Problematic Moderation: Rico and Curtis LeMay

What utter and complete garbage. I hope the “report post” function gets a workout with everyone reporting jerkish behavior mentioned in any thread around here.

Can’t wait for the next driving/traffic thread to report all of the a-holes who brag about their road raging ways.

The Straight Dope Message Board - Continuing Laughable Moderation in 2010

Amen.

So every jerk on the SDMB is going to banned? Great, that’ll leave us with precisely three members.

From your lips to the ears of the [del]gods[/del] mods. Kill them all, Og will know his own.

Do you really think almost all other posters here are jerks? What attracted you to this board?

Heh. I exaggerate just a bit, but let us not pretend there isn’t a prominent jerk population here. There are the usual suspects who show up to threads and say dickish things, seem to behave dickishly more often that not, are oft-disliked and that’s just the way it is. We accept PosterX as an asshole, and move on. I don’t know if their regularly and well-known assholery is acceptable because they’ve been around for a while (sure, they’re jerks, but they’re our jerks), but this whole “privileges under review” business strikes me as a loose translation of, “Curtis, we just don’t *like *you.”

Uh oh. So much for my half dozen posts a year.

Can I still play in the 2010 Death Pool?

Well, there’s dicks, and then there’s useless dicks. Far as I can tell, Curtis has never once been warned or reprimanded for being an idiot when he actually engages in a debate; it’s his inane, juvenile threads that got him that. If one of our more vocal anti-religious folks started weekly polls like “Which religion do you hate the most?” or “How badly do you hate Christianity?” or “Have you ever defaced a church?” they’d be quickly shown the door.

Ha! I’m glad you’re confident, but I’ve gotta tell you… when you said that 9 mods unanimously agreed that he needed a smackdown for admitting that he vandalized some other website it makes me wonder if some of you could find your butts with both hands let alone make decisions reported posts.

Also, it is the height of lulz to pretend that a 13 year old making a public poll (gasp!!!) is somehow a danger to people who are supposed to be (more lulz!) the brightest people in all the land!! Here’s a tip from yer pal Sleeps, if you don’t want people to know your answer… don’t vote in a public poll.** That’s a freebie.

** - I knew that and I wasn’t even one of you geniuses that was reading Proust in the womb.

Incredible.

Even when the moderators take the time to explain that there has been a long history of poor behavior despite the poster being told to knock it off, people still bash the mods.

Oh please, spare me.

If he’s got a long history of poor behavior then I suppose it wouldn’t take long before he would break an actual rule here and they’d get to do what they’ve been itching to do. To use this pathetic excuse is stretching the “jerk” rule thinner than the skin of some of the offenderati around these parts.

He might solicit others to admit bad things in public polls! Won’t somebody think of the bestest and brightestest!

Don’t worry Tacoloco, something else will come along soon and you’ll get the chance to be upset on the mod’s behalf.

Some of the mods have a history too.

There is a LOUD jerk population here, but I wouldn’t say that they are prominent. They are quite prolific, and noticeable, but I’d say that about 99.95% of the posters here have caused no problems for the moderating staff. Of those that do cause problems, usually they get ONE Note or Warning, and then they don’t repeat that behavior. It’s only a tiny minority of a minority that get several Notes and Warnings, and the repeat offenders usually understand exactly what they’re doing wrong, they just don’t care.

Yeah, yeah. There’s something pathetic here, but it isn’t what I posted.

It was a good decision. Curtis was warned, ignored the warning and has been parked. He hasn’t been banned so the level of outrage you’re expressing is way out
of proportion to the moderator actions.

Come back when you have something legitimate to complain about.

Some visit from other boards, even.

And they are entirely welcome to take Curtis with them. Since they like him so much he can surely entertain them elsewhere.

Part of the problem with these assertions, of course, is that everyone has a slightly different view of what constitutes being a jerk.
One poster’s jerk is another poster’s “speaking truth to power.” That is why removal requires the agreement of multiple mods, because putting on the jackboots does not enroll us in the Borg hive mind. We often disagree among ourselves whether a specific action is an offense sufficiently serious to merit banning or suspension. As to giving the “Report Post” button a workout, based on reported posts, the majority of the TM feel that we have been too lenient, not too harsh, in not banning him months ago.
You can, of course, choose to interpret those views as merely “they don’t like him,” but everyone shows up, here, with a blank slate and getting a significant number of posters to express themselves that they do “not like” one requires a certain amount of serious negative effort.

I’m starting to understand why so many of your Pit ravings make no sense. You need to read what is there and not what you imagine to be there. I never said what YOU posted was pathetic. What I said was their excuse on this warning/banning/suspension was pathetic.

Stick with what is written and you’ll do a lot better. Well, a little better anyway

Part of the problem is that the admission of vandalizing another website is a stupid thing to use as the “last straw” kind of thing. Of course different people have a different view of what is a jerk. Duh. We’ve had threads where idiots talk about using their two ton vehicles to teach other drivers a lesson which is FAR more dangerous in the real world than vandalizing freakin’ Wikipedia. So you’re going to issue a warning for vandalizing cyberspace for jerkism but real world jerkism is okay? Do you get how stupid that is?

I don’t see vandalizing Wikipedia as particularly jerky. Wikipedia vandalization is pretty much inherent in their website design, and it’s pretty foolish to rely on the website for accurate information.

First off, nobody likes Curtis. Secondly, why such concern with other boards? Everyone likes posting here that’s why most of us keep coming back. The snarky comments about ‘other’ boards are unnecessary. The presumption seems to be that the only people who post at multiple boards or comment on mod decisions are troublemakers but the truth is that many simply like posting here and want it to remain an enjoyable place to hang out. It’s a big internet. I keep coming back to this board because there are posters here that I like and lots of interesting topics and discussions.

*missed the edit window:

And for the record (an those who read things that aren’t there) NO I do not think someone should be issued a warning for road rage, but it’s just as stupid as getting one for admitting to vandalizing a website that isn’t part of THIS website.

Bolding mine.

ALL of Tuba’s snarky comments are unnecessary, but she’s Tuba so she’s allowed to make them. At least she quit the pretense of being our humble anything quite awhile ago.

Enough with this brand of nonsense. You sound like a jilted lover pettily snarking about your ex after you both got invited to the same party. Everyone in this thread is a member HERE by definition.

And for the record I’m completely neutral on Curtis and his suspension. But these bitter backhanded jabs at offshoot communities are getting pretty tiresome.