Why are all the mods so ridiculously corrupt?

Rozie

Irish people have a tendancy for sticking up for "yer man" for no good reason. Bertie is a good example of this, despite the slagging he gets, it ends in "Ah sure he's grand".

Here, the slagging doesn't even begin.

Your mods are ridiculously oppressive and corrupt.

Examples I have personally encountered:

1) In a previous thread in this forum(you know the one), there were at least 5 seperate mods posting highly insensitive posts with strong homophobic/transphobic overtones. While I believe they got some kind of warning, the fact that these people are even mods is worrying.

2) Karl Hungus saying he'd ban me from a forum I hadn't even ever posted in, just because he was sick of my ****. Said person also spammed my inbox with "love letters".

3) The Socs mod saying that he'd make sure that "T" never got added to LGBT, just to piss me off. That'll show me for being progressive!

4) Scojones permabanning me from After Hours, without giving a reason, and, well, enjoying it a bit too much.

And these people are still respected. Why can't you see them for what they are?

I get pissed on for being an angry ranter, but that's GOOD. The way you do things is wrong - you don't ban people for aggressively opposing things. Of course it'll cause "trouble", that's half the point. It doesn't mean it's bad for the forum. When you get rid of this, what you do is reinforce what we might call the "Ignorant masses" - which the corrupt mods are unfortunately a part of.

Opposition good, it shows someone at least is thinking for themselves, has real spirit. But you'd rather go with the people who can think up witty reasons for restricting someone's access to a forum they regular.

I here represent the opposition on an awful lot of issues, and as a result, there is always going to be fuss with me at the center. The Corrupt mods use this as justification for getting rid of me, but it's not very good thinking.
It's essentially using the very fact that I'm the opposition to prove I'm wrong. That's such horrible logic! But it's acceptable for most people to think that way. I wish I could make people understand. Ultimately, I'm not hurting anyone(though I would like to hurt the REALLY nasty bigots), and neither are most of the other people who get banned from forums - they cause a bit of a ruckus, but that's it. The mods ARE - they're causing further isolation for those who have already been marginalised, and enforcing their will on others by forcibly removing them.

Forums are never going to go smoothly, when people disagree. The mods here are eliminating some of the really serious disagreements.

The mods here cannot handle opposition. And a lot of them are "having a laugh", yet still won't reverse their decisions. It's an awful long laugh for a supposedly sane person to have(I'm meant to be the insane one remember!).

This kind of behaviour goes on and on yet whenever I or anyone else complains it's always "gee, you don't suppose MAYBE it's you?" They come up with godawful defenses for their actions and so many of us lap it up because it's "their board". Why should it be? Which is more important, corrupt mods or members to actually make the board a community? Exactly.

There have been several examples in this forum of mods banning people for weeks on end for no reason, or for ass-stupid reasons.

No, I don't think it's me, and this is why. Of course, one person can't do much against such a system, but it's at least appropriate to point it out to those who do give a ****.

The kind of things people get away with, yet don't get away with, is insane. Is there any way I can appeal this to people, show that this place needs to change? Saying it works for most people isn't enough - a board will "always" work for most people, since a lot of the people who don't like it won't post, and the rest will either be fine with the way things are, or conform like the little sheep they are. But that's a cop out.

Don't let people convince you by ganging up on this post or saying how "insane" someone is for questioning the way things work. That's their way of trying to control the way you feel about the place. All you need to do is sift through this forum, and you'll find plenty of other examples of mod corruption.

It needs to stop. But as long as they're armed with faux-witty comebacks and the their degree in Going For Beers, as well as the general populace of this board defending them, it won't. You can do better. These people are weak and will not be able to take any real pressure. If a mod bans you, or hassles you for a stupid reason - don't take it. Tell them to **** the hell off. You might get a longer ban - but it's much better than the alternative, being a doormat, not standing up for yourself.

There are very few boards for Irish people to post on as a community, and the vast majority of it is centered here - so it's about time the few progressives on this board tried to clean it up if the Fat Cats aren't going to.

aidan_walsh

Ah jeez, are we really going to do this again..? This isn't going to end well.

Anyway, your timing couldn't be worse. Just a few days ago two mods, one of those being scojones, were permabanned from boards. A third is on a temporary ban.

So, for the last time. There is No Mod Conspiracy.

I get pissed on for being an angry ranter, but that's GOOD.

No, its not.

How many people who engage in angry rants end up getting things changed in their favour? Name some cases where this has worked. Invariably, all you will end up doing is pissing off the people you are ranting at, as well as anyone else in the vicinity.

In the, IIRC, 4-5 threads you have started on this topic, how many of those have your Angry Ranting Good attitude gotten a resolution in your favour? Hmm? And its not because of corrupt mods, no matter how much you might want to think so.

