I plan to avoid avoiding a discussion with any poster about anything, much less everything, in the spirit of fostering good spirits in the community.
I also plan to issue humble apologies when I’ve made a mistake through word or deed.
I hereby declare I also plan to read series of posts carefully and critically, gleaning the proper context and nuances, before making any assessments, as that shows respect for others, myself, and the office of moderator.
May I suggest if you’re handing out apologies, start with the poster who said “I’m mostly a lurker, here’s how I see it” and you asked if they’d been eating paint chips? Since you’re apparently unbanned, you can even do it from the account that got punished for that deleted post!
I hereby rightly declare that I plan to not delete posts, barring extremely extenuating circumstances, as to not rob posters of the proper tools needed to assess situations properly, thus subjecting them to awkward and embarrassing interactions with their fellow posters.
I’ll chime in as someone who voted no despite thinking you’re a good poster. I’m concerned that more assertive modding will continue to fracture the forum because it seems to get wielded in an imbalanced manner, so I am wary of someone coming in with that explicit goal.
I never withdrew but with the large number of potential mods coming all at once I figured I’d sit back and let everyone else go. If for some reason one or two of these to-be mods decline or aren’t approved by the community I don’t mind being next in line, just didn’t want to push myself and overwhelm everyone with polls.
It’s not something I’m really itching to do, it’s just a way that I think I could help shoulder some of the burden and support the community.
too late
I agree that bans have probably been a been inconsistent, with some link to which “side” a poster is on.
That said, generally bans have been for shitty posting, and the best way to avoid assertive modding, even unfairly applied, is to post better.
However the fact that a number of posters seem to be able to pile on, snipe, criticise, derail etc without consequence isnt great and doesnt help create a healthy dynamic.
Im unapologetically of the view that assertive and consistent modding is the best way to address this.
Fwiw. Im certainly not planning to come in swinging the ban hammer. Everyone is gonna get a lot of “knock it off” messages first.
Why is this even an issue? With modern thread splitting technology, no one has to suffer from a derail ever again.
Not “why are we talking about britney” derails, more “why are we bringing up drama from 3 months ago for no reason and setting everybody off” type derails.
I plan to not subject posters to any subjective and arbitrary metric that started as, in what was meant to be a comedically obvious fashion, a joke.
This seems totally related to your own, possibly unique experience and perception of the forum. How do you propose to ensure you don’t fall into the same hole as other mods and allow your personal feelings to dominate your modding?
How do you intend to close the gulf with the existing mods between your idea of consistency and theirs?
Let me change gears for you because this is more important:
I didn’t ignore you, I still have (had?) the draft of my reply to you saved! The thread was throttled, then locked a few posts later, specifically to prevent me (well, not specifically me, at least I hope not, holy shit… more like, prevent the general concept) from replying to you and us carrying on our detailed conversation and coming to some amicable ending!! This is the exact type of thing we’re talking about, how stuff like this fosters a culture of disrespect in this community.
Seriously, this might be the only thing that now actually bothers me in all this, because the end of your reply was,
I am sorry, if you feel attacked.
edit: That all is not good. If I won’t respond immediately to whatever you write, I am not running away. I will definitely come back. But I need right now to calm down. It is bad.
and the start of my reply was (and I’m going from memory because maybe the drafts are deleted when the thread is locked? that’d be totally awesome) something like,
It’s ok, I don’t feel attacked and you don’t have to apologize regardless. We can talk about this as much or as little as you like, and you’re free to change your mind. It’s totally your call.
because I actually took it very seriously that you were that affected.
I also started a reply to Ctyri when he posted “Is he okay?” about you, that said something like, “She, and yeah she’s fine. She thinks her English is poor but it’s actually remarkably good; it’s just that English is like her 4th language or something and thus there’s that phenomenon where capturing the right tone is tricky and subtle word and phrase choices can throw off the tone.”
But yeah, you felt ignored and disrespected and I was trying to foster something different. I don’t actually care that MrWookie doesn’t respect me, like, on a personal level I really don’t give a fuck, and that some of these other’s people respect for me was apparently so fairweather and fleeting that it could evaporate like this, but I do care if people get caught in the crossfire.
Since you all insist on sucking the joy and fun out of everything: That is not what I said, that is most definitely whoo boy not what he said, and you should tell the truth more.
Oh sorry, that was the second question, right. The first one took a lot out of me. Let me put a pin in that for now, but, for now I’ll just ask which part of that mess? That question is part of my answer, because I definitely wouldn’t treat each interaction the same (you vs Sabo, Sabo vs ___, etc).
And my answer was being a politician, it was sincere, but I’d understand why you wouldn’t believe me.
Ill put aside the statement about other mods, other than to say im not sure i agree with it.
As for subjectivity, personal feelings etc.
I think mods should use judgement. Good modding requires an understanding of context, previous work, the flow of a debate, etc. We ask mods to use that judgement for us, and we should generally let them get on with it.
That doesnt mean mods shouldnt seek and act on feedback. Id take the temp of the room in threads, listen to and respond to the about moderation threads, and discuss with other mods.
If those course corrections dont work and im getting way off base and upsetting people i would probably just quit being a mod. This is why its important to lay this stuff out in advance.
Im not sure theres a gulf.
If anything, i think some mods have undermodded, and undermodded one side more than the other.
I figure the best way to address that is just to have more mods, and for those mods to address the shitty posting that they see. It will kind of work it self out on balance i imagine.
If the mods have significant differences, then i think we just talk them out like adults and try and reach a consensus.
Unrelated note, that is a cool looking cat.
Zara and Vic, I’m asking as a personal favor and not as any sort of judgment, to ceasefire for a little bit.
Sick bump.