# Moderator Warnings -- why no email?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 9, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303 "2005-08-09T17:40:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/1 "2005-08-09T17:40:11Z")
Why don’t they send you an email when you get a warning? I’ve gotten a couple of warnings but I would never have known about them if I hadn’t returned to the thread and seen them. Now, when I think I might have crossed the line, I have to keep checking in on threads that I’m “done with” just to see if I’ve gotten a warning.
How difficult would it be to send me an email?
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/2 "2005-08-09T17:43:59Z")
I agree that sending an email when an official warning is given would be a good idea.
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### Author:  [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/3 "2005-08-09T17:52:32Z")
I agree.
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/4 "2005-08-09T17:55:11Z")
Not trying to be a smartass, but you will get a quicker response if you email the mod in question. Put SDMB in the subject line.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/5 "2005-08-09T17:57:59Z")
I did a “report post” requesting that we get administration input on this idea.
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### Author:  [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/6 "2005-08-09T19:11:16Z")
> [@Can Handle the Truth](#):
>
> Why don’t they send you an email when you get a warning? I’ve gotten a couple of warnings but I would never have known about them if I hadn’t returned to the thread and seen them. Now, when I think I might have crossed the line, I have to keep checking in on threads that I’m “done with” just to see if I’ve gotten a warning.
> How difficult would it be to send me an email?
Is the email address in your profile an address that you check regularly? Sorry if it seems like a stupid question, but IIRC there have been cases where a member registered using a certain email, which was later abandoned, and said member than didn’t understand why they didn’t get any email from SDMB (this was related, I believe, to a bulk mailing sent to all member addresses on the eve of going pay, about 15 months ago)
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/7 "2005-08-09T19:16:45Z")
> [@Can Handle the Truth](#):
>
> Why don’t they send you an email when you get a warning? I’ve gotten a couple of warnings but I would never have known about them if I hadn’t returned to the thread and seen them. Now, when I think I might have crossed the line, I have to keep checking in on threads that I’m “done with” just to see if I’ve gotten a warning.
> How difficult would it be to send me an email?
It would depend on how co-operative the board and my email was feeling that day. Some days, I can barely slog through the board, and other days, Hotmail is Not Playing Well With Others.
How difficult would it be for you to not “cross the line” in the first place?
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### Author:  [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/8 "2005-08-09T19:30:44Z")
That’s a bit facile, **Lynn**. You give warnings, ergo, you obviously expect that they will serve a purpose. For myself, although I’ve never gotten any warning to the best of my knowledge, I find that when a thread really pisses me off the best thing for all concerned is for me to stop reading it. Since that won’t happen until after the discussion has already become heated, there may be posts already extant that will draw a warning which comes after I’ve left the thread for good. If that warning is to be effective – and also, if it is to be fairly considered in evaluating a later incident – it should also be sent to my email address.
–Cliffy
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/9 "2005-08-09T19:32:22Z")
To be fair, **Lynn** , it’s possible to cross the line unintentionally. I did it myself in [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6444890&postcount=40), which I posted during the brief interval that **LostGoals** was banned. Sure as hell never meant to violate the “no accusing [current] members of sockery/trolling” rule, but I did.
Okay, that’s an outlier sort of offense. But I’ve also no doubt gone at least close to the line in the heat of the moment, written and posted jerkish things that could well have drawn a warning if a passing mod/admin had happened upon them, or if someone were sufficiently pissed off to report me.
If I had in fact drawn an in-thread warning for something like that, and not happened to return to the thread, I’d have missed it and would be unaware that I was accumulating a record. I’d say in-thread warnings are educational for the board as a whole; email warnings are a more effective way to bring the message home to the offender.
On preview: What **Cliffy** said.
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### Author:  [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/10 "2005-08-09T22:19:09Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#):
>
> How difficult would it be for you to not “cross the line” in the first place?
I’m only human.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/11 "2005-08-09T23:10:58Z")
That doesn’t apply to all of us.
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### Author:  [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/12 "2005-08-09T23:17:23Z")
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> That doesn’t apply to all of us.
And you’re proud of that?
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/13 "2005-08-09T23:18:21Z")
A being’s gotta do what a being’s gotta do.
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### Author:  [@monospectacular](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monospectacular)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/14 "2005-08-09T23:31:10Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#):
>
> It would depend on how co-operative the board and my email was feeling that day. Some days, I can barely slog through the board, and other days, Hotmail is Not Playing Well With Others.
>
> How difficult would it be for you to not “cross the line” in the first place?
From your response I would guess that moderators have to send email manually to people about warnings? I just registered and I got an email a few minutes after my registration was complete and then another email to welcome me to the boards. Is it possible to set up the warning system like the registration system–something that would generate an automatic email? That way, the moderators wouldn’t have to send email through their own (personal?) email accounts.
If I’m mistaken, please disregard.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/15 "2005-08-10T00:00:11Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#):
>
> How difficult would it be for you to not “cross the line” in the first place?
But if life were that easy, message boards wouldn’t need to be moderated. Granted we do get real trolls and jerks joining from time to time, and it’s fairly obvious that they’re just trying to piss people off. But other times well respected Dopers of long standing sometimes cross the line inadvertently. After all, it’s even been known to happen to an administrator, on a time.
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### Author:  [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/16 "2005-08-10T00:05:02Z")
I think that you guys are missing the point.
Thank you for your input; we will give it the consideration that we feel that it deserves. Go back to sleep. Nothing needs to change. Everything is fine here. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen. Go back to sleep, little posters, with dreams of the just and the favored dancing in your heads. Go back to sleep.
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### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/17 "2005-08-10T00:18:32Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#):
>
> How difficult would it be for you to not “cross the line” in the first place?
What a cop out.
Patient: “Doc, it hurts when I move my arm like this.”
Doctor: “Then just don’t do that. That’ll be $14.95, please.”
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### Author:  [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/18 "2005-08-10T00:49:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted in the FAQ as “The Rules” \*
> You are required to submit and maintain a valid e-mail address. . . . However, we retain your e-mail address in our database and reserve the right to have SDMB staff contact you.
I’m sure they try. And that’s all they can do. If you don’t check your e-mail relatively occasionally, or, if you don’t provide a valid e-mail addy, then. . . well, tough.
I see both sides of the argument, both the mods and the posters. But I have to admit, that the weight of burden rests on those of the poster–a.k.a. “don’t actively screw up”.
Tripler
No comment for a sigline. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/19 "2005-08-10T00:53:10Z")
> [@Casey1505](#):
>
> What a cop out.
>
> Patient: “Doc, it hurts when I move my arm like this.”
> Doctor: “Then just don’t do that. That’ll be $14.95, please.”
Shhhh. Hush now. Go back to sleep. You are not a customer, you are a freeloader. There’s a good poster.
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### Author:  [@Ava\_Gina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ava_Gina)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-warnings-why-no-email/316303/20 "2005-08-10T01:23:42Z")
Does Lynn’s response really reflect the attitude of the mods and admins on this board?
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