Wow nothing, what response do people expect when they keep on poking the metaphorical bear?
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:23, topic:593744”]
I apologize for rambling, but I looked through the ATMB threads last night and thought, “what’s the point?” Czarcasm apologized.
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The point is that he has done it before, a lot of times. He makes mistakes, he gets called on it, he sometimes argues, and then eventually admits his mistake, he apologizes, and he doesn’t learn from it. A week or so later, he will make the exact same mistake.
Maybe, just maybe they will persuade Czarcasm to step down as moderator.
And you’ll live happily ever after?
I agree with bucketybuck. I’ve seen one bad moderating call recently, and it’s been rescinded in this thread.
Being relatively new here, and having posted on other boards before, I’m amazed by how much questioning of the mods is allowed here. Not that it’s a bad thing, necessarily, as the reversal of the warning in this thread shows, but as TubaDiva pointed out earlier, by signing up to this message board one agrees to follow the rules as interpreted by the staff. I’ve never seen a board that does otherwise, and very few that allow any questioning of decisions.
My point? To put it simply, there is no right for anyone to get a reply from a mod when they ask a question. To the credit of the mods, and the board in general, there is almost always a timely answer given. The problem comes when people think that, if they dislike the answer, they can keep asking for a new and different one. Frankly, I’m glad that the mods don’t give in to this.
You’re nothing if not predictable.
You’re new around these here parts, ain’t 'ya pilgrim. 
I am sorry if I interrupted your questioning.
Let me assure you, PRR, that the thread which sparked this isn’t going to be the hill anyone dies on. It’s all about patterns of behavior.
No, it’s not.
I didn’t ask any rhetorical questions, demeaning or otherwise.
Not your most constructive comment, Garfield. Let me restate my point:
ATMB is the place to question moderator behavior. It is not the place to be belligerent and rude, nor the place to make personal attacks. If you review the posts here, you’ll find that people have questioned moderator decisions and seen those decisions changed without being insulting and obnoxious.
I like to think it’s possible for me to discuss moderation issues without actually “moderating” anything; without speaking on behalf of the staff, or Ed, or Cecil, or the Reader, or anyone but myself. Sometimes moderators have constructive comments or observations that do not require them to wear a moderator hat.
I cannot speak for the other moderators, but it sure looks to me like that’s what the first two mods in that thread were trying to say.
I do not supervise other moderators, nor set their schedules. Officially, there are two moderators overseeing ATMB (TubaDiva and Gfactor). I know I’ve been addressed here and had it take me many days to notice. I trust the ATMB mods to handle it. As a volunteer, there are times when I may not be online for a few days – that’s why we have multiple mods in each forum.
And again, not speaking on behalf of the “moderator in question,” I can say that reading ATMB has become pretty damned depressing. I check in from time to time, vanity search my name every few weeks, and read ATMB threads that somebody specifically directs me to. Other than that, I’d rather stay where I’m supposed to be, and not listen to 50 or 100 posts about every little moderating decision.
I hope, if someone chooses to take me personally to task in ATMB or the Pit, that I would get the courtesy of a PM.
I am NOT speaking on Czarcasm’s behalf, and since I wasn’t involved in the whole kerfluffle, I am not making recommendations on what could have been done differently.
An observation, though: I have spent quite a bit of time both performing customer service and managing customer service people. There are definitely times when it’s better for the service rep to hand the situation off to someone else or bump it up the ladder. Once the situation has become personal, staying involved sometimes only makes things worse.
do you honestly think that that’s what you’re doing here, and in the previous thread?
Darth Panda, if you don’t receive a response from Dex in the next week or so, it’s not because he’s ignoring you. He’s dealing with some personal issues and spending very little time on the boards right now.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:50, topic:593744”]
Darth Panda, if you don’t receive a response from Dex in the next week or so, it’s not because he’s ignoring you. He’s dealing with some personal issues and spending very little time on the boards right now.
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Understood, and not a problem. Obviously, I wish him well with that.
