Officially protesting the warning Colibri gave me.

About This Message Board
21

Stoid,

I don’t know you. And please know that in this particular “debate” between you and Colibri, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

However, with that said, I have to tell you that it frightens me to think how much time and effort was put into your last reply. When you start looking at the ***transitive verb ***of particular words, it’s time to let go.

Are you bordering on the edge of banishment? If not, let it go.
Has someone from the staff told you that your posting privileges are under review? If not, LET IT GO.

IMO, you have done all that you could reasonably do in this situation. You posted your position, put a link to the thread in question, showed **Colibri’s **interesting take on what deserved a warning, and have now let the TM give their opinions on the subject, which I believe will continue to be in your favor.

However, you are not going to change Colibri’s mind with a protest. Mods have quite a bit of latitude on deciding what is and isn’t worth a warning, and we all know it.

You’ve made your case. You’ve allowed anyone who decided to read this thread on their own realize that **colibri **must have been in one interesting mood when he wrote his warning to you. But, I sincerely doubt that you will change his mind, even if, as someone upthread mentioned, you “strenuously object” to the warning issued.

Two things to keep in mind. One, you are not the only one who has received a warning that has drawn the mental :dubious: from the person that received the warning. Two, you got the warning. You can’t think you are going to get it expunged from your SDMB PERMANENT RECORD by pleading with the mod (in public, mind you) who gave it to you that you don’t normally insult people and therefore you should have been given the benefit of the doubt with regard to this posting. I don’t care if you are the SDMB’s version of Don Rickles… what I read could not in any way be thought of as an insult. Even if it technically is (based on the 6 different official english dictionaries out there), I don’t think the vast majority of people, SDMB members or not, would read it as such.

I think you’ll find that as this thread runs its course, the only person that agrees with **colibri **in this particular case is colibri. He’s the only one that matters, however. And based on my guess that you don’t have a private message box filled with warnings, you will be just fine in the future. Try not to take it personally. Unless it is, of course. :smiley:

22

Seems harsh for the circumstances. I guess it’s a technical violation. But that usually seems to be treated with a “you’ve been around long enough to know” type of comment first. And I wouldn’t have thought calling someone a ‘scold’ was covered by the insult rule. I’d feel kind of lame insulting someone with that. But as with most of these things, best to move on.

23

I was going to post this one in the change one letter in a movie title thread but I think I’ll post it here

The Day the Earth Stoid Still

24

Thanks. Much appreciated.

If this was a one-time, out of the blue occurance, I’d agree.

But in fact, through 12 years and 11,000 posts and some truly hair-raising exchanges, pit threads, and what not, I have always maintained certain standards of behavior and discourse for myself which has, as a matter of course, prevented me from ever getting much of any moderator attention at all, much less official warnings. I take The Five Remembrances very much to heart, particularly the last of the five:
My deeds are my closest companions; I am the beneficiary of my deeds. My deeds are the ground on which I stand.

But in the last couple of months I have found myself being taken to task repeatedly by moderators, in every single case for things which are in no way whatsoever new, different or unusual or for things which the mod is actually completely wrong about as a matter of plain fact in terms of what actually occurred, and this includes the FIRST warning I have received here, mentioned above by someone else, only a week or two ago. (Which I addressed privately).

What’s particularly strange and infuriating about it is that, as Stoidal SDMB participation goes, things have been pretty low-key lately. So… WTF???

Is there something in the air? New rules someone forgot to alert me to? Really, seriously…WTF?

So I finally, on the 4th of these, I decided to open a public thread about it. Enough already.

And there ya have it.

And for the record, I don’t expect that anything will be changed or withdrawn at all, because that’s not how people operate generally and it sure as hell isn’t the way they operate around here. More’s the pity.

Thanks for the support from those who have chosen to chime in one way or another with your to-whatever-extent agreement that this was, shall we say, not the most justified of warnings.

25

Should have posted it there.

26

IMHO- The first one should have been only a Mod Note, not a warning, I’ll agree. But your second post was more over the line.

Colibri, have mercy on him, please. Stoid, you should say you’re sorry tho.

27

It seems a little unbalanced that in post #9 of the same thread, another poster stated that there are many douchebags on this message board and that didn’'t seem to raise an eyebrow. Hiding a mass insult in the veiled form of an example of a Spanish phrase surely has to be more insulting overall than calling someone ‘quite the scold’.

