Just a quick reply to the above, and then I figure to be done with this.
The two board moderators involved in this dispute were Melin and Jill. Both had been posting to a thread called “minorities” (since pulled) on the General Questions forum.
Jill contacted me Monday morning to say that Melin had posted what Jill considered a personal attack against her. She wanted me to pull this post and her own (Jill’s) posts that precipitated it, on the grounds that it looked bad to have two board moderators quarreling in public.
There had been a previous incident in which Melin appeared to side with a user against another moderator (not Jill) on an administrative matter. I had sent a note to all moderators saying that I expected them to keep their disagreements internal. At the time I was thinking mainly of disagreements about board moderating duties. I was reluctant to tell board moderators they couldn’t get into ANY sort of argument. But I had warned them against appearing overly partisan.
Anyway, I read the “minorities” thread at Jill’s request. Jill had made a certain point repeatedly in several different posts, and once or twice had been a bit snippy about it. Melin had replied with a strongly worded but brief post to the effect that Jill’s comments were “bullshit.” Jill had posted something saying she hoped she hadn’t been misunderstood, etc.
The whole thing seemed pretty mild compared to some flame wars we’ve had and I told Jill I didn’t see the need to delete any posts. Apparently she’d also been in touch with Bruce, the GQ moderator, and he said the same thing.
That evening I got a note telling me to take another look at the “minorities” thread. It had gotten pretty ugly. Other people had taken sides; a friend of Jill’s had jumped on Melin with both feet. Melin had posted a long indignant note accusing Jill of racism, among other things. I was appalled. I was not concerned about the substance of the argument; I simply did not want two moderators duking it out in public. I sent the following note to both Melin and Jill (quoted in its entirety): “I’m not going to get into who’s right and who’s wrong, who started it, or any of that stuff. I’ll just say this: I do not ever want to see a public dispute on the SDMB between SDMB moderators. Please acknowledge.”
Jill’s reply, in its entirety, was, “No problem here.” Melin sent me a long note recapitulating the entire argument, suggesting that she felt it was a moderator’s duty to challenge racist statements, etc.
It seemed clear to me at this point that Melin just wasn’t getting it - that the purpose of having moderators was to moderate, not to pour fuel on the flames. So I decided Melin would have to go. The question was whether I should can Jill too, since she had been partly at fault. I decided against it, since (a) Jill’s initial instinct was that moderators shouldn’t bicker in public, and had brought this matter to my attention privately, before it got out of hand, and (b) she stopped arguing when I made it clear I wanted an end to this. Melin, on the other hand, is STILL arguing.
I am sure Melin is a good person. Clearly she is smart and articulate. But there’s no question in my mind that we’re better off having her as a user than a moderator. Jill has made her share of mistakes (hey, so have I) but has shown a better understanding of what this moderator thing is all about.