Good Bye, Sweet Prince!

Continuing the discussion from Bbs = BS; Quality of discussion plummets:

Crap.

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I’m very sorry to see him go as well. He’s incredibly smart, jaw-droppingly well-informed, funny as hell, and probably hung like a horse, damn him. The complete package of a human being, at least in my experience, and I will sorely miss both his unusually deep compassion as well as his exquisitely-timed Banhammer on the truly deserving.

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Well, poop. He was a heck of a troll slayer and always good for a dick joke.

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Yes, sad to see him go, for sure. Doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, though: viva @Felton!

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A million sad faces! I’m going to miss him!

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Damn. Quoting from that topic seems a little contentious but it was just where I found out. I’m here to stay and hope that antinous will somehow contribute again in the future. But if that really is it; then so long and thanks for all the fish. Ima miss that guy.

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I’ve tried to use the Banhammer, but only Antinous can lift it.

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Oops, this was the thread I should’ve bumped to say bummer.

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it’s awfully weird without him around here (´・_・`)

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Early feedback from @Antinous was essential in deciding what new moderation features we were going to prioritize in Discourse. He will be missed!

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Well, that fucking sucks.

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Cant say I’ll miss his enforcement of politically correct opinion but at least I give respect for having done an often unpleasant job for so long.

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I only heard about this in a recent thread, but I wanted to share my opinion because, honestly? The only thing I feel from this is relief.

I appreciate the effort he put in, but I can’t say I liked the guy. From my point of view: Many of his administrative decisions seemed to be of the “agree with me or get banned” sort, and he too often contributed to exactly the sort of fights and personal attacks and derails he was suppose to be controlling (which usually lead to a straight wipe of the comments section, since there isn’t much chance of recovery once the mod is right there in the mud with the idiots). I don’t know if this was a limitation of the system, but I also found his moderation far from transparent - I’d get seemingly inoffensive posts deleted for no reason, as far as I could tell, and I was never sure where the line was other than “don’t piss him off”. As such, even this understanding could well be wrong, because often times there was no explanation for why things would disappear or moderator action was taken. He was also an aggressive and dismissive arguer (though most such comments were removed not long after, along with huge swathes of other comments), and seemed fond of personal attacks - neither of which were traits that I think suit a moderator well.

But he was far from the worst mod I’ve come across, and being a mod myself it’s hard to stay neutral AND stay on top of things AND still be an active participatory force in the community without stressing yourself out to no end. Dealing with trolls is a frustrating experience even on less well-trafficked sites. For his flaws, he’s only human, doing in many ways a thankless job, and I appreciate the time he took to do that.

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Not sad to see Antinous go, not by a long shot, for the reasons so eloquently penned by GlyphGryph. Kinda sad to see the cult of personality formed around him here, and it’s generally why I avoid participating in the comment section here.

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waitwaitwait wait waitwait wait.

godwinned?

:3

aa[quote=“miasm, post:15, topic:6095, full:true”]
godwinned?
[/quote]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Is he using the same wind that we are using?
The whispering winds of the hyperbole.

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Don’t be sad. He was a major part of the site and it’s culture for many years. You shouldn’t be surprised a lot of us liked him and are sad to see him go, even if you didn’t like him.

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Let me tell you about my favorite thing about Antinous. It wasn’t his bon mots, cutting snark, and obvious intelligence. It wasn’t that he got extremely obscure jokes none of the rest of you did (in fact that’s actually an indictment of my jokery, I think).

If you were having an argument with Antinous himself, he’d become much less likely to delete or ban you, even though he’d rhetorically tear you a new one, if he really felt strongly enough about the issue. I saw him leave posts standing that he normally wouldn’t, and it made an impression on me, because deleting or banning the other person in an argument you’re having unmistakeably implies of abuse of moderator powers. That’s something that poisons forums, and it’s why some moderators simply should never post - they can’t resist using their power to “win” arguments. Even if the thread went so far overboard that Antinous banned you for a day, you could be sure that if the argument had been with anyone else, he’d have banned you for at least a week. The bar got raised if he was emotionally involved. More moderators should be that way.

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I would argue that moderators should not be getting emotionally involved on a regular basis. Everyone slips now and then, but…

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