Are moderators supposed to be neutral?

reply to post by yeahright


Dooohh!!! I forgot, CIA Artificial Intelligence; designed to test the resolve of mankind....

Oh, Soy Sancho, Nacho's was based off of my life. Similar to the movie Conspiracy Theories..... Say, where do you suppose they got the beer bottle alarm idea??? Though, mine was actually a tequila bottle.

Hey, thanks for talking in this forum mods, and clearing some stuff up for Mankind.

I basically try not to give them a reason to interfere in my post. Therefore I don't have to worry if they're being neutral or fair. I try my best to keep my post consistent with the topic in the thread.

I also try not to pay attention to who got slammed and who didn't. IMO, we are each responsible for our own posts.

I got slammed a few times when I first joined and also wondered why mine was tagged but the one who started it wasn't. Finally came to the conclusion that civility is the best road to take.

Excellent question op.

Quite simply, a person is responsible for their own posts, and as long as those posts stay within the T&C then there's no problem.

I've had a few disagreements with mods in the course of threads, but it's all been water under the bridge after the discussion is done.


On a slight tangent,
Whatever happened to the little box that nods used to post in where it said "this is my opinion" etc etc

reply to post by budski



?

We generally use that when posting as a member and not a staffer. It's not a hard and fast rule, but in the event it isn't obvious by the situation, the box thing is preferred.

reply to post by budski

reply to post by Gemwolf


Oh how I agree! I would NEVER want to see the membership passion for individual issues get swept away by msm type mentality on this discussion board.

It is in mho, some of the mods that I look for threads from, comments and posts are usually a bonus as they have proven themselves responsible and noteworthy.

Although I do not always agree with every mod, for the most part they are honest and open about all issues and that makes it interesting for me.

No biggie, just hadn't seen it for a while, but thanks for the clarification.

Unless a mod's actively moderating a thread I always assume they're just posting as a member anyway.

Then again, there's that saying about assume.......

Originally posted by budski
Unless a mod's actively moderating a thread I always assume they're just posting as a member anyway.

Thanks, 'cause that's like ten extra keystrokes.

Peace

Originally posted by antar
Although I do not always agree with every mod,

Originally posted by yeahright

Would it come as a surprise to learn that the mods don't always agree with every mod?

j/k

Well this is a great thread. I've learned a lot.

Mods are people What a concept.

I for the longest time thought a particular MOD had it in for me. I wont mention names. It seemed that 3 posts of mine that were MOD edited was from the same individual.

I just let it go and chalked it up to my own paranoia!



[edit on 11-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

Yeah I got a deduction for a one liner off topic post. It was a one liner but a sentence and it was not IMO off topic. It was what popped into my head as a response to the thread. I see one liners all the time that have nothing to do with the thread, its usually a comment about that person or something completely random and yet there is no "mod edit one line rule" link thingy. I personally dont really care however I do agree that if you are going to do it for one then it should be done to all. I have noticed some members do seem to get away with this more so than newer members and older members should already know this! Anyways....I agree with you. Flag and I would star you but I cant

Originally posted by sanchoearlyjones
Okay, first off mod's are just like any other person. They are given 'power' over other members, and I don't know if that's good for them, or bad. It could lead to either boot licking over petty power popularity issues by members, or to member's shying away/ignoring them.

It could but as a rule, before we take action on the board there is a discussion amongs the staff and concesus is attained. Also all mod actions froms warns to edits are logged and ATS'ers as a group are not ones to role over. If they are wronged they are not shy about expressing it.

I've wondered about how being a mod would have effected their enjoyment of the site; as many mods have signature's of t&c's, or other corporate ats how to's. To myself it looks to end as more of a chore with less enjoyment.

99 percent of the time I have just as much fun as I did as a member. Not every day is going to be fun. Thats life.

Personally, I'd never want to be a mod. It would ruin the site for me. I like having my opinion. The only thing that slows the expression down just a tad is having my posting abilities yanked from time to time due to using naughty words...........And that's okay. I understand there is a general code of conduct; which the mods must enforce.

Its not for everybody thats for sure. However, we do have opinions and most of us are NOT afraid to voice them.

Of note to any mods still reading this, I've had people u2u me that the same mod has continually written them warnings, fines, or bans. As though they are being cyber stocked by one mod who obviously didn't like what said member(s) had to say somewhere........at least that is the way I've heard it.

One thing to remember is that the staff is a microcosm of the board. We span the globe and have are on and off as real life and time zones permit. Its possible that the same staff is on when they are. As always they can file a complaint.

Any responses to that?? Really as the mods above have said very well, and very unbiased; ya' are only human. What is the 'safe gaurd' if any to abuses by a certain mod?


bet many a mod won't show their faces/opinions in

As noted above, any time a staff issues a warn etc. it is logged and noted. If a mod goes off the reservation, its easily traceable and our policy of discussion pretty eliminates the lone wolf thing.

