TR Forums

I am just putting this out here. I have spent a long time on the TR I used to read it a lot more but I ended up losing internet access for a few years and then upon returning I enjoyed finding TR still going strong. Just before I left however I found that captain Ned was grinding my gears with locking every forum I found interesting. Every time something would start to get funny and make me want to come back more often to check it out I would find it locked and a rather annoyed sounding message from CN. It has been a bit of a thorn in my side for several years now and I was wondering if there is anyway for the users to vote to remove someone's status as moderator. I know that it is scott and those guys who choose who is and isn't moderators but I feel like the TR is big enough now to allow some user input. So that if the community feels that someone is over stepping the boundaries of MOD then we can take it into our own hands. And so I put it to you guys, how does the community and the TR feel about setting something like that up?

ned's fine. mods are fine the vast majority of the time. post better things.

I don't know Ned on a personal level I do know that he happens to be the one that shuts down all the funny things I have seen. But it was more of a situation where his shutting them down got me thinking. Not anything against him and his fun hating.

Perhaps your sense of humor is more appropriate for other places.

Locked by Captain Ned in 3...2.....

This is not how to deal with a moderator issue, just sayin'.

Mea culpa time.

Many years back I did do exactly as the OP alleges. It was always in the Back Porch and it was always threads that were headed into DYMT territory. To make it worse, when I locked the threads I used the voice of Zathras from Babylon 5 (no, this is not the one) to do so. I got a good talking-to from Scott and have not done that in at least 5 years, probably more (when you're 50 your time sense is all verschimmelt).

To the OP:

I apologize. I was overzealous in trying to keep the entropy solely in DYMT and to not allow it to spread further. I haven't been that way in many a year.

Like I say CN I am not trying to attack you in general and I know that you have a job to do as to keep things from going into totally NSFW territory. I used to be (a couple years ago when I first started) driven insane by you closing them (which is where that stuff about you fun hating [as a joke] came from) I just saw you close the post about the SSK getting platinum or whatever and I was enjoying it and saw it was closed by you just like all the ones from way back when. And it started to bring back the old "khaaaa... I mean CAPTAIN NED!!!" And then I realized that is was just you doing your job but I got to thinking about the people who DO abuse their power. I have come into contact with them quiet a lot. So nothing against you aside from the locking my favorite threads which I would be annoyed at anyone for (but not actually angry) JSYK.

SUCH BAD GRAMMER IN THAT POST

Interesting. I haven't frequented these parts for long enough to notice.

Ned, I say you should lock every thread on the first page of The Back Porch, just to show everyone you mean business. Then create one thread and leave it open, titled "I'm In Charge Around Here". Then lock that one as soon as someone responds.

That would rule.

I've got a better idea.

::pours beer for everyone::

Cheers.

I'm just saying...

Hey, that's not a full pint. Hit me again and make it 'legal' this time.

Interesting. I didn't remember Ned being that draconian. Tip o' the hat to you, Ned, for addressing the situation as you chose to do here in this thread. Hopefully that will satisfy the OP...

...and then you can LOCK THIS THREAD!!!

The original post is entirely inappropriate, rude, whiney, and several other negative adjectives. I defecate on it from a great height, to maximize the splatter.

Ned, you handled this MUCH better than I would have, and better than it deserved. Good on you.

BiffStroganoffsky wrote:

Hey, that's not a full pint. Hit me again and make it 'legal' this time.

IT MOST CERTAINLY WAS A FULL PINT. YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY DRINKING IT WRONG.

idchafee wrote:

The original post is entirely inappropriate, rude, whiney, and several other negative adjectives. I defecate on it from a great height, to maximize the splatter.

Ned, you handled this MUCH better than I would have, and better than it deserved. Good on you.

+1

Personally I try to refrain to pissing off anyone who has a potato gun that can shoot the far out into the lake.

A good Michigan spud would break ribs even if it was shot from more than 50 feet away....
(good times!)

derFunkenstein wrote:

Locked by Captain Ned in 3...2.....

This is not how to deal with a moderator issue, just sayin'.

Just curious, and not that I have one, but what is a good way to deal with such an issue? PM to said moderator? Site owner? Or do you mean you don't agree with/like how the OP expressed the issue?

I have, on very very few occasions over the years, noticed heavy handed moderating (IMHO), not by anyone I can remember in particular... All to say that if enough people felt this was a common enough issue (which probably isn't the case), it might be good to have an ongoing thread where people can post about such things.

An yes. Nice candid response by Captain Ned. Definitely not required/expected. But a nice gesture. Well done sir.

idchafee wrote:

I defecate on it from a great height, to maximize the splatter.

And way to potentially detract from it by juxtaposing it with your juvenile response. However misguided you may think it was, the OP was likely being genuine...

cynan wrote:

Just curious, and not that I have one, but what is a good way to deal with such an issue? PM to said moderator? Site owner?

Chain of command.

PM to moderator in question, forum admin if it doesn't work out.

cynan wrote:

idchafee wrote:

I defecate on it from a great height, to maximize the splatter.

And way to potentially detract from it by juxtaposing it with your juvenile response. However misguided you may think it was, the OP was likely being genuine...

