Kudos to the Moderators!

[William Ronald]

He does do a grand job!

The mods are all feeling pretty much under siege at the moment. They're having to step in more and more often, and every time they do so the recipient of the moderating jumps up and starts claiming it's for any and all reasons but the basic truth - that they were rude. We're dealing with accusations of bias, attempts to prevent people espousing opinions which differ to the mods, persecution - you name it!

The actual truth is that people get moderated because they're rude. We've handed out a couple of bans in the last day or so (one temporary, one permanent), and the Rules forum is more like a warzone these days.

So, all the moderators do a great job with a lot of patience, dealing with abusive emails and accusations. I certainly couldn't run this place without them!

First, I would like to thank all the moderators for their hard work. I have thought that you might be a bit harried, based on the number of warnings I have seen of late and colsed threads. I think your hard work helps keep this site a fun place to visit online. I just hope that you are having fun despite the headaches.

Rudeness will be a recurrent problem. I think that some people see things only in black and white, and fail to see the many shades of gray -- let alone the other colors. Sometimes, what we think are truths carved in stone are subjective opinions.

Is there anything as posters that we can do to help? Some of us regulars on the boards try to calm things down with a few comments, or reporting a post.

 

[werk]

I'll chime in with a "good job!" too.

I actually had this conversation in my head...

(Reading through rules forum, like usual)
"Hey, Pielorinho posted...weird, I haven't seen him post in here for a while...good deal."
(next thread)
"Hmm...he posted on this thread too."
(notices sticky at the top of the forum)
"Awww, man! I missed some drama!?!"


Anyways, thanks for keeping some level of maturity in the rules forum...we need it

 

[Mark CMG]

I call them "Huzzaderators!"

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Clones?Wedon'tneedclones! Doublemochalattesworkjustfine! Youdon'tseemetalkingaboutclones,doyou? It'snothingthatacoffee,vivarin,andNoDozwithacoffeechasercan'tcure!!!

And don't forget the Stackers too....

You guys do great jobs. It's not an easy one but a necessary one.

Cheers!

 

[Truth Seeker]

Well IW, you get some appreciation as well...from me . For keeping a sharp eye on the SCI news boards

I just want to add my appreciation of the moderators to this growing thread. I am glad to see the approach being taken with the rules forum and welcome it. There are so many other places to go on the Internet where personal digs and insults are the norm (try a true Unix newsgroup someday for a little taste of that fun) that I really enjoy coming to EN World as a little shelter from how the rest of the Internet operates.

Thanks!!!

 

[Cheiromancer]

It looks like the peace is holding. No contentious threads seem to be on the front page of rules, and the one threat to order in General (the paladin thread) seems to have cooled down a lot.

Of course, now that I say this, all hell will break loose.

But I'm cautiously optimistic.

[edit]Famous last words. The paladin thread is heating up again... Oh well. What will be will be. [/edit]

 

[spatha]

Dude, I have enough to do without becoming psychically aware of my clone and dropping everything to go hunt my clone down and kill it in a final showdown.

Or is that 1E?

Seriously, folks, I appreciate it. As one of the folks engaging in hot-and-heavy emails about infractions in the Rules Forum, I get to hear a lot about how unfair I am; it's good to hear that the folks who AREN'T causing the problems have got my back on this.

At least I've got a new user title out of it.

Daniel

I myself was smacked down by Pielorinho recently. While I Questioned him on a couple of points via e-mail I hope I didn't come down as rude or whiney.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

It looks like the peace is holding. No contentious threads seem to be on the front page of rules, and the one threat to order in General (the paladin thread) seems to have cooled down a lot.

Of course, now that I say this, all hell will break loose.

But I'm cautiously optimistic.

[edit]Famous last words. The paladin thread is heating up again... Oh well. What will be will be. [/edit]

The paladin thread is actually going better than I anticipated when I first started following it. I am still concerned, because people are starting to back each other into (metaphorical) corners and compromise doesn't appear to be an option - but I think that it may end up ending peacefully.

Oh, and I'll also chime in with a "GREAT JOB" to our moderators. Their vigilance is what helps make these boards a very enjoyable place to visit.

 

[Zappo]

Thanks the mods, in all their glory, amen.

I've started a Ultima Online shard a couple months ago, and I have this to say. Managing a site and trashing the occasional hate mail is easy. Moderating a closed board is easy. Moderating an open board about a project that noone cares about because it's only going to start in a year or so is still easy (you can always say "we're working on it, it'll be ok by release" and "thanks for your suggestion, we're discussing it"). But you don't know what moderating a few hundred people that feel passionate about something is, until you have to do it.

And I don't want to know or even think about what moderating several thousand is, so thanks again.

 

[Cheiromancer]

The mods all have their very own style. I love how Hypersmurf can draw out the absurdity of a situation without causing offense. He makes people think. His "chicken or mutton" example in the paladin thread was very fine.

Dinkeldog, on the other hand, has many ranks in intimidate. Very useful when (as seems to be the case) some of our posters have a homebrew feat that makes them immune to diplomacy checks.

Does anyone besides me use the "find recent posts" button to follow the mods around and see what they are doing? I find it is quite interesting to see what techniques each bring to a situation.