The Internet is Real Life

eff, this *is* real life. The vBulletin software is just the medium, just like a telephone or letters through the mail. Sure, people behave differently than they might in a one-on-one situation, but people behave differently in all types of situations. That's just human nature. The reality is that people fall in love and make bitter enemies over the Internet. I'm sure many of the people who donated money to the Lancasters had never met them in person, but their feelings and reactions were no less real.


You can't have it both ways. I've seen you dismiss people with "it's just an Internet forum" before, yet at the same time I've seen you take things very personally. You can tell us it's not worth "taking up arms" over, but the same thing applies to you and the mods when it comes to enforcing the Membership Agreement. Either we all take it seriously or we don't.

You complain about the mods feeling "attacked" for having their authority challenged and their judgment questioned. Well, get over it. That's life. If you or the mods can't take it, step aside and let those better suited take over. There's a rule in place to deal with personal attacks. If you or the mods feel personally offended by some of the questions, try sitting on the other side of the fence and having the mods tell you that the words you wrote don't mean what they say, and then get suspended for it. Later, try to have a discussion about it here in FM and have the mods close the thread without really answering your question. Oh, and if you dare mention it again, watch yourself get suspended a second time. I guess "it's only an Internet forum" applies to the members and not the mods.

Being a mod is a hard job, of that there's no doubt. However, it is what it is. When you're given power and authority, it will be challenged and questioned. When you have power and authority over skeptics - people who by their very nature question everything - it's going to happen even more. Many here are quite intelligent and skilled at debate. They don't give up their positions easily. That's just the way it's going to be.

I don't know what you expect by offering a forum to discuss moderation issues, but I don't see anything here that's unexpected in the least. The Membership Agreement as it stands is well equipped to handle the debates here without any special rules. The only thing special about this forum is that the mods are expected to monitor it. As has been suggested many times before, when the mods are through engaging the membership in a thread, post a mod box saying as much instead of closing it.

What you fail to understand is that people generally don't like to be silenced. Skeptics, many of whom thrive on debate, don't react well at all to it. If they feel aggrieved or that they are being treated unfairly, it becomes especially upsetting. Yeh, I know, it's only an Internet forum. Fine. Then let it be an Internet forum and let the members discuss things among themselves instead of closing threads. I bet you'll have a lot fewer cases of people going off-topic with their beefs because they will no longer feel silenced. Do people "game" the system on the rest of the board? Why do you think that is?

Your dismissive and insulting attitude towards some members contributes to the problem. You seem to find it very easy to wave your hands and accuse people of childish playground antics or deliberately "gaming" the system. You should really stop to think about how you could be wrong about that. Take me as a case study. Start with my first posts in FM over a year ago and follow my progression from "modette" to "gamer" with an open mind. I'll gladly accept an accusation that I take things too seriously (though I would argue that I take it no less seriously than Darat), but I'm offended that I'm accused of doing this for my own amusement.