Unfair targeting by a Mod
They should not come off as someone on a power trip. Or as heavy-handed or intimidating or unapproachable to many.
If they are moderating in areas where politics or religion is being discussed/debated they should not come off as heavily biased. If there are two sides going at it, one side should not feel like the moderator is an enforcer for the other side.
If there are two sides, call them Orange team and Green team, a moderator should not come off as being like the captain of the Green team. He/she should not be using the same type of jargon the Green team uses against the Orange team.
That makes things unfair and unbalanced and discourages posting.
You are right but take it into account that people with radical political views tend to interpret any disagreement with them as supporting the opposite option. The mods need to deal a lot with such people.
When a moderator talks about clamping down on vailed rule breaking by cryptofascists, I see a tyrant to be painfully blunt and honest. And I see a specific group being targeted who are not actually "cryptofascists" but are viewed as such by that moderator.
Indeed, a moderator who can't separate the rules from their own views is not doing the best job...
I guess I spend too little time in PPR to know who you mean. Probably healthy for me
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Let's not confuse being normal with being mentally healthy.
<not moderating PPR stuff concerning East Europe>
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There was a topic about the movie "The Hunt". I merely stated the premise of the movie ("evil liberals hunt MAGA people") and my post was removed, because someone complained. Yet, that is what the movie is advertised to be about.
Another time I was told I was arguing too much, someone complained, and I got a warning that I needed to make a new topic and not argue so much.
Often moderation seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to members complaining.
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After a failure, the easiest thing to do is to blame someone else.
Maybe it's more like:
Submitting a "Play Nice" post: One moderator, no review.
Deleting a Post: Two or more moderators in agreement, with review by all moderators.
Locking a Thread: Two or more moderators in agreement, with review by all moderators.
Suspending a Member: A majority of moderators with review by all moderators.
Banning a Member: All moderators (unanimous), with review by Alex.
Banning an obvious Troll or Spammer: One moderator, with review by all moderators and/or Alex.
?
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They should not come off as someone on a power trip. Or as heavy-handed or intimidating or unapproachable to many.
If they are moderating in areas where politics or religion is being discussed/debated they should not come off as heavily biased. If there are two sides going at it, one side should not feel like the moderator is an enforcer for the other side.
If there are two sides, call them Orange team and Green team, a moderator should not come off as being like the captain of the Green team. He/she should not be using the same type of jargon the Green team uses against the Orange team.
That makes things unfair and unbalanced and discourages posting.
You are right but take it into account that people with radical political views tend to interpret any disagreement with them as supporting the opposite option. The mods need to deal a lot with such people.
When a moderator talks about clamping down on vailed rule breaking by cryptofascists, I see a tyrant to be painfully blunt and honest. And I see a specific group being targeted who are not actually "cryptofascists" but are viewed as such by that moderator.
Indeed, a moderator who can't separate the rules from their own views is not doing the best job...
I guess I spend too little time in PPR to know who you mean. Probably healthy for me
It is in the last post (at this time) of a short locked thread called "Conservative Snowflake Invasion"
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=380899&p=8350097#p8350097
The mod's post contains two paragraphs.
In the first, he expresses his opinion quite in line with the OP.
In the second paragraph, he explains that despite this, the thread breaks the rules so he locks it.
It is actually an example of personal views separated from actions as mod.
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Let's not confuse being normal with being mentally healthy.
<not moderating PPR stuff concerning East Europe>
The mod's post contains two paragraphs.
In the first, he expresses his opinion quite in line with the OP.
In the second paragraph, he explains that despite this, the thread breaks the rules so he locks it.
It is actually an example of personal views separated from actions as mod.
In my opinion what qualifies as a "cryptofascist" can be quite subjective and tempered with bias. And it sounds like the plan is to add a new layer to the rules as interpreted by an individual.
There are times when I am accused by certain members of implementing some tactic. And I wish in a way my mind operated that way. But the truth is that I am usually just trying to put a thought into words which can be difficult and time consuming enough, without also trying to conger up some sort of tactic.
I agree that the "cryptofascist" talk was crossing the line and coming dangerously close to witch hunt.
I just interpreted it as his personal opinion, maybe even exaggerated by the fact that he had to lock a thread he agreed with.
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Let's not confuse being normal with being mentally healthy.
<not moderating PPR stuff concerning East Europe>
I just interpreted it as his personal opinion, maybe even exaggerated by the fact that he had to lock a thread he agreed with.
Well it helps to be familiar with the person who wrote it.
I just interpreted it as his personal opinion, maybe even exaggerated by the fact that he had to lock a thread he agreed with.
Well it helps to be familiar with the person who wrote it.
Probably. But I refuse to carefully read PPR threads for this purpose.
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Let's not confuse being normal with being mentally healthy.
