“Yes”? Why SHOULD mods and admins be allowed to be deliberately rude to members and guests outside the Pit? They’re not better than us. They just have different responsibilities. They essentially “work” for the Reader, which means they should have some degree of professionalism when wearing the mod hat.
Double standards suck.
And I’d just like to note that not only am I subscribed, and therefore not seeing the big ads, I’m using Adblock, so I’m not seeing the stupid Google ads, either. Suck it, Creative Loathing…
I want to reiterate one point, because I’m worried Ed is going to look at this and just think “Man, more whiners bitching about how the board is moderated.” Let me make as clear as possible that this is not the case.
My criticism of this banning doesn’t reflect a negative view towards the job done by the board staff as a whole. I think the mods, admins, and Jerry all do an amazingly good job. In fact, I can only assume that the complainers have never been on any other message boards, because the vast majority of them are administered far more poorly than this one. This is a great board with a great staff, and in the 4.5 years I’ve been here I can really only think of one action by the board staff that I found truly objectionable.
Ed’s banning of Otto for asking a slightly snarky question is that action.
Maybe there are mitigating circumstances that I don’t know about. Maybe Otto was being an ass to Ed all week, and had been privately warned about it. If so, I’d gladly retract this criticism. But from where I’m standing, it seems totally capricious and arbitrary. Do you really want this to be a board where posters are banned because their tone rubs a mod the wrong way?
Yeah, but if all their customers stop coming here because they’ve taken Ed up on his oh-so-courteous invitation to go the fuck elsewhere if they’re unhappy with this latest turn of events… well, then they won’t get ANY revenue at all then, will they?
Sounds like a fabulous business philosophy, if you ask me.
Guys, I’m willing to give Ed the benefit of the doubt for right now. I’ve read several of his posts in locked ATMB threads and I think there’s more going on than we know right now.
It’s possible Otto got on **Ed’**s last nerve. It’s possible Ed just snapped. But this is not the Ed we know, and there’s something strange going on.
I’m hoping in a few days, when everyone’s had a chance to calm down, we’ll figure out what’s going on and Otto can come back.
I look forward to the Good Old Days when Mr. Ed left this board pretty much alone. We didn’t know how great we had it.
And I’m still getting annoyingly slow performance sometimes, so do I get banned for pointing that out? If so, I say the end is near, and it’s time to get out.
You cut my comment about board rule number one right out of context. Allow me to resupply that context. I said I admire the sentiment expressed by the “rule” but I would expect it never to be used for actual administrative purposes as it is far too open to interpretation.
By cutting my comment out of context, you were being a jerk. Should you be banned?
By suggesting that you were being a jerk and pointedly asking if you should be banned, I was being kind of a jerk as well. Should I be banned?
I would take this as an opening salvo on the administration’s crackdown on boorish behavior.
Unfortunately Otto was the first victim. Sort of a “kill a chicken to scare the monkeys” message.
I would expect more to follow unfortunately.
