Shannon, you are missing the point, or at least part of it, and you are overlooking some things.
DESPITE the feud that David and I were engaged in the Christmas in the Schools thread, please note that my first reaction was to DEFEND him when he was attacked by the LBMBers. (Despite your comment about my jumping the admins, I’ll note that I defended Ed in the fray with Opal, and got a “thank you” from him for it. In the incident involving the slur on Sue, I was by no means the only person who thought that was way out of line. The most vocal, maybe, but by no means the sole.)
I know that David has manny years of experience as a moderator on boards other than this, and so my original impression was that the first wave of fundies that invaded this place, with their bible-thumping spam, were wrongly attacking David for his participation in their forum with his views on evolution. In my post on the Pit thread about David being an ass, I commented that while I agreed that David was that way, he was our ass. In other words, I was prepared to, and did, defend him against what I considered to be the unfair attacks of strangers.
Thus, I consider it unfair for you to call this a “personal vendetta” – it most certainly is not. If I think that something is wrong, I will call it as wrong regardless of who says or does it, and if I think that something is right I will defend that regardless of who says or does it. Thus, when I thought that David was being unfairly attacked by the LBMBers, I posted in his defense.
When I took the time to sit down and wade through the entire For David B thread, I began to feel that I had been at best mistaken and at worst deceived. That thread shows – well, we’ve all been over what it shows, and it’s still there for people to read. The things which I and other posters have said happened did happen, and no one denies them. That moderator hat which David does wear does, according to precedent, require him to conform to a higher standard, as per TubaDiva’s quoted post. And, like it or not, what he does reflects on the site – certainly that was apparent when the LBMBers came over here indignant at the whole group of us based on the actions of one identified as our moderator.
You may not see this as consistent with my past posting history, but I do. I have always thought that a moderator’s posts and behavior DO reflect, for better or worse, on the site. That’s why I tangled with Jill over what I perceived as a racist post, because I didn’t think that a moderator, representing this board, should possibly be perceived as having those views (and I don’t want to argue that all over again; obviously there are differing points of view as to whether it was that way, but that was how I saw it and reacted); that’s why I tangled with Nickrz over the thing with Sue, because I didn’t think that anyone, let alone a moderator, should make that kind of an undeserved attack on a member; that’s why I have objected to the somewhat cavalier manner in which members’ complaints around here are responded to; and that’s why I have the opinion that David’s actions in this matter constitute “conduct unbecoming to a moderator.” It’s a rather old-fashioned way to say it, but I think that each of these incidents brought shame to the board.
That’s just MHO, of course. Your mileage may vary. But I calls 'em the way I sees 'em.
-Melin
