Guardians Forum Moderation

[The Human Q-Tip]

Or what if I insult your name? Human Q-Tip? Bitch, you aren't even the Human Toothpick.

You better stop before I burn you some more.

Human Q-Tip? Some of my best friends are Primates, and you arent even a Primate Q-Tip.

I know I am going to be banned for such harsh burns, but you had it coming you Ape Toothpick.

You should have just gone with Monty Python

1/10.

 

[Lee]

You should have just gone with Monty Python

1/10.

Its kind of a take off of Norm McDonald when he did a roast, it was hilarious. So purposefully bad that it is hilarious, some of these jokes are just for me I guess, much like Norm McDonald's humor, but in no way could you take them as a real insult which is also important on the serious side, you do allot for us moderating the Indians section.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Its kind of a take off of Norm McDonald when he did a roast, it was hilarious. So purposefully bad that it is hilarious, some of these jokes are just for me I guess, much like Norm McDonald's humor, but in no way could you take them as a real insult which is also important on the serious side, you do allot for us moderating the Indians section.

I love Norm. He's the king of the shaggy dog story, but he gets away with it because of his delivery.

 

[Lee]

I love Norm. He's the king of the shaggy dog story, but he gets away with it because of his delivery.

In my head, i was using that Norm delivery, i thought you would get it, like on purpose awful, but at least you get it now. In a thread complaining about insults, calling you the Human Toothpick is Norm McDonald bad, but bad in a good way bad, lol.

 

[buzzdog]

@Derek is right, allot of the bad posting is in the game threads. The issue is the game threads is also where most of the best discussion is located.

We need to expand the indians thread now that we have such an active area. It is in the works. We then need to teach some of them that game threads are for games, and to us the threads specific for conversation and in season transactions and in season discussions.

I beg you to stay, there are great discussions and you can ignore or report anyone that is fighting. The section has grown and its exciting, but it also comes with its own issues.

I've had a little more of a chance to scroll through some more discussions and I've seen some signs of things being effectively moderated. I've learned long ago to stay out of game threads so whatever happens there I don't really care. I do enjoy the level of expertise and the diversity of opinions.

There's still a lot of ball to be played and for some reason I find this team to be more interesting than many seasons. Lots of flaws, lots of youth with inexperience and talent. Lots of good stories left to play out for better or worse.

 

[Sebastian]

A note: Do not use the Report Button for everyday complaints or minor irritants. PM the moderator.

The Report Button should only be used for gross, blatant violations of rules.

Abuse of the Report Button will result in my abuse of the person mashing it constantly.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

@The Human Q-Tip instead of deleting the entire conversation, can you move it to an appropriate section, as was requested when the topic began?

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

@The Human Q-Tip instead of deleting the entire conversation, can you move it to an appropriate section, as was requested when the topic began?

Unfortunately, moderator tools don't give me that power. I think only Admins can do that.

@Stannis

What I can do is unlock the thread later, and tell people that if they want to reply to a post in that thread, they should hit reply, then copy/past that reply into a thread in the politics section. I'd do that now, except I know that if it is unlocked before everyone reads that post, I'll just start getting new replies in there all over again.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Okay, I want to address some of the shitstorms that happened here over the last week or so which happened to coincide with me being out of state with poor connectivity. These are the things that I see as blending together to make a toxic stew that turns off a lot of ordinary posters.

1) "Last word-itis." A lot of the problems would never escalate if people didn't insist on having the last word on a topic. I know there is a reluctance sometimes to let the other guy have the last word, but if you make your point well enough, you can let them get away with that as the cost of letting a bad discussion die. If one guy keeps digging at it despite everyone else having let the topic drop after having their say, then the troublemaker becomes apparent, and can be dealt with more cleanly by moderators. But the endless series of back and forths become very difficult to unwind, and confuse who may ultimately be at fault. Let bad posters hang themselves.

2) Personal attacks are not permitted, and that includes blanket attacks on groups of posters or on the forum at a whole. Labelling groups of other posters - even if you aren't specific as to whom -- as being part of an echo chamber, etc., is a personal attack and will be treated as such.

3) Do not appoint yourself as a member of a forum quality police. Other posters are permitted to make dumb arguments, and they aren't required to engage with you if they don't want to. You can address a dumb argument without getting personal. And the dumber it is, the less you should need to continue hounding the person who made it. If someone clings to their dumb position anyway, well, they're entitled to do that as long as they don't keep bringing the point up again and again. See 1) above.

4) An attack/criticism on a player or manager is not the same as an attack on another poster. There is leeway to vent about a player, manager, etc..

