Or maybe it’s meant to remind people, like you, who remember that I used to be a moderator here, that I am no longer a moderator?
I used it in this thread twice:
Once when someone said “I want an answer from a moderator” and I said “Well, I’m not a moderator, but here’s my opinion…”
Once when someone said “moderators in the thread have been saying such-and-such” and I said “actually, I don’t see anyone except me saying such-and-such, and I’m not a moderator.”
The first case could be considered as gratuitous. In the second case, I am clearly trying to remind people that I’m not a moderator here. My statements are my own and do not represent the Opinions of the Moderators at the Message Board.
Is this the famous True Irishman Fallacy I keep reading about?
:rolleyes: Yes, yes, you caught me. I thought someone had said we had to ask exactly “pretty please with sugar on top” and it wasn’t true. You win.
If you will first pardon me for the big laugh I got from misreading your username, then I agree. A separate forum would be swell. Although it would leave ATMB with almost nothing but heck, it would probably still get more posts than the Chicago and the Barn together, so yes.
That said, it would also be nice if everyone would stop fucking crying about what people say the mods do and don’t do. You can’t go one and a half threads without running into that shit.
For one, the amusing part. That is, in the end what everything is all about. Some people seem to forget how low stakes this whole thing is (for normal people, at any rate). And before some enterprising character jumps to point at me say “Aha!” (which does happen). This is not an admission of trolling :rolleyes:. It is just reminding those who use the “why are you so bent out of shape over this” recourse that nobody is really getting bent out of shape but mostly shooting the breeze while we wait for something IRL.
Secondly, and we have gone over this hundreds of times, some people like the board and most of how it is run but object to some specific but persistent matters with how some people among TPTB handle some situations. I don’t tell it so funny but there is a joke about a baby and the bathwater that gets thrown and all that. Some among TPTB seem bent on the ruin of this community and some people don’t feel like letting them get away with it. Leaving would be a silly thing to do for as long as there is hope of solving the matter. Regime change I believe is a term often used in those situations (minus the bombing of civilians).
I am sorry the level of antipathy between mods and posters has reached this level. I think both sides are now reading each post looking for a way to take offense rather than a way to work things out.
I tried to respond to you politely, explaining my thinking, even though I was pretty sure you would disagree.
I also tried to see it from your side. I’d ask you to do the same, but it seems the time for that has passed. I explained how disagreement did not need to also be junior modding. It was certainly not a position I was advancing to stir up trouble. But, if you think that my behavior truly raises to the level of trolling, there is not much I can do. You are the one that has the power here.
I see you side, and believe you when you you say you are pointing out you are no longer a moderator. You are right, it was just twice, but I it hit me as having exactly the opposite intent. I accept that I was wrong (how many times are you going to get that on a message board?)
On the other hand, **Colibri **points out your “moderator emeratus” status and states you have “special insight,” making you an animal more equal than others one might say. It makes it seem that you and your opinions stand apart, neither mod nor regular poster.
If we were having a discussion about the police, it’d be relevant for a former (or current) lawyer or police officer to comment. When Colibri said he has “special insight,” he meant just that.
If this represents a genuine change in attitude on your part, I welcome it. Frankly, you have in the past engaged in some rather intemperate comments on the moderation staff - for an example, we don’t need to look further than your entirely gratuitous and unwarranted attack on twickster earlier in this very thread. A post like that was certainly not calculated to lower the “level of antipathy between the posters and the mods.” If this indicates that you’ll be a bit more civil in the future, that’s great.
If you had merely said something like “I think that Arnold, as a former moderator, is biased in favor of the moderators” there wouldn’t have been a problem. However, when you say “And while we are at it, where is Arnold’s warning for his constant junior modding?” you are accusing a fellow poster of a rules violation serious enough, in your view, to merit a warning. Engaging in this kind of attack certainly doesn’t contribute to maintaining a civil tone in the thread, nor does it “advance the discussion,” as you posted earlier in this thread.
I’ll keep this post in mind in the future, to see if you’re sincere about trying to lower the level of antipathy around here rather than increasing it.
Xash has already warned you once for being a jerk, and told you to knock it off. I’m warning you a second time for violating moderator instructions. Keep it up and you will find your posting privileges under review.
