It’s not paternalistic. It’s maternalistic.
I wrote earlier that I didn’t want to debate any particular thread of post. But since you’ve raised the subject, I’ll say I completely disagree.
In my opinion (and the opinions of many others) DiosaBellisima’s posts were clearly threadshitting. To the point where they could serve as a textbook example of it. She was not commenting on the topic - she was mocking the fact that the topic had been raised and mocking the people who had raised it. And she escalated it with a second post.
Vinyl Turnip was quite correct when he then pointed out that DiosaBellisima was threadshitting. So your decision to chastise Vinyl Turnip and condone DiosaBellisima was wrong.
As I wrote above, I have no problem with what either DiosaBellisima or Vinyl Turnip posted. I think board policy should allow these posts. DiosaBellisima should be allowed to threadshit and Vinyl Turnip should be allowed to call her on it. But if there is a board policy against threadshitting, it was violated here and you not only failed to enforce it but encouraged its violation.
And that is against the rules. Outside the pit, you can make fun of the thread. You are not supposed to make fun of people for starting threads. That is the definition of threadshitting. I’ll quote from the rules themselves:
There were several posts, as you said, disagreeing with the topic, and they were fine. Diosa’s was not. Granted, you guys often let threadshitting fly if it doesn’t hijack the topic or is dealt with in the thread, but that’s why the new rules are relevant.
At the very least, if Diosa is allowed to make that comment, then someone else should be allowed to make a disparaging comment back to her.
Yes, because that never happens around here. If I recall our conversations correctly, you are personally familiar with having disparaging comments made back at you— so it definitely does happen all the time.
Anybody else starting to feel really ashamed of this place? How did it come to this?! Did taking offense somehow become a marketable commodity, all of a sudden?
I seriously cringe to think of people browsing the Dope for the first time and running across threads like this, the thread that prompted it, and any of the ongoing “Gender War” saga threads that came before it. I would not, today, recommend this place to an acquaintance who was asking me to recommend a general discussion board, for fear that they would see this kind of silliness. It’s no longer a matter of mere threadshitting, it has become a much more endemic case of boardshitting.
Can’t we all just stop shitting on the board? It’s really getting old, and being ashamed of this place makes me sad. 
Do you find a sophomoric thread about how freaking hawt a poster finds the backside of an anonymous billboard model he passes on the way to work is somehow intellectually superior than an ongoing discussion about sexism? Because resolving one of the two topics ensures that we can have future discussions about serious health and social concerns without puerile drive-bys and bone-headed attempts at flirtation. Resolving the other ensures that light-hearted ruminations on attractive models can continue to remain mundane and pointless.
America in particular has been slouching towards Victim Culture for decades now.
I don’t see any reason why we can’t do both. Just because gender issues are a much, much bigger concern than threadshitting doesn’t mean we should ignore threadshitting. That fallacy has a name, it’s called appeal to worse problems.
I didn’t see Labtrash claim to be a victim because he was teased, or is your comment directed at another poster?
I would assume FinnAgain’s post was in response to the Doper he quoted.
Regards,
Shodan
My comment was directed at the poster who I quoted and responded to.
But if you want an example of Victim Culture, just look at Ellen’s comments. Women are, in her view, victims, if men talk about attractive women. And it’s sexist/misogynistic for men to be attracted to women and not ashamed/closeted about such emotions, which victimize women if they’re expressed. That some women are easily offended is, in her view, grounds for granting them special privileges. That, is Victim Culture in microcosm.
FinnAgain, you are an embarrassment to this message board and, if you had any self-respect, to yourself. All of this whining about Victim Culture (in all-caps, no less! An Official Pronouncement! Of Things! Which you find to be Very Important!) and anti-male culture on the SDMB and endless whining, because of one incident of threadshitting.
Just… stop whining. Stop it. You are worse than my children. I have given time-outs for behavior that was less annoying than this.
