Zen and the art of moderation 2 2

[fantastic_four]

I love that bird burrowing between the breasts!

 

He and I want to live in the exact same place.

[Park]

 

[TupennyConan]

alot

 

[TupennyConan]

 

Checklist:

 

1) Impugn the "bravery" of the person you are threatening.

 

2) Designate a place where you would be willing to meet the person to "talk it out face to face".

 

3) Repeat besmirching of "bravery" stating that he would not take you up on said "meeting to talk it out face to face."

 

 

lol

[comix4fun]

 

Checklist:

 

1) Impugn the "bravery" of the person you are threatening.

 

2) Designate a place where you would be willing to meet the person to "talk it out face to face".

 

3) Repeat besmirching of "bravery" stating that he would not take you up on said "meeting to talk it out face to face."

 

 

lol

 

 

That's how you got me to meet you for coffee last year.

[TupennyConan]

 

Checklist:

 

1) Impugn the "bravery" of the person you are threatening.

 

2) Designate a place where you would be willing to meet the person to "talk it out face to face".

 

3) Repeat besmirching of "bravery" stating that he would not take you up on said "meeting to talk it out face to face."

 

 

lol

 

 

That's how you got me to meet you for coffee last year.

 

An old trick for scoring dates from my bachelor days.

[Lantern]

[RockMyAmadeus]

Some of you occasionally (read: everyone who ever got a strike or warning) may deeply believe that in your case it was all about injustice. You may even have a point - like our speeder above who was not the fastest one in the pack. But you were still speeding.

 

 

All the above rests on the VERY flawed premise that every person who got a strike or warning was violating the rules as obviously as when one speeds.

 

Why is it flawed?

 

Because speeding is black and white."You were going 61. The limit is 55. By definition, you were speeding, even accounting for variances in speed detection technology."

 

Moderation HERE, however, depends solely on your OPINION, and the opinions of your team.

 

Unfortunately, when you refuse to moderate according to your own policies, when you ignore your own policies, when you are radically inconsistent in enforcing your policies...

 

Well.

 

Your assertion that "every single person was speeding" doesn't really hold much water, now does it...?

 

For the most part, people aren't stupid here. For the most part. People know when they're being overpoliced. They know when they are being underpoliced. They can see for themselves whether or not things are being handled even-handedly, "confirmation bias" or not.

 

For you to claim that every single person who ever got a strike or warning was clearly and obviously "speeding" is ludicrous, because it would make you perfect! Are you really claiming you have been perfect in your moderation here...?

 

I know you're not, and I only need Diggler's "nipple" strike to prove it. You didn't even give Diggler a CHANCE to explain, you just struck him, that's that, end of story. It took a virtual uprising from everyone ELSE to get you to back down and admit that you had issued a strike IN ERROR.

 

And if that one example puts the lie to your claim that "everyone who got a strike or warning deserved it", what else is there that is not so black and white..?

 

The hubris!

 

"Moderation is HARD!!"

 

No.

 

It's not.

 

Is it tedious? Oh yes. Yes, indeed.

 

Is it HARD?

 

No.

 

You treat everyone the same way, equally, all the time, and you do it within the parameters of your stated rules. You do this so that certain areas of the board...like comics general, like the water closet, like modern comics...don't become cesspools of personality, where everyone is on edge, with a hair trigger outlook, where every single post that CAN be taken wrong IS, where people are taking endless shots at other people, and they don't even know why.

 

Otherwise...you get this never ending cycle...going on for ELEVEN YEARS NOW...of over moderation, then under moderation, then people complaining because you aren't doing your jobs so clearly that it's painfully evident to even the sunniest board member, then you have to...AGAIN...step in to say "moderation is HARD!!"

 

 

You may be able to convince most of the people, Mr. Oz...but some people are capable of looking behind the curtain, believe it or not.

[Domo Arigato]

 

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

[fantastic_four]

 

 

+1

 

I can't believe he just ripped into Architect like that.

 

[CKB]

Oh it's definitely Duck Season.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

Oh it's definitely Duck Season.

