I wonder how long THIS thread is going to stay up?
Why wouldnât it stay up? This thread is a feature request. One I think would be great to have, too.
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Because this latest thread only exists because of yesterdayâs thread regarding banned poster modusoperandi, and bb pulled that thread yesterday.
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Not from my perspective. Reading the OPâs post, heâs proposed a useful feature that I, as a moderator, would very likely make use of in specific instances. You are, of course, welcome to interpret it any way you wish.
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It would serve us both well if you show me exactly where I said that this particular thread is not useful. Then we can go from there without misinterpreting each other.
ânot usefulâ? Now youâre reading into my comments, too - I said no such thing. I do notice, though, that youâre speaking for the OP, by implying that you âknowâ why this topic exists, despite them saying nothing of the sort in this thread.
Either way, youâre now risking derailing what is otherwise a useful conversation on alternatives mods can consider or features that could be added to Discourse.
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As a âwiseâ man once said, (see above).
Iâm not sure what youâre trying to accomplish here, other than derailing an otherwise productive thread.
What exactly happens if the answer to your question is âyesâ? Does that somehow invalidate the discussion on mod tools?
Iâm giving you a lot of latitude here, but this is coming awfully close to trolling in my mind.
At this point, if I respond to you at all about this (as I am now), would you consider that something that would contribute to âderailingâ and also â now â trolling, because Iâm talking about it in response to you post? Honestly? I merely posted once about the apparent connection between the OP and yesterdayâs very unusual thread re MO. You responded to that, and asked the question âWhy wouldnât it stay up?â So I answered that (in case you did not know about yesterdayâs pulled thread), i.e., trying to be helpful. That was all. And here we are.
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I consider the incident clasic derailing, yes - no one had mentioned the banning until you did, at which point you tried to imply that a discussion about mod tools may not âstay upâ (despite the fact that AFAIK no topics were âtaken downâ). Iâm not going to get into an argument about it with you, but here you go, you now have your own thread to air your issues without anyone declaring it âofftopicâ.
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At times, the chance of calling âofftopicâ is directly proportional to both âtaking it personallyâ and ânot agreeing with the other partyâ. Will banning come next?
Since their comments have been scrubbed, could you please let us know exactly what Modusoperandi and OtherMichael wrote, so weâre clear about where the red line is?
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Best I can do is refer you to the community guidelines.
Our rules arenât âhard and fastâ because language isnât static, either - itâs open to interpretation. Mods donât work as one, and the mods (or the Authors/Editors/Mutants) have their own interpretations as well (as one would expect - itâs their space). Iâm happy to explain my interpretation of âderailingâ a thread, but itâs not a hard and fast rule, and other mods may have different interpretations.
In many ways, this is a reflection of Boing Boing itself - the Authors donât check with each other before posting. Their voices independently craft a whole that is greater than the sum of itâs parts, IMHO.
An offtopic comment on itsâ own may be innocuous, but if it drags discussion away from the primary topic, then itâs detrimental to that topic, and if the discussion has merit on itsâ own, then Iâm often inclined to spin it off into itsâ own thread so the discussion can continue uninterrupted. But this isnât a hard and fast rule, but persistent offtopic posts repeatedly take away from the conversation, not add to it, and weâve removed members from our community for that very reason (often at the behest of other members who are tired of having discussions continually dragged off in a specific direction).
I try to air on the âlight touchâ side of moderation because I believe that, generally, the community is pretty good at self-policing, and step in only when needed. Iâd have to do that a lot less if you folks would flag more, so that the community itself handled moderation directly (an awesome feature of Discourse).
Despite being employed by BB, moderating here isnât part of my job - I choose to volunteer my time to help make BBS a better place because I care about civil discourse on the internet, and in the hope that this leaves the Authors free to post mostly wonderful things for us.
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My opinion on this is that suspensions of well known regulars in particular should be short, as they have proven themselves.
(Now if a regular goes off the rails and posts some wildly racist rant, fine, suspend them forever, but I am assuming this was more of a procedural faux pas or misunderstanding?)
To be clear I have absolutely been suspended at times from other forums I participate on. And I deserved it. I was close to self-suspending myself from here on BBS for causing unnecessary moderator drama once. The point is to say âyep, I screwed up, I apologize and I will try againâ. Everyone is human, everyone messes up, but regulars in particular (barring xtra crazy badness) should be given a bit more rope to hang themselves. I think theyâve earned it.
I feel like friends, true friends, can forgive each other.
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Ok I looked further and this ⌠this is all over the freaking St. Elsewhere snow globe ending? Are you guys kidding me?
Every editor has their own approach and jlw is strict. I thought everyone knew not to derail jlwâs topics? Well, now you know double plus good not to do so.
(That said, still not a fan of very long suspensions on regulars.)
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At least I know what threads to avoid participating in.
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That is indeed a way to look at it. Redundant: I still not agree on draconian measures, how banning for a long while of well known regulars feels to me. Itâs a interesting view.
As we all (!) are part of this group, community(?), and some/mosts are guests, I can see your point of view. Can be recognizable too.
Everybody, for sure around these mutants, maybe they are self one, has somebody, or more people, in there family/friends who has some special wayâs to deal with. And take care of that. In the positive and negative way. Does and dontâs, if somebody provokes aunt x and gets into trouble; âThey should have known what could happenâ.
If somebody is not nice, and careful, around vulnerable uncle y, and he starts drinking and crying. Yep. the same.
Does that not relieve aunt x and uncle y from there personal responsibility, I like to think about people to be responsible for there behaviour and acts.
However, there is nothing wrong to take in account some quirks and behaviour, and to be kind. And when not possible, avoid.
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âOh dear, did somebody say mattress to Mr Lambert?â
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Not us.
I agree with what youâre saying. Was @othermichael in jlwâs thread though? I thought he opened his own to protest the ban on m-o and that got him TEN years
Since from this vantage we see the bottom of boots when we complain, perhaps other, cooler, heads could meditate on this.
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Iâve been accessing online forums since the mid 80âs, and if thereâs one thing I know, itâs that BBS moderation sometimes brings out the inner-authoritarian in some people. Sysops get to control their electronic fiefdoms any way they choose, and some choose to do it with an iron fist.
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