Citizens On Patrol Thread...forum rules you would like to see - Page 20

Let me take the occasion of my return from time out to say that I knew full well what I was doing, that I was asking for a time out, and that I got what I deserved. Let's get that out of the way. I like to think of myself as a mostly useful poster with occasional bouts of getting my sillies out. Sometimes I go too far. But I am turning over a new leaf. At any rate, I beg the mods -- whom I hold in high regard -- not to take the opinions of the masses too seriously here. Just about every internet forum whose death I have ever witnessed went through a similar inflection point: the mods decided to start taking public polls and referenda on the level of moderation; minor problems got blown way out of proportion and were met with overzealous "fixes" that then exacerbated the trolling problem in response; and so forth. Please do not go down that path. That way lie dragons. Mods, please consider that catering to the crowd sets a dangerous and irreparable precedent. It establishes that you have abdicated your decisionmaking authority to the mob, and the mob can never be fully satisfied. You will do no right by them, and you'll look increasingly inconsistent precisely because tbe will of the mob is inconsistent. Nothing but frustration will ensue. Your job, as moderators, is not to please everyone. Your job is to moderate. You, and not the crowd, are the authority here. You set the tone. And frankly, the tone you've set to date has been just fine. The shit people complain about -- "virulent misogyny," trolling, etc. -- is neither substantially different now than it ever has been, nor a serious issue in the least. It's nothing folks can't ignore if they so choose. The most uptight on the board -- those who, by definition, flock to referenda like these most frequently and most fervently -- are making mountains out of molehills. As for supposed brain drain of old timers from the boards? That shit will happen, dude. It's the circle of life. People get tired of boards after awhile. Nothing you can do about it. Increased moderation isn't going to make the newcomers any more knowledgeable about classic men's clothing.

Jeebus.

You are the masses.

..

Edited by merkur - 7/30/11 at 5:05am

We all are. Point is, they shouldn't be catering their mod style to try to please us. That's not what a moderator's job is. It's an unwinnable, Sissyphean task. Populism and moderation are like oil and water. Anyone who's ever moderated a community, or who's been in a community or two that experimented with populist moderation, knows as much. Of course a bunch of people are going to claim moderation is too lenient when specifically asked if that's the case. They've been primed to do so by virtue of having been asked the question. Psychology 101 right there. Much more accurate and revealing of true sentiment, IMO, is the fact that virtually no one was complaining about lenient moderation until the mods made this thread.

As a fairly new poster, I don't agree with you in my case. I actually enjoy the sarcastic tone of this forum very much. After you've been around for a month or so you start to get in on the inside jokes, and the knowledge available is far superior to other menswear forums. I agree that more substance would be better, but don't get rid of the or type of stuff to accomplish this task.

As is well know, absolute dictatorship is more efficient than a democracy. If the mob forms, well, we have the riot police. And never, ever, give up power. (for the mob, may I suggest: Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook?)

How about a rule where as soon as a poster's ratio of random, petty nitpicking to useful posts rises above 8, they are shown the door? Would be hard to police, I admit, but one can dream.. Now that's a rule I could get behind..

This sounds like a reputation score. Now those suck.

I am quite amazed, having perused this lengthy thread, at what a bunch of authoritarian, uptight control freaks there are here. Why don't you guys migrate to AAAC? Now there's a clothing forum that has become pretty moribund largely because of authoritarian moderation. At least a large infusion of new blood would liven Andyland up somewhat.

Frankly, I enjoy the wild and wooly nature of SF. It is a large part of its charm. Take away the sexy babes and the irreverence and all that, and what are you left? Fabric weights, buttonhole stitching, spalla camica and stuff like that can get old mighty quickly.

As for the complaints about misogyny, I suppose I am one of the worst misogynists in the forum. Frankly, how any man with any amount of experience with women cannot have a considerable streak of misogyny is absolutely beyond me! And remember, I was consorting with women long before many of you guys were even born!

Lol SF rep score. Ill give all of my rep (and base) to whoever posts the hottest chicks in the ARE THESE FAKE and Asian NSFW thread.

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Image_Macro I'm specifically referring to the Something Awful-type internet speak, jokes, and memes. Basically, everything cataloged on Encyclopedia Dramatica. I'm not in favor of long-term strict moderation but a change in the norms here. I'm not sure exactly how that can be done, but perhaps deleting posts and some sort of mechanism to let know those users know their posts have been deleted.

Ah, thank you. I thought you meant macro photography...