We make this forum available for posters to express their complaints about the board. What it is not for is juvenile games or for acting out because you have some axe to grind about the moderators.
It’s not suicide by mod, it’s more akin to manslaughter. These warnings are as much or more insulting (to our intelligence) and jerkish as Contrapuntal’s comments were.
These warnings are petty and vindictive, as well as being wildly inconsistent:
You know, cause neither of those are jerkish in the way that “Yo mamma wears combat boots” is.
The mod behavior in these last few threads about moderation reminds me of the sort of petty tyranny you’d expect from the Red Queen.
ETA: no, actually, it’s even more reminiscent of the principal in the Breakfast Club adding more detentions – do we need to send over a janitor to help you understand why your skins are so thin?
You could make a living on the psychic circuit what with your mind reading powers and all. Since I am not similarly blessed, would you inf telling me which moderator instruction I disobeyed and exactly how? Was it calling you out on your accusation of lying? Or the elderberries thing? Please tell me it wasn’t the twill or the base remarks. Please please please.
Tell you what. You tell me just who those remarks of mine where directed at, and I will apologise to each and every individual. Tell me WHO I insulted, and I will apologise to him or her.
I on the other hand can tell you exactly what user the combat boots remark was directed at.
I was going to leave this thread alone, but i wanted to make a point about this: Those comments by Bucketybuck constituted some of the main reasons that i started this thread in the first place. He also told me to “Grow up” in the other ATMB thread.
Can you see, Moderators, why some people might be troubled by the practices exemplified in these two threads?
When someone derails a thread by acting like a jerk, but also happens to be defending the moderators and board policies, then that person is not warned. Furthermore, the thread gets closed so that people who were presenting reasonable criticisms lose the opportunity to finish their arguments.
On the other hand, when someone else acts a bit jerkishly, and also happens to be critical of the mods, they receive two warnings from two separate mods in the space of a few hours.
Of course, Bucketybuck makes the disingenuous argument that his comments were not directed at anyone in particular, failing to recognize that the “Don’t be a jerk” rule does not require any such condition. And he definitely acted like a jerk in that thread.
Well, I was insulted, and I’m a poster who is apparently butthurt and a fucking whiner, so you can start with me, since I am at least one of the posters that you were talking about. Of course, I didn’t actually feel insulted for a variety of reasons (which are probably insulting in and of themselves), but that seems to be beside the point – the point is that you were insulting, and your post was reported, and there was no moderator action, which is clearly an inconsistent application of the rules.
Secondly, I am pretty darn sure it would be a violation of the rules to say something like “All posters who agree with X are cunts.” When you’re finished moving that goalpost around, please provide a cite for your new assertion that the rules require you to have a specific target for your insults.
Further, your behavior was clearly jerkish, saying “fuck these people that are whiners”. And if you’ll recall, these warnings are for Contrapuntal “being a jerk”. So the way I see it, given the precedent laid down as to exactly how insulting and/or jerkish you can be in an ATMB thread, you’re clearly as guilty as Contrapuntal, it’s just that you agree with the mods, which, also according to precedent, is a huge mitigating factor when it comes to deciding to take action or not.
I disagree entirely. But you know what, if the general consensus is that I was a jerk, then perhaps I should get a warning. Never had one, dont want one, but if thats the result then so be it.
I would take my warning, and probably stay away from ATMB for a few days.
What I wouldnt do is start a sequence of complaining about the warning. Complaining about the answers given. Picking part of a later post in my complaint thread and running with it for some brand new examples of mod abuse.
This whole forum is becoming a parody. Nobody has any real complaints, just a million axes to grind. The Mods are getting visibly fed up, leading to irate decisions, leading to further complaints. And where does this end? We now have complaint threads arising from original complaint threads, ATMB has become its own little world of strife, independant from the rest of the board. What next?
You know what, I am out of here. Two many people posting in this forum have, for want of a better word, agendas. I am fed up just looking at it which is obviously evident in my tone of replies.
I am a great believer in the spirit of things. The spirit of the rules, the spirit of the law. There is no spirit here anymore.
People want my retroactive warning! WHY? Its not me, I serioulsy doubt anybody gives a damn about me as a poster. Rather its just another tool to get at the mods. So where is all this going?
(On preview I see a reply from IVN. But I already typed this, and its so pretty, so…)