What a pathetic disaster! It makes the pit look positively charming.
I can honestly say that opened my eyes, but I have a sickening feeling that I was looking into the future.
No one reads the Pit except by choice.
The Pit is for flaming. Isn’t flaming intended to be rude?
If you think that words are “bad,” you misunderstand language. Words can be offensive to individuals, but in themselves, they are not bad.
Individual posters can be placed on an Ignore List if they offend you.
Dopers have plenty of options for dealing with the Pit and others Dopers who offend them.
We don’t seem to have satisfactory options for dealing with Moderators who are immoderate. Is it really satisfactory to the Administrators for longtime Dopers to just go away rather than to have a problem resolved?
Present evidence that there are any significant numbers of Dopers who are leaving and no longer posting because of either:
-
Change in attitude by management over the “rules” in The Pit, or
-
Immoderate behavior of Mods/Admins.
Then your statement might have traction.
Please note that most of what I said concurs with your other expressed sentiments, so I’m not “against” your position here. But it is constantly thrown out as a reason supporting x desired outcome that failure to implement that will result in people leaving from unhappiness, yet I fail to see that ever occurring.
FWIW, I got thrown off another board (that I started!) for deciding to post almost exclusively in their “Pit”–it’s kinda funny, with a few years of retrospect, but I gradually got to dislike the whole rationale for the board, and most of the posters, but I still was so invested in the subject matter (a baseball team) and still had so much to say about how far the team’s fans insisted in placing their heads up their rectums, that I posted in their Pit pre-emptively, even when I had the most factual and mild of observations to make, simply because I knew it would be mere seconds before someone came in to tell me how offensively full of shit I was, even by just breathing the same air as real fans breathed, and eventually I got banned simply for holding strong contrary views.
IOW, there is a definite limit to what can be tolerated on a message board, even if it maintains a forum for intolerable posts, I learned, and it’s a sad thing, because if people want to shut off offending ideas rather than simply ignoring or tolerating them, and they have the power to do so, they’ll choose to do just that, in my experience. It’s really pathetic, in my view.
Since gathering that evidence is pretty much impossible for us normal users, does that mean that immoderate action by mods and changes to rules have zero impact on poster retention? I don’t think so, but I guess you do.
Any one in particular that you wish the SDMB was more like?
How would you know? There’s no question that people have left; if you can’t think of a few names of former posters you no longer see posting here then you’re just not participating much in a message board you claim to care about. But, in most cases, their reasons for leaving are known only to them. Although I have no proof, I have little doubt that at least some, if not many, have left because they didn’t like the way the board was being run or the behavior of certain mods.
While there is obviously strong disapproval of some mod actions, do you think that their actions are so intrusive that, notwithstanding all the positives of this board, that those who have left have felt that the actions are so disruptive that they can longer function enjoyably here?
Didn’t I just say so?
How many names would Q.E.D. and I need to come up with?
I can think of one without trying or searching.
danceswithcats was a long time poster, attended many many doper events and he left after stating he was disgusted with the way the board was moving.
Now I did not agree with him, obviously, but this does not disqualify his opinion. He was a damn good guy and a damn good poster so it is a shame the board changed enough for him to decide to leave.
Yes. 
But surely those mod actions will only affect the posters who are confronting mods? Most users of this board will never get into that situation. I think it was Marley23 who recently gave the figures for bannings, and it really is a very small number. There have been some illadvised mod comments and actions, but they’re a blip in the scheme of things.
I did ask Ed Zotti some time ago if he had a view as to what sort of board he wanted the SD to be; what tone it should have. I don’t think he ever answered me, but I’d say the tone is set mainly by the posters, not the mods. I don’t think the mods are *that *influential.
Overall, I don’t think that the board is that different to how it was when I first started lurking several years ago. So, I can’t believe that people have left just because of some mods’ behaviour. But, obviously, this is only conjecture.
I wasn’t saying that people had - or hadn’t - left. I was wondering if there were any who had. You know of one: fine. I’m just a bit surprised that people feel so strongly that they’re prepared to forgo all the plus points of being here, because of some mod behaviour. If you didn’t frequent the Pit or ATMB, I doubt you’d be aware of these problems.
Look folks. I’m one of the new Pit Mods. Yeah, yeah, I know **Giraffe **has a longer. . . well. . . everything. I can’t really do much about that. At least you don’t need a ladder to pet me. 
But I will say that I’m not looking to ban anyone. I don’t enjoy banning people. I’ve issued very few warnings, I’ve admitted mistakes, and I try to do things rationally and explain my decisions. I try to be consistent. I’m also not going to start handing out warnings or suspensions over surprise rules. If you think I screwed something up, let me know. On the other hand, if you disagree with my ruling, it’s a bit of a stretch to conclude that it was because of some sort of conspiracy I’ve got cooking.
I’ve been pretty vocal with my opinions on the subject. I don’t get confrontational with the mods and I don’t see that changing. However, I don’t want the tone of this place to change. I don’t disagree with most of the bannings but I don’t want to see people banned because they are abrasive or don’t agree with mod actions. I don’t want to feel pissed off if I see uneven enforcement of the rules. I want this to be a moderated board. I want this to be a fun place to hang out. When too many members are disgruntled it is no longer fun. People did not decide to act this way because they got together secretly to piss off the management. There are real reasons behind it. I hope management is listening.
Not that big a stretch. You’re a lawyer.
Welcome, but aren’t you a tad overworked adding this in? You do such nice work on your other forum and such great Staff Reports, I’d hate to see you crash like so many other PIT moderators have.
As far as *you *know, officer. 
Me too. I’ll be keeping an eye on my workload, and I’m not shy about asking for help.
It was Colibri, actually - maybe I gave a different version of his number. He said six long-time posters were banned in 2008. My count was lower- I had three or four people who were banned for “jerk” issues. A few more were banned for having sock accounts.
Fixing the search function would.
Yes. THIS!