 

[fantastic_four]

I got a wrist slap for politics last month, and I have no idea what the moderator saw. Some topics verge on politics but aren't quite there, so if I stepped over the line, I was unaware of it, but since I don't know which post it was, I didn't learn much.

 

I just got a response to my PM from about a month ago about why I got wrist slapped. Here's the content of the original post along with my offending post:

 

Interesting poll:

 

http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/27/17102914-cheat-on-taxes-not-cool-say-most-americans?lite

So I'm guessing all of these people have been reporting their untaxed interstate online and other mail-order purchases at the end of the year and paying sales taxes on them like you're supposed to? Yea...right.

 

THAT'S political? I must misunderstand what the issue with talking about politics in society is. Talking about abortion or guns or partisan stances is politics, but if you take the broadest definition of "politics," it applies to anything related to interaction between two or more people. This thread itself is about politics--or, more specifically, politics within these forums. A comment on how almost everybody fails to pay their state use taxes in a thread about taxes is political? Sheesh. Politics is talking about controversial topics. Going by this strict a definition of the word "politics," then Arch's metaphor above about cops giving speeding tickets is political because it relates to laws created by the government.

[Ogami]

RMA may get points for fearlessness, but BUTM did it first and was way funnier.

[gaz973]

I got a wrist slap for politics last month, and I have no idea what the moderator saw. Some topics verge on politics but aren't quite there, so if I stepped over the line, I was unaware of it, but since I don't know which post it was, I didn't learn much.

 

I just got a response to my PM from about a month ago about why I got wrist slapped. Here's the content of the original post along with my offending post:

 

Interesting poll:

 

http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/27/17102914-cheat-on-taxes-not-cool-say-most-americans?lite

So I'm guessing all of these people have been reporting their untaxed interstate online and other mail-order purchases at the end of the year and paying sales taxes on them like you're supposed to? Yea...right.

 

THAT'S political? I must misunderstand what the issue with talking about politics in society is. Talking about abortion or guns or partisan stances is politics, but if you take the broadest definition of "politics," it applies to anything related to interaction between two or more people. This thread itself is about politics--or, more specifically, politics within these forums. A comment on how almost everybody fails to pay their state use taxes in a thread about taxes is political? Sheesh. Politics is talking about controversial topics. Going by this strict a definition of the word "politics," then Arch's metaphor above about cops giving speeding tickets is political because it relates to laws created by the government.

Looks pretty harsh to me.

 

Then again, if I was a mod and had to read through all the threads in CG and the WC, I wouldn't just be grumpy, I'd be suicidal.

[Comicopolis]

I got a wrist slap for politics last month, and I have no idea what the moderator saw. Some topics verge on politics but aren't quite there, so if I stepped over the line, I was unaware of it, but since I don't know which post it was, I didn't learn much.

 

I just got a response to my PM from about a month ago about why I got wrist slapped. Here's the content of the original post along with my offending post:

 

Interesting poll:

 

http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/27/17102914-cheat-on-taxes-not-cool-say-most-americans?lite

So I'm guessing all of these people have been reporting their untaxed interstate online and other mail-order purchases at the end of the year and paying sales taxes on them like you're supposed to? Yea...right.

 

THAT'S political? I must misunderstand what the issue with talking about politics in society is. Talking about abortion or guns or partisan stances is politics, but if you take the broadest definition of "politics," it applies to anything related to interaction between two or more people. This thread itself is about politics--or, more specifically, politics within these forums. A comment on how almost everybody fails to pay their state use taxes in a thread about taxes is political? Sheesh. Politics is talking about controversial topics. Going by this strict a definition of the word "politics," then Arch's metaphor above about cops giving speeding tickets is political because it relates to laws created by the government.

Looks pretty harsh to me.

 

Then again, if I was a mod and had to read through all the threads in CG and the WC, I wouldn't just be grumpy, I'd be suicidal.

 

Being a moderator on any internet forum is not easy.

[gaz973]

I got a wrist slap for politics last month, and I have no idea what the moderator saw. Some topics verge on politics but aren't quite there, so if I stepped over the line, I was unaware of it, but since I don't know which post it was, I didn't learn much.