Juvenile met with same, I suppose. /shrug

And I don't care if he was being genuine. In fact, if he was being genuine that makes it worse. Complaining about the actions of a volunteer moderator on public forum without first at least attempting to discuss it in private is bush league. If you got an issue with Ned, talk to Ned. If you don't like Ned's answer, talk to the two administrators if you don't like their answer, talk with the site owner. If you don't like the site owner's answer, GTFO and take your business elsewhere. Posting that on an open forum was just a BS move and I feel quite justified in calling it out.

Is it just me who finds it strange how someone who claims to have laid off the internet (and hence, TR as well) for a while comes back and his first post is practically a subtle attack or effort to decrease the power or authority of Captain Ned? I admit the Cap'n can be a little too serious about things sometimes but I never took it personally, certainly not enough for me to start a thread about it.

morphine wrote:

cynan wrote:

Just curious, and not that I have one, but what is a good way to deal with such an issue? PM to said moderator? Site owner?

Chain of command.

PM to moderator in question, forum admin if it doesn't work out.

Thanks. And my apologies. It's actually addressed in the Forum Rules. Woops.

Finally, the moderators are here to help keep the forum running smoothly. They aren't here to make your forum life miserable. If you have a problem with the actions of a moderator, please talk to the moderator or one of the forum administrators (Kevin or just brew it!) through the private messaging (PM) system. We will do all that we can to work the situation out.

I guess the best way to have handled this thread would probably have been to have posted a link to this and locked it. Or just the latter...

cynan wrote:

I guess the best way to have handled this thread would probably have been to have posted a link to this and locked it. Or just the latter...

If that happens, the mods will then be accused of any or all of:

• heavy-handed modding
• tyranny
• little boy's club
• locking out all the "fun"
• other adjectives that is not forum safe

No-win scenario for mods. Any more potshots you all want to take at the mods? Might as well do it all in this thread and get them over with.
/extreme-sarcasm

Aranarth wrote:

Personally I try to refrain to pissing off anyone who has a potato gun that can shoot the far out into the lake.

A good Michigan spud would break ribs even if it was shot from more than 50 feet away....
(good times!)

And those spuds came straight from Meijer in town. My guess is 150 feet is still broken-rib range. If I ever get to the Mythbusters shop, I'll try it out on one of their pig carcasses.

Moderators should enrich the forum experience, not detract from it. There are many people that browse these forums for the first time looking desperately for help with their issues and concerns. Forums should be inviting. Moderators are there to keep a certain level of decorum, and for people to follow forum rules. If people don't participate in the forums, and new blood comes in, then it becomes stagnant. Forums aren't supposed to be good old boys clubs. Anything done to further this goal is the right direction to take.

My humble unwarranted semi-related opinion to this thread. lol.

Captain Ned wrote:

Aranarth wrote:

Personally I try to refrain to pissing off anyone who has a potato gun that can shoot the far out into the lake.

A good Michigan spud would break ribs even if it was shot from more than 50 feet away....
(good times!)

And those spuds came straight from Meijer in town. My guess is 150 feet is still broken-rib range. If I ever get to the Mythbusters shop, I'll try it out on one of their pig carcasses.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? zgirl can cook it up afterward!

drfish wrote:

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? zgirl can cook it up afterward!

Well, a whole hog would be a bit extravagant. Besides, to do a pig roast right it'd have to go on the fire well before dawn. That said, I see myself wandering down there Sat AM and filling a cooler.

uni-mitation wrote:

Moderators should enrich the forum experience, not detract from it. There are many people that browse these forums for the first time looking desperately for help with their issues and concerns. Forums should be inviting. Moderators are there to keep a certain level of decorum, and for people to follow forum rules. If people don't participate in the forums, and new blood comes in, then it becomes stagnant. Forums aren't supposed to be good old boys clubs. Anything done to further this goal is the right direction to take.

My humble unwarranted semi-related opinion to this thread. lol.

That's a nice straw-man. You're denouncing "moderators" for extreme actions which have never actually occurred here, much less against someone who "desperately needed help". Again, I've only been regularly frequenting these forums for a handful of months, but I've yet to see even a single instance of a mod doing something out of line.

I agree with the others that this should have been discussed privately with Ned before airing it out in a public thread.

Since the Cap already owned up to it, I can recall just a few incidents of heavy-handed modding in the timeframe in question, but they didn't persist -- evidently for the reasons already noted. That's pretty much par for any institution run by actual human beings, and TR is one of the best.

I've been using online forums, tech and otherwise, since around 1998 or so. I've modded one briefly and been a front-page news contributor on three. The lesson learned is that anything you do will somehow be interpreted as a golden shower into the fruit loops of someone, somewhere. Although excessively heavy modding can be chilling, it is also the case that a very small number of excessively vulgar, angry, or self-indulgent idgets can swiftly steer a forum into the sewer (usually while quip-trading about free speech).

Nobody likes having a beat cop around when they're the one getting frisked, but tie the beat cop's hands and the street soon becomes impassable.

ludi wrote:

Since the Cap already owned up to it, I can recall just a few incidents of heavy-handed modding in the timeframe in question, but they didn't persist -- evidently for the reasons already noted. That's pretty much par for any institution run by actual human beings, and TR is one of the best.

There's a post from Damage in the mod forum dated 31 Jul 2006 where he took us all to task and all of the then-mods got together and sussed things out, so my 5 years was more like almost 8 years. Sucks getting old.