5) There is a difference between having an honest difference of opinion, and just being a professional contrarian/troll. This is an area where being the "forum police" makes it much harder on moderators/admins to dig down to find out the root problem because we just have to dig through too much crap. If you think someone has crossed that line, PM myself or another mod with the posts you think are problematic so that we can look at them.

If I suspect someone is being too much of a dick, it is really easy for me and other moderators to click on their name, and look at all of their postings lined up. If you think there would be a pattern there that might not make you look very good, consider changing your style/approach a bit.

That is all.

@Sebastian

 

[AZ_]

2) Personal attacks are not permitted, and that includes blanket attacks on groups of posters or on the forum at a whole.

Let's be honest, they are.

Much of the time, they're intentional and often coordinated in small groups.

Can't tell you how many PM's I've gotten from other mods warning me to not take the bait, or how groups of posters are actually taking time out of their day to try and bait others into bans, etc.

You're aware of this as well as anyone, it just is what it is. Totally understand your point about "last word itis" and wholeheartedly agree and take responsibility for that on my end, but we can be honest about the intent of some here.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Let's be honest, they are.

Much of the time, they're intentional and often coordinated in small groups.

Can't tell you how many PM's I've gotten from other mods warning me to not take the bait, or how groups of posters are actually taking time out of their day to try and bait others into bans, etc.

You're aware of this as well as anyone, it just is what it is. Totally understand your point about "last word itis" and wholeheartedly agree and take responsibility for that on my end, but we can be honest about the intent of some here.

Obviously, personal attacks happen. None of the mods are perusing threads 24/7, and I can absolutely guarantee you there are things here that I haven't seen that probably violate the rules. Or some things I did see, but they just didn't register at the moment. There also are different levels of something being a "personal attack" that require some level of judgment on our part. We do try pretty consistent to stop it if we see it is getting out of hand, usually with warnings first.

The forum was remarkably peaceful for most of this year so far, and when that happens...sure, some stuff is going to slide because guys seemed to pull back from the edge. No reason to upset the applecart without cause.

But when things start getting out of had as they have recently, that's when there is going to be more attention given to enforcement. That's part of the purpose of this particular thread - it lets me give larger scale warnings of things we are going to be looking at. And I have noticed a clear uptick in personal attacks recently. So, I'm posting this to let guys know that we're going to be watching more, so it would be a good time for everyone to start getting along again or there will be some repercussions. When I see posts from ordinary posters pleading for the arguments/fighting to stop, that gets the attention of both myself and RCF management.

Literally all I care about here is that it's a place for people to talk baseball in a friendly manner, and sometimes even on a very high level. So I'd just ask everyone's cooperation in trying to ensure it stays that way.

 

[DickyLeftridge]

I'm just going to set some things straight in here and you can do with them what you wish. I was attacked personally shortly after posting on this site by several different posters apparently because many of them had the simultaneous belief that I was some poster that I'm not. If you'd like links to the posts to back up what I just said, PM me. I'm happy to provide them. That mistaken belief was allowed to fester long enough that it lent some degree of credibility to those claims.

I am not Reno. I have never been Reno. I will never be Reno. I disliked that guy on 247 for crying out loud. He was garbage. I have never posted on this site before whatever date in May I joined. I have never stalked this site since before the day I joined. Each of these claims was made against me, and this appears to be as good a place as any to respond to them. If the moderators have insufficient resources to verify I am who I say I am (or that I am not who I'm accused of being) beyond checking my IP, that's not my issue. I was then accused of mastering a VPN--which I couldn't figure out how to do if you paid me. More nonsense. In response to these personal attacks, I provided a far more detailed account of who I am, where I've posted previously, and how I found this site--including a link to the exact post where I found this site--than should every be necessary.

When I defended myself against these claims--which included names like "troll", "idiot", "jackass", "moron", "talking to a brick wall"--and the vitriol that accompanied this mistaken belief, I was then accused of getting "personal" and "baiting people into heated debates" by these same posters who first took the discussion into a personal realm. Completely laughable and literally incredible. This is all an accurate summary of my experience on this site. And you know what? I'm fine with that--so long as I'm treated no worse than anyone else on here by the mods. I have no problem following the rules on this site, or simply exercising some common sense and restraint.

Yes, I take strong stances. Why? Because I believe the things I'm saying. I believe the organization has a flawed approach to developing young position players. I believe we're organizationally inflexible more than this laughable cliche that we have all this positional flexibility. It should not require an FBI Background check to take this position. The claim above that someone is pretending to stake out a view on baseball in an effort to bait someone is laughable. And shouldn't be tolerated by the mods. You aren't that significant, buddy. Not in my book. And if you really think you are--that someone would pretend to believe something to bait you into an argument to get you banned--let me offer two suggestions. First, don't take the bait. Seems obvious that if you are that clairvoyant to understand the "true" and "underlying" motives behind someone's beliefs that you'd also at least have the foresight to avoid the "bait." Why don't you? Second, take some time to log off the internet. It's getting too serious for you.

