Thread pulling

[CHUD]

I don't see what's wrong with hairpulling and spitballs. It's all just words on a screen spoken by people you'll probably never meet that nobody's forcing anyone to read.

 

[Ted S]

From day one this board has been moderated, if anything has changed it has been the secrecy of the moderation. Back when we were "new" and up till about two years ago pulling a post meant deleting it and asking about it too much could mean a ban. That was the old system and what some people refer to as "the good ol' days" (what was so good I don't know). Things have long since changed, moderators are still all volunteers but there is a power check of sorts; posts aren't deleted any more, they are merely moved to a holding forum. Some threads get cleaned and some don't... in the case of long political threads like the 9/11 thread there is simply too much cleaning to do and doing any cleaning would have been rather biased even if it was well intentioned. For many of you it seems logical to ask why we don't simply lock the thread and let people read it if they desire but that rarely solves the problem. Removing and cleaning up threads still gets us spin-offs (like this thread), so you can only imagine what we get if we lock a thread with lots of flame and abuse for everyone to read. In an ideal world we would have a computer program determine which threads are bad and remove them before they even got saved but this is not an ideal world, it is a real world and the forum is moderated by a team of real people. Not everything is done perfectly and sometimes what we would all like to see done can not happen. We are always trying to improve things around here but if you want to blame people for what few short comings we have, please don't blame the moderators, they are all users just like you but with added responsibility and stress of trying to help keep this community sane and I for one think they are doing a great job (past mods included).

 

[scubafool]

Removing and cleaning up threads still gets us spin-offs (like this thread)

Are you calling my thread a tornado?!! :mfight:

And just to be disagreeable, I don't think that a computer program that decides what posts are allowed to show up & what posts aren't would be FAR from ideal. Maybe I oughta shut my big yap, huh?

Quite obviously, it is easy for me to sit here & say that it would have been easy to cleanse this particular thread considering I am not the one who would have been attempting to do so. Consequently, I must learn to live with the fact that the thread is gone. Oooohhhhh, the pain! Ooohh the cruelty!!! :06:

Sorry, everyone, I just felt the need to whine & be a general PITA, thus this thread.

 

[Ted S]

This forum exists for you to whine but the rules don't say I can't whine back at you

Obviously some things are not what you may like but what makes us differant from the rest is that hearing your comments is important and actually something we take under consideration.

 

[scubafool]

Feel free to cry on my shoulder, as I have taken the liberty of bawling all over yours. Go ahead, I am here for you, man.

 

[The Chairman]

You know it's funny,

but way back, when someone was "banned" you never ever knew it. Their password was simply changed and it merely appeared as if they just stopped coming by. Since I took control (yeah, a little over two years ago) we have been operating FAR MORE in the open. Since I took formal ownership (about a year ago) we have been incredibly open for a privately owned corporation. Some people have "bristled" at the number of bannings, and thread pulls, but they missed the point that with a ton more users, threads and posts, these events have actually decreased in frequency... but now you know about them so it "seems" like more. Back then, not even the mods had an idea of who was banned and why. The mods were mods in name only.

Yes, I have taken a TON of flak for being painfully open. Some have derided me as being "power hungry" when I would suggest the exact opposite is true. Instead of hording the power, I have freely given it to the hardest working group of volunteers in the world. Sometimes they wish I would take some of it back... But I don't need to... the mods use it wisely. Very rarely will I ever second guess a moderator's action. If they ask my opinion, I will certainly give it, but I have only exercised my "veto power" a couple of times, and that is usually to reverse a ban on someone. Would I do it this way again??? This is the ONLY way I would do it. I choose to walk in the light as he is in the light.

Tech Admin was right... a thread like this one would have gotten you perm-banned (there were no "temp-bans") a couple of years ago. No room for any disagreements or negative comments. But hey, while I may own the URL, I truly believe that we all own the community. In that regard, I love to hear any and all comments from the users on how to make this a better place! We talk over many of the suggestions in the back room and quite a few get incorporated into our site. So don't stop your whining. We surely don't want to stop improving!!!

And BTW, remember the mods are users too... they get to have their OWN opinions and can believe them just as passionately as you do yours. They have every right to express them passionately too! Do they have to abide by the TOS? Of course, but their first duty as a Mod (or Supervisor, or Doctor, or Greeter) is to have FUN. Really!

 

[underwater daphne]

i'm glad the mods here aren't biased on one persons opinion and know there is more than one right. thanks guys/gals, keep up the good work!

 

[scubafool]

. In that regard, I love to hear any and all comments from the users on how to make this a better place! We talk over many of the suggestions in the back room and quite a few get incorporated into our site. So don't stop your whining. We surely don't want to stop improving!!!

And BTW, remember the mods are users too... they get to have their OWN opinions and can believe them just as passionately as you do yours. They have every right to express them passionately too! Do they have to abide by the TOS? Of course, but their first duty as a Mod (or Supervisor, or Doctor, or Greeter) is to have FUN. Really!

Much input has been made to this thread. But after the above,
I finally feel like someone has seen through my ineloquence & maybe, just maybe, the effort of my fingers has not been wasted. Thanks.

 

[Otter]

Much input has been made to this thread. But after the above,
I finally feel like someone has seen through my ineloquence & maybe, just maybe, the effort of my fingers has not been wasted. Thanks.

Did he say he is giving us the finger???

 

[GoBlue!]

You can see all of the hair pulling & the spitballs flying about now. I'd hate to see us without any control at all. :11:

It's pathetic.

Jim