The State of Moderation at RPG.net

[Janx]

I think you're being baited to go to CM for some ribbing over there.

I also think that you're not going to accomplish much complaining about your treatment on another site.

based on what you say, yes it sounds like bad moderating.

Ultimately, I would not want to be a member of a site with crappy moderation.

You may need to accept the fact that u aren't getting back in, and truth be told, it doesn't sound like that nice of a place if moderation is that shabby.

 

[jaerdaph]

Personally, I never found Darren MacLennan's judgment and social skills consistent with the qualifications of a good mod, but hey, it's not my board, not my rules, and not my choice to make. Not that I'd make a better mod there or anywhere (or even a good one), but I never thought he was a good choice.

I'm not going to comment on whether or not I think your ban is justified, but I will say you can see some of what I think makes him a bad choice for being a mod in the post announcing it that you linked to. Or maybe I'm just judging him on EN World's standards, and not RPGNow's...

And there have certainly been other mods that I didn't care for personally, but I could never say they didn't do their job, do it fairly and do it well.

 

[jaerdaph]

I think you're being baited to go to CM for some ribbing over there.

Oh, and ditto on this.

Again, I won't comment on whether I think it is deserved or not.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Don't go to CM, it's a trap! I don't know much about rpg.net, but I find it hard to believe the people there could be bigger turds than you'll find in CM.

I'm surprised you haven't gotten any flak along the lines of "dude, it's just some forum, who cares?" That said...it's just some internet forum, who cares?

It sounds like they had no legitimate reason to ban you (I should probably look at your original post that the OP replied to that you then replied to, since it was probably the powderkeg), and I feel really bad for the User fellow. *Reading your permaban thread* A few people have trashed on Darren now, but I think the "tool of the year decade century millenium infinity" is Cessna. Wow, what a prick! So much so, that I'm actually fairly confident that if Cessna were a moderator on EnWorld, s/he'd try and "out" me as a sockpuppet for user. Just ignore my half decade here, it was all a front!

 

[Umbran]

Wow, what a prick!

Hm. Somewhere, you got the impression that it was okay to use EN World to toss insults around.

Disabuse yourself of that notion very, very quickly, please. This is not okay. It is the exact opposite of okay.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Sorry. I don't even know why that made me so angry.

 

[agoodbadhabit]

I'm with you.

I was a member of rpg.net for 11 years. I saw it go from a site in which folks of all stripes could get together to exchange ideas (and yes, scrap over them occasionally) to one at which you had to toe the moderator-party line in order to stay in their good graces.

Though I'd never even had a mod action, I was perma-banned in late '09. I had PMd a mod (though he wasn't posting as a mod) over the me-too gravedancing he was doing in Trouble Tickets; then *BAM* I was banned for alleged PAs via PM.

Nice thing about that? rpg.net refuses to disclose PMs, so basically the mods have a fail-safe way to ban folks with whom they don't agree. They can say you said pretty much anything, and there's no way for the general user base to know otherwise. Very Kafkaesque...

Up to that point I'd had some unpleasant exchanges with Nina, Future Villain Bond, and Darren (all wearing their non-mod hats) in various sex-positive threads, and a couple of times with Cessna over his one-true-way crap. I repeat, though, that I'd never been sanctioned, or even red-texted.

I let it go as no longer being worth it, but then they banned my brother-in-law for alleged sockpuppetry. He never referred to me, but (unfortunately for him) he did speak his mind when the blue-noses came out in Tangency. He'd been a member for around four years; pretty long-term for a sockpuppet indeed! Granted he'd not posted for a bit over a year before his ban, but then again he was overseas doing his chosen duty.

None of his appeals were even answered.

This led me to ghost through their Trouble Tickets forum from time to time. I was stunned at the number of posters they've been banning, especially long-term ones. Every purge has its victims, though.

In any case, the current crop of mods are bent on establishing a homogeneous site on which only those with their values are allowed to post. Sad, especially in light of what rpg.net was, but whatever. Their site seems to be dying off, because who wants to talk to themselves (or a reasonable simulacra thereof) all day?

 

[Crothian]

I think the site is doing great. There seems to be no better community to talk about any types of RPG. I've yet to have an issues with the mods there and I've been there forever as well.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I think the site is doing great. There seems to be no better community to talk about any types of RPG. I've yet to have an issues with the mods there and I've been there forever as well.

To play devil's advocate, though... The poster above you also had no problems for years. And then suddenly had problems. Just because nothing's happened to you (...yet...) doesn't mean you should overlook it if the mods are being abusive to others.

 

[Crothian]

You are being devil's advocate to my devil's advocate

I read trouble tickets from time to time but I rarely see what I consider mod abuse. We see the same thing about EN World the people who get banned and punished complain and complain but most of the time I can see they were at fault.