In the 6 weeks I've been here, I've seen posters mix it up with healthy debate far more vigorously than what I've engaged in. There's a guy on here who I've grown to enjoy who essentially has this exact mantra memorialized in his signature. Yet, I'm summarily denied that opportunity again based on the mistaken premise that I'm the last guy I guess who came here with the audacity to disagree with someone. I'm already presumably on my last strike because Reno went down 0-2 before he got ejected and everyone's still chomping at the bit to actually ring him up.

Again, you can do with all of this what you wish. But the common theme that should become apparent is that I just have a hard time letting anyone take shots at me or lie about me without at least responding. I have no need to get the last word. You can get the last word. But in response to this nonsense, I do feel obligated to get at least one word in.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

stuff

1) I don't care if you're this Reno guy or not. I received some PM's about it from other posters in the past, and that's exactly what I've told them. All I care about is that this place is a decent place to discuss baseball without excessive sniping and bullshit. That's it. The Reno stuff has stopped. It's over. Move on.

2) You're not being singled out. What you don't know is that some of the folks with who you have been battling have have been run afoul of moderation themselves in the past. I have PM'd other posters to tell them when they need to back off, etc., and have done that in relation to this particular series of blow-ups. I don't play favorites here, although I admit to a general bias in favor of casual fans who want to have more friendly discussions. That necessarily means asking some of the more aggressive guys to rein it in on occasion. Someone else might moderate differently, but that's how I do it. When either myself, or Sebastian, or someone else on staff starts getting PM's from ordinary posters saying that the sniping is ruining threads, we read, then we act. And again -- it isn't just you. So far, the other guys have responded to messages with a friendlier, more cooperative tone, and we all just move on. In the end, we all love baseball, and that's why we're here.

3) The last think we want to do is ban anyone. Some of the very best posters on this site are guys who can sometimes annoy the piss out of others because they're by nature argumentative. I am guilty of that myself in other forums sometimes as well. So when we ask guys to be conscious of whether they are making the website better or worse, or dragging something out for too long or getting personal, and they respond in a friendly manner to try to make this place better, that is our preferred outcome by a mile. But if you turn this place into your vehicle to launch crusades on specific issues, to "wake people up"....that isn't going to work.

4) The "last word" syndrome is something that really causes issues, because it means arguments don't end. I simply ask people who are engaged in an argument to consider if they've already made all their best points. If they have, then simply rewording/repeating them doesn't accomplish anything. If you didn't convince the guy the first time, you're not going to convince him by being repetitive. If I could give one piece of advice to folks as to how to keep threads from being derailed, it would be that. And if the other guy insists on getting in the last word....let him. Because if you don't, then you become the guy who annoys others by ensuring that you get in the last word.

5) Being a moderator isn't exactly a well-paying gig, and neither myself nor any of the other guys can do this full-time. So when shit starts to happen here that causes us to start treating this like a job, we're more likely to use an axe rather than a scalpel because we simply don't have the time. That's when threads get locked, etc.. Have consideration for others when deciding whether or not a particular battle is worth continuing. The more convoluted and prolonged the fighting gets, the more difficult it is to assess blame fairly. So avoid those situations if you want to maximize the chance of fair treatment. Also, don't shit on the mod in public. Management does not look kindly on that. PM those kind of issues.

6. These are the principles by which this forum runs, and they aren't changing. Nor do I plan on devoting hours each day to playing cop in here. So if you think you can figure out a way to make your points and arguments with the above in mind, great. Having different perspectives and ideas usually makes the forum better for everyone. But the tone and style of how you present those different perspectives and ideas is critical.

7. That is all. I'm locking this for awhile because I don't want it to be cluttered up in debates. If anyone has any issues, PM me. If I think it is an issue of greater concern, I'll post it in here.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I believe a mod is worth at least 2 WARt @The Oi

Which means we're now at 4WARt!

Welcome @Wham with the Right Hand , who has graciously agreed to help moderate this forum! Please feel free now to PM either one of us moving forward if there are any issues that you think need the attention of a moderator.

 

[MattyFos.]

Which means we're now at 4WARt!

Welcome @Wham with the Right Hand , who has graciously agreed to help moderate this forum! Please feel free now to PM either one of us moving forward if there are any issues that you think need the attention of a moderator.

Can I PM @Wham with the Right Hand to tell him I hate you?