seconds of each other or a half hour apart.) If they posted at the same time he might not have known ECG was posting the same thing.
If there was a significant time gap and he just did a drive-by note, ignoring the redundancy, that would be pretty lame, yes.
I agree that this is a non-issue, a mere note is just a slight slap on the wrist. And though @bob_2 had no ill intent, it was a bit condescending, though maybe out of ignorance. I remember that @nightshadea, when addressed about his posting style, mentioned that he has some medical issues that makes it easier for him to post in that style. I’ve never had a problem with that after he explained this, and I think he’s a very valuable poster for this board. But of course not everybody knows or remembers this.
ETA: and I also agree that the mods should be strcit about the rule of not altering quotes. Otherwise it would open a can of worms.
When I wrote my post, it looked even longer. ECG’s post showed ‘4 hours’ and Hari’s sowed ‘2 hours’ Not sure why that would happen when the gap was less than an hour. Even so, it is long enough that Hari should have seen the prior note.
I think we already know from prior threads that he doesn’t. To add to the problem, it seems the other mods can’t get him to change and our absentee admin just doesn’t want to be bothered.
If it makes him feel better , for a small fee, I would be open to putting @bob_2 on my shit list. This would entail me following him around and belittling all his posts for a set period of time. The package also includes one pitting on the subject of my choice. My prices are very reasonable.
I interpreted Hari’s post as being a bit of a meta post as he knows his moderation has been under critique for awhile and he posted that in a joke thread and followed the moderation portion with a demand for more jokes. At the very least, it made me smile.
