I don’t know if this belongs in ATMB or not, but I’m putting it here for now. I know everyone who followed the events of last weekend has been on tenterhooks, the closure of threads and the susequent rumour mill hasn’t helped, and with Ed Zotti’s thread in ATMB the dam seems to have burst.
I’m not proposing to discuss TubaDiva’s conduct and the rights and wrongs thereof here, or the events that led up to it - it’s clear that’s going to be debated at length, for a while at least.
What I am asking for is a little restraint in starting or adding to threads about the conduct and attitude of the Mods and Admins of this board. They’ve suddenly found themselves in the middle of a storm which was none of their making, and I don’t envy their position at all right now - being privy or not privy to what was unfolding must have placed them under a lot of strain.
I’m as guilty as anyone - I posted rather snarkily to a thread in ATMB asking for information about a banned poster, and in hindsight I regret the tone I took, since Dex’s reply was clearly one of a guy under a lot of stress. If you’re reading this, Dex, I apologise.
I’m not asking that the issue be swept under the carpet; I think it does need to be discussed. I’m just suggesting that we respect the pressure that the board staff are under at the moment, and that in any threads or posts on the matter we show them and ourselves the patience, tolerance and humanity that we claim to espouse here at the SDMB.
Very well said, Case Sensitive. Frankly, I’ve never posted to any threads concerning moderators for fear of looking like a suckup. But things have gotten to a pretty rough point here and I think the mods need as much slack as they can get. Honestly, I’ve never understood why anybody would want to be a mod in the first place. But the mods here do a great job of riding herd over a very large, complex and vigorous board, and this place wouldn’t be nearly as interesting or as civilized as it is were it not for them.
Good on you, Case Sensitive, and yes – well said. There’s been a lot of gun-jumping and hands waved in the air the past few days. Comments like yours need to be noted.
I’m worried about sounding like a suckup too, but I agree. There have been a lot of pronouncements, a lot of outrage, and a lot of people saying they’ll take their shit and go home, but I haven’t seen a lot of patience or understanding exhibited thus far.
Some feathers are ruffled everywhere right now. Perhaps we should just get on with enjoying the board and let those at the centre of the brouhaha have time to have a moment away from it.
We would appreciate some restraint, very much. In addition to the brou-ha-ha, we’re trying to reassign duties during TubaDiva’s suspension. There were lots of behind-the-scenes responsibilities that she handled that now must be assigned to other Moderators who haven’t been through that software, etc. So there’s a bunch of very rapid re-organization going on, and a little understanding on everyone’s part would be a big help.
This is one of the best moderated large boards on the 'net. No really, I’m not saying as much to suck-up . They keep things well organised and are normally utterly unobtrusive. I appreciate it.
Bullshit, ain’t it? Threads that negatively critique the admin. on what we’re not supposed to talk about right now get closed but threads that positively critique the admin on what we’re not supposed to talk about stay opened. What the fuck?
Perhaps they should change the headline from **‘fighting ignorance’ ** to ‘fighting only the ignorance that has been personally approved as suitable by our dedicated team of admins., whose word must never be challenged’.
Rather long and cumbersome, but perhaps closer to the truth!
If you’re doing it properly, usually no one notices. In the time I’ve been here, I’ve made note of less than half a dozen moderating actions. I’m sure there have been many many more than that. So I’d say a pretty good job is being done, all things considered.
I haven’t been paying very much attention to the recent activities, but provided they’re handling the expected board response in a fair manner, I see no reason to hold them to a stricter standard than they’ve been held to.
To those on this board who have complained about the monitors, I have something to say. Get real people. If the worst thing to happen in your day is that you get banned from a message board, even unjustly, then it has been a pretty damn good day. Take the five minutes needed to get over it and move on. The monitors have a thankless job here, and they do it admirably.
Am I the only one who was disappointed to realize that the call for restraint was not directed at the mods and admins, as the title of the thread seemed to insinuate?
You should chase those zombies down and demand your brain back. One administrator has been suspended. All have been given a new set of stringent guidelines. And their status as independent agents might be changed. And for all this, they get zilch.
I have challenged the word of administrators, including Tuba, Lynn, Gaudere, Arnold, and Dex. I’ve never been banned for it. Even when I made a ridiculous and dramatic scene, I was welcomed back without fanfare or brouhaha through the same procedure everyone else goes through.
I agree that the board in general is tilted waaaaaay to the left, and that the so-called hate speech rule is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen (not to mention wildly inconsistent — “fag” is forbidden, but “fundie” is allowed), but in the big picture, it’s a very fair place, and with excellent administration.
Not true. There were other threads that were closed and disappeared that did not at all go in to detail about what happened, but negatively criticized admins.
This thread that was just closed didn’t go into any more detail than this one until Dex re-opened it, made comments, and then re-closed it without a chance for rebuttals.
All who read my few posts know I disagree with how this board is moderated in some cases.
A couple of days ago I also made posts that TubaDiva and Lynn must be banned.
I must come back now from that harsh talk about them, I was wrong in how I looked at it. It’s good to listen to a victim’s comments, it made me look again and with more care. I’ve read the thread again that Aldebaran made. What mods and admins said in it, that’s enough to see that they never got good feedback about the privacy rules. Lynn was careless because of that. What came out of this, that was nothing of help for admins or mods. The complaints of Aldebaran were brushed away and people did as if nothing serious was done.
That’s calling for an other incident to come along. What Ed said now in his ATMB thread should’ve been done then. That’s why TubaDiva can’t be judged harsher then was done with Lynn and she’s already judged harsher, suspended for a month. Nobody asked that for Lynn. For TubaDiva people ask banning or degradation.
I talked about double standards in moderating but this is membership double standards. Professional’s post on what TubaDiva did and they didn’t on what Lynn did. There’s double standards again. Both violated the privacy rules of the board. One posted it on the SDMB. The other outside the board and in the belief the rules didn’t count for her there. What’s then the most bad of the two? Nobody here was sure about what is what, that’s what it shows. Professionals also forget it’s their profession. Admins and mods here give their free time.
Then there’s people who post that when once done by someone it’s to happen to again. Lynn didn’t do it again, why should TubaDiva? There’s double standards again and it’s like saying there’s never something to learn from an experience, a good one or a bad one.
An apology from the admin or mod should be something members get in such situation. But that’s all. When Ed does what he said in his thread then there’s no reason why I can’t trust admins and mods. That counts for Lynn and for TubaDiva and for all the others.
I’m not a big posting member but I made wrong posts on this two times. That’s what I think of it now and that’s not to win points with the admins or mods.
And hey, all who act as if a payment of a few dollars makes you shareholders with a say on who’s mod or admin or not, for Christ’s sake, buy the board if you want that right.
. They keep things well organised and are normally utterly unobtrusive. I appreciate it.