The way you do things is wrong

No, its not. If it was, the Admins would have stepped in to change things by now. As we have seen, people who do wrong get removed, be they user, subscriber, or mod.

because it's "their board".

Again, no. Admins. Overrule. Prior art.

It needs to stop.

No. You need to stop. Your other thread in the Helpdesk as much as admits that all you intend to do if you get your access restored is start to stir the **** on the same old topics that you did last time - the ones that got you banned before, remember?

I wish to rejoin the forum to discuss why the T needs to be re-added

Your attitude also leaves a lot to be desired. You complain about "faux-witty comebacks", when you yourself employ nothing but a list of insults against those that dare oppose your position.

This isn't going to end well. And yes, I'm a mod. But only over on the IT Certification board. Out here, I'm a regular user.

billy the squid

Ah rozie i like you, your posts brighten up my day, but you need to loosen up a bit. its only the internet after all.

Jesus Wept

aidan_walsh wrote:

Ah jeez, are we really going to do this again..? This isn't going to end well.

Anyway, your timing couldn't be worse. Just a few days ago two mods, one of those being scojones, were permabanned from boards. A third is on a temporary ban.

hmm interesting. Is there a thread about this?

wrote:

I wish to rejoin the forum to discuss why the T needs to be re-added

Seriously, what is this?! Before you claim I am 'against' you, I'm a liberal person.


Does the 'T' stand for transvestite or transsexual?

I don't understand why transvestite would be put with lesbian/gay/bisexual.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual are sexual preferences. 'Transvestite' is not a sexual preference, are transvestites only attracted to transvestites? I wouldn't say that holds true at all.
So it makes no sense.

http://www.answers.com/topic/transvestite wrote:

A person who dresses and acts in a style or manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex.

Hell, it would make marginally more sense to put it in with the Fashion forum, more than the LGB forum.

http://www.answers.com/topic/transsexual wrote:

transsexual
n.

1. One who wishes to be considered by society as a member of the opposite sex.
2. One who has undergone a sex change.

Again, nothing to do with your sexual preference, or sexual desire.

Just ask for a T-Forum. That would be fine, imo.

tuxy

Isn't the t for trans gender ?

Faith

Jesus, talk about stereotyping. Rozie, there are over 400 moderators on this site, most of which I doubt you've encountered. Please refrain from lumping us all together just because a couple have banned you.

If I said "All transsexuals are ridiculously corrupt", you'd be furious. You've never posted on any of my forums, I've never banned you or threatened to, ergo I and most mods cannot fit in your definition of being corrupt.

Jesus Wept

tuxy wrote:

Isn't the t for trans gender ?

Yea, it probably is.

I don't get why it should share a forum with sexual prefences, and more than lumping the mustard forum in with Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual.

WhiteWashMan

cool. a rozie thread!

Time Magazine

Dahamsta was sitebanned with over 10,000 posts.
Mercury_Tilt was a mod with thousands of posts and was sitebanned.
The_Rooster was demodded last month, as far as I know.
Scojones was a mod with thousands of posts and was sitebanned.
Fade2Black was a mod with thousands of posts and was sitebanned.
Anti was a mod with thousands of posts and got a one-month siteban. Who knows if he'll still be a mod when he returns.

Before I was made a mod there was an, eh, "incident" with the then-mod of the TCD forum. I made a thread on Feedback. I got advice from a mod about how to present my case. Within a few hours Beruthiel, Asok, Vexorg and DeVore (that I can remember off the top of my head) had all commented on-thread supporting my case. The mod was not demodded but got a stern warning, which looking back I think was probably fair.

We're not all corrupt, Rozie.

Shabadu

tuxy wrote:

Isn't the t for trans gender ?

Apparently it's for tl;dr.

Rozie, didn't you notice that all the people who were abusive and insulting to you on that last trainwreck of a thread got banned?

ecksor

Actually Shabadu, I may have missed one or two of them it was pointed out to me afterwards! Rozie also earned a ban for abuse on that thread, and ultimately her case wasn't really considered at the time as a result of that. Whether right or wrong, if every case of someone complaining is accompanied by them abusing mods, then they're not going to get a lot of satisfaction.

In this case the argument seems to be going along fine without any abuse (bar a suggestion of violence which I'm overlooking for now) so hopefully we can put more light than heat this time around.

440Hz

Hey we're not all bad I wonder if Nukem will pop by and read this!

Agree with esksor though, this is very civilised so far for a "rozie thread"! - cept his wording was infinitely more PC than mine

tbh

it's not like someone is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to log on is it? If you don't like boards, find some other website, or better still, start your own. Why are you so insistent that everyone should bend to your will? It's extremely arrogant.

