I volunteered (OMG, what an idiot) in the mod forum to help out until suitable mods could be found. I most definitely will not be able to fill WN's shoes....nor do I intend to.

Basically, I will be deleting personal attacks. Not simply the attack, the whole post. So if your tome got zapped because you called bundy5 an idiot....that's on you.

I suggest you guys get your act together an find my replacement(s).

The only discussion I might join would be COVID related. My wife earned a Duke PhD in immunology and did a rotation through Dr. Faucci's lab. My position mirrors hers: science>>>>>>>>>>>>>>economy.

welcome. That will be fun for a while.

EADGBE (pronounced Eagle Beagle) and tame_deuces for mod!

Also, thanks king spew.

We haven't talked yet no, but we obviously have to. I figure it is best to let the forum and admins have their say about names in the ring first. We still don't know who will end up as mods.

And obviously it is difficult to answer questions about modding style, since I suspect neither of us knows exactly what we're walking into here, past modding efforts not always being clear to see. I also think whomever gets the role as mods here has to mature into the role a little as he / she goes.

For a bar I wouldn't cross beyond the obvious, it's at posts wishing other people (forum posters or external people) get hurt. I wouldn't want to moderate an internet forum where someone could hypothetically see themselves (or the group they belong to) being wished physical injury.

I would be interested in hearing the new moderators thoughts on bad faith posting. Especially consistent and relentless bad faith posting.

It is probably the single biggest problem in this forum at the moment.

WN, I've cleared my inbox. You are free to send my mod invite now

Nice, I dont make the ban list. Luckbox for mod.

does "bad faith posting" = trolling?


(((wait, you mean I have to read ALL this trash???)))

Why do you think I need a break?

Don't worry--the hidden hand can always reach out and grab ya

I'd definitely support wet work for mod even with the head bashing into wall stuff.
Also Formula72 and Monteroy for mod.

EADGBE and tame_deuces

I have given your names to Mat for consideration.

When WN pm'd me on being a mod, I messaged him stating that I would need weekends and holidays off. I told him that I would be liberal with the temp bans for bad faith, trolling posts, and personal attacks. That is what I could offer.

You're perfect. Ignore the crying cucks that will point out all manner of racist, sexist, and hateful posts can be written in a very civil tone.

'Bad faith' is a recent lark for trying to get posters banned and cause a ludicrous amount of fine judgement work for the mods. Like beauty it's mostly in the eyes of the beholder and many of those who push it would not like it applied to themselves.

If you start banning for trolling then you will quickly have a very easy workload.

so basically you are gonna delete posts that tell the truth

The trouble is that those who claim logic victories usually either have very limited logic skills themselves or aren't making good faith claims about logic.

If anyone doesn't find it worth their time to argue with someone then the answer is very simple - don't do it.

Holy ****. I go away for one ****ing day....

WN - I've always found you to be a balanced moderator, and one of the best posters on this forum, and I hope you continue to participate here.

Luckbox for mod for sure, that could never end badly. As an only marginally less serious candidate, I nominate myself. Although, I'm not sure whether I should be flattered or insulted that I didn't make your banhammer list, LB.

On a more serious note, tame_deuces is probably one of the best posters in this forum. This post aged well.

Whilst I'm very tempted by the idea of banning those who are trying to cause problems, it's far too draconian for my tastes.

It's a problem but personal attacks are a far bigger cause of derails imo. Plus commonly (not including you), those who want derail causers to be banned have a very very partisan view of who the culprits are.

Even though I kinda tend to favor the left side on a lot of stuff I'm much more a free-for-all kinda person in reality--often end up saying the only reason I ended up as the non-boss in my job was more kinda by default. Not very good at being a cop anyway. I'd probably ban myself before banning anyone else I do have the freedom to **** around on here a fair bit at this point but I actually do have real life stuff that kinda requires the bulk of my serious energy so there wouldn't be much left over--it doesn't surprise me at all that mods get burned out.

We do mostly agree but I don't think what you want is possible in practice. Not least because so many will think that them being treated fairly and objectively is unfairly favouring people who are far worse than them.

Be flattered. I tried to balance it out as best as I could with people that either I perceive or who are generally perceived as partisan ideologues on both the "left" and the "right".
And while you definitely seem to have a disdain for one side more than the other, I imagine you'd have a fair approach to moderation and so I'd support you. You would however have to give up the drink-- like being a cruise boat captain who is always on call.

They would need to change the pay scale quite a bit for it to be remotely interesting for me, and for this forum that should be a demand anyone who would genuinely want to do the job, otherwise it will just be another burnout situation, because how can it not be that in the end. Realistically the only way this can work where everyone gets no pay would be if it had a similar approach as the new site by the old members from here who are paying for a safe echo chamber to vent in. Fair enough on that use of the internet, but this is a website that actually makes money, so it should have mods fit into that model. At least that is my opinion, however if people want to continue to volunteer to do it then it is hard to argue that the market rate should be anything but $0 for the job. Good luck to whoever does it if the forum continues to exist.

Ultimately the laissez-faire won't work here as there are going to be too many problem posters and if the tone is left unchecked it'll degenerated into something like what we have here.
But I don't even think this forum is that bad. It's just that there are some threads that tend to be worse than others, and those threads are typically where the hyper-partisan types congregate.

Not that I'd ever actually be considered. But if I were, I'd hopefully be as smart as all the others who have turned it down and run away myself.
I do feel like a sort of committee/community driven approach to moderation like they're trying on unstuck is preferred over the more despotic and non-transparent approaches that we've seen here.