Gauge -> RE: Re: An update on posting style (9/24/2013 3:27:22 PM)
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This is a fast reply to no one in particular and everyone all inclusive or any differing belief system: The moderators do not owe you shit for an explanation of their actions. I stay out of this forum most of the time, and if I do, I pop in, make a point, participate a little bit, and then leave. I have to tell you that you are all lucky that I am not a moderator because you all would wet your pants because the very second that the discussion degenerated into anything other than a level headed discussion, everyone would get a time out because most of you are acting like fucking children. It is fine to disagree, it is fine to debate, hell, it is even OK to get angry, but if I was a mod, I would visit a thread and tell everyone to play nicely with each other or I will pull the plug and I wouldn't care what you called me for doing so or what bias you thought I may have. Simply put, grow up or that would be the end of the discussion no matter what the topic. I have moderated message boards since I first found my way onto the Internet. I have been accused of everything from being a Nazi to working for the covert shadow government that doesn't want truth to spread. Keeping a level head while wanting to choke the life out of someone for their rank stupidity was amazingly difficult to do, but I did it. One of the message boards was a sports message board. When it was an Olympic year, that board was filled with some of the most vile racism I have ever been witness to. After locking hundreds of threads because they were not worth cleaning up because of the fact that it was overrun with stupidity, I got a full inbox of both thanks and cursing me out. Thankless job? Yep, it is... and that is why if I got thanked or cussed out I wouldn't respond to either. My favorite were the "Free Speech" brigade, the ones that spouted claims of censorship and conspiratorial malarkey while forgetting that privately owned websites are not covered by the laws of Free Speech, but by the site owners adapted Terms of Service where they basically tell you they can pull your posts and ban you for no reason whatsoever and there isn't a thing you can do about it because they won't let you on their site until you agree it is OK for them to do just that. Funny thing was when I was a mod, after awhile, people debated without engaging in personalities. People actually exchanged ideas without bashing heads. And everyone agreed that the other could have an opposing view without slinging mud around. People could discuss politics without it degenerating into a kindergarten recess session. People actually had a good time. I have got to say that the moderators here on this particular forum have been more than lenient and allowed discussions go far beyond what I would tolerate... I suspect they did so in the hopes that a thread would right itself back on topic, and sometimes they are right, often times they are wrong. This is not a moderator problem, this is a participant problem. I forget what thread it was that I recently posted on under politics, but I came to discuss something that interested me, and I got a little friction, but I asked questions because I earnestly was trying to understand something. When it finally was explained to me, I was fine and went on with discussing the topic. And then someone came in and chewed me apart... for what? For my desire to discuss something? I left the thread... and I don't care about whatever it was that was discussed afterward. Instead of always trying to be right, how about trying to listen to each other for a change? How about trying to meet each other half-way and try to understand a point while not compromising your own. How about trying to understand that it is OK to disagree? How about looking at this dynamic and realize that politically all we are doing anymore are looking at the differences and not the similarities? How about thinking about the fact that as long as the divide in this country continues to beat the shit out of each other, the politicians get away with murder while fueling this fire of dissent? How about conducting yourself like the adults you claim to be? How about keeping your head and not feeding those that would sling around insults because that is all they have in their tank... eventually they starve. How about I shut the hell up now? I am off the soapbox. The moderators will never keep people happy, so there is no point in trying to do so. If people cannot get along, there is a block button that is oh, so useful. And if people would start behaving, there would be no need for a report button. Hell, you actually all might find something you can actually agree on. /rant
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