As trueblue and several others have alluded to recently, it seems we are a little top heavy with moderators. I have no desire to police a message board, so webbie, you can un-moderator me. I would like to keep the moderator ability to post attachments though, if that's possible to share with everybody.

Anybody else care to weigh in on this issue?

The only person that can answer your questions is screen name webbie. The rest of us can only provide opinions.

I've only exercised my mod privileges once, which was today when I re-opened the "what new store would you like to see" topic. I felt it was the most appropriate location for my comment, considering we had discussed the upcoming Cheeseburger in Paradise there as well. Beyond that, my status as a mod or not won't keep me from posting less, nor should it intimidate others to not post their thoughts, opinions, and ideas.

As for quantity, a lot of what we post is banter. We regular posters are a pretty tight-knit family and playfully pick on one another, even if we don't see I2I.

Perhaps the thinking behind the automatic mod is that if you spend enough time here to make 500 posts, you probably are a consistent, reasonable person with enough judgement to handle a little responsibility. Although I don't know about Greedy...........

Stick around true, only 484 more posts to go and you can join our happy ranks!

well said moms!

other than I might add, we're ALWAYS looking for new members to join our family.

unlike the other boards you refer to, we kinda police ourselves here, but I know of no one who has abused their mod privileges.

No one has abused mod priviliges, Yoss. The only time I used them was to delete a post promoting obscene and illegal activity and I did so only after consulting with another mod first as a sanity check.

Of course we did have some missing posts a few weeks ago that no one owned-up to... but I think it might have been an accident or one-time thing.

The users of a forum "set the tone" within the rules of the forum. We have had one complaint about moderators so far, so I think we're doin' okay.

As I've said in another thread, I only give back what I get -- or less -- when it comes to nastiness. I'm not perfect, but I try to be civil.

Stick around True, you might come to like us!

I see the assignment of MOD status as a simple means of self-policing. Yes it has the potential to be abused, but if it were, I'm sure that things would change pretty quick. So far we have all been extremely tolerant of one another and given each other a lot of freedom of expression. I don't know if I dare speak for everyone, but I think we like it that way.

Some places have mods that rule with an iron fist. If you're used to those places, then I can understand why you might feel intimidated. But we're not like that, and I thought that much was pretty evident. IMO we ought not to be punished for those peoples' crimes.

Some places are completely unmoderated and there seem to be no rules whatsoever. Here, it seems that "webbie" deals with the challenges of an open forum by giving us regulars the power to address a problem if one arises - and IMO so far we've all proven worthy of that trust.

The mods here have no more status than the regulars at any hangout.

A good rule I learned ages before I found this place was that one should "lurk" for a while to get a feel for the place before posting openly in any discussion forum. It gives one the chance to learn how things really are, and ought to help avoid misunderstandings such as the one you seem to have had.

If you know this board and it's members, then you gotta know that if you post about politics, war, religion, snow removal or gays, you should expect a gaggle of members to descend upon your post and devour it to the bare bones, sometimes agressively by abrasive personalities.

I used to tell people when I thought they were rude on this board. No one ever cared or took notice.

Then I acquired mod status.

Now I tell people when I think they are rude on this board, and they still don't care or take notice!

ffffffffffffffffftt! Oh excuse me - I farted.


(How rude of me LOL!)

I'm guessin' the post were so retarded they offed them selfs...

Hey True -- That's Greedy, by the way, resident wit and Mensa member.

Teeheehee.....

Can we just use this thread for general mod issues so's we don't stink up regular posts?


I agree with this. Anyone's thread can fall victim to the phenomenon that has been happening with the gay argument. But then, we never stay on topic on any thread really. It has to be allowed to some extent.


Who can be serious about gay orgies in nursing homes? It's either really funny or really gross. I haven't decided which.

I don't even bother to read his posts anymore. He's a BORE. It's like a skip in a record...same thing over and over and over and over and over....same with a couple of others too.

Same with anyone who ALWAYS turns another post into something political or religion.Sick of it, so I just move on.Apparently they can't so why should I stay in that "traffic jam". It's stupid.And can become rather toxic to get sucked into that trap.

I think that there are too many people who have moderator status. I think a couple should be asked if they want the job and then maybe if you have so many posts you can get the ability to do links and the different things that mods are able to do.
I don't care if I'm a mod or not. I don't add links and all the other crap.Don't need to. I come here to keep a pulse on whats what in the region and to give my OPINION. Not argue. And definately not spout off like I'm some sort of expert like so many on here do. I give an opinion,simple as that.

My mod status will be on ebay shortly.

If that were the case then I would have deleted many of our discussions Snoop.

If someone consistently steers the discussion to the same subject and tries to perpetually instigate the same argument, then yes I would delete it, but even then only if I originated the thread. I would NEVER delete another member's thread.

______________________

Idiot,

If you delete a whole thread, no matter if you started it or not, you are deleting other peoples' posts as well as your own. IMO that should almost never be done. And never just because you don't like the way someone steers the argument.

I've tried before to get mods here to agree on some basic rules of the road that we would follow, and do it before somethign happens that causes a big blow-up, but no one else seems interested.

FYI -- here are the "official" forums TOS:

Please remember that we are not responsible for any messages posted. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of this BB. Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by email. We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary. You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this BB to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law. You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this BB.

Put it to a poll, Idiot. If you want my vote, thumbs down. I think there are mods that would abuse the heck out of that rule, just to be pissy. And there is such a fine line between staying on and off topic.

I'm one of those that Snoopy referenced. I think things are fine now. We've rarely had complaints. If someone takes issue with something, they can PM a mod and then the mod can bounce it off other mods. Or if there is an issue not agreed upon, take it up in here and we'll all have a chance to speak our minds, including people that aren't mods.

I just don't like the idea of a rule book being thrown in people's faces for annoyances that only regulars even care about. Most of the regular posters here are, or will soon be, a mod and so we're basically policing ourselves, as Yoss has said.

Or whatever. I don't really think it's a pressing matter.

That's the spirit!

I'll be honest. I don't even know what the mods special powers or responsibilities are. It took me 3 months to figure out the whole avatar thing . I doubt if I would use them even if I did know how. As far fetched as some of the ideas and arguments are I wouldn't want to risk the wrath of deleting anyones posts. I was all for closing the boonsboro thread because the last 15 pages of it had absolutely 0 to do with the original topic. Of course that caused an even bigger stink. I am going to work with the idea that if I don't respond to certain lunacy it will just go away. For what its worth, I think the longtime active mods in here do a good job of trying to keep everything running smoothly and everyone on topic. Maybe H-town just has an unordinary amount of blowhards (myself included)

I don't think it's any big deal. Any forum I've ever participated in, the threads go off topic. We've all had more than one topic hijacked with something that had nothing at all to do with the subject. Like carrying on a conversation at a party or a bar, the subject will inevitably turn to something else.

Rules? What rules? We don't need no steenking rules...

I just wanted to say thanks to all of our Moderators. I love you all!

BTW...Blogs are coming, for sure, for sure! WOOT!

A present from Webbie! Yay! Thanks Webbie!

Let's try and stay on topic, Heather...