The term “scold” was directed at a specific poster, granted - but it isn’t very insulting. The term “douchebags” was directed at a large, but nonspecific group of posters - and it is pretty insulting. Even being nonspecific, since it was posted to a thread in which a specific group of posters were participating, it can’t help but be interpreted that some of the posters in the current thread must be among the nonspecific group of douchebags.

If **Stoid **had veiled her comment in the form of an example of Spanish and directed it at a general group of posters, would that have been acceptable?

As in:

“Are there a bunch of scolds on this message board right now?” “Yes, there are many scolds here right now”, in Spanish.

28

A scolding rather than a warning would have been more moderate.

29

It’s times like these I wish we did have a “like” button…

30

If someone called me a “scold,” I would not be insulted at all, as I would not think an insult was meant. I mean, really? Colibri should downgrade the warning down to a mod note. I know this in no way will impact Stoid’s posting privileges, but it’s the principle of the thing.

I think you usually have a pretty good batting average as a mod, Colibri, but IMO, this time you took a whiff at this one. Do the right thing and rescind the warning.

31

I don’t say it was a bad warning, but I think Colibri could take a lighter tone.

32

Why don’t you report that post and see what happens.

33

OK, this made me laugh, I have not seen jackanapes used in a very long time. Quite the perfect lampoon.

The modding was over the top.

34

I’d kill a man who called me a scold to my face. But I’m like that.

35

One lie does not make a liar, but one scolding makes one a scold?

Only when they don’t actually witness the crime. When they witness the crime, they go after the person they saw do the crime, not run down a list of people who have a habit of committing that crime. That practice is reserved for when they have a report of a crime but no suspect. If a cop sees someone speeding, he doesn’t go hunt down the cars that have the most speeding tickets on record, he pulls over the person he sees speeding. Doesn’t matter if it’s the first time in your life you were speeding or if you speed everywhere all the time. That time you were caught. Even if you think it bullshit getting pulled over for going 37 in a 35.

Irrelevant. It’s not what you meant that matters, it’s what you said. You made a comment about the person. You called clairobscur a “scold”. Direct the comment at the actions, not the person. You know that rule.

Now being called a “scold” is pretty mild, but it’s still violation of the principle. And the thing is, by applying the rule that way, moderators don’t have to try to decide if you meant to be insulting or if the poster on the receiving end feels insulted, they just apply the rule that says “Make comments about the post, not the poster.”

Wait, Stoid violated another rule that she knows, that comments about moderation belong in ATMB, not in the thread that generated the action. Colibri gave her a reminder instead of a warning like you’re suggesting should have been done for the other issue, and you’re still complaining? By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, people who protest moderation in threads tend to be thickheaded about it. Polite suggestions to take the comments to ATMB are frequently ignored by said poster. If poster is worked up enough to protest in the thread, they don’t take hints very easily. So Colibri made it a strong instruction to make absolutely clear what the expected response was. He very easily could have dropped a warning.

36

Huh? This is standard procedure. While not all complaints about moderation get told to move it to ATMB, when you are told, you do get a Warning if you don’t listen. And when you are at all hostile, you are very likely to be told to move it.

And I agree that lesser offenses, when committed by people with a good posting history, should just receive a note. The only purpose of a Warning is if you think you need to add some muscle to make sure someone won’t commit the infraction again. If a note is sufficient, it’s silly to give out a Warning.

The only difference it has on the poster is to possibly make them angry, and angry people aren’t just going to sit back and take it. And that will just make more work for you, as you, as you have stated, are required to respond.

37

What clairobscur said wasn’t “scolding.” You took offense where none was intended, got your back up, and made it personal based on your own misperception.

I don’t know that you deserved a warning for it, but he wasn’t being a “scold,” and cranking out (electronic) reams of pseudo-legal pleading over it isn’t going to make it so.

38

+1, on both accounts.

39

Standard procedure would be to remind Stoid that “complaints about moderation should go in ATMB”

Threatening to issue a warning for it is not standard procedure.

There are several threads every day that are posted in inappropriate forums. Most of them don’t get a warning, or even the threat of a warning, just a polite mod comment as to appropriate forums,.

40

Just curious - what makes this “official”? Was it notarized?