Amicus post

[swansont]

I wanted to vent a little in response to events, some recent, some not, and some recurring, in light of my role as a moderator. This is not any kind of official declaration of the rules, merely my interpretation and approach to enforcing them. It just seems like I've been spending more effort lately, and getting a lot more pushback, from being a mod.

 

Moderator actions are not personal. The role of the mods is to enforce the rules and keep discussions reasonably on-track (which is a bit redundant, because staying on-topic is one of the rules). And the reason for having the rules is that IMO unmoderated forums pretty much suck — when there is no law, discussions devolve into flame wars and valid science gets overwhelmed by crackpottery. Rebuttal is not the same thing as shouting someone down, which is why "you're an idiot" is not considered a viable response. So we have rules.

 

On the flip side of that is that I, like the other mods here, volunteer my time. I would much rather spend it discussing physics and other topics of interest than doing moderator-related duties. So I will admit that it cheeses me off when there are some who continue refuse to follow the rules after being warned. You may have noticed that my modnotes now often contain a disclaimer not to respond to them. Quite frankly, it reminds me of a six-year old justifying playing with a ball inside the house despite there being a clear rule against it, and how the broken vase isn't really his fault. I don't need to hear an apology, but if your attitude isn't one of "Sorry, I'll do my best to see that it won't happen again," I really don't want to hear it. You aren't talking your way out of the ticket. If you want to appeal, take it up with another member of the staff. If they tell me they think I was wrong, I'll listen. But if your argument is based on how the rules shouldn't apply to you, don't expect a lot of sympathy.

 

I don't actually have a license to kill. I've seen posts over the years with the sentiment that the poster expects me to ban them for having said something. Which is pretty clueless, IMO. People get banned for breaking the rules. There are a few violations that are what I personally refer to as the unforgivables, such as posting spam or porn, which result in an immediate ban. For other violations, suspensions and bans do not occur without agreement among the staff. The picture that some have painted is that I run the place, ban people at will and everybody else is afraid to contradict me, which was pretty funny at first but it's gotten old and has gotten to the point where the insinuation feels insulting. It's one thing for some new crackpot or troll to say that, but for it to come from long-term members is far less tolerable. We log bans and suspensions, and nobody on that list was banned based on a single person's decision. Even more mundane things like warnings happen at the request of others a lot of the time. If I carry out moderator actions it's because I'm around to do so, not because I'm some loose cannon.

 

When I am not acting as a moderator, I am a regular poster. In most cases (outside of some instances in Speculations, where it's less avoidable), these will not not mix. That's the policy here. If you think I have facts wrong, point out the error and give me link to your source. If you think my argument is weak, by all means attack it — but not me. Just as I hope you would do with anyone else, or I would do with you.

[Light Storm]

One of the greatest things about forums is people are not responding to people, they are responding to comments made. I would never take criticism personally here, it's not like there taking it out on my parenting, work, or general outlook on life. They are responding to the comments, and not who I am. I would never personalize a comment on someone else either, but I will carry out pretty strong opinions on what people have to say

[imatfaal]

I've said it before and I will say it again - I like the strict no nonsense way this forum is run (and your moderation is a significant part of that ethos). There are a good couple of dozen posters who are clearly highly knowledgeable and willing to teach/discuss/chat, and that is an invaluable resource; I am convinced that a good number of those posters would not be so forthcoming if they were constantly needing to fend off attacks from crackpots, moody teens, and single-issue fanatics.

Edited May 16, 2011 by imatfaal

[michel123456]

You are doing a perfect job here Swansont.

IMHO your avatar is to blame.

 

I'll tell you how it looks from the outside:

 

Moderator actions are not personal:

That is "don't take it personnaly" from a good gangster movie, just before the killer pulls the trigger.

 

I don't actually have a license to kill:

So you pretend now that you are not James Bond?

 

When I am not acting as a moderator, I am a regular poster:

"My name is Bond"

 

[mississippichem]

Swansont: you do a damn good job, as a mod and an expert, and that's about all there is to it. Keep it up, this is by a large margin the best science discussion forum on the internet that I'm aware of. We have a great mod/admin staff to thank for that.

[Spyman]

Recently another member expressed gratitude for the possibility to discuss theology here, in this thread, and while I don't participate much in the Religion subforum, I agree that we should be grateful for the opportunity this forum presents for us to do so. But I would also like to extend my appreciation to include all the other parts of the forum and for me especially the Science parts. As a long time supportive backbone swansont has helped make and shape the scienceforums.net to what it is today and as such I think he deserves a fair share of that honour.

 

Keep it up swansont, don't let the hoodlums overwhelm you, there are plenty of us here that will stand up behind you if necessary.

[swansont]

I wasn't really fishing for compliments, but I thank those of you who have offered them. It is true that one sometimes loses focus on all the things that do go right around here, all of the positive contributions by so many and the good work the rest of the staff does, so it's good to be reminded of that, and not let a temporary set of frustrations be too big of a problem.

[CaptainPanic]

You may not have been fishing for compliments, but this thread seems a very good place to give my compliments to all the mods of this forum. The place wouldn't be the same without you guys.

 

And as a mod, it's your job to sometimes be hard. Just know that frequent members appreciate that.

 

The most difficult subforums are (imho) the politics and religion. In those forums, we're not dealing with science. Instead, the participants in a discussion often base their entire argument on completely different sets of core-assumptions. And I am happy to say that even on those more difficult forums, I have still very nice discussions... which is a compliment to all participants - mods and members alike.