Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:18 pm
Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:41 pm
Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:43 pm
FireAcolyte wrote:I'd think you were joking, but unless you are really dedicated to coming off that way; no one types that much to be joking...
I view mods as a non-conditional means. You will have them, you are better with them, nothing can change that. Bring the most mature people around, without a symbol of order, and it can degrade into nonsense in time.
My opinion is biased though, I will admit it; I'm a seasoned moderator and have a simple view on it. If all your mods are active, reliable, and alert; than it's easy to forget what exactly is tackled on a day-by-day basis.
Same thing here. Dave set this site up for us, the ES gamers, to have a place to hang out and help each other. He set down some rules and has set up Moderators to enforce those rules. This site is his property and we should respect what he says about the use of his property.
Musicman, I would be thrilled if you came and painted on my walls.
Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:59 pm
Thu Aug 09, 2012 11:07 pm
DorostheConqueror wrote:FireAcolyte wrote:I'd think you were joking, but unless you are really dedicated to coming off that way; no one types that much to be joking...
I view mods as a non-conditional means. You will have them, you are better with them, nothing can change that. Bring the most mature people around, without a symbol of order, and it can degrade into nonsense in time.
My opinion is biased though, I will admit it; I'm a seasoned moderator and have a simple view on it. If all your mods are active, reliable, and alert; than it's easy to forget what exactly is tackled on a day-by-day basis.
I never joke; even when I'm joking, I'm dead serious.
It's interesting that you say "it can degrade into nonsense". What it can do is irrelevant. What it is doing is what matters. Again, check the OP, specifically the bit where I discussed end-stage moderism, the period of time in which mods cease to think of themselves as the enforcers of community standards and start to think of themselves as the definers of community standards. I intentionally refined from accusing mods of engaging in "PreCrime" tactics (assuming that if a problem may exist in the future, all bets are off and they are free to punish, coerce, and redefine policy as if the problem has actually occurred)... I left this out because I didn't want you to assume I was joking. But, well, the sort of thinking you outline above is perfectly symptomatic of that error. I don't think you're doing this on purpose, I don't think you're consciously setting out to provide a rationale for fascism, but it is what it is.
Consider this. When a problem arises, mods deal with it. Yes? If something happens, then mods step in to take corrective measures. That's their job. That's what we're (not) paying them to do! How can we justify a system in which mods say that, since something might happen, the capacity for this to even occur must be removed, regardless of whether there's legitimate discussions to be had, regardless of the majority of users who can and do handle themselves in a reasonable manner, regardless of whether such tactics erode the community's confidence in it's moderating staff and, well, "lame the forum up".