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OK, so now on every page of CD there is an announcement to report personal attacks to the mods. I have always been a rule follower and I like to follow the chain of command, and I'm not big on public confrontations. However, I have found that when I do report personal attacks on some forums, generally nothing gets done.
As an example, there was a fight on the Pittsburgh forum on Weds - Friday, July 9-11. It seems to have started about 2 PM on the 9th (It's a little hard to tell because by now many posts have been deleted, all times MST.) A mod (not the usual mod for this forum) issued a warning on 7/10 about 1 PM. That in itself was surprising, because generally fights are allowed to continue unabated over there. The next post remaining is one by me at 5:30 PM that day. It continued through the evening (my last post was at 8:48 PM and was deleted due to off topic). That is the last remaining post of the day. The fight continued on through the next day, while I was at work and not contributing. It does not flow well any more b/c so many posts have been deleted. Personal attacks were made on me even though I wasn't even participating, and on others. I made my first appearance at 5:36 PM. I reported a post as a personal attack. Nothing happened. Later, (post that would say when has been deleted) I came over here to "About the Forum" to ask for a mod as many personal attacks had been made all day long. A mod stepped in and eventually deleted the entire rest of the thread from then on (about an hour), plus many other posts, and closed the thread. The thread had been 8 (30 post) pages, and is now 6. Later, I found out through a DM that someone else had reported six posts. The point is, all this was going on all day long, posts were being reported, and nothing was being done. It took a public airing to get a mod to look at it.
This also brings up the question: Just what constitues a personal attack? I have asked this question before, gotten answers that are consistent with what I think a personal attack is, yet the mod(s) on that forum don't seem to do anything. Prior to this fight, I had given up reporting posts on that forum b/c it did no good. Now I know a mod is not going to agree with me every time, but there has been some pretty nasty stuff said over there, reported, and let stand. That is different from the Colorado forums, where I also post frequently. And what about sarcasm that is directed at someone but not really an attack? Stuff like "oh, you poor dear. . ." in a sarcastic, mocking tone. Is that appropriate? I don't even report advertising when I see it on the Pgh forum, b/c reporting personal attacks is blown off. I figure, let the mods figure it out.
I know the mods are volunteers. However, it seems to me that if you do volunteer to do the job, you should do it! And a mod should be unbiased. Popular posters should not be held to more lenient standards than unpopular ones, should not be allowed to attack the unpopular ones. I would like to think that when a post is reported, some action will be taken. I understand sometimes the action is no action, but not all the time.
I don't like to call public attention to these kind of things; I'd rather play by the rules. However, this issue really needs to be addressed. I would also like to publicly thank the mods, toobusytoday and keeper, for all their work on this problem.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 07-13-2008 at 12:55 PM..
Reason: Move some things around, add two sentences, grammar
Mods are people they WORK & have family & things they need to do Nobody sits 24 hours on here....So just report it then forget it.
To me a personal attach is when there is name calling...Not just cause some one disagreed with what I say.
I am not talking about disagreement here, Katie1. I am talking about calling people dense, hypocrites, accusing them of using "strawman" tactics and much more. In the example I gave, 30+ posts were deleted by the mods for violations of the TOS. I am also talking about extreme sarcasm. I will give you an example from that forum with the names removed:
Quote:
Poor you! Life is hard on the internet, isn't it? You can't just spew any old crazy thing without being asked to explain what you mean! It's just plain awful. Somebody should do something about that. Maybe the internet police should come along and arrest all of those mean nasty people who disagree with you.
After all, this should be a place where nobody is ever challenged or asked to support their statements, or (God forbid) expected to make reasonable arguments! Otherwise, well, it's just not FAIR!
(The above post is "just my opinion". Therefore nobody else here has the right to question it, respond to it in a negative fashion, or do anything about it other than completely agree with me. Or I will cry and call a moderator to arrest all of you devil clothes wearing bad people.)
This example, BTW, was never deleted by any mod and it is months old now. It was not directed at me, BTW.
The mods have agreed to do this job, volunteer or not.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 07-13-2008 at 03:08 PM..
Reason: Explanatory sentence
This worked for me the other day.
Some States dont have mods lookin in daily...or weekly. For example the WV mod would be bored to death with us. He pops in once in awhile to give area information.
Sounds like your area either needs more mods or they are not nice people living in the area. [glad I dont live there]
Your above quote seems people were asking for more information but being a bit sarcastic in the way they were asking. Without seeing the whole thread its hard to say if they had asked several times & were not getting answered so they got huffy.
I also had issues with a thread. I reported it several times and it was closed for mod review and then just reopened. The thread went on and on and when I finally complained publicly in the thread my post was deleted and the thread closed. The thread is still there with all the insulting posts there.
I think there should be some specific rules for each forum so the mods jobs are easier.
It seems like some forums have active mods who get involved, and some who don't. I was annoyed at first too, when some of my posts got deleted, but I think it was good in the long run to put an end to things.
I been jumped on to...think at 1 time or other most of us have. The last was me directing a remark to a mod & another mod jumped me ...sigh. I dont think no one would have said a thing if it hadnt been a mod.
It seems like some forums have active mods who get involved, and some who don't. I was annoyed at first too, when some of my posts got deleted, but I think it was good in the long run to put an end to things.
Why should my post be deleted if I didn't break any rules? My post was something like this:
"I can't believe this thread is still going on. I have unsubscribed from this forum so I don't get exposed to this kind of stuff again"
WOW they delete that...would think that remark would give the others a heads up to behave. I have posted things like...IF you guys dont calm down they will close the thread! On that I have never been deleted.
Yes, I've actually seen a lot of people post that, so they don't all get deleted. Did they give you a reason? e.g. off-topic or something?
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