The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Hey You Guuuuuuuuuuuys.
ElJeffe
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Registered User, ClubPA regular
/Electric Company
So.
Recently there have been some rather spirited opinions circulating regarding the moderation in these parts. So let's talk about that. And by "let's talk about that" I mean "I am going to blather on and on and maybe there will be a point in there somewhere but I wouldn't place money on it."
All of this got stirred up by the recent banning of The Cat. I wasn't the one who gave her the fatal infraction, and the decision was far from unilateral, but to the extent a single moderator can claim responsibility for this sort of decision, I guess you can lay the blame with me. It wasn't something I particularly wanted to do, but it was the sort of thing that I figured would be inevitable some time ago. Whatever may be said by whoever's doing the saying, I liked Cat. She was good people, overall, even though I thought some of her opinions were on the wrong side of the line separating good sense from the raving crazies. In the end, it didn't much matter if I liked her or not, though, because the decision had to do with the forums, and what We The Mod Staff felt was best for them.
And this sort of thing happens a lot. I said before that the instance with Cat stirred things up, but it sure as hell didn't start there. It's been here as long as there have been forums, as long as there's been internets, and it'll probably exist as some naked, intangible thing long after people have ceased to exist. It's a thing that people do. And it's a good thing, because the guys running things - that's We, The Mod Staff - need to be reminded that the stuff we do has consequences, and while we can't run things by democracy we are still accountable for the decisions we make.
We The Mod Staff need to be mindful of what You The Forumers are thinking, but also You The Forumers need to keep in mind that you have, in general, a tiny portion of the big picture at any given time. When a long-timer is finally given the boot, it rarely happens because of a single post, or a single thread, or even a single week's worth of behavior. It happens because of a long history of aggregate shenanigans, accumulating in their profile like muck on a boot. And while you guys see a single thread with a single infraction or maybe a one-line summary of a ban reason in the Circus, we see and discuss (and there are always discussions for this sort of thing, always) everything. Every infraction that has been accrued over however many years. In most of these cases, it amounts to multiple pages, line-by-line in red and yellow. And we consider all that. We consider positives and negatives, the pluses and minuses of each person's footprint in these forums. And some people have really fucking big feet.
We always welcome feedback. We generally prefer such feedback take the form of PMs rather than cluttering up a thread, of course. And I won't pretend that every opinion that has been voiced these past couple days has been productive. Many of you were polite and respectful even if you disagreed with what happened. Many of you were more coarse. Some of you were petulant dickholes and we're probably even now saying unkind things about you in our secret mod clubhouse.*
There's probably a tl;dr version of this, but I'm not quite eloquent enough to figure out what it is. We respect you guys, even if we don't respect each and every one of you for the special snowflake you are, and we know that it's all about making this a good place for you. Not you, in particular - shut up, Guy Who Wants To Post Porn Links - but you in aggregate, You The Forumers. We do what we do because we think it'll result in what we all believe to be one of the finest places on the internet. We don't ask much in return, other than that you try to cut us some slack. We're not perfect. You're not perfect. (Some of you are more not-perfect than others.) But We The Mod Staff genuinely do our best, and we hope you do your best, as well.
In closing: cocks dicks lol
*Everything you ever hear about the secret mod clubhouse is true. Everything. We trade porn and post links to pirated software and we even have our own anime thread. And everything is made of gold. Yes, I know that makes no sense in the context of a purely digital construct. It doesn't matter, because we have our own special laws of physics.
So.
Recently there have been some rather spirited opinions circulating regarding the moderation in these parts. So let's talk about that. And by "let's talk about that" I mean "I am going to blather on and on and maybe there will be a point in there somewhere but I wouldn't place money on it."
All of this got stirred up by the recent banning of The Cat. I wasn't the one who gave her the fatal infraction, and the decision was far from unilateral, but to the extent a single moderator can claim responsibility for this sort of decision, I guess you can lay the blame with me. It wasn't something I particularly wanted to do, but it was the sort of thing that I figured would be inevitable some time ago. Whatever may be said by whoever's doing the saying, I liked Cat. She was good people, overall, even though I thought some of her opinions were on the wrong side of the line separating good sense from the raving crazies. In the end, it didn't much matter if I liked her or not, though, because the decision had to do with the forums, and what We The Mod Staff felt was best for them.
And this sort of thing happens a lot. I said before that the instance with Cat stirred things up, but it sure as hell didn't start there. It's been here as long as there have been forums, as long as there's been internets, and it'll probably exist as some naked, intangible thing long after people have ceased to exist. It's a thing that people do. And it's a good thing, because the guys running things - that's We, The Mod Staff - need to be reminded that the stuff we do has consequences, and while we can't run things by democracy we are still accountable for the decisions we make.
We The Mod Staff need to be mindful of what You The Forumers are thinking, but also You The Forumers need to keep in mind that you have, in general, a tiny portion of the big picture at any given time. When a long-timer is finally given the boot, it rarely happens because of a single post, or a single thread, or even a single week's worth of behavior. It happens because of a long history of aggregate shenanigans, accumulating in their profile like muck on a boot. And while you guys see a single thread with a single infraction or maybe a one-line summary of a ban reason in the Circus, we see and discuss (and there are always discussions for this sort of thing, always) everything. Every infraction that has been accrued over however many years. In most of these cases, it amounts to multiple pages, line-by-line in red and yellow. And we consider all that. We consider positives and negatives, the pluses and minuses of each person's footprint in these forums. And some people have really fucking big feet.
We always welcome feedback. We generally prefer such feedback take the form of PMs rather than cluttering up a thread, of course. And I won't pretend that every opinion that has been voiced these past couple days has been productive. Many of you were polite and respectful even if you disagreed with what happened. Many of you were more coarse. Some of you were petulant dickholes and we're probably even now saying unkind things about you in our secret mod clubhouse.*
There's probably a tl;dr version of this, but I'm not quite eloquent enough to figure out what it is. We respect you guys, even if we don't respect each and every one of you for the special snowflake you are, and we know that it's all about making this a good place for you. Not you, in particular - shut up, Guy Who Wants To Post Porn Links - but you in aggregate, You The Forumers. We do what we do because we think it'll result in what we all believe to be one of the finest places on the internet. We don't ask much in return, other than that you try to cut us some slack. We're not perfect. You're not perfect. (Some of you are more not-perfect than others.) But We The Mod Staff genuinely do our best, and we hope you do your best, as well.
In closing: cocks dicks lol
*Everything you ever hear about the secret mod clubhouse is true. Everything. We trade porn and post links to pirated software and we even have our own anime thread. And everything is made of gold. Yes, I know that makes no sense in the context of a purely digital construct. It doesn't matter, because we have our own special laws of physics.
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
ElJeffe on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
also, you guys have no idea how awesome the mod forum anime thread is
so kawaii
so desu
Seriously, though, you guys should see Will's wall scroll collection.
PS. The Cat is still my favorite; I will seriously be missing Kitty. I think I'm more sad to see her go than I am happy that Bin Laden is dead.
[/rimshot]