Hagar

Rozie, why don't you go to > Sys > Forums and make a formal request for a hosted private "T" Forum?

If you can get a few like minded people together to support it the Admins may grant it.

For your own sake though I'd go about the request a little more diplomatically than usual.

There's an old saying "You'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar"

Best of luck.


/Edit Flies..bees...

Rev Hellfire

Whats more telling about this whole thing is that there have been a few other threads on the topic of Transgender/Transsexuals in the LGB forum, since the last topic rosie started and contributed to. All of which have proceeded without incident, which pretty much shows the lie in the notion that such subjects can't be talked about there.

All in all most people here seem pretty accommodating and forward thinking IMHO.

projectmayhem

Rozie wrote:

Why are all the mods so ridiculously corrupt?

give me a tenner and i'll tell you...

Rozie wrote:

it's about time the few progressives on this board tried to clean it up if the Fat Cats aren't going to.

why do you assume there are "fat cats" who sit in some palatial supermansion sipping wine and stroking Bengal tigers running boards? it's some regular guys who give their own time to this thing, coughing up time & money... they don't need to take rants from you because this isn't some utopian democratic society. like it or not, it's not a public venture whereby some government is hired by the populous.

the same idea goes for mods. moaning/ranting/bitching at mods gets you nowhere. mods are normal people who give their time to clean up all the spam/crap that boards accumulates. instead of going on the offensive all the time, maybe appreciate the fact that it's all voluntary spam-acide work.

GuanYin

Hagar wrote:

There's an old saying "You'll catch more bees with honey than you will with vinegar"

I prefer Joe Strummer's version

"If you're after getting the honey, then you don't go killing all the bees"

oscarBravo

Rozie wrote:

Your mods are ridiculously oppressive and corrupt.

Let me preface my remarks by saying that I'm not trying to be inflammatory or argumentative here.

I genuinely believe that none of Rozie's grievances - both real and imagined, because both exist - should be addressed until this and similar slurs have been apologised for. Speaking for myself, I'm neither oppressive nor corrupt (and I'd love to know exactly how a volunteer moderator goes about corruption).

As long as her arguments contain this type of generalised vitriol, I can think of no earthly reason why they should be taken seriously.

BuffyBot

"gee, you don't suppose MAYBE it's you?"

QFT.

Some of the other posts make some very salient points.

delly

Four legged furry domestic animal, commoningly used in threads that are so ridiculously OTT and in need of some light refreshment.

I am a BLANK, and will hopefully soon make an appearance.

440Hz

projectmayhem wrote:

why do you assume there are "fat cats" who sit in some palatial supermansion sipping wine and stroking Bengal tigers running boards?

Ahhhhh boo! You just shattered my illusions

projectmayhem wrote:

mods are normal people who give their time to clean up all the spam/crap that boards accumulates. instead of going on the offensive all the time, maybe appreciate the fact that it's all voluntary spam-acide work.

normal?? who are you calling normal? errr i mean... nevermind!

Crucifix

delly wrote:

Four legged furry domestic animal, commoningly used in threads that are so ridiculously OTT and in need of some light refreshment.

I am a BLANK, and will hopefully soon make an appearance.

I think I know, but I don't want to let the cat out of the bag. I say easy tiger, if someone post those pics the OP might be feline very angry, and frankly that kitten's got claws.

AlmightyCushion

Crucifix wrote:

I think I know, but I don't want to let the cat out of the bag. I say easy tiger, if someone post those pics the OP might be feline very angry, and frankly that kitten's got claws.

How the hell did you manage to get that many puns into one post. Bravo sir, bravo.

Evil Phil

As far as I can see there's two things Rozie is troubled with, I'm asking for clarification if somebody could provide:

1. Add a T to the LGB forum to be inclusive of the Transgendered comunity.
2. Her treatment when she raised the issue before.

I've always assumed that the T was included in LGB but what would I know? It just that I've always heard it that way. Dunno why it wasn't included in the first place - but I'll assume there was a reason. While I do think Rozie needs to control her temper, her treatment hasn't been the best here on boards. Some comments directed at her were deliberately antagonistic and way out of line. I think the transgendered community get enough flack as it is which would explain while Rozie vents so much. We should cut her some slack at this point.

Just my €.02.

Rev Hellfire

Evil Phil wrote:

I've always assumed that the T was included in LGB but what would I know? It just that I've always heard it that way. Dunno why it wasn't included in the first place - but I'll assume there was a reason.

There have been a few posts on the topic in the LGB forum and the consensus of both moderators of that forum and the users was that it wasn't deemed necessary and/or related to LGB issues.

Evil Phil wrote:

We should cut her some slack at this point.

