No, the correct thing to do when you have a problem with another poster is for you to take it to the Pit.
What was that loud noise just overhead? It sounded like some kind of jet plane whooshing past.
Yes to both of these.
In her moderating, twickster seems to ask herself two key questions:
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Is the post a violation of the SDMB rules?
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Do I agree or disagree with the sentiments expressed in the post?
As far as i’ve been able to tell, the answer to the second question generally plays at least as big a role in her moderating decisions as the answer to the first.
If I were a mod in MPSIMS, I would have also moved the OP to the PIT as being a rant. Had all the attributes.
I tend to agree with you, but even if that is true, does the fact that it deserved to be moved excuse the rules violations that occurred before the move? Especially when the moderator who moved the thread has explicitly said that a key reason for doing so was to avoid handing out a bunch of warnings and mod notes.
The two things need not be mutually exclusive. It is humanly possible, i believe, to both issue the appropriate warnings AND move the thread.
Maybe you’re right, but I don’t see any reason to think kayT was being ironic.
That’s O.K. Humor can be a difficult concept for some to grasp. There’s a support group for that. It’s called Comedy Central.
Why do you assume kayT was joking?
Without trying to “circle the wagons” as the snarkers say, let me provide a timeline–
hansomeharry starts a thread at 7:40 PM on 9/10.
The first report of a post to the mods was at 8:11 AM on 9/11.
The next report of a post to the mods was at 2:01PM on 9/11.
Then the reports came a bit faster.
twicks move the thread at 4:30 PM on 9/11.
There were 39 posts to the thread when she moved the thread to the PIT.
Mods aren’t on the Board 24/7. I’ve had a time or two when I’ve come in to read reports where there are too many posts to wade into to hand out warnings/notes. The way we quite often handle it is what she did. I’m sure other mods would agree with my assessment.
My point exactly.
**hyperbole
[hahy-pur-buh-lee]
noun, Rhetoric
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obvious and intentional exaggeration.
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an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”**
I’ve made this sort of argument before, but that isn’t how it’s usually moderated. When a bunch of people make Warnable posts in a thread, it is almost always either moved or, even more likely, closed.
There’s also the issue that, when people know a thread belongs in another forum, they will respond as if it is already in that forum. You’ll see GQ posts that have opinions because they know it belongs in IMHO.
With posts that belong in the Pit, people are usually more circumspect, but not always. That first response was a doozy, I’ll admit. But it’s far from the worst I’ve seen in MPSIMS. I’ve seen those posts get a Warning, or just a mod note, depending on the context. So I didn’t think anything of it.
Also, since claims that it was trolling have come up in this thread, I’ll mention that my own such claims, made in the Pit, came after his subsequent actions. The original post was provocative, but you can be provocative without trolling. It’s only trolling if you do it because you enjoy pushing people’s buttons.
What thread are you reading? He had insulted multiple people in the thread even before my comment this morning. Nor did he give any indication that the insults he’d received prior to the move bothered him. If he objected to the thread being moved to the Pit, he gave no such indication in the thread
And if he does object but has refused to say anything, I’m not sure the mods have any obligation to care about his objection. As it is, it seems other Dopers object more than he does. He didn’t start this thread nor has he responded to it. And no mods have given any indication he sent them a PM.
You may not consider it fair, but it’s been a standard practice for as long as I’ve been here. If things get too heated, mods sometimes move threads to the Pit.
Note: I’m not saying that handsome harry’s thread should or should not have been moved.
But the timeline is, it seems to me, irrelevant to the principle.
If i see a thread that i think should be in the BBQ Pit, and i report it to the moderators, my understanding is that i should not begin throwing insults unless and until it is, in fact, moved to the BBQ Pit.
My criticism of twickster does not stem from the delay in moving the thread. I understand very well that moderators can’t respond to every report or problem instantaneously. My criticism stems from the fact that the people who reported the thread should have continued to obey the rules of the forum that the thread was placed in, and therefore those people should have been mod noted or warned for failing to follow the rules, even if the number of violators might have made this a bit of a chore.
As far as i can tell, especially given the last paragraph of your post, your argument here seems to boil down to: If one or two people break the rules, we’ll hand out mod notes or warnings. But if a whole bunch of people break the rules, we’ll let them all off. The idea that there might be “too many posts” to actually bother with enforcing the rules is a rather problematic principle to follow, IMO.
So it’s unlikely to change now, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t criticize it.
You’ll excuse me if I don’t give much weight to your opinion. Looking at all your posts in this thread, I suspect your own expertise in the art of wit is far exceeded by your estimations thereof.
As a moderator on another message board, I can understand twickster’s position. It’s a voluntary job, it’s unpaid, and it’s often thankless. There often isn’t enough free time to attend to every report. I don’t know how many reports were made about that thread, but it can be discouraging to wade through many reports and issue a warning or write a mod note for every single one. And than you get the inevitable ATMB threads. “Why was Poster A warned and not Poster B?” We don’t have a Pit in my forum, but there are times when I see a thread and I say to myself, “Fuck that noise,” and close the thread. In a perfect future world, we may have modbots to do all that, but the mods are only human, so I tend to cut them a little slack. They don’t please everybody, but I think they do a good job most of the time. I guess you have to spend a little time in their shoes. If this makes me a brown nose, so be it. Just because it’s in the Pit, you’re still not required to be insulting. People can still reply to the thread civilly.
He has stated elsewhere that he is an old white guy. Apparently he feels this entitles him to say whatever brainless thing pops into his head. This is not just my opinion, as he has been admonished in at least one other thread for saying inappropriate things. The guy is a living stereotype of the “cranky old person”, with none of the charm, and I, like you, take exception to it. I think the mod action was appropriate, given his past outbursts.
The weight you give to my opinion greatly exceeds the weight I give to yours.
And you know what guys? This is not the Pit.
Moderator Note
Let’s avoid this kind of personal attack in this forum. No warning issued, but this is not appropriate for ATMB.