Ooooooh...those mod's!

Racism, ethnic cleansing, whatever next?
We are approaching 2,000 members and �even when one has dismissed the one-off�s, the multiple personalities, the saboteurs, Information Systems 101 brigade, spammers, hackers and those who thought ATS meant AnyThing Silly, we are several hundreds of regular posters. We�ve been attacked, rehoused, redesigned, off-air, torpedoed and mined; and we�ve still stayed active for some years: many members have been here throughout.
Now there may be many causes for this: most on the edge of abnormal endocrinology, paranormal psychopathology, care in the Community, Munchhausen�s syndrome by proxy, a morbid fascination with cutting and pasting, the malaise in the public education system, and the fact that pop songs and TV aren�t what they used to be.
But one cause has to be that the board is interesting and continues to be interesting. And I use that term, as I would perhaps use �entertaining�, in a broad sense: there is a reason to read and a reason to reply.
And a good reason for that is the Admin/Mod contribution. Admin�s really do administrate through all the psyops and e-warfare; Mods do moderate: there�s black and white as well as grey here.
It is true that Thomas � when not occupied with the Fort Sumter Commemoration League, making large flammable crosses in his woodshed, fighting the militarist-capitalist global conspiracy at his workplace, or discretely helping domestic industry through his contributions to microbreweries � will sometimes put the boxing gloves on: but it�s in the interests of balance, clarity, decency and quality. And elswhere he�ll be funny, informed, tolerant and open to correction. Every Mod has a multiplicity of approaches: that why they are successful at �moderating�. As a group, they have an enormous sense of collective responsibility; but they have an entire spectrum of different outlooks.
Mod�s here do not ban or bully as they do on many boards, and in the Sacred Groves of Cosmic we generally put on a display of tolerance and liberalism that would have your average Hare Krishna member reaching for his revolver.
It is of course an open secret that Estragon is a mod only because of his intimate knowledge of Simon�s personal life, and the vast sums of money gathered from CD sales and pop-up�s that Simon is thereby obliged to pay him.
However, if you look at my colleagues, I�d ask you to ask to what extent their collective and individual contributions to the public board are factors in bringing you back, each day.


[Edited on 23-3-2003 by Estragon]