God knows I get my snark on plenty when complaining about rules and so on. A lot of us do. This isn’t an attempt to reverse some disciplinary action. It’s just an honest observation.
There’s a thread right now in ATMB that’s a prime example of what is happening so much of the time behind the scenes. This thread on Malware is a very normal non-inflammatory thread.
I’m a 99’er and have watched the wars great and small during my (almost entirely) enjoyable tenure on The Dope. A moment’s kudos to both the Admin and Mods for what is more than a thankless gig. It’s a gig that involves much more behind the scenes hours of work fighting the real jerks of the Internet: Hacks, Malware, attacks and threats to the servers and therefore to the SDMB.
It’s real work. It rarely involves judgement calls and debates and a public face. But anyone who has done or knows people who do the kind of pick and shovel I.T. work involved in running a board of this size knows that it’s a nonstop fight. We in fact rarely suffer the attacks and problems that some other message boards suffer. Do we have the odd issue? Yeah- and it gets jumped on pretty much as quickly as humans doing this job can jump on it. Witness TubaDiva’s response in that thread.
I routinely enjoy a few hours on the Dope with nary a bug, hitch or errant virus warning. That’s the result of efforts not as flashy as administering Warnings or Bannings ( and not controversial at all ), but the fact is that the backbone of a smoothly running board isn’t the stuff of the ongoing napalming we’re witnessing these months in ATMB.
A Mod or Admin gets particularly prickly? Well, they’re human doing a job that they’re ( almost but not entirely ) doing without compensation.
It ain’t easy. I wouldn’t do it. Very very early on I considered asking for Mod training. I have neither the personality nor the time to commit, and so didn’t go for it.
A tip of the cap for the complex work done behind the scenes, as well as for the work done onscreen that we can all bear witness to- and bitch about.
About time someone posted in ATMB without crying like the Cukoo’s Nest patients about their cigarettes!!
Kudos to YOU!
(Remember when McMurphy learned that they…were…VOLUNTARY??)
No, they would not have. “On your knees, boy” is the line following “If you want to kiss the sky you better learn how to kneel” in U2’s “Mysterious Ways.” FYI.
OK, sure. Yeah we were definitely talking about U2 and kiss the sky. It was right there in the thread title. There’s no possible way that anyone could read anything else into that remark. Since we’re quoting lyrics, here’s some from Bikini Kill
Sister Sister, where did we go wrong?
Tell me what the fuck we’re doing here
Why are all the boys acting strange?
We’ve got to show them we’re worse than queer
Suck my left one. Suck my left one.
I agree with the OP. I have spent many enjoyable hours here over the past 8 years, and the moderators have contributed quite a bit to my enjoyment. Most of what they contribute, I believe, is not even seen. Most people who post here learn rather quickly that there are rules and that the rules will be enforced. Certainly that enforcement is not perfect, but it is valuable, and its existence turns most of us in self-moderators. When I am feeling meaner or snarkier than my generally angel-like demeanor would suggest, I usually temper my own posts rather than risk an admonition from a mod. Not that I consider such an admonition some sort of dire punishment or personal affront; rather that I would prefer to not have to be reminded not to be a jerk.
Thanks to the moderators. So I’m an ass-kisser too.
If a moderator did not know that, and no mention of U2 had been previously brought up in the thread, I respectfully submit that a mod note might have been issued.
Seriously? I knew immediately what was meant. Maybe it’s a generational thing, me being of the one that wore out Achtung Baby when it hit the air. I knew as soon as it came out it would be the best, most innovative album of the 90s. Ellen’s probably of the same.
