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Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
I don't see how being a mod doesn't mean you can't be yourself. I don't agree with you half the time, but I do believe you have as much right as any of the rest of us to post whatever the hell opinions you like.
Broadly my "ashamed" comment was that we should all feel a bit ashamed that we have put you in a position where you have to do this - given your mod time was free and gratis and your opinion is as valid as anyone else.
It's just a bloody Internet forum - the idea that there is a specific way that a mod should behave is frankly laughable and ridiculous.
If anyone doesn't like how the mods behave they are more than welcome to go elsewhere having received a full refund
Personally, I am amazed that anyone ever takes on the task of being a mod, it seems like quite a thankless one. I know I'd much rather be playing the guitar...
Thanks for the support @Bridgehouse, but you don't need to apologise on behalf of a tiny, tiny number of others that were contributing factors in my decision. I don't hold anyone "responsible" for anything. It was my call, and at the end of the day, it's just the bloody Internet! Who gives a shit whether I'm a mod or not! I don't!
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
NEVER!!!!!!!! :-P
Nah, I think it's shitty that you were hassled enough to come to this decision. As long as you're happy then that's that main thing.
Nobody called that out for what it is. We should have done. That is all.
But, yeah, it's just a forum, just the internet etc.
More importantly though, I don't believe a mod should be denied the same right of free speech that everyone else has. I'm not (was not) just a "mod", I'm ME... warts n' all, who just happens to help delete spam, ban spammers, move posts to the correct place, etc etc. If doing that means I can't be me, then fuck that for a game of soldiers!
With that in mind, I don't believe I've ever breached the rules of this place. "Coming close to the edge" is bollocks - that's just arbitrarily blurring the rules so they fit with the accuser's unspecified standards thing again. You either break the rules, or you don't break the rules. Anything you say or do that does not break the rules is fine as far as I'm concerned.
It pissed me off that some people, usually those I was disagreeing with over something, would play the 'mod standard' card, usually when their argument had fallen apart. There IS no 'mod standard' except the arbitrary one in the accuser's head... but... if you say something often enough, people will eventually begin to believe it.
Anyhow... let's just move on now. It's a non-event on a little forum on the internet that's moving at 900 miles an hour, that's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned, a sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see are moving at a million miles a day, in an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point
We go 'round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expaaaanding universe.
Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
I'm sure people have called it out - how do you know they didn't? Did you call it out?
FWIW look at my post in the "things you are too embarrassed to admit thread".
Tarring everyone with the same brush is ridiculous and uncalled for.
This really is quite simple. Emp has quit because as far as some members are concerned he doesn't meet a set of imaginary mod criteria.
In my view that's a real shame, and it's a shame that as a community someone didn't say something to stop him from getting to this point.
That said, when one of the rules of the site is don't be a dick . I don't really think you have a hard and fast line, it's surely down to modmin opinion on a case by case basis. In any argument it's quite easy to look like a you are acting like a dick, even if that's not the intent. A few things have been moved or deleted on this this sight that I thought were nothing. Other things remain that I thought were a step too far. With 4 people modding, that's to be expected.
I imagine you'll enjoy not having to do it.
But the BDAD rule is specifically designed to be applied when necessary, and to be kept in the box when it isn't it.
The rules aren't really enforced here. Examples are made every now and then to keep people in line, but most of the time the rules aren't enforced. Sometimes that works in my favour, and sometimes it works in Emp's favour. Sometimes it even works in Bridgehouse's favour, and sometimes it works in nobodies favour.
That's the environment we've nurtured here. Absolutely no sense in moaning about it now. Be the change you want to see in the world.
And Emp's already said it was one minor factor. Don't rob him of the agency of deciding for himself what to do. Personal responsibility. I'm not responsible for him quitting his mod-job, and nor is anyone else.
Not exactly...the black-and-white rules are always enforced; it's just that they're the ones which tend to happen quietly (ie no big blow-up - banning spammers, making sure people behave themselves in the classifieds etc). The ones with a grey area tend to be a bit more context-sensitive, and we try to lean in the direction of being permissive where possible. As is inevitable with a modmin team who try to avoid sanctions, there's going to be a bit of inconsistency in the grey areas because it depends who's around at the time - if it's me, Jalapeno and Roland then the outcome might be different from me, monquixote and TTony.
As a system, I think it works pretty well (for a system which includes human beans). It's not perfect, but it'll do and things are relatively harmonious most of the time.
As an aside...it rarely ever works in the modmins' favour
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
Obviously that's just a joke though. I don't really think that.
Some of you will think that what follows is unfair (in either direction), but please try to put that to one side for a bit.
We on the modmin team have put ourselves in an awkward position, because there's a kind of unspoken rule that's crept up on us as time has gone on and the forum's grown. Effectively, we all self-censor ourselves quite a lot because sometimes - particularly to new members - our words carry more weight than others, given the position on here that we hold. That's not part of our guidelines or the community rules...it's just the way we've ended up.
That's not meant to sound self-aggrandising, but it is the impression that a lot of folk seem to have.
As a result, we can't be "normal" members on here...at least, it doesn't feel comfortable gettin' down in the muck (for want of a better phrase) on the more controversial topics, and particularly not starting them. A large part of this is because when any of us are involved in controversial threads which get really heated - particularly when we've started them ourselves with an unpopular viewpoint - it becomes much harder to moderate when stuff gets flagged, and we leave ourselves open to accusations of favouritism and protecting-our-own (this has happened more than once, so it's not just a hypothetical) and that's something which makes us feel Pretty Damn Squicky. Even worse, we tend to be more permissive when people give us abuse than when they do so to "normal" members, so as not to be accused of having an Old Boys Club or overreacting; believe me, it's very easy to overreact with the ol' trigger finger when somebody's hammering at you over some decision they didn't like.
Really, I suppose there aren't a lot of upsides to being a modmin. It's why we don't recruit often, 'cos we don't want to impose that on anyone...
Now, does this suck donkey balls for us? Sure it does. It means that we get to put in all the hard work of keeping this place humming along, but we can't use it to blow off steam the way everyone else can. Should it be this way? In an ideal world, no...but it is the reality of it.
We had lots of discussions in our private area about it, and Emp said he didn't feel comfortable with that self-imposed restriction; I should stress that at no point was he told to leave the modmin team (in fact, I personally wish he hadn't), but I do totally understand why he's done it - this is a forum where people can just let off a bit of steam here and there, precisely because we don't place as many restrictions on discussion as a lot of forums. For a lot of us, this is the only place where we can have a good rant, and - within our implementation of Rule #1 - we see that as a valuable function for this place.
There have been many times when I wished I could do the same thing as Emp, but that's even less of an option for me than even the other admins.
Ultimately, at least from my perspective, Emp wasn't getting anything positive from being a mod, but I think he was feeling the restrictions more keenly than the rest of us. Viewed like that, it's pretty easy to understand his decision.
@Emp_Fab - hope I'm not putting words in your mouth here. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong
Maybe I could have had two logins ? Emperor_Fabulous & Emperor_Modulus. I could have moderated with one and called people twats with the other. Best of both worlds really.
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming