If a moderator truly finds a post objectionale, why don't they just send a polite PM to the poster, expressing their view that perhaps the post is not appropriate, and if it could please be removed/reworded. :shrug:
I remember back when I first joined Sciforums, I started a thread: Why are moderators hated so much? [http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=79321]... Boy was I naive!
Not that I hate them, per se... I just don't understand why they do the things they do, and why they do them the way they chose to do them...
Seriously Skaught, if they just let me pop them into my mouth I could weight them and have a much more balanced idea of the size of their bollocks.
True. Sad thing is, they all have such small cacks that they have to come here and power trip in order to feel better about themselves. Point being, they have nothing to dip into your mouth!
Because a mod stepping in and saying "Hey, asshole, don't be such an asshole," is more demonstrative to those who may be considering being an asshole.
Nah. Because they have issues with pod size. Lemme feel the heavitude weighing in my fizgog, that's the true measure of things.
The reply to the moderator usually goes along the lines of "fuck off arsehole". That's if the moderator is lucky. Otherwise the replies from the offending poster is a long diatribe about how uneducated the moderator happens to be to not understand the realities of life, etc.. ending with "fuck off arsehole" and a plethora of other choice terms I shan't repeat. So in light of such responses, what do you think the moderator should do in such instances MH?
Because the people who have been chosen as mods have always been up front about what they want to say. I'm not going to pussyfoot around. If I want to say something, I'll say it. It has nothing to do with being a mod, it has to do with the type of person I am and was before even being a mod. Same goes for the others. Bells has always been up front and vocal about things she likes and doesn't like. Sam too. Avatar. There are some mods who are pussies, sure. But I don't suppose that you're complaining about them.
So, just because some arseholes behave thusly, Mods assume that everyone is going to respond the same :shrug: I would give Mods utmost respect and probably even apologize for my behavior of they were up front about deleting my posts/ cesspooling my threads. Y'all could at least give a person a chance. I mean, if you PM them and they say "fuck off arsehole". Then fuck 'em. But know that not all others are going to act the same.
Apparently only Margaret Thatcher wanted "democracy!". This is one step under pol pot baby. See the mass graves of SciForumerZ who disagreed with the opinionZ of de establishment. I give this thread three more posts before lockage.
I'm not so sure about that. Whenever I've been PM'ed by mods on other forums with a 'Whoa, perhaps that's a bit extreme/hyperbolic. I won't do anything personally, but surely a reasonable fellow like you knows that that is rather inflammatory. Can you please tone it down?' I've been more than happy to go back and edit (or even deleted) my own posts. And assuming that some members may act like assholes, what does that matter? Why not start from the most conservative approach first, and then work your way up from there? If someone's an asshole, that's tough luck. At least you gave them a chance to be reasonable. Who knows, perhaps THEY will convince YOU that your decision is erroneous, that you misinterpreted their post, etc. Railroading over posters by editing and deleting their threads is rather insulting. It essentially translates to "Your posts are shit, your ideas are shit, you are a fuckhead, your mother's a whore, everyone at sci hates you, the moderators want to gut you with a rusty giant fishhook, have a nice day." Well, maybe not the first time. But when it happens frequently, that sort of message is sent across. And yeah, I know that this isn't my forum, that Plazma and his goons can do whatever they want. But if the administration truly wants a forum based on respect, they should start by showing respect to the posters. Treating posters like little misbehaved children and telling them to STFU when they cry about the injustice of a decision is hardly respectful. No idea at the moment. But people are telling the moderators to fuck off anyway after repeated deletions/edits. So why not try my approach?
