Adding a few Moderators?

[Blaze]

There have been moments, when I first joined the board, and at a couple of other junctures when my debate team training kicked in, and then I realized that the other parties were actually taking stuff to heart.  It was a point where I needed to say, Oh my, I have to turn it off. 

If a mod *cough Mickey cough* had decided to open up with big ol' can of whoop-ass on me, or to say to another poster that I was being a jerk, he would have been within his rights and he could have scored brownie points with other posters.

He didn't do that at my expense.  I was grateful.

Because of the obvious absence of some antisocial posters, I feel certain that when someone hits the Moderator tilts the Mods will act appropriately.  We just don't see what they are doing behind the scenes, on their own fun time.  For free.

I can understand that some board members get very frustrated when they feel they are not being paid attention to, but if that is seriously the case, a PM should be sent, to all the Mods.   I've felt invisible more than once in my life.

We also have to realize that The Mods don't want to generate bad feelings toward the Author whom we all love.

[Jen'ari]

Did you just squash the thread?

Heh. The pun never entered my mind at the time but I likes it!

[Chiroptera]

Don't mind me, I'm out of my gourd.

[Aine]

I asked the Mods, privately, repeatedly how to get DragonFire to stop stalking me without causing an issue.  This was after trying confronting him via PM, ignoring him, and trying to deal with him in the threads.  None of the Mods ever answered me.  None of the Mods ever answered my inquiries into whether or not it was okay to open a chat room, or whether it was okay to advertise the chat room on the forum.  As a matter of fact, every PM I have sent the Mods since I "donated" my art, only to have that ignored, too, has been, quite simply, ignored.  Regardless of how seriously you take stuff here, I guess sooner or later you get the hint that your presence is no longer desired.

[jtaylor]

First off, sending a message like board member x is stalking me is basically a request to ban that person. Banning is done through a quorum of mods, and while you can report a person for breaking a post, a general pm like that is in bad form, and should have been ignored.

As for donating art for sale, there is all kinds of legal issue involved with taking you image and selling products based on it. Fred and Jim are the only ones who would even be qualified to respond to that, and frankly, they have more important things to do in their day jobs to be able to respond to a proposal sent in a non-professional fashion like a pm.


Not responding to either message is not a hint that your presence is unwelcome, but you taking it like that and airing your dirty laundry here is in bad form.

[Blaze]

While I can't address anyone else's experiences with PMs, I have to say that while not every single one of mine was answered directly, enough have been answered, and the board moves smoothly along well enough that I feel the mods do due diligence.

Sometimes with people like DF you have adopt a policy of ignoring them, and their posts.  

Stalking is a harsh word.  Did he mess with you off of the boards?  Or did he post in a lot of the same threads you did here, posting after you with rude or abrasive comment?  If the former, that is not a matter for board mods, but for your IP and DFs.  If the later, did you try a policy of pretending he didn't exist?  

There are three people on the board who I never post until at least six posts after their last post.  One person who I never post in a thread that they started.  Adopting these personal mechanisms have really helped me keep a few very abrasive (to me) people from being any problem at all.   I am certain that there are people on the Boards who think I am abrasive and avoid me!  This might be a strategy others could try if they find themselves in a place where the board is not the happy place they want it to be for them.  

There are also threads in which much fun is had and no controversy arises, if a poster starts feeling beaten upon, it is always safe to withdraw to these places.  You are still in the community.  You can still have fun.

But by continually engaging with people with whom you have a problem, you are creating an environment that perpetuates that cycle, and the Mods can't really help with that.

[Mickey Finn]

I asked the Mods, privately, repeatedly how to get DragonFire to stop stalking me without causing an issue.  This was after trying confronting him via PM, ignoring him, and trying to deal with him in the threads.  None of the Mods ever answered me.  None of the Mods ever answered my inquiries into whether or not it was okay to open a chat room, or whether it was okay to advertise the chat room on the forum.  As a matter of fact, every PM I have sent the Mods since I "donated" my art, only to have that ignored, too, has been, quite simply, ignored.  Regardless of how seriously you take stuff here, I guess sooner or later you get the hint that your presence is no longer desired.

1) Notice who is still on the boards, and who is not.
2) I save the PMs I receive (sadly, they system doesn't auto-save PMs we send). We've had entire discussions about things. You even thanked me at one point and said that upon rereading posts you saw where I had tried to warned you about something.
3) I answered about the chat-room...it's cool, it's just not involved with the site.
4) Aside from a piece you did of me, I personally haven't seen any of your art.
5) While I can't speak for the other, once a situation is cleared up, unless a pattern emerges, I put it out of my mind. For instance, I did not recall you were the one who made the other adorable Toot Toot costume for the DBPro contest until I went back to check my PMs, another series where we had many back and forth PMs. (I also don't remember the incident Blaze mentioned above with her.) What this boils down to is that grudges aren't held, and if your presence was no longer wanted here, #1 above would not apply.
6) Like I told a friend of yours (and looking at my PMs, I see I told you as well), we don't see everything on the boards. We actually likely don't see MOST of what's on the boards, and as Iago said, rely on the Report to a Mod button. As such, other folks getting away with murder is because we are unaware of it (or it's being misread by the offended party, which happens). However, just because they did it and got away with it...due to the mods being unaware...is not a pass for someone else to do the same. When we're made aware of it, we do something.
7) There's no favoritism or persecution. People who get perma-banned, aside from trolling accounts or spammers, are given many many chances, and people we like...some of which are even personal friends or on the Beta list with us...get slammed to the mat if they break the rules. Furthermore, if any of the mods step out of line, the other mods would do the same to them.

