First, just because people continue to be critical of moderator decisions, doesn’t mean that nothing is being accomplished. There was no yelling; there was disagreement. The fact that you don’t like some of the opinions being aired does not mean they were yelling.
Second, the courses of action you recommend are, by the rules of the board, literally impossible.
We can’t start a “reasonable discourse” on this subject in another forum, because the rules specifically state that discussion of moderation and board rules belong only in ATMB.
And we can’t yell at each other about this subject in The Pit, because threads about moderation and board rules belong only in ATMB, and we’re not allowed to Pit moderators for their moderating decisions.
I’ll ask you the same question i asked Rico in that thread: do you even read and understand the rules you’re supposed to be enforcing?
That’s two threads relating to the language rule in the pit that TubaDiva has closed by fiat.
This is the same thread where “forbidden words”, a tongue in cheek description of a rule that many feel is irrational. Note that the actual rule, as posted, doesn’t ban the use, and in fact, Ed himself ok’d the use of said word as long as it wasn’t directed at other posters.
Well, first of all, discussing a frankly insane banning of a poster for explicitly not violating the rules isn’t yelling at each other, nor is people explaining their reasons for caring or not caring about a word (that’s all it is, a word). The tone didn’t seem out of control at all. And as for useful, well, it appears that no amount of reasoned request, logical analysis, or anything else will accomplish anything, so maybe you have us there.
Second, we can’t yell at you or other mods in the pit, nor are we allowed to discuss moderator decisions there. In fact the only ones who seem to be of the bent to get all angry and shouty are the people on your side.
Third, the appropriate place is ATMB, by your request.
Seriously: saying cunt, at all, is now hate speech? Stop and think about that for a second. Wow. This is exactly the sort of mommy-dearest moderating that is annoying so many long-term posters. Is bucketybuck going to get banned or warned for his exhortation to fuck other posters?
I frankly don’t care much about the rule. I don’t need to stoop to gross vulgarities, and when i do so for literary effect, I’m perfectly capable of choosing various other words that express the exact same intent and even misogyny if needed. I do, however, care that apparently “moderator discretion” has eclipsed all other rules and is used so unjustifiably and patronizingly.
By the way, if even discussing the rules is now off limits, you might as well just post in in the stickies and save yourself the time of closing all these threads.
Merged ivn’s thread into mhendo’s. The OP’s are posts 1 and 2 in this resulting thread. There were no other posts at the moment I merged them.
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Gfactor**
Moderator
And (I just counted) something like 25 of the last ~150 threads here were closed (and that’s without counting the stupid “So-and-so is banned. Now go start a new thread about it” closures or all the closed stickied threads as closed, but it does count them in the total threads. Note that this number also includes a ton of “Test post–ignore” threads… If you count actual ATMB posting content, the ratio gets much worse–something like 25/80 threads…eyeballing it)
Look–if you guys don’t want criticism of mod actions–fine. Grow a pair and JUST SAY SO, and ban the topic. Other boards do. But this goddamned game of “Oh, mod criticism is just fine. I think this topic has run it’s course. Thread closed” is frustrating as hell. You guys already close way too many threads, IMO*, but to close 1 out of every 5 threads is insane and makes you look bad. It also drives me nuts.
Seriously–pick one: criticism of mod actions is fine and warn posters who break rules BUT LEAVE THE THREADS OPEN or just don’t allow criticism of the mods. Closing threads left and right is the worst possible option and just pisses people (ok, me and mhendo) off.
*If it were up to me, outside of spam and threats of real, actual violence or other actionable stuff, no thread would be closed.
Holy fuck, it’s the internet people. Go outside and take a breather.
I think ya’ll are going to have a stroke at the PURE OUTRAGE!!! you’ve been feeling over the last week or so.
If you don’t like the way the board is run, leave already. The constant bitching got old ages ago. Yes, the mods are horrible, mean nazis. It can’t be, at all, that the majority of the posters who post in there are huge whiners.
I’m not even going to post in this thread again, in fact. Because I have the power to let things go, see? So please feel free to post again (and again and again and again and again) telling me how wrong I am.