You are assuming the majority don't already take that approach. You also need to realise that if a thread is a full on flame fest, sending PM's to everyone who posted like twits is not only time consuming, in most cases, it is completely ineffectual. In instances where it is just one post, I'll usually send a PM to the individual and delete their offending content if they aren't online (I don't know when they'll be next on for example, and having to possibly wait for a couple of days for them to remove the insult, etc.. that could end up having a negative affect on the thread itself as others take to responding to the flame). If the thread is a complete loss, in that it is full of flames, insults and offending posts, I'll just remove what needs to be removed and advise them in the thread itself to tone it down. If that does not work, then I close the thread. In some cases, the offending poster will apologise and say they won't do it again, but the majority of the time, they will refuse to remove the offending post. In other cases (most times really), I'll be told to fuck off, called a bitch, and several other choice names. So with those particular posters, I simply deal with the issue at hand and remove or edit their posts. With posters who are forthcoming and willing to discuss the issue, I take the time and talk to them one on one first and ask them to edit their post (if they are online at the time), or I'll edit it and send them a PM or say why I edited it in their post as a mod note. In short, I treat others as they treat me. Call me a bitch or tell me to fuck off on first approach, then I have little time or regard for their feelings. Let me make one thing clear. If I have something to say to someone, I will say it, regardless of who that person happens to be. I have noticed however that with the approach I take in moderating Human Sciences, the greater majority do behave quite well and I rarely have to intervene and "moderate". The greater majority of posters who post in Human Sciences seem to moderate themselves most of the time. And to those members, I thank you.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! As I said above, if something needs to be said, I'll usually say it. If the reply from that poster is "fuck off", then I do what needs to be done. I don't edit or delete posts easily. It's not something I do on a daily basis. I usually have no need to. The last one I did edit was one post in a thread where he had quoted the entire text of the OP, which was absolutely huge, and that edit was simply to shorten the quote. There have been one or two posters who enjoyed insulting and flaming other members and with those posters, and have been completely unresponsive to any and all PM's or they reply and tell me that I should go and "fuck myself". With such posters, I will issue warnings and if that still doesn't slow them down, I hand them over to the administrators.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Thankfully it doesn't need to happen very often, since the greater majority of posters seem to follow the rules and don't stray too much. Again.. mucho love from me to those people. There are one or two who have been difficult in the past, but you get that. If people have a problem with how I moderate, they are very welcome to approach me directly and we'll discuss it. Again, I'll treat posters as they treat me. Respect goes both ways. I tend to be brutally honest. I'll say it as I see it. As the other moderators know quite well, if I think they are wrong about something, I will tell them how I feel. If I see something as being unfair, I will speak out about it. As I mentioned above, I am quite open to criticism about how I moderate. And I will admit and apologise if I have stuffed up, and do what I can to rectify my mistake. If someone is behaving like a child, I'll tell them to stop being childish. Again, communication and respect goes both ways. If someone has a complaint, the best course of action is to approach the moderator in question and if that does not yield any result, they should then PM the administrators. And if that somehow fails to resolve the issue, then start a thread about it. I will admit that I have little patience with people who send a PM and expect a reply within 30 seconds.. People need to realise that we are not here 24/7 and sometimes it can take a day or two to get a response. But so many people fail to recognise that we do have lives and that we are not here every single minute of every day. So if they don't get a reply within a minute of sending their PM, they start a thread to complain about it. As I said, I have little patience with people who behave that way. Bad of me, I know, but it gets old real fast. Bleh.. I'm babbling... and my goon squad costume is pinching.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
That's been tried. Some moderators attempt this way of handling people, sometimes those posters respond by removing objectional content or rewording things. However most times the posters tend to tell the moderator to go to hell, burn some bra's and then do a little sock puppet dance for the perpetual drama theatre we know as here. Obviously the reception of such retort's for asking for such a simple thing in a polite manner tended to raise the hairs on the back of a moderators neck and caused them to politely rebutte with a foot forced down (...The insolent posters throat). Sometimes the posters don't even generate a response they just automatically repost their contents on multiple subforums as if the world observes their contents on "The application of perpetual motion machines in Alchemy" as a well adjusted and accurate paper that might feed the worlds starving populous or make them a Milliardaire. Unfortunately for these deluded souls the only way for them to realise their err's is to actually remove their posts completely. (Politeness with them doesn't work, I've tried it and others have eventually removed them for the forum due to this generosity.) So I guess you can say that the suggestion of a Band aid for fixing a mortal wound doesn't work, unless of course you are really good with band aids.
At least two, I suspect many more though. The ones that tell you to fuck off are the ones that deserve a ban.
I think mods often abuse their power (some to an acceptable degree that I hardly noticed) on most the boards I post on, the job of any mod is not to act like the boss of everyone and show their "authority" and make out their opinion is more important and final. It's simply to move off topic posts to more appropriate place or to stop serious hate posts and chill stuff out if bickering does start destroying threads. I really don't have any more respect for mods than most other reasonable posters, often I have less because they don't act as reasonable. Many seem to lose their sense of humour, and when someone starts flamming instead of smoothing things over many get irritated and switch into over zealous flash light cop mode. I think it's sad people go off all power drunk over so little power, some boards I wont even post on because it's too much.