[comprex]

Regarding the standard currently attempted to be upheld -

does a post like Aine's count as reasonable to bring to the attention of moderators as being in bad form?

[iago]

Honestly, I don't read most of my PMs. I don't have the time. It's largely pointless to use that as a method to contact me.

You want action taken by the mods, use the report to moderator button. It's what it's for, and as Mickey's noted, it's a primary method for us to remain aware of issues on the boards at large.

Anything having to do with fan-created works that are derivative of Jim's solely-owned intellectual property, I ignore. Legally speaking, it's safer for me and for Jim to remain ignorant of their existence than to be made aware of them.

My moderators don't persecute. They execute, after reasoned discussion that is held away from the public view for reasons that should be obvious to anyone.

(I'm also blessed with a crap memory. I had to do some digging to remember that there had been problems with Aine in the first place -- and that was just a week or so ago! So a long term campaign of persecution is flat out impossible. I can't do it. I barely remember who anyone is!)

Nor do I make any special effort publicize the specific decisions made unless they attend to matters of forum policy rather than actions against specific people.  We take mostly quiet police actions to keep the forum healthy and to address issues with individual members.  This isn't COPS with "Bad Boys, Bad Boys" blaring in the background; it's law enforcement, and as I've noted, requires folks to pick up the phone and dial 911.

[Aine]

Anything having to do with fan-created works that are derivative of Jim's solely-owned intellectual property, I ignore. Legally speaking, it's safer for me and for Jim to remain ignorant of their existence than to be made aware of them.

Regardless of anything else, I would just like to clarify: I was asked to donate my art so that the sale of the shirts I made would help support this site.  After many email exchanges with iago and Pris discussing the particulars, I sent them in a format which would simply require them to be uploaded to cafe press. 

I didn't volunteer my art; I didn't just one day PM iago and Priscellie and say, "hey, I have art, would you like it?"  I was asked.  And then nothing was done with it. 

And Blaze?  I understand your point completely.  I tried ignoring.  However, after a while, when ever single post you make that says "the sky is blue" is answered with "Your (sic) WRONG!  The sky is obviously purple!  The end."  and you retreat from every board this keeps happening, well.  What is the point of coming to a book/author forum where you can't talk about the books without this happening?  And if you argue, the thread gets locked.  Or you get in trouble for arguing.  Yeah, stalking is a harsh word, but when that's what it feels like and every time you ask for help, no one does anything?  Maybe I do take this stuff too seriously, but, eventually, enough is enough. 

And as for bad form, I did not say the Mods did anything wrong or should do anything differently.  I am just stating my experience.  What would be good form?  Another PM? Anyway, enough people have deleted their accounts recently or just disappeared quietly off into that good night.  I am just clarifying my experience and why, every day for the past five days, I have had the "delete your account" screen sitting open on my computer.

[comprex]

What would be good form?  Another PM?

Good question.   IMO made more difficult to answer by the disappearance of Hot Topics.

Anyway, enough people have deleted their accounts recently or just disappeared quietly off into that good night. 

I think the most important thing is not to kill anyone's joy at being here.

I am just clarifying my experience and why, every day for the past five days, I have had the "delete your account" screen sitting open on my computer.

I hope you find the fun to make it all worthwhile.

[Priscellie]

Yes, I dropped the ball with regards to your illustration.  How is that relevant to this discussion?  See Mickey's #1.  Your concerns were heard and acted upon, whether the result was visible to the public or not.  No board member's concerns are ignored.

[laura118b]

At the risk of sounding like a suck up....I'd like to say I think the Mods all do a great job.  My concerns have always been answered quickly, and while I have not always gotten the answers I've wanted, I have gotten them.  So thanks to all you guys, even if you did get paid it wouldn't be enough money for this.

[iago]

Regardless of anything else, I would just like to clarify: I was asked to donate my art so that the sale of the shirts I made would help support this site.  After many email exchanges with iago and Pris discussing the particulars, I sent them in a format which would simply require them to be uploaded to cafe press. 

I didn't volunteer my art; I didn't just one day PM iago and Priscellie and say, "hey, I have art, would you like it?"  I was asked.  And then nothing was done with it. 

Ah, that was you? (See? Crap memory.)

The last six months have featured the birth of my daughter, a drastic drop in my free time, and the implosion of my mail client -- I've gone back to reading gmail via the web interface. I've tried to keep that shirt design on my to-do list (I didn't recall the files being immediately ready to just-be-uploaded, but it's been a while), but I just haven't managed to get to it.

But like Priscellie said, that's completely tangential to the topic.

Edit: Dug the email thread back up after several searches that didn't turn 'em up. Photoshop files -- I'm gonna need to go through 'em and tweak.

[Amber]

I will say that I'm always reluctant to hit report to moderator because one of the few times I did- ages ago- Jim responded, and I felt like a complete and total tool for bugging him.  I realize that's my issue, because he's all grown up and stuff and can choose to ignore those things.  Hell, Iago's so busy, I feel bad for bugging him, too.  So I only hit the report to mod when it's really, really severe (generally).  Maybe there are others who feel the same way?  I didn't even think about hitting it on some of the issues I had in the Spoilers board until one of the mods (ashton?) pointed out that there's no way for them to know about issues unless we point it out.