E. Pluribus Unum

An endless source of amusement for me is when I see uninformed members accusing the entire staff of being "liberal" or "conservative", then launching off on how we pick on people for expressing differing points of view.

While we do have both "liberal" and "conservative" members on the staff, most of us have moved on from the false dichotomy and tend to be skeptical of pretty much all extremist positions. Except for those of us who haven't, of course.

With over five dozen of us, all of whom are members and have, over the years, agreed to take up the burden of moderating, the notion that we are all in lockstep on any issue is patently absurd. It just doesn't work like that.

Rather, just as members disagree in the public forums, us moderators debate all sorts of things in the private forums. Through it all, the AboveTopSecret.com Terms And Conditions Of Use are the foundation for all of our discussions, just as they are for anyone else, and if any of us disagree with any provision, we can suggest changes, just like any other member.

But I suppose the underlying question is this: is it right for a moderator to take action purely on the basis of his or her personal biases?

The answer to that is a resounding NO.

All of us are encouraged to be as impartial as we can be, but all of us are human, too, so we do have personal biases. That's why we constantly consult each other before taking action and review the actions we've taken as a team (N.B. we do this all the time, so members who try to play us off against each other should know that all of us can see it all, and it only makes you look like an idiot).

If a mod takes action for which there isn't a solid basis in the T&C, that mod is "busted", and I can assure anyone reading this that mods who act outside the T&C tend to have very short careers. It's happened. We don't like to talk about it, but we do what needs to be done when we encounter it.

If you have not violated the T&C and have been targeted by a mod, please let us know. If you haven't done anything wrong, and the staff determines as much, we will do everything we can to make things right.

If you have violated the rules, however, then complaining about it won't change that. The rules aren't hard to follow: just don't be a jerk and you'll never run afoul of the mods.

Anyway, long story short, nobody's perfect, including mods, and we know that. Our job as mods isn't to go around busting people, but simply to promote civil, topical discussion.

Help us do that, and you can safely ignore this entire thread.

So does the consensus thing apply to Applause as well? I ask because I am curious and because I have received applause from a couple of really cute avatars..

Seriously, I am curious, does applause work the same way with the mods?

Mods can applaud anyone at any time for any reason.

Make of that what you will.

I have learned one thing from experience. Malcontents are not appreciated and there are repercussions.
No matter how much I want to push the alert button, I refrain. And no suggestion/complaint form for me either. I just mind my own business.
And never, never, ever get involved or comment on policy. Bad juju.




[edit on 12-8-2009 by whaaa]

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
and yet there is no "mod edit one line rule" link thingy.

Just a quick comment on that - the link thingy has to be manually inserted. Just because you don't see the link edited in doesn't mean the member wasn't dinged. It just mean the mod that took the action didn't follow up with an edit inserting the link. A member hit with a one-line penalty receives an auto u2u but nothing is auto generated in the post.

I know I've missed doing that before. So don't think that just because you don't see evidence of a post being actioned for a one-liner that it hasn't been.

Mods operate on a 50/50 scale.

50% of the time they operate using the rules.

50% of the time they operate within the way they view things (their opinions)


They all follow the T&C, but if they disagree with you then they are more likely to be stricter then they would if they agreed with you. Everybody with a little bit of power operates that way.

It is to their discreation on how strict they can be. If you constantly butt heads with a mod then they will be strict on you. If you are buddy, buddy with them then they will be lax with the rules.


edit to add- Yesterday I had alerted a post towards me twice because it said that I "slobber on copper knobs". Today that post is still up, now if I had said that somebody detailed Obamas knob then most likely that would be removed with either a political trolling stamp or some other heavily point deducted stamp.

Just the way it goes sometimes.

[edit on 12-8-2009 by jd140]

Originally posted by jd140
They all follow the T&C, but if they disagree with you then they are more likely to be stricter then they would if they agreed with you. Everybody with a little bit of power operates that way.

It is to their discreation on how strict they can be. If you constantly butt heads with a mod then they will be strict on you. If you are buddy, buddy with them then they will be lax with the rules.

And this is why they Mod system operates on a collaberative level. That way if someone is going a little soft on some people, other mods can jump in and balance it out. I actually, find the system here to be pretty good. The only downside is when something gets flagged for off topic, etc, before I get a chance to see it. I end up with that hopeless curiosity of "what the hell did they say?"

In regards to one liners, I will admit I use one liners sometimes. I have never been dinged for one. The reason seems to be that the one liners I post fall into one of two categories: they actually continue to contribute to the conversation, they are an effort to be civil (such as an acknowledgement of error, or a confirmation of a question, etc.).

Personally, what I find cheesy is the folks who put down a totally irrelevant one liner and then follow it up with a "line 2."