Well, I meant it when I said that I wasn’t going to participate in the moderation of that thread at all, so I didn’t comment (despite the suggestion that it was my decision) because that would have been functioning as a mod, however obliquely. FWIW, I would have been fine with leaving it open for y’all to continue, but I had said everything I was planning to say, and since it was Marley’s decision to close it, it would be Marley’s decision to reopen it. He chose not to.
You know what, twickster? I believe you, and I believe you’d have accepted the continued lumps of coal that were being thrown your way. I very much believe your sincerity in what you wrote above.
However, I think Marley made an incredibly unwise decision in closing it, for even if his decision was not based on both of you being members of the Fraternal Order of Mods, it certainly stinks of favouritism. And unfortunately, that makes you look suspect in the whole thing.
Maybe the lack of response to your question suggests that it wasn’t as much of a train wreck as you saw it to be. Why not just moderate such threads rather than kill them?
And speaking only for myself, you all never, ever stop being modmins to me. I can’t just erase that from my mind when I am aware that some of you have a tendency to have feet of clay.
Not only that, mods have made it clear in the past that they won’t lock a thread that turns ugly (or against the OP) even if the OP requests it. Bad closing - it stinks.
I only read the original thread as a jump from this one. Page two was as far as I could get before it had become person 1’s comment about person 2’s comment about person 3’s comment about person 1’s previous comment. I skipped to the last page and the thread had gone off the rails.
I don’t know if the mods are justified in locking down a thread that has gone sideways, but I do know I have given up on message boards in the past because no one prevents unhinged posters from spewing venom and derailing threads. It’s actually kind of infectious; on those boards I’ve occasionally gotten caught up in the spew and said regrettable things–that’s usually my cue to pack up and move on. Cheshire Human probably would not have gone off like that in a more civilized thread.
My point is that I would much rather the mods be a little overbearing on occasion than see the SDMB degenerate into just another slime pool.
This is not an accurate representation of policy. While we do not necessarily close threads just because the OP requests it, neither do we leave threads open under any circumstances. (And I note that twickster made no request to close the thread.) As Marley23 has noted, a major factor in closing that thread was its hijacking by Cheshire Human. The closure of the thread was not out of line with practice in other similar threads.
Again, how? The thread went on for 5 1/2 pages over the course of two days. A lot of people criticized twickster from the get-go. If your position is that I locked the thread because I wanted to shield her from criticism, you have to admit I was very slow on the trigger.
:rolleyes: I made a decision to close the thread and I stand by it. twickster was not involved.
That’s not true. We close a lot of threads because they get ugly or because the OP asks for it. Sometimes an OP will ask us to close a thread because he or she wanted approval from the board and is getting critical reactions instead. That wasn’t the case here.
Perhaps.
I did moderate the thread first: I gave Cheshire Human a warning and told him his comments were over the line. After I saw his responses I figured there was no way the thread was going to come back:
I agree. twickster, you know I’ve no issue with you and I’ve enjoyed your posts and crossword skills, but reading the other thread was extremely disappointing. I can’t fathom why you decided to approach the initial email from a position of “she’s trying to start drama” and wrote, in my opinion, unnecessary details in what is bound to be seen by her as a hurtful tone. It’s not how I feel a wise person would approach such a situation.
That’s not my position at this point. I’m saying that the way things played out really makes it look like it, though.
And I admire twickster for staying out of it when she could have pulled in a favour. I am telling YOU, Marley, that with your recent unpopular moderation decisions, this one made both of you look suspect.
Look, this particular thread was doomed to not end well. You’ve made some extremely controversial decisions recently and anything you do right now is going to be under the microscope. Perhaps you should abstain from the controversy for a while and let someone else step in the shit, instead. You’re going to be damned no matter what right now, and this isn’t going to be good for board relations. Let someone else take the heat on the tough ones. Just step away from the manure. I mean this sincerely.
I get that. I’m saying if people see it that way, their view doesn’t make any sense.
So?
I don’t think this was a tough one in the first place. I appreciate the thought, but I’m just not worried about the heat or the microscope.
Nor should that specifically worry you. However, I worry about the relationship between the moderators and the posters of this board, and the rift between the two factions as it gets larger and more heated. I would hope that the mods and admins are concerned about this as well.
I was sincere while trying to make a point that seems to have been lost here. Posting with eloquence has never been my strong suit, so henceforth I’ll refrain from opining in ATMB. Hopefully someone else understands what I’m trying to say and can articulate it better for me.
I do too, and I’d like to see better relations between the staff and everybody else. But I also don’t think the small number of posters who regularly post in ATMB represent all Dopers. So if things are testy between the mods and a fairly small group of people, I don’t get alarmed about it. My experience is that most of the posters don’t care much about the moderating here at all unless they get warned themselves or see a decision or a ruling they think is unfair. Some people do follow the ins and outs of the staff does, but most don’t. I’m not trying to characterize people as complainers and malcontents or anything else; but for the most part I think life on the boards goes on regardless of what gets disputed in ATMB. There’s a big controversy once in a while, but this kind of stuff doesn’t rise to that level.
Ooh - I certainly follow the ‘ins and outs’. There’s more drama here than a good soap opera. Much better than the telly. 
I didn’t mean to suggest that she asked for the thread to be closed. I was commenting on the fact that there have been cases in the past where the OP has asked and was refused. I have read on several occasions mods specifically saying they won’t protect the OP by thread closure. My search-fu sucks so I’ll defer to your post but I do think my statement was an accurate representation of policy.
And yes, the hijacking by Cheshire Human was disruptive but no one was taking the bait so I’m guessing the thread would have gotten back on track soon enough. Not a hill I choose to die on, I just think it was a bad closing of a popular thread.
I think that generally that has referred to Pit threads. Other threads get closed all the time at the OP’s request.
If you only read pages 1, 2 and the last page, I don’t think you can really evaluate what was going on in the thread that was closed. There was a civil discussion about relationships and infidelity going on when Cheshire Human came in and made a few strange comments (which Marley quoted above).
I wouldn’t characterize the closing of this thread as “overbearing” moderation - that term seems too strong - but I do think the thread was closed preemptively. If there was some real impending danger of the SDMB degenerating into a cesspool, then I would be more accepting of thread closures. There’s no cesspool, though, so I don’t think the closure was necessary in this case.
That’s accurate, yes. I don’t think it applies here since the OP didn’t ask us to close the thread. I closed the thread because of the behavior of the posters in the thread (mostly Chesire Human), not because the OP asked in an effort to avoid criticism.
They shouldn’t. Let the damned threads live or die on their own.
No more “Asked and answered. Closed.”
No more “This discussion has run it’s course. Closed.”
No more “Closed at the OP’s request. Closed”
No more “OMG! Someone hijacked the thread for two or three posts! Rather than deal with the hijacker, I’ll close the thread! Closed!”
Seriously guys–stop closing thread!
And now that this discussion has run it’s course, I’ll just-
Okay, I wouldn’t, but it’s tempting. 
Seriously, though: I did deal with the hijacker, Fenris. Did you not see where I warned him and then explained why he should stop calling people idiots and saying they should be shot?
I take this at face value, but just warn or ban a poster that’s behaving poorly and leave the thread open. A few years back there was a brief trend (I don’t even remember who the mod was–it was after David B, but I think before Tomndebb…or maybe at the same time as early in his tenure) in GD for a poster to get a political thread closed just by misbehaving. A number of gun-threads were closed or moved to the pit because one or two posters would ratchet up the heat past GD levels. The solution isn’t to move or close the thread, it’s to warn or ban the posters.
Leave threads open!