When Good Mods Go Bad

[cainxinth]

I’ve frequented a couple of message boards over the years. This is the only one I have a post count of more than two dozen at because basically GD is such a useful resource for obscure questions, and when I’m feeling a little less serious the crowd generally has a good sense of humor in the other forums.

I can’t recall getting into trouble with moderators on any board. I don’t really raise enough hackles to warrant personal attention, but from time to time I notice the mods getting into it with other users. I’m sure the mods are out there doing a useful and selfless task that goes totally unnoticed every day, culling out spammers and trolls and other creatures that would otherwise make the board an inhospitable environment, and I salute them for that.

But, the times I do notice them, the dispute almost invariably arises because they’ve let their authority go to their head. For whatever reason they don’t like a particular person or they aren’t in a good mood that day and they decide to take the hard line approach. It’s like every message board on the internet is an ongoing Stanford prison experiment, where every once in a while otherwise normal people decide to club someone.

[twickster]

What, you thought things were in danger of calming down a bit, so you needed to stir up some more shit?

[Cisco]

@cainxinth

But, the times I do notice them, the dispute almost invariably arises because they’ve let their authority go to their head. For whatever reason they don’t like a particular person or they aren’t in a good mood that day and they decide to take the hard line approach. It’s like every message board on the internet is an ongoing Stanford prison experiment, where every once in a while otherwise normal people decide to club someone.

No dog in this fight whatsoever but I just wanted to say I wish people all over the internet would stop analogizing that discredited experiment and linking to it like everyone in America didn’t learn about it in high school.

[Hawkins]

Even with the world’s most powerful electron microscope you still couldn’t detect my interest in this thread.

Except to say that I have no interest in this thread.

[appleciders]

Actually, cainxinth didn’t single out mods on this board as opposed to other boards, so let’s give him some more room to put his foot in his mouth before we attack.

[Stringer]

You really should break all the mods into categories.

Good Mods:
Rico
Colibri
samclem
**Gfactor **
MEBuckner
tomndebb
SkipMagic
Ukulele Ike
fluiddruid
**InvisibleWombat **
Cajun Man
SkipMagic
**Marley23 **
Czarcasm
**Giraffe **

Bad Mods:
C K Dexter Haven
Ed Zotti

People who should have no power whatsoever:
TubaDiva

[Sapo]

To the OP, cite? You might as well start an umbrella pitting of all things dislikable on the world.

To the rest, get over yourselves and go to the modsucking thread. Coming here to whine about those who whine about the mods is just as retarded as going to the Viva-Los-Mods threads and saying they suck.

[Bryan_Ekers]

The best mods are invisible mods.

DonSmiley is a great mod.

[Sapo]

@Stringer

You really should break all the mods into categories.

I agree with the sentiment but my first group would be somewhat shorter.

By the time I left last year CajunMan had made such a joke of himself that they put him in a back room straightening the paper clips that the Tub used to break open the fridge lock, even if they didn’t dismod him. Is he still around?

And in strong agreement with Bryan Ekers, I have to admit that there are several in that list that I didn’t even realize were mods, so good job to them!

[Captain_Carrot]

@Cisco

No dog in this fight whatsoever but I just wanted to say I wish people all over the internet would stop analogizing that discredited experiment and linking to it like everyone in America didn’t learn about it in high school.

Everybody didn’t. For example, I didn’t. I don’t recall it ever being brought up in any class. Of course, I still know about it, because I read voraciously, but still, I doubt it’s common knowledge.

[Hawkins]

This is the Pit. You got a beef? Put it out there. Let’s hear it.

Name some names. I’ll probably agree with you on most of them.

But for fuck’s sake, ** When Good Mods Go Bad?**

Put that shit on MPSIMS.

[lissener]

@Cisco

. . . discredited . . .

Site? Honestly curious; I have a friend writing a screenplay about this.

[Cisco]

@lissener

Site? Honestly curious; I have a friend writing a screenplay about this.

From Wikipedia, the easiest source to find, though hardly the only place I’ve seen it criticized:

The experiment was widely criticized as being unethical and bordering on unscientific. Current ethical standards of psychology would not permit such a study to be conducted today. The study would violate the American Psychological Associate Ethics Code, the Canadian Code of Conduct for Research Involving Humans, and the Belmont Report.

Because it was a field experiment, it was impossible to keep traditional scientific controls. Zimbardo was not merely a neutral observer, but influenced the direction of the experiment as its “superintendent”. Conclusions and observations drawn by the experimenters were largely subjective and anecdotal, and the experiment would be difficult for other researchers to reproduce.

