Withholding content is one of the few leverages available those without software-enabled power and arguably the least damaging.
A threat of withholding content doesn’t have much leverage if you don’t first establish a track record of producing good content (where good is defined as whatever readers of the forum subjectively think is good).
I will take that as directed to me personally, which is completely fair, but I wasn’t really referring to me. I certainly don’t hold that lever. But then I don’t feel most of my posting has been “bad forum wars posting” and I’ve held posting related to that topic to the appropriate threads almost exclusively.
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It wasn’t directed specifically at you, although I don’t recall anything you’ve posted outside of meta stuff. I don’t read the weed thread and for all I know you’re a key poster there.
People complain about getting different treatment for CN when he also posts like an asshole, but he also established a perceived usefulness on COVID that earned him a longer leash. Is that unfair? Maybe, maybe not.
It’s draining to have every bit of forum governance be up for a vote, so we’ve delegated moderation tasks to moderators. Instead of rigidly defining a system of punishment like a three-strikes-and-you’re-out law, we’ve given mods some discretion.
Where we’ve failed is to establish clear guidelines to shape that discretion. It may be a mistake to give mods god-like powers to do whatever they want, but if that’s true then maybe it’s also a mistake to give posters god-like powers to post whatever they want. So what’s the middle ground?
Maybe this all doesn’t matter. Maybe this place dies and until it does UP is an open battleground where two warring factions sally forth from their protected communities to engage each other because they really like fighting.
But maybe one side vacates the premises and the other side has a chance to rebuild and show that they weren’t just about petty drama.
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From what people are saying about post counts it’s more likely the new place fails, which (apart from his Henry VIII complex) is one reason why cuse won’t resign his modship here.
Not surprising when they don’t have captains to attack relentlessly.
But does he help people with their math homework? That should give him a totes free pass if he does.
Tangent: who gave giddyup cuse and company permission to ban a bunch of accounts at exiled? …children.
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The exile was commonWealth’s thing from the start, it was never a community owned blah de blah.
Is that your memory or did he actually say this?
Yes, I remember he started it up after Mat shut down 2+2 Pol. It’s why he’s listed as the admin.
Right, he started it. I was surprised by your claim that he thought it was his, like he was in charge and owned it.
Christ you people are insufferable.
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You don’t have to be involved in any of this. I assumed you enjoy it.
One thing that changed for me was that back in 2019 probably 95%+ of my posts on 2p2 were in MSNL and a few other strategy forums. In that context, a dictator makes more sense: there is a brand (2p2 publishing) to protect and a clearly defined goal in the strategy threads (post on topic, help people, learning about poker).
Here, there is no brand. So offensive or abrasive posts won’t cost anyone their livelihood. More importantly though, this place is clearly a community with long-lasting valuable relationships that eb and flow in all sorts of ways that differ from a strategy forum mindset. I think I would say to my former self that I was missing the context of community and the damage that a dictator mod can have in that context. UP is not primarily a strategy forum so a strategy forum attitude around moderation doesn’t make sense here or at exiled. I was wrong about that in 2019.
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That was a good avatar tho. Good band, too.
Sure, Ron.