User RandomDude has been asked not to return after going after characterization and responses to his posts as an “attack”, then deciding to derail the topic over the moderation of that content - something the user had previously been given a timeout for doing.
I’ve said this before, but the BBS (and, indeed, most forums) aren’t lecture halls. Don’t post in them if you don’t want your words to be criticized by others, or if you believe your words can only ever have one interpretation and those who see them otherwise are “attacking” you.
And another “thank you” to the mods. Yesterday, I found a rather unhinged screed in my email, a BBS reply to one of my posts. (ETA: Strangely, it wasn’t really directed at me personally.) By the time I logged back in, the thread had already been cleaned up.
for the record, given that i was one of those individuals who was “gone after” in that topic, i have to say that i am always willing to accept criticism for any comment or reply i put out here. i fully understand that whenever i write something in a more or less public space like this forum that i will be subject to anything ranging from praise to criticism to silence. i am willing to accept that because discussion and debate require give and take, sometimes spirited give and take.
at no point have i ever claimed to be or posed as some font of knowledge and wisdom whose words must be respected. there are times when i have some experience or expertise in a topic and i generally explain the nature of that when i comment from that position but even then i do not claim to be omniscient. sometimes i am a fountain of ignorance and am perfectly willing to say that. sometimes i am wrongheaded and, once i realize it, i am eager to apologize and change my mind. there have been times in discussion here when i have changed my mind during the course of a thread, stated so within the thread, and even retracted comments or replies in which my errors needed to be eliminated.
the thing about this place that makes it so remarkable is that between the flag system, the leader system, and our moderator we have a place where discussion and debate is not only possible but where they can flourish. i want to thank everyone who makes that possible from @orenwolf to our leaders to the discourse team who wrote the code for this forum.
Some folks have such miserable lives that they will actually spend years online trying to spread that misery to others, and then they act surprised and butthurt when their toxicity is disallowed.
I’ve seen it time and time again on many sites, but the BBS definitely has had the most effective mods out of them all.
Thank goodness for Orenwolf, Falcor and all the other stellar moderators we’ve had over the years.
I believe we now all realize this was a mistake in our moderation policy and simply will delete, and/or ban users. Content that does not belong on our bbs does not belong. We are not going to mock it.
Additionally, user hoobajoob has been given a timeout for directly attacking users. This happened in the past, and I apologize to the target of their vitriol for failing to notice it the first time.
Thanks to the user that reached out about this issue!
User tsuyoikuma has been asked not to return after a months-long quest to rules-lawyer after being moderated, by flagging otherwise acceptable posts (don’t do this, your flag weight will quickly drop to zero), derailing topics with comments on how they were moderated, and generally carrying a chip on their shoulder about the whole thing.
The community flagged your post, the moderators agreed it violated our guidelines; I thoroughly explained why. If an extended quest to disrupt the blog instead of trying to write more respectful comments is how you want to handle things, then further involvement here is only going to lead to further disappointment.
