# New Pit Rule: ontopic personal attacks? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 8, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099 "2009-10-08T20:21:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/1 "2009-10-08T20:21:50Z")
> [@Fat patient in the blood lab center](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fat-patient-in-the-blood-lab-center/513059/76): > > **Mod’s Note** : I’m not stepping in on whether this thread is a troll or not, but cross-pollination of Pit threads and dragging in unrelated people in a negative sense isn’t really good form. Not that it merits a warning or anything remotely like that, especially when it’s as mild as this, but it certainly doesn’t belong here. Unless **Starving Artist** is well known to hate fat people with the fury of a thousand suns, of course. > > There isn’t a Rule on this, of course, and if you feel I’m singling you out unfairly, I’d be glad to talk the matter over with you in a PM. > > - Gukumatz Are we really going to start enforcing keeping Pit threads on topic? I mean, you are basically saying we should only insult people in relevant threads, right? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/2 "2009-10-08T20:56:10Z")
Your title already shows how your opinion is tilted. After all, **Gukumatz** openly stated “There isn’t a Rule on this”. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/3 "2009-10-08T20:59:30Z")
Rules schmules. There should be more personal civility on the entire board. All comments should stick to the topic and not the posters. The pit should not exist. The premise of “calling people out” is just so juvenile. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/4 "2009-10-08T21:04:35Z")
Jesus fucking christ. I truly feel sorry for the moderators and administrators here. I know they do it for a love of the place but I personally wouldn’t moderate this place _for money_. Unless it was a very considerable amount. No stipend, no poverty-level pay, no supplementary income. I’d want to be paid a middle-class income for full time moderation of this place. That would make it much easier to ignore all the people that are ready at a minute’s notice to criticize every little thing I do or say. I almost want to send the moderators and administrators here Christmas presents on behalf of all the people here that don’t hate them and actually appreciate them. Administrators and moderators: I don’t hate you and do appreciate the time and effort you put into this place and for the amount of money you get for it (which is nothing). ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/5 "2009-10-08T21:14:19Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Administrators and moderators: I don’t hate you and do appreciate the time and effort you put into this place and for the amount of money you get for it (which is nothing). When I suck up, I get the **Crack Team of Monkeys ™**. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/6 "2009-10-08T21:31:57Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > When I suck up, I get the **Crack Team of Monkeys ™**. I have to _manage_ said team of monkeys. If you don’t think that’s punishment enough, well you obviously haven’t been around an infinite number of monkeys then have you? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/7 "2009-10-08T21:36:20Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > Your title already shows how your opinion is tilted. After all, **Gukumatz** openly stated “There isn’t a Rule on this”. So? Of course my opinion is tilted. Why would I care if I didn’t think it looked like a new rule? I think it appears that there is a new _de facto_ rule. I’m hoping they’ll come in and say, “Nope. You misunderstood. Here’s what was meant.” > [@Never\_Say\_Dice](#): > > Rules schmules. There should be more personal civility on the entire board. All comments should stick to the topic and not the posters. > The pit should not exist. The premise of “calling people out” is just so juvenile. I’m not quite sure what your opinion of a forum established by the mods has to do with my question. But, combined with the next post, I’m worried this means that this may get out of hand. > [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Jesus fucking christ. I truly feel sorry for the moderators and administrators here. > > I know they do it for a love of the place but I personally wouldn’t moderate this place _for money_. Unless it was a very considerable amount. No stipend, no poverty-level pay, no supplementary income. I’d want to be paid a middle-class income for full time moderation of this place. That would make it much easier to ignore all the people that are ready at a minute’s notice to criticize every little thing I do or say. > > I almost want to send the moderators and administrators here Christmas presents on behalf of all the people here that don’t hate them and actually appreciate them. > > Administrators and moderators: I don’t hate you and do appreciate the time and effort you put into this place and for the amount of money you get for it (which is nothing). I don’t hate them either. But I do expect consistency. Your post makes me think I’ve come across incorrectly, and that I am unlikely to get the answer I want (“no” as mentioned above). I’m essentially questioning a moderating decision. I apparently chose a bad title. I’m hoping for clarification for what appears to be an inconsistency. I’m hoping my interpretation is wrong. My own experience here indicates that even the appearance of changing anything in the Pit will cause outrage. I was trying to head it off by getting a clarification quickly, in a public location. Perhaps I should have done so privately. I just assumed this was going to become an ATMB topic eventually anyway, so I might as well head it off. You’ll note that I originally put this post in the Pit, where, as seems to be the custom, I used some inflammatory language. In hindsight, I wish I’d just wiped it out there, and reworded it here (instead of just copy-paste). But I didn’t, and I hope I don’t get in trouble for it, or cause the mods trouble. If changing my title would help, please do so. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/8 "2009-10-08T21:37:17Z")
To answer the OP in broadest terms: no one is trying to set up a rule. We moderate based on individual situations, individual circumstances, and **Gukumatz** felt that the posts had wandered too far afield. That’s an individual call, for a specific situation, and very clearly NOT an attempt to formulate a rule. I frankly don’t see any issue here. There are times where a thread (whether in the Pit or elsewhere) gets too tangential – hijacked? theadshat? I dunno. But then it’s not unreasonable for a mod to try to yank it back to wherever it was before it was. There was no warning, just a friendly admonition to try to stay reasonably on topic. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/9 "2009-10-08T22:02:46Z")
Thanks for answering my question, Dex. I still feel really bad about asking it. I’d request that this thread be closed since it had been answered, but I bet that would make some people mad, too. I hate it when my OCD gets in the way of seeing what was obvious. Seems I need to take my own advice about trying for the best possible interpretation of anyone’s post ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/10 "2009-10-08T22:39:07Z")
Since you’re the OP, and feel the question has been asked and answered, I got not problem with closing it. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-pit-rule-ontopic-personal-attacks/513099/11 "2009-10-08T23:45:58Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > I almost want to send the moderators and administrators here Christmas presents on behalf of all the people here that don’t hate them and actually appreciate them. While I realize the thread is closed, I’ve used my powers to post for (our) good. CIB–cash works best. 😃