# Why can't we Pit mods? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 14, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-pit-mods/647229 "2013-01-14T23:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 5
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-pit-mods/647229/5 "2013-01-14T23:57:19Z")
Quoting from the announcement of these rules in early 2009. I mention the date because I’m emphasizing the pointlessness of arguing about this rule at this point. It’s not getting changed. Underlining is mine: > [@Pit rules have been revised](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pit-rules-have-been-revised/487256/1): > > (2) Interaction between posters and staff on questions of board (and especially Pit) administration has been getting ugly at times, and recent band-aids to the rules haven’t addressed the problems. We need a new approach. This is it. > > **Does this mean I can’t complain about the SDMB anymore?** > > No, it just means you have to post your complaints in ATMB. You can say what you like; you just can’t be insulting about it. We think this will work out better for all concerned. For one thing, we’re more likely to give serious consideration to a complaint that isn’t laced with abuse. > > […] > > **Am I not allowed to Pit moderators any more?** > > You can Pit mods for comments they make as ordinary posters. If you’ve got a beef about a mod action, that needs to go in ATMB. > [@magellan01](#): > > I can’t even challenge him on it because criticizing the moderation as I have in that other thread is evidently “Warning” worthy. I didn’t warn you for criticizing the moderation. I warned you for personal insults: you mocked **Left Hand of Dorkness** for being up on his high horse and then called him “priggish” a couple of times (and said the same about me). I didn’t even warn you the first time. You kept doing it after I told you you needed to stop making insulting comments, and when you didn’t, [you got a formal warning](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15897979#post15897979). To boot, you said that **Left Hand of Dorkness** and I were both prigs, which confirmed your choice of words was insulting despite your insistence that it isn’t. ([I also showed you a dictionary definition to clear it up.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15898354&postcount=41)) That was one warning. A little later [you criticized **Left Hand of Dorkness** again by saying he had no sense of humor, and took himself too seriously.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15898731#post15898731) All of that is insulting, and since I’d told you a handful of times to stop it because this isn’t the Pit, I warned you again. Eventually I did tell you both to stop posting about this issue in the other thread because it was off-topic. I had to repeat that a couple of times, but I didn’t warn you for it. > [@Fenris](#): > > Then someone called Lynn a “c-word” and Ed decided that because of all the abuse and suffering that mods endure for all their hard work, they were now protected from pitting. It’s too late to do anything about this now because oversimplifying history is fun, but the rule was never about one insult of one mod. That’s how a few people chose to remember it. But yes, there was a notion that perhaps volunteering to moderate a message board is not an invitation for unlimited recreational abuse. If people have actual questions or problems with the way the board is modded, they can ask about it in this forum. > [@](#): > > They’re “beaten like a rented mule”(?) you see, so they’re off-limits. I think you’re quoting something **TubaDiva** said recently, not something **Ed Zotti** said about the change in Pit/ATMB rules in 2009. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-pit-mods/647229)._