I’m not usually one to think anything less-than-good about this message board. However, what I saw inthis thread made me take pause.
Basically, the thread apparently began in MPSIMS about what it is like to be a phone-survey-giver. Then, in post # 30, Lynn Bodoni states:
The thread is then moved to the Pit. This is then followed by posts # 33, 40, and 49, with many other comments in similar veins:
I realize that this is totally normal behavior and language for the Pit. What bothers me about this is the OP did not begin the thread there. He began the thread in MPSIMS, where many other people with different jobs begin threads about those jobs. I work in a call center where I take calls from small business owners. Believe me when I say that some of those callers are just as irate as these comments. If I were to start a thread about my job on here, would I have to worry about my thread being kicked to the Pit where I would then be told I’m a loser, or truly evil, or worse?
Maybe there was communication behind the scenes. I don’t know, which is why I am asking here. I just don’t understand why the conversation could not be kept in a civilized way where we could ask questions and learn answers, rather than throwing it to where the wolves (so to speak) would be free to attack. There was even a specific comment asking if a poster was allowed to be mean, and then that poster was later invited to be as mean as they want due to the new forum change.
This board was apparently designed for fighting ignorance. Honest question-and-answer is how ignorance is fought, not by insulting a person who is trying to fight it through those answers.
I think the big difference is people call you. You don’t call them. People get irate if they’re interrupted in the middle of dinner or some other inconvenient time. Or they don’t consider answering a survey a productive use of their time. On the other hand, people are calling you because they want a problem solved or want you to provide a service. People have no control over who calls them at home and Flyer really doesn’t seem to care if people are bothered by him calling them. But although calling in to a call center may be considered a hassle or waste of time by some, depending on the results they get, it’s still their choice to make the call.
I don’t really have a concern with the vitriol there…I mean, I do, but that wasn’t why I made this thread. My major question was why was the thread moved to the Pit in the first place? Mods exist to enforce appropriate behavior. The thread was started in a forum where that appropriate behavior would be enforced. Then the thread was moved by a mod to a place where the standard for appropriate behavior is drastically different. I don’t really understand why the move was needed in the first place.
But this famous rantagainst a ‘debate the telemarketer’ thread was a Pit thread created in response to a GD thread. The original thread remained in GD and was moderated for GD rules. It isn’t clear why the same approach couldn’t have been taken with the “Ask A…” thread. Usually if comments start to get insulting in another forum the mod will instruct the offending posters to take it to the Pit if they want to bash the OP and keep the original thread on track.
In some circumstances a thread is so clearly going to become a Pitting it gets moved but usually that is because the OP itself begins as a rant. And sometimes threads about certain hot button issues are immediately moved to Great Debates because the mod’s experience tells them it is going to become a debate no matter how hard they try to moderate it.
Maybe the topic of telemarketing has become one of those hot-button issues that automatically warrants making it a Pit thread. But in this case moving the thread to the Pit instead of just starting a Pit thread about it really did seem to be a use of mod powers to do a ‘super pitting’ of the poster motivated by personal opinion on the subject and not an interest in keeping the board running smoothly. I say this because of the mod’s participation as a poster in the thread prior to the move, and also their participation in the legendary telemarketer pitting referenced above.