Some of the experiment’s critics argued that participants based their behaviour on how they were expected to behave, or modelled it after stereotypes they already had about the behaviour of prisoners and guards. In other words, the participants were merely engaging in role-playing. Another problem with the experiment was certain guards, such as “John Wayne”, changed their behaviour because of wanting to conform to the behaviour that they thought Zimbardo was trying to elicit.

Additionally, it was criticized on the basis of ecological validity. Many of the conditions imposed in the experiment were arbitrary and may not have correlated with actual prison conditions, including blindfolding incoming “prisoners”, not allowing them to wear underwear, not allowing them to look out of windows and not allowing them to use their names.

Some said that the study was too deterministic: reports described significant differences in the cruelty of the guards, the worst of whom came to be nicknamed “John Wayne.” (This guard alleges he started the escalation of events between “guards” and “prisoners” after he began to emulate a character from the Paul Newman film Cool Hand Luke. He further intensified his actions because he was nicknamed “John Wayne” though he was trying to mimic actor Strother Martin who played the role of the sadistic “Captain” in the movie.[3]) Most of the other guards were kinder and often did favours for prisoners. Zimbardo made no attempt to explain or account for these differences.

Also, it has been argued that selection bias may have played a role in the results. Researchers from Western Kentucky University recruited students for a study using an advertisement similar to the one used in the Stanford Prison Experiment, with and without the words “prison life.” It was found that students volunteering for a prison life study possessed dispositions toward abusive behavior.

Finally, the study was never published in a peer-reviewed journal. Lacking peer-review, it is difficult to interpret the meaningfulness of the results.

But your friend should be more concerned about this than the credibility of the experiment.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Stringer

You really should break all the mods into categories.

Good Mods:
Rico
Colibri
samclem
**Gfactor **
MEBuckner
tomndebb
SkipMagic
Ukulele Ike
fluiddruid
**InvisibleWombat **
Cajun Man
SkipMagic
**Marley23 **
Czarcasm
**Giraffe **

Bad Mods:
C K Dexter Haven
Ed Zotti

People who should have no power whatsoever:
TubaDiva

I prefer to organize my mods into “ones with animals in their names”, “ones whose names are plays on words”, “ones whose names are names”, and "the stupid ones who don’t fit into my otherwise brilliant categories.

Lookin’ at you, fluiddruid, SkipMagic, Cajun Man and Gfactor…

:mad:

[Kat]

Why is SkipMagic on the list twice? Has someone managed a successful human cloning and not told anyone? gives SkipMagic a stern Look

[Colibri]

@Sapo

Coming here to whine about those who whine about the mods is just as retarded as going to the Viva-Los-Mods threads and saying they suck.

Interesting comment, considering this post.

@Sapo

Just curious. Mods, do you really get PMs about your haphazard moderation? I don’t give a second thought to pitting you for any fault real or imagined, but I feel no desire to make it a private matter. You fuck up publicly, you get grilled publicly, I say.

[SkipMagic]

@Kat

Why is SkipMagic on the list twice? Has someone managed a successful human cloning and not told anyone? gives SkipMagic a stern Look

Probably my identical–albeit evil–cousin. Whenever the bitching in the Pit starts about something I’ve done, it’s his fault.

[Jragon]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

I prefer to organize my mods into “ones with animals in their names”, “ones whose names are plays on words”, “ones whose names are names”, and "the stupid ones who don’t fit into my otherwise brilliant categories.

Lookin’ at you, fluiddruid, SkipMagic, Cajun Man and Gfactor…

:mad:

I’d like to move that fluiddruid qualifies as an animal due to druid shapeshifting abilities.

[bbs2k]

@SkipMagic

Probably my identical–albeit evil–cousin. Whenever the bitching in the Pit starts about something I’ve done, it’s his fault.

He’s the one that closes all my really really* good MPSIMS threads too… right?

• Not a “really” clone, I meant to write it twice. For emphasis on the “really”.

[Sapo]

@Colibri

Interesting comment, considering this post.

What about it? It is an actual question. You might not like my wording, but it is an actual question. I even admit to some of my complaints being about imagined faults. Edit it and remove the word “haphazard” if it really twists you so much.

A more relevant comment of mine on that same thread, just a couple posts down:

That said, I think people is free to suck up all they want and those who don’t like it can just go and read some other thread (or start their own about how mods suck).