I complained a little while ago about a message board I go to where I was getting annoyed at people, but the main thrust of my annoyance was lost in some pettiness about punctuation (yes, I dared to complain about someone else’s punctuation while typing all lowercase – God forbid! Nevermind, I don’t want this thread to become about that. If you want to roast me for it, go here.)
Well, I was a mod at this other board, and I quit because of their insistance that it is okay to steal entire articles from other sites while banning links to said sites. They were even reproducing articles from the pay section of the Wall Street Journal.
Now they are banning the link to one of my websites. Theirs is a parenting message board, and I have a board for homeschoolers in Houston, which I had linked in my sig. They want me to remove it right now, because a homeschooling board is competition. Fucking Nazis.
This is not the first time I’ve seen the operators of a message board act like asses for no reason. I was a mod on another board for teen girls. They had a forum for websites and site design where the girls routinely posted their urls for “reviews” – ie, “tell me how great my site is to make me feel good!” One new poster had the gall to give honest critiques of some pretty bad sites, and was suddenly accused of being a pervert and hacking a member’s website. He was banned.
On another board I used to post to, any thread asking a question would be closed after the mods felt the question was answered to their satisfaction – usually after two or three posts.
Another place had just two admins (no mods) who never actually bothered to look at the board, but would ban anyone who was complained about.
Damn. I mean, a private message board is private and the owners have the right to run it however they please, but some of them are such assholes.
Well, if they require members to pay for the privilege of posting on their message board, I can understand this complaint (hey, don’t wanna lose business). Otherwise, it seems a tad… insecure.
I can sympathize with the idiocy, having known of some boards where such crap is commonplace myself. I’ll note that I know several moderators at Fathom and am myself a moderator (and of course know the other moderators) at the Pizza Parlor, and can guarantee that they (we) lean over backwards to try to do right by our posters, with some very serious discussion before any significant steps are taken. I strongly suspect the same goes on here (though the Evil Nazi Mod. Conspiracy maintains a veil of secrecy over their activities! ;)).
So while your rant may very well be justified, the thread title and some of the content may be jest a trifle overgeneralized?
And then there are the mods who will let certain posters get away with bloody murder and blatent/numerous violations of the terms of service of the message board and then turn around and ban other posters. I’m talking from the banned point of view.
I had thought that mods were supposed to retain at least a modicum of impartiality but I guess I was wrong.
But it’s alright because I still post at the board I was banned from and at least 12 posters have left the board because the mod refuses to reign in/punish the fore-mentioned posters, and the posters who are left have a really large ego problem, what with proclaiming how their board is more intelligent and thoughtful then 95% of the boards out there.
No, SPOOFE, they don’t charge to post. In fact, they claim that copyright laws don’t apply to them because they are “non-profit.” Only they do sell merchandise and ad space, and even non-profits have to cite their sources.
Polycarp, I know there are some good boards out there. Look at the SDMB. I think this is a pretty terrificly run board. But some boards just SUCK.
Because they are the slaves of Ignorance, they who have not seen. As grace descends from The Cecil, so it passes to the Mods. One cannot expect that those who are not Of The Body to embody the wisdom and enlightenment that we Cecilians enjoy.
I happen to administer a small forum (http://www.metrodemontreal.com/forum) on the Montreal metro, and I endeavour in all things to use my powers for good rather than evil, for yea, I am slow to anger and swift to forgive, unless you’ve REALLY pissed me off.
My “other” message board (where I hardly ever post anymore) is run by Board Nazis. It used to be a lot of fun, but now it’s dead boring.
No polls, or “what’s your favorite” à la IMHO.
No talking about yourself.
Ever hear of AIDS??? The new Hi, Opal…?
No asking for advice.
No MPSIMS type of stuff.
The fantastic flamewars we’d have are long a thing of the past.
Ridiculous banned words. Not obscene words, but things like WTF, LOL, and inside jokes like “tub,” “media whore,” “poll,” and the list goes on and on. If you include those words in a post, they come out as “#####”. Stupid.
Posting is actually discouraged. In my two years plus of being a member there, I have a post count of less than my post count in three months on the SDMB.
Start a “Happy Birthday” thread for someone and it will be locked before anyone else can chime in with their good wishes.
