Regardless,
“Jack”
It won’t work. The suck up to Spicy thing that is. She used to be our friend and play with us before the admins got to her and rewired her to be a mod. Damn shame really. Now she mostly just reads her forum when she’s not studying the 4 volumes dope rule book
As far as GB goes, it doesn’t appear like a good match for you. But you’ll still lurk there even though you can’t stand it? That’s the confusing part. If I don’t like something, I surely don’t lurk in it.
Yeah forget the rumours of a mug or jackboots for new mods.
My understanding is that Ed outfits the new mods with some Borg gear that came back in a time warp. 
I have an account there under the same user ID and posted a few times, although I can’t remember why. I was treated well and people seemed pretty laid back. I don’t have the attention span for more than one board, but maybe I’ll try to change that.
That’s not to dismiss your experience,** TruCelt**. I’m sorry that happened to you and I certainly can’t explain it.
I occasionally Google my username there, but it usually only comes up when I’ve pissed off a sock here. Anyone can do it:
In your browser search box, type: <your username> site:giraffeboards.com
Still not seeing where anybody gets “cowardly” from. I use the same name at GB that I do here. I don’t hide behind another screen name, neither do most of the other members. Everybody posting in this thread who also posts on the 'Raffe is the same, both here and there.
The whole reason GB and the snark threads exist is because people want to talk about things that they can’t here. Threads rehashing old trainwrecks or things that go on/went on on other boards are instalocked here. So we talk about it over there. The cowardly assertions are BS. Many posters pop up over there when their names come up, and 99% of the time whoever did the snarking is happy to engage them and discuss the behavior that prompted the snark. Most of us use the same names over there as here. So yeah. It has nothing to do with being cowards, it has to do with people wanting to have discussions without stupid rules restricting what they can say, or prohibiting the discussion to begin with. There are basically no rules and it runs fine.
I’m on there too, under a different username, and made the mistake of searching this username and found something similar for me. :o Oh, well, if people have enough free time that they can do something like this, have at it.
Enough free time to, what, post on a message board? Doesn’t rule out much in the way of present company now, does it?
Starting and maintaining threads on other message board to talk about things that happen over here.
How is that any different than starting threads here to talk about whatever it is we feel like talking about?
I just searched on threads started by you, and found that you’ve started threads on a range of subjects, ranging from the deadly serious to “It feels like I have a big booger in my nose, but I don’t.” (And for that I thank you! It was a most amusing read.)
If you had enough free time to start a thread about a phantom booger, why would you sneer at those who had enough free time to start and participate in a thread about a community they’ve been involved with for years and years? Your booger was interesting to be sure. The goings on here, IMHO, even more interesting.
Remember that thread where someone got their own wedding ring stuck up their nose? Good times.
I didn’t know you could once Pit mods for their moderating choices. I wouldn’t likely accept such a job. I’m absolutely fine with accountability, but not with abuse. We get enough shit slung at us through reports as it is. I like the ATMB setup. It’s not like we never make mistakes, but there are some people who attribute the worst intentions to those mistakes no matter what. We’re in a position where we have to use our best judgment based on context which means yes, sometimes people who break the rules won’t get modded and other times they will. It has way less to do with bias and way more to do with context. It’s really kind of odd but you begin to mentally categorize problems without regard to subject matter. It’s just about pattern recognition.
I can’t speak to previous mods but our current bunch takes the responsibility of objectivity pretty damned seriously. If there’s any question of bias, we run it by other mods as a kind of internal check. Having to be constantly pitted over our sincere best efforts would be a righteous PITA.
The irony is that in a community where everyone is free to throw a fit about anything they like the moderators end up having very little to do. Aside from banning spammers and occasionally moving threads around (and Rebo fixing title typos because she’s nice like that) most modding gets done by the community. If a poster gets out of line other posters will set them straight in a hot minute and the mods usually only get called in to hand out a Boxing to the offender if they won’t chill out. When there are few rules, there are few reasons for conflict between posters and mods. When you have five million rules, a third of which conflict with other rules and another third that are vague and open to very divergent interpretations you’ve exponentially increased the likelihood of conflict. Laissez faire is a pretty good method of governance overall–most of us infinitely prefer King Log to King Stork if we have the advantage of experiencing both styles.
You’re arguing that most people would prefer a less rules, wide open, more frequently abusive environment that a place with stricter rules and less abuse.
On a board with stricter rules and less abuse.
:dubious:
How can I be arguing something I never said? That’s a good trick there, that is.
So you’re saying that the Gweeb is a kind of libertarian utopia? 
I am actually astonished by how few rules this board has. That said, TOS reminds me a lot of the US Constitution in how broadly it can be interpreted and argued. Like the US Constitution, this is probably intentional. Surely the subjectivity involved will engender conflict, but I think the rules are so broad and vague precisely because of a desire to interfere as little as possible. There are only a few instances where mods have no choice in how to manage a problem, and I think when you have the right people in those roles ahem things run pretty smoothly.
Yes, obviously I’m being defensive here. But it does come down to preference. I like rules, structure, protocol, clear expectations. It seems natural I’d gravitate toward that environment. Some of us are just really boring.
Yes, but to be fair, the SDMB has around then times the number of posts an even higher ratio of people who post. Given that and since this board is part of a real life corporation, there has to be more rules. Indeed the old days were way more wide open but so was the internet back then.
It’s true though that there isn’t much to do as a staffer on the GB. We have a hidden Mod only forum that hasn’t has a post in it since October and that had to do with settings for new users. In one week, it will have been exactly a year since we had a discussion about actual moderation of a user.
In spite of the freedom to be otherwise, posters at GB are generally quite civil. I’m not sure where the nasty reputation is coming from.
The snark thread in Behind Your Back is no worse that the Omnibus Trolls R Us thread that, uh, someone started here. And that’s about as nasty as it gets.
All of the stuff below is my feelings/impressions/perceptions.
If you divide the mods into three “eras”, the original mods generally liked to mix it up with posters–they seemed to enjoy being pitted and attacking back (DavidB, Manhattan (“I am the GODDAMN hall monitor”), Gaudere, Uncle Beer etc. There was the distinct atmosphere of “Yeah, I’m a mod and clean up messes, but first and foremost, I’m a SDMB poster.” and since you could pit mods and they could pit posters,
The second era of mods seemed (to me) much more thin-skinned–not all of them, but enough to give me at least, that impression. They were Bosses and we posters were peons and as time went on, it got worse and worse (IMO)
The third (current) era is making great strides (again, IMO) with rebuilding the rapport between posters and mods.
Oh aye. ATMB existed, but it tended to get questions about how to post, the quote function, etc. Posters who didn’t like a mod’s decision - sometimes went to ATMB, but more often to the Pit, where flaming was allowed. Mods were treated as just another poster, and could be sworn at with impunity for doing their job. It contributed to real bad feelings, in my opinion.
Ed changed both rules (complaints only to ATMB, language restrictions in the Pit) in the spring of 09, is my recollection, mainly to protect the mods from that sort of abuse, and also to reduce the conflict levels in the Pit. Both were good decisions, in my opinion.