There’s a phrase that sweetly portrays that, something about circles and wagons or something something.
Not that we’d ever see that here…
Well … ever read the story “The Lottery?”
It’s like that.
June 27th has come and gone so … no worries.
:eek:
You poor sons/daughters of bitches. 
Majestic Conestogas moving into formation?
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First, they taze you. Then they rifle your pockets for any loose change or useful vocabulary. Then they tie you up with shoelaces, stuff you in a cargo trunk with rotting fish, lock the lid, and ship you to Nepal. Or Antarctica. Or possibly North Korea. How they decide where is one of the mysteries they haven’t revealed to us outsiders.
Here’s a hint, Irishman. “Wheel of Misfortune.”
“Bust a deal, face the wheel!”
At least we all know who really runs Bartertown. Even if we’re afraid to admit it.
There are about 11 nominal; but it’s a small place, and only 4 would be needed in a pinch, so people can turn up, take a break or do as they like. The only thing is to avoid one person having to do all the work, one can be lucky enough to get some people who are endlessly dedicated because the place fills a need — and honestly, admins in general are rarely likely to harm their forum from spite. And were they to, that’s what back-ups are for. So give them nearly all the tools possible.
Hopefully they will sometimes remember to run repair/optimize…
The main danger is class-consciousness, more on the mod side than the other: it’s difficult to explain, but sometimes mods do a lot of work, whilst sometimes admins regard their adminship as the final accolade of a life well done and never do a stroke of work again. The reward for excellence is to swagger around despising the member-plebs, the enemy, and to form a close little clique above the fray. Simpler just to avoid having officers and NCOs and just have equal officers.
Actually there’s a whole lot of stuff admins have that mods don’t, you can consult any vbull manual. What really ticked me off as a mod was having to contact an admin to get a spammer, or other, banned. One should trust mods enough to follow through by themselves.
There was a situation where a trusted, very good and nice admin may have let his password slip. That was a sad affair.
Admins are allowed to ban at will. Virtually no explanation is required. If other admins wish to contest this, they can; but never in public, only in the modbox.
We have very few bannings comparatively; the vast majority being spammers etc.; so admins don’t abuse that power. On the other hand, it is necessarily more tolerant than here can be, since it is only for a group, same as a hobbyist board, so more latitude can be given. Plus as No 1 admin I refrain from much participation either in admin or member mode. It gives one too much influence, and I cannot admire one man band forums ( particularly those dedicated to one man: Billy Bragg, David Icke, Ron Paul, I’m looking at you… )
Once I tallied the number of bannings I gave, elsewhere, since there was a certain thrill in doing the right thing, now I would cut it down to the bare minimum, since idiots are people too.
That’s never been an issue on the SDMB.
Mods at the SDMB can ban a spammer at will. The only thing we have to get admin permission for is banning a member.
What is “MOD” an acronym for?
Moderator Of the Day. Each gets a turn in the barrel, but whose turn it is is chosen via an arcane system. They don’t talk about that.
And a single admin can’t ban members at will either - there has to be agreement by other staff members.
It’s not an acronym. It’s short for “moderator”. Unless it’s used as a verb, then it’s short for “moderating”. Which is a nicer way of saying "I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them."
Minister Of Death
He’s just picking on the all-caps presentation. That’s typically reserved for acronyms and initialisms. You know how pedantic those pedants can be, pedanting around everywhere.
That’s PEDANT (Person Expressing Disdain And Nitpicking Thoroughly).
Mutually Opinionated Destruction.
Mighty Og Destroy!
How does a banning work? Dunno in general, but here’s the procedure in Trinidad.
Even more embarrassing are those threads where a Doper’s username is discussed (sometimes by the Doper in question), but the discussion makes no sense at all, because the Doper’s username has changed* since the thread occurred.
*This happens only rarely, and only with carefully considered permission from the MODs. Which is an acronym for “rockers.” Or the New Wave europop CDs for sale at an Army base store: “Maneuvers, Orchestral, in the Dark.”