 

I just got a response to my PM from about a month ago about why I got wrist slapped. Here's the content of the original post along with my offending post:

 

Interesting poll:

 

http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/27/17102914-cheat-on-taxes-not-cool-say-most-americans?lite

So I'm guessing all of these people have been reporting their untaxed interstate online and other mail-order purchases at the end of the year and paying sales taxes on them like you're supposed to? Yea...right.

 

THAT'S political? I must misunderstand what the issue with talking about politics in society is. Talking about abortion or guns or partisan stances is politics, but if you take the broadest definition of "politics," it applies to anything related to interaction between two or more people. This thread itself is about politics--or, more specifically, politics within these forums. A comment on how almost everybody fails to pay their state use taxes in a thread about taxes is political? Sheesh. Politics is talking about controversial topics. Going by this strict a definition of the word "politics," then Arch's metaphor above about cops giving speeding tickets is political because it relates to laws created by the government.

Looks pretty harsh to me.

 

Then again, if I was a mod and had to read through all the threads in CG and the WC, I wouldn't just be grumpy, I'd be suicidal.

 

Being a moderator on any internet forum is not easy.

It's easy on your forum, you only let nice people in.

[gaz973]

 

 

+1

 

I can't believe he just ripped into Architect like that.

 

It's not like it's the first time.

[Dr. Balls]

Some of you occasionally (read: everyone who ever got a strike or warning) may deeply believe that in your case it was all about injustice. You may even have a point - like our speeder above who was not the fastest one in the pack. But you were still speeding.

 

 

All the above rests on the VERY flawed premise that every person who got a strike or warning was violating the rules as obviously as when one speeds.

 

Why is it flawed?

 

Because speeding is black and white."You were going 61. The limit is 55. By definition, you were speeding, even accounting for variances in speed detection technology."

 

Moderation HERE, however, depends solely on your OPINION, and the opinions of your team.

 

Unfortunately, when you refuse to moderate according to your own policies, when you ignore your own policies, when you are radically inconsistent in enforcing your policies...

 

Well.

 

Your assertion that "every single person was speeding" doesn't really hold much water, now does it...?

 

For the most part, people aren't stupid here. For the most part. People know when they're being overpoliced. They know when they are being underpoliced. They can see for themselves whether or not things are being handled even-handedly, "confirmation bias" or not.

 

For you to claim that every single person who ever got a strike or warning was clearly and obviously "speeding" is ludicrous, because it would make you perfect! Are you really claiming you have been perfect in your moderation here...?

 

I know you're not, and I only need Diggler's "nipple" strike to prove it. You didn't even give Diggler a CHANCE to explain, you just struck him, that's that, end of story. It took a virtual uprising from everyone ELSE to get you to back down and admit that you had issued a strike IN ERROR.

 

And if that one example puts the lie to your claim that "everyone who got a strike or warning deserved it", what else is there that is not so black and white..?

 

The hubris!

 

"Moderation is HARD!!"

 

No.

 

It's not.

 

Is it tedious? Oh yes. Yes, indeed.

 

Is it HARD?

 

No.

 

You treat everyone the same way, equally, all the time, and you do it within the parameters of your stated rules. You do this so that certain areas of the board...like comics general, like the water closet, like modern comics...don't become cesspools of personality, where everyone is on edge, with a hair trigger outlook, where every single post that CAN be taken wrong IS, where people are taking endless shots at other people, and they don't even know why.

 

Otherwise...you get this never ending cycle...going on for ELEVEN YEARS NOW...of over moderation, then under moderation, then people complaining because you aren't doing your jobs so clearly that it's painfully evident to even the sunniest board member, then you have to...AGAIN...step in to say "moderation is HARD!!"

 

 

You may be able to convince most of the people, Mr. Oz...but some people are capable of looking behind the curtain, believe it or not.

 

As a person who lacks an overabundance of CGC Board Street Cred that would allow me to voice any worthwhile viewpoint and as a person who just got spanked for "inappropriate language" on Thursday, amidst pages and pages of "inappropriate language" I would like to say: