What Happened to the Quitting the Site Thread?

[ToPleaseHim]

Your sig “Stop fucking Republicans” tells us all we need to know.

I’m sending you someplace warm and crowded, full of people just like you. You’ll fit right in.

Nice reply, lol. A simple “thank you for the clarification” would have sufficed.

 

[lovecraft68]

Your sig “Stop fucking Republicans” tells us all we need to know.

I’m sending you someplace warm and crowded, full of people just like you. You’ll fit right in.

It is interesting that people can have posts removed for being political, but a mod can have that in their signature.

But things like that caused a lot of people to go push back against that type of juvenile generalization and hate come election time.

Behavior leads to self-inflicted wounds. Unfortunately, few see that, they just keep blaming everyone else.

 

[ToPleaseHim]

It is interesting that people can have posts removed for being political, but a mod can have that in their signature.

But things like that caused a lot of people to go push back against that type of juvenile generalization and hate come election time.

Behavior leads to self-inflicted wounds. Unfortunately, few see that, they just keep blaming everyone else.

I’ve never removed a post for being political. I’ve removed literal hate speech, but that’s super rare in that part of the forum. People report political posts in The Playground periodically and I almost always reject the report with feedback to use the Ignore feature or scroll past posts they disagree with (exceptions being the above mentioned hate speech). There’s no rule that says political posts are not allowed. Political posts often lead to fighting and flame wars, though, and derailing threads. Those would certainly be reasons for them to be removed.

ETA: There is a rule to post in the correct forum. It would be appropriate to move political posts to that forum or to remove them if they are derailing a thread or off-topic. In the PG, they are often posted in threads titled “What Are You Thinking?” or “What is your most controversial opinion?” Hard to be off-topic in a thread like that.

 

[SimonDoom]

I’ve never removed a post for being political. I’ve removed literal hate speech, but that’s super rare in that part of the forum. People report political posts in The Playground periodically and I almost always reject the report with feedback to use the Ignore feature or scroll past posts they disagree with (exceptions being the above mentioned hate speech). There’s no rule that says political posts are not allowed. Political posts often lead to fighting and flame wars, though, and derailing threads. Those would certainly be reasons for them to be removed.

ETA: There is a rule to post in the correct forum. It would be appropriate to move political posts to that forum or to remove them if they are derailing a thread or off-topic. In the PG, they are often posted in threads titled “What Are You Thinking?” or “What is your most controversial opinion?” Hard to be off-topic in a thread like that.

I think Lovecraft has a point, however, that if you're going to be a moderator, you have an obligation not just to BE fair and neutral but to present an appearance of being fair and neutral. Having a signature line that features a distinct political point of view, and one that is markedly hostile toward one side and features an obscene word, doesn't exactly do that. One wouldn't want to have a case in front of a judge and walk into the judge's courtroom with the banner "Stop fucking Republicans" hanging on the wall behind the judge's bench. I would be disturbed by that and would doubt the judge's ability to be fair regardless of what my views were.

 

[ToPleaseHim]

This is not a court of law and there are no expectations that mods don’t have opinions and perspectives. Feel free to take it up with Laurel, though.

 

[lovecraft68]

I’ve never removed a post for being political. I’ve removed literal hate speech, but that’s super rare in that part of the forum. People report political posts in The Playground periodically and I almost always reject the report with feedback to use the Ignore feature or scroll past posts they disagree with (exceptions being the above mentioned hate speech). There’s no rule that says political posts are not allowed. Political posts often lead to fighting and flame wars, though, and derailing threads. Those would certainly be reasons for them to be removed.

ETA: There is a rule to post in the correct forum. It would be appropriate to move political posts to that forum or to remove them if they are derailing a thread or off-topic. In the PG, they are often posted in threads titled “What Are You Thinking?” or “What is your most controversial opinion?” Hard to be off-topic in a thread like that.

AS @SimonDoom pointed our moderators can have personal opinions, but when it comes to the account you use to mod (I've known mods in the past that had alt accounts) then you should not express any type of opinion or bias within it. It tells me that-in this case-you are more likely to remove a post by someone with a conservative leaning view than a liberal one. Would you do that? I don't know, but it puts the thought in people's heads and will make them tread lightly and hold back, which I think is the desired effect here.

Going further, I think the AH mod and others have it right in rarely posting and not engaging in threads all the time taking advantage of your position in knowing people will not say things to you they would to others for fear of retribution.

Jafo is a perfect example. He trolled the PB constantly when his "side' was in charge. Just insane nasty trolling that no mod should be involved in. The moment his side lost, he has not posted there since because he likes to abuse, but can't handle anything being tossed back at him and since the PB is unmoderated he couldn't resort to abusing his power.

Ironically, he insisted it was the other side full of hate and whatever else, and hmm, what recently resurfaced from his past posts? A whole lot of bigotry.

But even that is his opinion, and he's entitled to them, but that has to work both ways, but the reason it was a bad look for him was his self-righteous behavior.

Which is why mods should remain as neutral as possible and not constantly flaunt their own prejudices.

All of the above I say in the context of why its wrong for a mod to do this. For the statement itself, I expressed my opinions on it and its divisive message back in the original thread when it came out and I'd say the same thing today and I'm not kidding that things like that had an effect back in November. People are tired of being name called and demonized.

 

[barefootgirl69]

Are we really going to turn this into a witch hunt for moderators?

Do you honestly think Laurel simply appoints a moderator without knowing their signature or how they treat others?

In all my time here, TPH has never let her own political views and her freedom of speech interfere with her moderating or even who she talks to here.

She meets your qualifications, and exceeds them.


"you have an obligation not just to BE fair and neutral but to present an appearance of being fair and neutral"

 

[AH_Mod]

Mods can remove threads. We can't delete them. They're put into a mod queue where they can only be accessed by moderators or admins. An admin could restore a removed thread if they disagree with a moderator's decision. An admin can delete threads entirely. I do sometimes remove entire threads when they violate content policy. My preference is to explain why the thread has become a problem or run its course, and then to lock it, because that's easier to undo than a thread removal. I can also do that myself if a compelling argument is made for the thread to be opened again, where restoring a removed thread requires admin intervention.

The policy used to be that you needed to edit any posts you had made, to erase your own content prior to leaving the site. In practice, the site often did do a mass edit of all a user's posts if they requested it. Sometimes the name would be changed in the database, and sometimes it wasn't. How a person's forum posts were handled in the past varied widely. The new forum software makes removing all of a person's posts a simple operation. It also aids in compliance with European privacy laws, so now it is standard practice for all of a person's content to be removed from the site when they request an account deletion.

I believe this thread has run its course, and will now be closed.