I could go on and on.
Doing any of these things can either get the thread locked, or your account deleted. No wonder it’s such a boring board. It was fun once upon a time, but it’s nothing compared to this place. I’ve tried to lure some of that board’s posters over here, to no avail. Ah, well. They don’t know what they’re missing.
Not at all. I’m thinking of joining a local secular homepreschool group, in fact. And I wouldn’t even consider all of the Christian homeschoolers to be part of the religious right. That implies a sort of Jerry Falwell approach to life that I wouldn’t be able to stand to be around, and I like most of the homeschooling parents I’ve met.
Yeah, the board I am talking about actually banned the word “yahoo” until recently just to prevent anyone from linking any parenting-related site on Yahoo. LOSERS!
I participate in a woodworking message board.
All in all, it’s been very disappointing. The hijacks are out of control, and it’s difficult to actually have a worthwhile discussion there.
An off topic forum was added to enable the foolishness to take place outside the main forum, but OT posts are the rule rather than the exception.
I wish that board were more actively moderated.
I may drop out soon, disgusted with the overall atmosphere of the place.
One other thing is noteworthy. Apparently, in an attempt to keep things courteous, a profanity blocker was added. All this means is that serious posters cannot use words like assume, and the @ssholes use words like shirt to mean shit.
I’m losing patience with the whole thing, and it’s frustrating because I enjoy interacting with the woodworking community.
I would be happier if the moderators of that board participated at all. For all I know they are dead and buried.
scott, I know precisely which board you mean. As a matter of fact, I lurked there for quite a while before I even came here, and I knew that I recognized your name from somewhere!
It seems like the mod (or mods) were out to ruin that board. I just don’t understand having SO many restrictions that it takes all the fun out of posting. Like, if anyone was trying to be a little different, the thread would be locked. Or if a bunch of posters got excited about something, the thread would be locked, because you aren’t supposed to like something because everything sucks.
Also, Guin and I have talked about the hissyfit boards before. Those were ruled with an iron hand as well, and cut off most of the fun. I’ve always thought some moderators were like those crossing guards that insisted on crossing adults as well as children, and would get mad at adults who crossed the street by themselves. They get a teeny bit of power, and it goes to their head.
There is a board where you aren’t allowed to talk about yourself?
Lawks a lordy.
I’m an admin at brunchma.com. I’m nice and laid-back. I welcome newbies, gently steer annoying teenage newbies to be less annoying, give relationship advice, play a fairly active part in threads, give firm but fair correction to incidents of assholery, and post the odd link to amusing news stories. And I have a real admin hat, with my sig on it.
There are a few rules, but they’re to do with where you can post embedded images, and where “Hi, I’m new” threads should go.
Were you registered? And if so, under what user name?
Yeah, it used to be fun over there, up until about a year ago. I still check out the boards there, but all I see is crap about Buffy the fucking Vampire Slayer, and Real World/Road Rules crap. (I live in Canada so I don’t get MTV.) I think the reason why the Nazi webmaster cut things back is because of the whole Survivor thing - sure, it made the board famous in the media - but it ate up bandwidth, and a lot of idiots came a’posting. Hence the move to EZBoards, at least for Survivor.
But really, if I can’t talk about myself, MPSIMS stuff, ask for advice, poll others, rant & rave, participate in a GD, or ask a GQ, there’s no reason to post there. As I said before, that’s why I came here. I lurked here for a while, then joined.
I have to say, I also appreciate the near-realtime interaction on the SDMB. I can post something and get a reply or replies within minutes (as long as the hamster is still running).
So fuck my other board. It “sucks” in more ways than one.
I think it’s because they subscribe to half-baked pseudo-religious theories of “racial superiority,” and institute policies of separating “undesirables” from the population then engaging in their systematic extermination. What? They don’t do that? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
There are many of us, with Jewish families, who object to trivialization of the word “Nazi” at least as much as many gay and lesbian Dopers object to the word “gay” used as a general derogatory word. Could we maybe not do that?
The new Hi, Opal…?
I’ve tried to lure some of that board’s posters over here, to no avail. Ah, well. They don’t know what they’re missing.
in more ways than one.