# Moderation in the Presidents' Second Jobs thread **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 6, 2022, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065 "2022-05-06T10:51:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/1 "2022-05-06T10:51:00Z")
There is a board rule against political commentary in FQ threads. If, for instance, a question was asked about clown make-up, and someone made a comment about Trump’s fake tan, it would be a warnable offence. Reason: Trump isn’t a clown, in the literal cirus performer meaning, comments about his make up is off topic for a discussion about clowns. But some FQ threads are directly about politics, and comments about specific politicians are on topic. Case in point. > [@Could the President of the United States get a second job while in office?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-president-of-the-united-states-get-a-second-job-while-in-office/963654): > > And by job I don’t mean largely passive income like owning a business or being on the board of some company. Not anything he could do while still sitting in the Oval Office. I literally mean, could the President of the United States decided he wants to work at a local McDonald’s either part time or full time, or slightly more realistically, could he be a surgeon working a few hours a day at a local hospital? Various contributors to this thread have received mod notes or warnings for making on-topic factual statements that were directly relevant to the subject. I’l start by saying the crack by Burpo was off-topic, and deserved a note. DPRK made a statement that a President who spent all day playing video games would be booted. Horatius and Solost responded by pointing out that Trump spent a large part of his working day watching TV. This is factual and relevant and made as a correction to a possibly incorrect statement. They shouldn’t have been modded for it. A point was raised about the Emoluments Clause restricting a President’s outside income. Horatius pointed out that Trump showed that the clause has no teeth. Again, a factual statement that was on-topic and directly relevant. The mod note for this was inappropriate. Finally, DPRK’s remark as follows > [@Could the President of the United States get a second job while in office?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-president-of-the-united-states-get-a-second-job-while-in-office/963654/33): > > I would argue that this is evidence he must have been doing something right, as determined by the people pulling the strings. Like signing whatever was put in front of him, as suggested by @k9bfriender . It’s not like they couldn’t have got rid of him. This is borderline. Somewhat too snarky, but still directly relevant to the question of whether a president can be removed for playing games/ watching TV. You might consider downgrading it to a note instead of a warning. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/2 "2022-05-06T12:12:47Z")
The initial moderation was a note. I think that moderation was wrong – that is, the comments were factual and on topic. The follow-up comments ignored that note. So, they were warnable for ignoring moderator instructions. So, if @Chronos were to reconsider his note, then I could see downgrading later moderation to a note, but you can’t ignore moderator instructions, even if it’s wrong. **DPRK** comment was over the line. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/3 "2022-05-06T13:32:25Z")
JMHO- when the comments go way off track, rather than watching _slow death by a thousand mod comments_, I’d rather a mod move the thread somewhere else, probably IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/4 "2022-05-06T13:42:26Z")
An even better idea, IMHO, is for posters to refrain from political jabs in FQ in the first place. Less work for the mods, too. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/5 "2022-05-06T13:52:16Z")
Well, sure. If everyone followed rules… 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/6 "2022-05-06T13:56:43Z")
This would be a big help. The politic jabs in FQ, breaking news threads (MPSIMS) and Café thread are a significant portion of the non-spam flags. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/7 "2022-05-06T16:13:27Z")
Just saw this. It was not my intention to annoy other posters or moderators by sneaking in political comments, so I am not going to now insist it was OK, even though my post was honestly not meant to be a political comment. The bare factual answer that Congress can remove a President was in any case already established in the thread and did not need to be recapitulated a second or third time. I apologize, and hope we can return to our regularly scheduled programming. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/8 "2022-05-06T16:22:11Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > The initial moderation was a note. I think that moderation was wrong – that is, the comments were factual and on topic. > > The follow-up comments ignored that note. The instruction was to refrain from political jabs. The comment by Solost for which he was warned wasn’t a political jab. It was a factual, on-topic statement. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/9 "2022-05-06T16:23:57Z")
I don’t think any of the earlier comments were political jabs, but the moderator clearly did. So, it was still ignoring moderator instructions. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/10 "2022-05-06T18:08:25Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The instruction was to refrain from political jabs. The comment by Solost for which he was warned wasn’t a political jab. It was a factual, on-topic statement. Thanks, I appreciate the support, though I don’t dispute the warning. My biggest mistake, and regret there, was that I was responding to a post that had been made early on in a longish thread without having read all of it. As luck would have it, my post appeared right after Chronos’ caution to stop with the politics, making it look like I was thumbing my nose at him (which I most definitely was not). So my takeaway, other than a reminder to avoid all mention of politics in non-political forums, is to read the whole damn thread before posting in it! Or at least skim it if it’s long. Or, if it’s very long, at least read the most recent comments to see if things have gone at all sideways. Read the room, right? I usually do do that, but I guess I was being impulsive that day. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/11 "2022-05-06T19:10:42Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The instruction was to refrain from political jabs. The comment by Solost for which he was warned wasn’t a political jab. It was a factual, on-topic statement. Factual, maybe. But not on topic. So If someone had posted that trump could keep doing his “you’re fired” TV show, that would be on topic. But _watching TV all day_ is not a second job. It was indeed a political jab, true or not. Perhaps some of the warnings could be Notes, sure, but that Mod Note was pretty damn clear. Now that **Solost** has clarified he responded before reading the Mod note, I think his warning could be simply a Note, and I hope the Mods will consider that. They have said that a apology of that sort will be considered. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/12 "2022-05-06T19:26:02Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But _watching TV all day_ is not a second job. It was indeed a political jab, true or not. You are missing a big point here. It was a reply top the following post. > [@Could the President of the United States get a second job while in office?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-president-of-the-united-states-get-a-second-job-while-in-office/963654/7): > > Isn’t there an assumption that the President should do his or her job? This is like asking if the President could play video games all day. Of course not; they would be booted pretty quickly for gross incompetence, not discharging duties, etc. Which is an on-topic point. Can the President legally spend his time doing things other than his Presidential duties? Solost disagreed with the point and responded that Trump watched TV all day, and didn’t get booted. This is a valid reply, disagreeing with a previously made claim, and not a pot shot. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderation-in-the-presidents-second-jobs-thread/964065/13 "2022-05-06T19:31:22Z")
So, then, you disagree with my request to downgrade the Warning to a Note??