I think bold caps on its own line would be the most eye-catching. It makes it look like the title to the rest of the post. For some reason, bold text on the SDMB doesn’t stand out very well on my system, so I’d certainly appreciate the other indicators to improve visibility.
Also, on the TWEET and BANG issue, my personal thought is that it’s counter-productive to be cutesy when you’re trying to intervene in a situation where emotions are likely to be running high. There are cases where humor can help defuse a situation, but that really doesn’t work in this particular case. For standard mod intervention with the intent of keeping things on track and calm, a dispassionate, professional voice is the best approach.
I gave up apologizing to the loud vocal minority long ago. I will apologize if I have made an error, I will apologize if I have done something that I think might be dubious, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Hells bells, I cant’ say “Have a nice day” without getting ragged on. If I started apologizing for everything that someone didn’t like, I’d not be able to post without apologizing everywhere. Gee, I’m sorry that you don’t like this, and I’m sorry that someone else doesn’t like that and I’m sorry that another person doesn’t like the other. I’m sorry that the spammer asking for money from Nigeria doesn’t like being banned. I think it’s a sorry state.
Hmm. Mountain. Molehill. Mountain. Molehill. Hmmm.
Dex,, your point is well taken. I’m rather sick of the apologies myself. My own suggestion was poorly worded.
But my point still stands. Couldn’t you find another way of saying what your decision was without reminding us that you really don’t care what we think?
Or do you honestly not care about the thinking of Straight Dope posters on administrative decisions ever?
Sometimes you guys really give mixed signals about what you want from us and what we can submit without sarcastic responses in return.
Dex, what was the “mountain or molehill” comment about? Your comments or my concerns?
You see, I have to dummy down my concerns these days to get them to fit into ATMB standards. They may look like molehills to you while they may feel like mountains to me.
Kindly keep that in mind.
Tom, I’m taking your word that that was not a real TWEET! toward either Dex or me.
I think it might be better if we forewent any particular wording, and rather that mods used a color. Red, for instance. It doesn’t need to be a rule that only mods can use red, you can tell whether someone’s a moderator from their title. But a full-post of red colored text would be noticeable on the board, and so liable to stop eyes long enough to read.
It also looks a bit more professional than a Tweet, I would say.
I strongly agree with this. Which is why I think that a standardized icon or smilie or a simple “Official Mod Intervention” in highly visible text would be better than anything that could be taken the wrong way by someone in the red mist of battle.