Well, around here we say “please knock it off”.
Followed by “or else you’re grounded, you little bastard”.
Frank is not a mod. He’s taking the same recourse that any other member would take. Would you want any other member to have their complaints only available on a secret mod forum?
I care about this issue (admittedly mildly) but I also wrote a ATMB thread about it. I know I’m not most folks, but maybe there are more of us than you think.
Well, even the police should try not to inflame the situation. The whole exchange is an example of a mod needlessly making something into a bigger deal than it should have been (as was pointed out in Heffalump and Roo’s ATMB thread on the same subject).
Of course as **Frank **is not a Mod any more that would hardly work.
We are in agreement and I consider **Marley23 **a friend. I thought he overreacted and said as much in the ATMB thread.
I find this thread astounding and I am glad Frank’s no longer a mod. Maybe Marley did overreact and maybe he didn’t, but he’s not the one acting like a thwarted 11 year old. If marley’s sins are so egregious, why not pit him just for those threads, instead of passively -aggressively commenting(<snort>) on his moderating?
What is the problem with “knock it off”? I don’t think it’s ever been directed at me, but I would much prefer that to “please do not do this again(PDNDTA).” which has stern undertones of lines crossed and lists made or demerits given. “Knock it off” hits the right note of informal discipline mixed with proper authority. KIO is much easier for me to swallow, pride and dignity intact, than PDNDTA which does make me feel about 12.
Just goes to show that you can’t please or fool everyone all of the time.
If the southern contingent (is there such a thing? Could this be regional?) would prefer, perhaps we can talk the mods into using a colorful phrase that my Kentucky great aunts used: “if God gave you more sense than a billy goat, you’d do better.”
But that smacks of precious picaresque nonsense to me. In fact, if a mod did so, I’d Pit them and tell them to knock it off. 
Agreed. I mean, agreed that ‘knock it off’ isn’t a big deal. I have no idea what people are talking about with that.
But the PDNDTA thing had not caught my attention at all until you just laid it out like you did there. Now it is something I wanna say to people all the time, hoping that they will catch the stern undertones of my meaning.
“Customer, you have changed your mind about purchasing after I have set up your order and calculated the commission in my head. Please Do Not Do This Again.”
You realize this is silliness, I hope. What would you accept as proof that it does in fact sometimes “serve to defuse a situation” if you’re going to credit every success to the mod hat? And by the way, I don’t have a mod hat–it’s a staff. 
Not every mod intervention is successful. Sometimes we say something and things get worse; sometimes the poster complains to an administrator; sometimes they post something in the pit. So you’d need to explain away those counterexamples before your mod-hat-wins-every-time theory would be very credible.
And your factual claim about grudge-holding seems weak to me. As tomndebb pointed out nobody has complained about it until today. Some of the other posters in this thread think it’s fine. I’ve had posters PM me to apologize. I’ve only had a few complain about anything I said, and it was never about saying “knock it off.” As I said, I’m not sure what you’d accept as proof that using the phrase defuses the situation, but I guess that’s not important because I’ve said I’ll consider the comments in this thread and I’ll do just that.
Now that we’ve got that worked out, I don’t think **Frank **ever answered my question (post #7). I’d hate for **Frank **to wander around in ignorance with no explanation of the rules for which moderator is allowed to moderate which forum.
Well, in Frank’s defense, he says he has pursued his question before, and didn’t get a response from Marley, which makes it sound as though Marley is the one who started with being passive-aggressive in the first place.
Eh. If so, I hadn’t noticed (not that that means much), but also I tend to cut marley some major slack. Not only has he never been anything but nice to me, he has some Issues in his RL that not one of us could deal with more gracefully and graciously than he does.
Mods are just people. Seems an obvious thing to say, but honestly, after reading some of the threads here in the Pit today, I am dismayed at the display of Doper inhumanity to other Dopers or man (men?). No doubt mods get it wrong or lash out upon occasion. But no doubt Dopers act more like dopes than ignorance fighters upon occasion as well. I call it even in general. In that spirit of magnanimity, I’ll even give Frank a pass. Maybe he’s been having a rough time, too.
Nzinga–that phrase just chills me to the bone. I see it being said with NO smile or even a pleasant expression on the face, steadyfast eye contact and a flat, even voice. Hoooboy, it draws a line and how (for me). I hadn’t thought of using it in RL, but it would be very effective.
Don’t be so clever, you keep saying they are boots, don’t try to make it a staff now.
I don’t want to get scientific or philosophic about it. You said the phrase works for you, I am saying that no matter what you say, the effect will be the same.
You could say “regulate your behavior” or “I will make you FOAD if you keep like that” and the effect will be that people will knock it off because the message is clear that you, from your official position, are saying that the quoted action is not ok (with the implied message being that “or else”).
People react differently to moderation, but most will react calmly in the moment. It takes a special kind of stupid to get clever to a police officer who just pulled you over, no matter what the officer’s demeanor is. How you tell the story afterwards does vary a great deal more and is more dependent on how the stop went, whether you think you were right or knew you were wrong, how much is the ticket for, etc.
Not to make a mountain out of a anthill, my point is still that I find it rude and some people seem to agree (while others don’t). I am just letting you know and what you guys make of it and where you go from here is entirely up to you.
As one who’s had SDMB mods ask/tell him at various times to ‘knock it off,’ it comes as a surprise to me, too. It’s a reasonably non-assholic shorthand for, “stop doing what you were doing that caused me to have to act in my capacity as moderator in this thread, you idiot.”
I’m puzzled as to what turn of phrase would be a noticeable improvement.
Pack it in, ya mook.
I like that and **Marley23 **does live in NYC. He might be able to make it work.
And then he could yell, “Hey! I’m modding here!” and hitch up his trousers etc. Must be posted in Brooklynese…
What’s FOAD, Sapo?
“This is <insert broken rule here: being a jerk/jr modding/a personal insult>. Please don’t do this again”. And then the whole thing breaks down because already someone said that PDDTA is offensive to them…
So maybe just “This is <broken rule>”. Let imagination fill in the “or else” part.
It does serve the need for briefness that the mods have to keep it moving. It is a statement of fact (presumably one that is beyond argument). It cannot offend anyone. It should not derail the thread.
I don’t know, I am just an idea man. I leave implementation to others 
Fuck Off And Die.
No, don’t ban me! not you, that’s what FOAD means.
Never mind!
Point and laugh at the retard.
Point And Laugh At The Retard.
The urban dictionary is very good for these terms when it is up. It is down currently. Even Google works farily well. The PALATR acronym is not normally used here but it is popular around the net and in the Snarkpit specifically.
Hey! Knock it off, already!
(and thanks; I had no clue).