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Opinion- Discussing Mods should not be against the rules

Du Ma Mi·12/3/2018, 6:58:45 PM·5 votes·2,772 views

I want to preface this by saying that I normally do not have any issues with league moderators, and believe that normally, a majority of them do a decent job That said;

There is currently a front page post of someone who made a comment on another post about the actions of a previous moderator, without naming and shaming. The only comment he made was that the mod went "a little power mad".

He was later banned for harassment.

In my opinion, this is absolutely ridiculous, and a blatant abuse of power. The discussion was on the topic of whether or not the Memes and Games section should have a dedicated moderator, and he brought up a historical example of why it may not be a good idea. If he had said explicitly "X has done a bad job", I can see it being considered harassment, however he never mentioned who it was, nor did he say anything that was inherently offensive, nor untrue. He stated a perfectly valid example, to aid his argument about why the section should not have a dedicated moderator.

This is not against the rules, nor is it even offensive, it is simply a good example used for a debate.

And the mods banned him. This seems to me to be an abuse of power - by banning him, they are refusing to acknowledge one side of an argument; they do this by punishing someone who is sharing a historical instance in a respectful way (no name+shame) that furthers their point.

To the mods who banned him: What was the goal? To stop a viable argument from being made? To diminish the backlash you already get from the community by deleting any previous examples? Why sweep something that happened under the rug instead of acknowledging that it happened and talking about it to ensure it doesn't happen again?

In any case, I suppose I'm only frustrated because it seems this ban - to me, anyways - was unfair, and is only justifying the anger that quite a few people share towards how the boards are being monitored. The right thing to do would be to reverse it, and acknowledge the issue when discussing potential options regarding moderation.

EDIT: I just realized it was posted a day ago, so reversing the 24-hour ban wouldn't mean much at this point.

4 Comments

ModThe Djinn12/3/2018, 7:21:28 PM6 votes

I have zero issue with people discussing moderators (as long as those discussions follow the rules). That said, the issue with that post, as I see it, is that it's calling out someone who is no longer part of the team in a pretty negative fashion, when that individual is someone easily recognized by the community the content was posted in.

We know that, as moderators, we'll get some critique and -- yes -- some abuse. You can see on this very board that we usually allow it so long as it is reasonable. Yet to call out someone who is no longer in that spotlight, in a manner where it would have been equally appropriate to just say "we had that in the past, and it resulted in XYZ state of affairs" rather than commenting on the specific individual's mental state or mental approach, is not okay. There are ways to express concern or frustration with a past state of affairs without pinning it on an individual going "power mad," and we frankly always appreciate feedback when it doesn't come connected to unneeded personal comments.

For example, if I quit and you didn't like my moderation style, you'd be fine posting "The Djinn had an approach I found overly draconian, and I think some of the decisions he made turned the boards into a less welcoming place. I'd have preferred a lighter touch on subjects XYZ." You would likely not be fine posting "He was a tyrant who let the position go to his head and considered himself better than everyone else," even though both ultimately are an expression of your disappointment with my work.

That said, in this particular instance I would have removed the ban had I been around when it was brought to our attention. I do think it was a bit premature for the violation in question, and I'd have favored a removal with an explanation and a request to find a better way to express discontent.