We’ve seen, to my recollection, one new mod (Chads) resigning under a cloud, mostly from those opposed to the proposed changes, and not for any actual action taken as a moderator. Nobody had a problem with Smacc_25 and I’m not aware of anyone having a problem with microbet - with the possible exception of the poster currently known as GrittyNHL, and given the nature and circumstances of that problem (melting down massively and theatrically demanding a perma after receiving one one-day temp-ban for behaviour historically deemed to warrant such) I don’t think there’s any confusion about who was the problem there, right?
Past that, I’ll need specifics.
former mods are still part of the rancor
I addressed this elsewhere. It happens from time to time that posters dislike one another. This is, by and large, not a problem. One of the ways in which it can be a problem if one of those posters is and may well forever be a mod.
So why is the singular focus on the mods then?
Because - and again, this has all been addressed elsewhere, in the threads where the discussions took place - it’s easier to change the nature of a message board’s structure/hierarchy than it is to change the fundamental dynamics of human interaction. I’ll be jaw-droppingly pretentious and paraphrase Kwame Ture: If a poster doesn’t like me, that’s his problem. If a mod doesn’t like me, that’s my problem.
The captains are vice principals? Not sure if I understand the reference here, vice principals are generally portrayed in popular culture as grasping petty tyrants who get off on the thrill of exercising their extremely limited authority. Doesn’t really fit for the captains.
This is a good post, but it ignores something (or perhaps it points out something I may be wrong about):
Don’t we already have a system that requires community approval of moderators and that also requires regular reapproval? Isn’t that already quite different than the 2+2 model?
If so, then I still don’t really see the reason for a mod rotation. I could see it making sense if we wanted only a limited number of mods and we had a waiting list or something like that. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, so I still don’t see a great argument for it.
Well, I’ve been saying for two years that electoral approval and disapproval of mods would generate hostility and the solution was taking turns and modding as a duty and not an honor. I think what has happened is what I was talking about.
The whole premise that modding is an honor around here is built on the idea that some members of this community, some owners of this site, are not worthy to be mods. Fuck that. Fuck that. Fuck that. No one who thinks that is really talking about community anything here. If people generally think that, there is no community here to save or destroy.
It’s the rancour caused by such a modest-sized community with no real intake and no prospect of that changing. Under a permamod system, hostility will fester between the mods and some minority of posters, because humans are flawed and bias is inevitable.
So you might say: Well, mods now have to seek re-confirmation. But here we encounter the fact that most people simply don’t care that much. Most people are just going to want to not have to think about it and, if neither they themselves nor a poster they’re especially tight with have beef with the mod, they’re mostly just going to re-appoint the mod. I think this leads to what you might call the tyranny of the indifference of the majority. And I’ll again stress that none of this requires any malicious actions or intentions on the part of the mods.
But if there are term limits for mods, that avoids the re-appointment by default that leads, in my view, to permanent alienation of some minority of posters who may not ultimately be deserving of that.
“I have no problem with it being democratic in theory, but in practice I think it’ll take forever (never really be complete), result in hard feelings, popularity contests and drawn out arguments, and ultimately be less reflective of what I think the true nature of everyone owning the site means. I think we own the site, not like we’re citizens of the United States and choose who the leaders are. We own it like we are all sharing a car and we take turns getting to drive and having to change the oil.”
So many people did this for years at 2p2. No one can honestly think people that trolled that place for years became 100% sincere posters the second they signed up here.
Okay. So like i said. Report the posts and ill deal with it.
Posting this stuff after thoughtful posts from micro, who definitely was not and is not a troll, is really not helpful.
Im gonna respectfully ask that folks stop trying to relitigate PM gate here. Its been done, we arent going to reach agreement, theres no positive or constructive outcome that could come of it.
Thank you. I will say, as is probably noticeable, I’m less devoted than I used to be. A while back I was more or less told that I lost and to give it up and I accepted that for quite a while.