Surely you jest, he's been given too much slack imho. It beggars belief that they haven't received a perm-ban for the general abusive nature of their posts. When it comes to the topic they profess to campaign for things run much more smoothly and debate flows in their absence.

Sangre

I think the LGB should be changed to LGBNFC.

Too long has my 'no fat chicks' sexual preference been ignored. Enough I say, let the revolt begin.

Evil Phil

Rev Hellfire wrote:

Surely you jest, he's been given too much slack imho. It beggars belief that they haven't received a perm-ban for the general abusive nature of their posts.

Considering the general abusive nature of posts directed back at Rozie surely a number of people should be banned, non?

popebenny16

Evil Phil wrote:

Considering the general abusive nature of posts directed back at Rozie surely a number of people should be banned, non?

I agree with that. Rozie is an easy target for some on the more idiotic wing of the Feedback posters. This is a pity because she then tends to lash out at everyone, including people like beruthial and Aidan Walsh who have been generally supportive and helpful, though I think Aidan is getting fed up at this stage.

I think that, looking at her recent posts, she has some valid points and I think that she should get involved in campaigning for the rights of people like her. It's an emotive and hugely personal issue and I'd imagine that she finds a lot of barriers and walls and therefore tends to lash out. To give an example even if she has all the operations and hormone treatment, she can never change the sex on her birth cert under the law as it is now.

What has this got to do with boards, you ask?

Well, Rozie posts a lot on the transformers board and is not causing any bother there (apart from when someone started bringing personal stuff against her and she retaliated) and as far as I know she posts on other boards as well without problems.

The problems start when she wishes to talk about her sexuality issues usually on the PI or the LGB boards. The reaction she receives then results in her asking why Irish Society has troubles with her gender issues and then she extrapolates this (as, to be fair anyone could do) into a general rant about Ireland. Cue the "if you don't like it leave" posters which she hates and they know she hates, cue her atomic style reaction and a ban and then cue the feedback threads. The common line in those threads are like this one: mods don't ban the ones who make fun of her, insult her and attack her, yet she gets banned. From her point of view there is an injustice at work.

Well, that's my Pat Spillane-esque review of the action so far.

To answer her post - no there may be some mods who may over re-act, but I don't think there are power hungry mods.

Mods are not "staff", but I understand her allusion. We're supervisors within our own forums - we are subject to the same rules as anyone else. I'm typing this from work and I'm doing it because I like boards and I'm hoping this may answer some of her questions. No-one is paying me to do this.

Also, yes, Ireland is full of back slapping, hail fellow well met people. Rozie, if you want to change that, believe me this isn't the place to do it, because it has no power. Join a Political Party, or a human rights campaigning group - you'll be doing something positive and you might get some satisfaction that you are doing all you can to change things.

Finally, don't rise to idiots. I know that somewhere in this discussion you'll be called "he" and that it'll drive you mad. Just ignore them. There is an ignore function here - use it because all they want to do is annoy and upset you.

Sorry about the long post, but that's about it.

OTK

Rozie wrote:

[..why are the mods so ridiculously corrupt?..]

Some mods are motivated by a desire to elevate their status. One way of demonstrating their elevated status is to openly break the rules. A certain amount of this behaviour is allowed by the admins, presumably because the mods aren't paid and they need them to stick around.

Joining in a stone throwing is not very brave while standing up for yourself takes courage. Unfortunately, there are always plenty of apes.

Corruption comes from a lack of open accountability.

I think if you read a textbook about group psychology, you will readily identify the various roles that people have assumed or have been assigned here. Your role being victim or hate-figure.

These roles change fairly often and to a large extent you can influence which role you are assigned by your behaviour and the alliances you form with other group members.

Sadly, this is what life is like whatever group you spend time with- from a family to a church hierarchy. Maybe if you understand group roles and dynamics better, you can decide which role you would be happiest to play and understand the motivations of others- even if you can't alter their behaviour.

muffler

OTK wrote:

Some mods are motivated by a desire to elevate their status. One way of demonstrating their elevated status is to openly break the rules. A certain amount of this behaviour is allowed by the admins, presumably because the mods aren't paid and they need them to stick around.

Mods are held accountable for their behavior the same as any other user. popebenny16 explained the situation very well in his post above. Bad behavior by a mod will not be tolerated by the admins and there is no shortage of people here looking for modship so the point of having them "stick around" doesnt arise.

Karl Hungus

Evil Phil wrote:

Considering the general abusive nature of posts directed back at Rozie surely a number of people should be banned, non?

Users were banned for abusing Rozie last time.

And I agree with Rev Hellfire on this... I've frankly never seen a more abusive person who has gotten so much slack. Even Moderators were sitebanned for less.