The word you’re looking for is Teflon. Accept it, it’s not going to change.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:23, topic:593744”]
Sometimes, when something is “just the way we do it” and there is no written board policy (e.g., thou shalt not reveal the name of someone who reports a post), we hold off and wait for an admin or one of the old-timers to speak up. We are then accused of being nonresponsive.
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That’s what I was going to suggest was going on. People jump in and expect an answer “RIGHT NOW” and when they don’t get one, get upset that the staff won’t tell them the answer, when the answer is “we don’t have a rule for that, but everybody seems to be doing ____”.
I think the whole post/schpeal was a violation of the “Don’t call names/don’t be a jerk/don’t start shit” rule. But hey, whatever. It was a mod talking.
In my experience the typical message board stance is, “Yes we are dictators. But the internet is vast. Buh-bye, pal.” The advantage of such a policy is that it saves a lot of time. Pareto once noted that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. It may also be true that 90% of your aggravation comes from 10% of your whiners.
Here it’s a little different. The board has a twin mission: fighting ignorance and making wisecracks. It would be unfortunate to eject someone who could at times advance the larger endeavor. So the volunteer mods tend to bend over backwards to work with those who make so very much out of so very little, at times with vulgarity. Thus we have these ongoing dramas. That’s ok. But from time to time it is wise and sensible to apply a little push-back.
It depends, of course, on how you define “members,” but I would say that 90% of our aggravation comes from less than 1% of our members. Possibly less than 0.1%. The overwhelming majority of Dopers, whether any given mod agrees with their position on any given subject, are extremely easy to get along with. Then there’s that tiny fraction of users that will take umbrage at virtually anything said by virtually any staff member.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:56, topic:593744”]
It depends, of course, on how you define “members,” but I would say that 90% of our aggravation comes from less than 1% of our members. Possibly less than 0.1%. The overwhelming majority of Dopers, whether any given mod agrees with their position on any given subject, are extremely easy to get along with. Then there’s that tiny fraction of users that will take umbrage at virtually anything said by virtually any staff member.
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I am incredibly offended by those statistics.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:25, topic:593744”]
Sure. I think I’ll just rush out and spend my immense Straight Dope salary on hiring a team of independent auditors to review all of the casual decisions that the moderators have made in the last eight or ten years.
.
[/QUOTE]
Do people realize that the mods here are VOLUNTEERS who manage this board for ZERO COMPENSATION in their spare time? Many guests here seem to think they are dining at a 5 star restaurant where they are paying hundreds to thousands of dollars for their meal, yet the service is not absolutely flawless. A reasonable expectation if one is paying out the nose for service.
But imo the expectation that volunteer mods should be held to a standard of perfection and triple check the Official SDMB Mod Policy Manual before rendering any decision is completely unreasonable. It’d be one thing if they were handsomely compensated for their time…but given that they work for free, it’s the epitome of the thankless job.
This guy i know is a volunteer firefighter. He doesn’t know how to drive the truck or put out a fire, but it doesn’t matter because he’s a volunteer.
A friend of mine volunteers at an animal shelter. She just hoses down the dogs and cats twice a day, throws some food in when it suits her, and lets them fight it out among themselves. She’s only a volunteer, so why should she do it properly?
I too know a volunteer firefighter. While he does not get a salary, he gets compensated (tax free!) for responding to call, working shifts and for firefighter training, which is provided for free. Additionally he is reimbursed for all expenses related to his service.
But he doesn’t do it for the reimbursement, he is doing it because volunteering is an excellent way to get the necessary training (for free, with reimbursement for time spent training) and experience to become an attractive candidate for a CAREER in firefighting.
Perhaps being a SDMB mod is a springboard to profitable career, but AFAIK they only get a coffee mug. I’m sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.
Btw, I am not saying that it would be fine if mods here were completely incompetent (can’t drive a truck or put out a fire)…I just think the bar is set ridiculously high (by some) for a chore that people do for free in their spare time. JMO.