[Moderating]
This is ATMB, not the Pit. Dial it back.
[/Moderating]
I notice that you’ve reached the point in your argument when you cannot cleave to facts or logic, and are reduced to personal insults as the totality of your post. You have discarded any pretense of rational discussion in favor of this maternalistic trash where you’re actually wishing that you could silence me, like your children. That, after trying to shame me, without being able to actually address a single point I raised, of course. Must be annoying to talk to someone who’s willing to speak the truth and whom you can’t bully or shame into meekness.
You could have saved the time and simply conceded.
I’d give timeouts to an awful lot of people posting in this thread if I could. Come to think of it I can, but it’s not worth the trouble. I think every single thread we’ve had on this topic (both these rules and the general complaints) has been a childish exercise in name calling and belittling one’s opponents. There’s been little reading comprehension and little attempt at a reasoned discussion. That ends now. You can agree or disagree with the moderation or with the handling or any particular thread, but if you can’t act like an adult while doing so, you won’t be allowed to post about it at all. At this point I’m pretty tempted to tell a bunch of posters they can no longer post about these topics in ATMB. The political and cultural diatribes are generally irrelevant to the subject and they’re also awful as reading material. This is not directed at one side of this debate or another, but if you think I might be talking about your posts, I probably am - so dial it back to acceptable levels.
This thread is for discussion of the moderation of the MPSIMS thread about the billboard. If you want to rant and rave about some political or social issue or about how unpleasant any poster is, do it in the Pit.
Yep.
ETA: For the record, FinnAgain, she *did *concede the threadshitting.
I don’t really think what I did was threadshitting, however, if it is deemed by the admins of the board that it was, I’ll take the warning. After all, it’s not my place to discern what is or isn’t threadshitting (that’s why we pay our mods the big bucks. Wait. We do that, right? 
). I’ve never had a warning in my 11 or so years of posting on this board, so that’d be a fun first.
Anyway, I’m not unreasonable-- if I did something wrong, I’ll take a warning for it without complaint.
No, Diosa, I was telling Finn that MsWhatsIt seemed to acknowledge that you threadshitted in that post. I think you did too. But I like you anyway, even if we don’t agree on everything from a feminist point of view.
Bolding mine. Threadshitted?? Huh? It’s threadshat, verdad?
Not according to Ellen. Her first pronouncement was about women being weary of male sexuality that is expressed, and why she was authorizing women to threadshit in such circumstances. In this thread she went on to call it sexism, and stated that part of her reasoning was that women felt they were being restricted if men could publicly admire an attractive woman.
How on Earth is this not a political or cultural issue when the mod who made the call has said, plainly, that it is?
Now if you think that politics and cultural agendas don’t belong in moderation, I would agree. But if they’re given as explicit reasons, why are you saying they should be ignored?
And it isn’t just about one thread, as the mod in that thread stated, publicly and with mod hat on, that she condones if not outright supports women threadshitting in threads about attractive women.
The easiest way not to have these discussions about politics and culture is to have your mods follow the board’s actual rules and not prosecute a political and cultural agenda under the cover of moderation. It’s not right to say that we cannot discuss the issues that the relevant mod, herself, said are central to her actions. If you don’t want the political or cultural baggage, then it’s the wrong call to be allowing mods to give the green light to threadshitting with the explicit reasoning that women are weary of men expressing attraction, that such expressions are sexist and that women are being restricted by men being allowed to talk approvingly about attractive women.
With that being said I will refrain from commenting further on the political or cultural points that Ellen raised. But that still leaves the objective fact of her condoning threadshitting and thereby encouraging more of the same. I believe I addressed a post to you in the thread earlier. Perhaps you, or another admin, would comment on whether or not the mods can ignore the Dope’s guidelines (BigT already cited the relevant rule which makes it crystal clear that Diosa provided a textbook example of threadshitting), and that mods can allow prohibited behavior if they approve of posters’ sentiments.