<not moderating PPR stuff concerning East Europe>
And from someone who praised the destruction of Libya calling it a success. When that involved us supporting Al Qaeda and turning one of the most prosperous nations in Africa into a Jihad central hell hole where people are sold as slaves in the capital city.
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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
They should not come off as someone on a power trip. Or as heavy-handed or intimidating or unapproachable to many.
If they are moderating in areas where politics or religion is being discussed/debated they should not come off as heavily biased. If there are two sides going at it, one side should not feel like the moderator is an enforcer for the other side.
If there are two sides, call them Orange team and Green team, a moderator should not come off as being like the captain of the Green team. He/she should not be using the same type of jargon the Green team uses against the Orange team.
That makes things unfair and unbalanced and discourages posting.
You are right but take it into account that people with radical political views tend to interpret any disagreement with them as supporting the opposite option. The mods need to deal a lot with such people.
When a moderator talks about clamping down on vailed rule breaking by cryptofascists, I see a tyrant to be painfully blunt and honest. And I see a specific group being targeted who are not actually "cryptofascists" but are viewed as such by that moderator.
Indeed, a moderator who can't separate the rules from their own views is not doing the best job...
I guess I spend too little time in PPR to know who you mean. Probably healthy for me
I mainly go there to look at the memes thread. But I see that someone went on a thread locking spree there. gee I wonder who that could have been?
I do not throw around terms like "cryptofascist" lightly.
To my knowledge, there are two somewhat active users on this forum who hold fascist views. One of them is not especially active and is scrupulously good at posting within the forum rules; they very rarely need any form of moderator action, and I think they are genuinely more interested in using the forum than in spreading fascist propaganda. They used to push the boundaries a bit, but now will only mention their views sideways ("I'd love to tell you more about what I think but it would probably get me banned...").
So I'm literally talking about one person, and it isn't anyone I've had to take action against in recent weeks. This user contributes a lot of good to the forum and would genuinely be missed but does, to use the crypto term, "let their power level show" on occasion. I won't say any more because I think it's somewhat unfair. I do realise that my somewhat vague description might make people worry that it is them, so if you're concerned that it might be you then it isn't you, but you can drop me a PM if you want certainty.
I think we have a lot of:
- contrarian conservatives who don't mind welfare spending
- traditional social conservatives who might occasionally find themselves agreeing with fascist talking points, but are genuinely horrified by fascism
- people who find progressive views, or a subset of them, exasperating or infuriating or just plain stupid
and they're absolutely welcome. And actually, both the cryptos are absolutely welcome - they both have a lot of positive qualities. But we've been somewhat naive about the effect of people constantly "pushing the boundaries" and it has made so many discussions utterly toxic.
To my knowledge, there are two somewhat active users on this forum who hold fascist views. One of them is not especially active and is scrupulously good at posting within the forum rules; they very rarely need any form of moderator action, and I think they are genuinely more interested in using the forum than in spreading fascist propaganda. They used to push the boundaries a bit, but now will only mention their views sideways ("I'd love to tell you more about what I think but it would probably get me banned...").
So I'm literally talking about one person, and it isn't anyone I've had to take action against in recent weeks. This user contributes a lot of good to the forum and would genuinely be missed but does, to use the crypto term, "let their power level show" on occasion. I won't say any more because I think it's somewhat unfair. I do realise that my somewhat vague description might make people worry that it is them, so if you're concerned that it might be you then it isn't you, but you can drop me a PM if you want certainty.
I think we have a lot of:
- contrarian conservatives who don't mind welfare spending
- traditional social conservatives who might occasionally find themselves agreeing with fascist talking points, but are genuinely horrified by fascism
- people who find progressive views, or a subset of them, exasperating or infuriating or just plain stupid
and they're absolutely welcome. And actually, both the cryptos are absolutely welcome - they both have a lot of positive qualities. But we've been somewhat naive about the effect of people constantly "pushing the boundaries" and it has made so many discussions utterly toxic.
I do not think it is me, but quite frankly I am uncomfortable sending you a PM. I do not dislike you and do not want to be a trouble maker or give you a hard time. But you are making people feel uncomfortable and are upsetting them. People should not feel threatened or intimidated or targeted. I am sure in your mind there is no reason for them to feel that way, but they do nonetheless.
Forums can be very quickly destroyed when the moderation system becomes corrupt. And it only takes one moderator — immature, or inexperienced, or bigoted, or sociopathic, or ignorant — to corrupt such a system.
When that happens, users in general no longer trust even the decent moderators because they don't know if their private messages are getting through, they don't know if their posts are being stealth-edited to misrepresent their views, they don't know if false statements are being made about them in private corners for manipulative purposes, etc.
Within the circle of moderators on any forum, even small-time abusers (to say nothing of full abusers) should be removed, because they destroy trust in the whole system.
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There Are Four Lights!