Sure, sometimes, why not?
If it’s some huge egregious thing, maybe not.
If it’s some huge egregious thing that they did while acting as a moderator, probably not.
If it’s some minor thing that they did while in a personal capacity, I would think so.
I closed the second thread.
As I had warned earlier, I would close the thread if people continued banging on one another.
Did it occur to you that maybe the thread wouldn’t go on and on and on and devolve into people “banging on each other” if you actually addressed and answered the points that people were bringing up?
Who’s on first?
Because it is impossible to be unbiased. For the same reason why you would only get glowing reports if you did your own evaluations at work. And you would always be found not guilty if you were on your own jury.
Since Tuba seems unsure (“maybe”, “probably”, “I would think”) I will go ahead and say that it is not a good idea to let moderators moderate their own posts. And if there is a moderator whose posts need to be moderated on a more than extremely occasional basis, probably that person isn’t the best choice for a moderator anyway.
About two years ago I dropped both the ‘F’ and the ‘C’ bomb in MPSIMS.
In fact, I told another poster to go ‘f’ themselves and then called them an obnoxious ‘c’. *
I think both of those things are probably worse than calling someone a twat. My particular situation was handled just about exactly the way this one has been handled - a mild slap on the wrist. My point is, I’m not sure this particular situation has really been handled all that differently than if it had been a long-time poster who made the gaff.
Really, all these threads seem like much ado about nothing. Well, they would have been but there was the whole internet stalking thing, f-bomb dropping thing, accusations of this that and the other thing, etc. So, this part could have probably been dealt with a bit better; however, the original ‘offense’ is so minor I’m a bit mystified by all the uproar in the first place.
*Most satisfying post I’ve ever made on here. 
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
This is not an answer to the question I asked.
So you slapped yourself on the wrist, then?
Oh, no? You mean it was another person who looked at your post and decided it broke the rules, and then let you know you broke the rules and asked you not to do it again?
Yeah, same thing.
Here’s my two cents as a mod regarding the situation that started all of this:
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I would have given Twickster a note as well over her post. My decision to make anything a note or a warning has many different factors that contribute to it, one of the biggest ones being: Does this poster have a history of doing this type of thing and making these type of posts? Since in Twickster’s case (insulting members outside of the Pit) this would have been a “no”, I would have went with a note only, not a warning.
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However, by the time I saw the post, the mod in question already had a note issued (by herself, no less). You may disagree with mods being able to do that, but it was still a note, nonetheless…so having another mod come in and make a note on top of that would have been–IMO–redundant.
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Now you may disagree that the post in question merits more than just a note, but that’s really a decision that comes down to the mod on at the time. Some may give you a warning…some may just give you a note. Seems to me like some posters who are more likely to find fault with mod decisions would call this “inconsistency”, but I really don’t see it. I think what it is, more, is the fact that the mods are all different people and are prone to having their own minds and making difference choices in different situations as another mod might.
Me (as I said in point 1), I would have just given her a note for that.
I would have given ANYONE (I.E. if it wasn’t Twickster) a note for that post (again, as long as it wasn’t something the poster did all the time–other factors may apply sometimes–and no, I’m not going to list them all).
As it is…the mod did get a note for it.
I think, as a matter of general principle, you’re right. I’ve seen plenty of times when people have stepped over the line in non-Pit threads and simply been told to cool off. As you say, a mild slap on the wrist.
A while back, i made an inappropriate post in an MPSIMS thread because i was posting in multiple threads and forgot that this particular thread was not in the Pit. I realized my error, reported my post, and made an apology for my mistake, and everything was fine. Here’s what i actually said once i realized what i had done:
That’s actually the thing that gets me most about this whole situation. I’m not arguing that twickster should get anything more than a slap on the wrist for this. What i’m arguing is that the whole thing was handled poorly from the start. Here’s what twickster wrote when she realized that she had insulted someone outside the Pit:
This sort of self-admonition just comes across as disingenuous and insincere. What would have been far more appropriate is a simple and genuine apology for the fuck-up.
Here’s what a reasonable moderator might have said under similar circumstances.
If twickster had posted something like that, i would have shrugged, put it down to the sort of mistake that plenty of people have made in the past, and moved on. Simple, really.
But couldn’t even muster up the integrity to offer a simple apology for breaking the very rules that she’s charged with enforcing.
As i said, i think a note, under these circumstances, was perfectly appropriate. I was more annoyed by the shrug-it-off attitude that she evinced, and surely you see why giving oneself a note might be perceived as somehow inappropriate. Maybe i’ll become a cop, and then let myself off with a warning every time i break the rules.
And that is the elephant in the room. This will really never go away, even if it dies down, the next time she’s called out in ATMB, this will be brought up. The logical answer is for her to step up, own the situation, and set it straight.
What’s wrong with a little goddamn transparency? Why, when asked a direct question, is it not answered? This is a message board, not a fucking missile silo or state secret. If what **Twickster **did is acceptable, and clearly it is because she’s still a moderator, then just say so. The moderators here can’t possibly damn themselves further with an answer than they’ve already done with their silence.
Think of it as a relationship. If *this *is the direction the relationship between mods and pubbies is heading in, we deserve to know. We deserve to be informed so we can decide whether we want to accept you with all your lovable (if increasingly ridiculous) faults, or break up once and for all.
I don’t have a dog in this hunt, and usually don’t have any complaints about the moderation, but I do agree that twickster’s note on herself came across as insincere and snarky. If she had posted a genuine apology owning up to her error, either in the original thread, or in living_in_hell’s ATMB thread instead of hiding or ignoring it, this entire three-thread shitstorm could have been avoided.
I agree with this completely. I thought twickster was having a bit of fun; however, given that many do seem to take this stuff really seriously, an apology for breaking the rules would have been better.
FWIW, I came back and apologized - not to the poster I called a ‘c’ - but for breaking forum rules.
Especially coming from twickster. She should be aware that she has a reputation (right or wrong) for getting emotionally over-involved in a limited subset of topics and moderating/posting inappropriately, making “having a bit of fun” come across as anything but.
This is exactly what I did when I was Warned for calling a poster an asshole in GD–and it’s the minimum standard of behavior I’d expect for someone who’s a moderator. As with the police in the real world, I absolutely expect that the enforcers of the rules are to be held to much higher standards than those who do not have that power.
She made an error.
She caught herself in it.
She got what anyone else would have gotten for it.
Should some other staffer have issued the rebuke? Yeah, probably. In hindsight, that would have been the better way to go. In future we will ask any staffer who transgresses to bring the issue to the mod loop for handling.
If this had happened between two posters – and that sort of situation happens around here on a regular basis, it’s not unusual – it wouldn’t even have registered. It was a statement made not as a moderator but as regular ol’ poster. Moderators are entitled to be regular ol’ posters sometimes, or should be. Moderators are people too, and have feelings, and react to things, and do sometimes good things and sometimes make mistakes.
If you had made this post 2 threads ago I don’t think there would have been a stink made about it. IMHO the bolded part is a good way of handling it.