Or maybe those of us who whine are the only people who have kept them from doing even worse things, since we actually provide at least some form of consequences for their actions.
I’m not going to leave a message board because at least three people in charge like to bully people and treat them unfairly. That would be to let them win. I will never back down from a bully.
And, if you don’t like it, take your own advice and stay out of it.
To be fair, Fenris had gratuitously brought up Der Trihs in the last post before that thread was locked, and you and bucketybuck were starting to make it personal. I still can’t agree with the decision to close the thread; TubaDiva only used that as an excuse to stop the discussion and I agree that I’ve seen that happen more often than it should.
Xploder basically asked to be banned. I don’t know why people who’ve basically said that they’re done with the SDMB still keep popping up when there’s discussion of mod actions or a trainwreck in the Pit, and often appear to try to deliberately get banned, but somehow it seems they think it’s a good idea. Looking at Xploder’s posting history, it seems the last time he’d posted in a thread not about the mods, a trainwreck or to mock an incoherent OP was in last december. I don’t have anything against banning these people on the basis that they don’t contribute anything to the board and are just jerks, but the mods always seem to find a bullshit reason to ban them instead. “Hate speech”? Come on.
As well, like Giraffe in the linked thread, I deplore that “cunt” (and “butthurt”) has become the symbol of the controversial Pit rules. It makes serious discussion on the subject much harder.
Two things. 1) I don’t see any of this; no one is threatening to go tea-bagging on the White House lawn, but we do all post here for one reason or anything, and it is worth pointing out how ridiculous it is that people are being banned for nothing. 2) Isn’t there a murder mystery or some such that you’re supposed to be posting?
See, i had no idea, until you just made the point, that Xploder had been spending all his time ranting about the mods. A search reveals that, in January of this year, he was also suspended for a month.
If Rico had come in and said something like…
…then i probably wouldn’t have cared too much.
Exactly.
To ban someone for that post was complete bullshit. As far as i could tell, it was just a bad joke, silly and pretty lame. But hate speech? Give me a fucking break.
Note, also, that Rico apparently had the time and the desire to ban Xploder, but made no effort to announce the banning in a new thread, or to explain the history behind it, which is the usual practice for bannings, especially when the banned person has been around for 10 years. Without any such explanation, we are left to conclude that he was banned for that single post alone, which is completely unjustified, in my opinion.
I do have a problem with that sort of banning. Defining “contribute” is tough enough. A lot of people who I feel don’t contribute anything are probably welcomed by others, and vice versa. And some people who are unquestionably jerks get away with it because of their views, while others don’t. (If you are unsure, go through this thread. Look at the posters who contribute the least, shout the most, and are the most jerkish – they aren’t the ones complaining about these mod decisions.)
Any sort of rule like that will inevitably be enforced unfairly and serve to eliminate diversity of thought. Further, who is this rule protecting? We all can use the ignore list, and we’re all adults.
I recognized his username from the Giraffe Boards, and one of his main hobbies over there is mocking the SDMB. I inferred that he wouldn’t be an especially good contributor over here, and I was right. Didn’t remember anything about his suspension though.
I feel that the mods don’t want to look like they’re banning “troublemakers”. So they find some sort of excuse. But honestly, I have no problem with banning people who are only here to complain or mock. This doesn’t need an excuse which nobody is buying anyway.
ETA:
Well, I mean people who basically only post in threads that have to do with moderator decisions, or in trainwreck threads where one poster does something stupid and the rest of us jump on it. The purpose of this board is not to comment, positively or negatively, on the moderation. Doing so is something posters who contribute something else can do. But if that’s the only thing you do, I have to ask why you (general you, of course) even care.
Of course not. But given what he posts there, I didn’t expect him to have contributed much to this board for the last few months. I could have been wrong, but looking at his most recent posts I don’t believe I was. And if someone is actively trying to provoke the administration, and they otherwise don’t contribute much, I think we can do without them.
Posters who are otherwise active should of course be able to complain as much as they want, since the moderation actually affects them. And of course, as pointed out by Czarcasm what I believe is worth exactly what you paid for it.