Reporting Posts - A Word of Warning

Okay people, the mod team is pretty lenient when it comes to the debates here on this forum, but if you cross the line in a heated debate and start making inflammatory personal remarks about another member, you will get an infraction. Simple.

But to try to retaliate by reporting posts that were not only made 3 days ago, but 3 MONTHS ago is just plain childish! Any further such attempts to get "even" because you think the moderators were not fair shall result in a banishment of an as yet undetermined duration.

FYI...this is not just a Susan policy.

Is it OK to take 24-48 hours to THINK before reporting? I have run across a couple remarks that I thought about it & decided that since it wasn't aimed at me I shouldn't, but I spent a little time mulling it over.

I think what Susan was saying is that 3 months is ridiculous, not 3 days. And I'm guessing that this is probably not an issue with general non-offenders in this arena. I suspect this was one of those "you know who you are" kind of posts and that if you are unsure, it wasn't you.

Granted, I could be wrong, this is just my strong gut feeling.

desertanimal said:

I suspect this was one of those "you know who you are" kind of posts...

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Unfortunately, it happens rather often....

What Susan was talking about was the propensity of members who have received an infraction to go back and dig through older posts to report things that all of a sudden "now" bother them but were never mentioned when they were first written. The fact that this seems to be a trend is something we, as moderators, would like to put an end to. Retaliatory reported posts is what we are trying to avoid.

wstphal said:

Is it OK to take 24-48 hours to THINK before reporting? I have run across a couple remarks that I thought about it & decided that since it wasn't aimed at me I shouldn't, but I spent a little time mulling it over.

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I don't report a lot of posts. Mostly, they are the spammers that occasionally make their way here. If I must report something, I go with my gut. If it's bad, then I report it. If it's something that would need thought, then it probably isn't that bad.

JMO!

Wayne

medusacoils said:

I don't report a lot of posts. Mostly, they are the spammers that occasionally make their way here. If I must report something, I go with my gut. If it's bad, then I report it. If it's something that would need thought, then it probably isn't that bad.

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That's why I think about it, because although at the moment I read it I am upset, if I am not upset after some thought, then it isn't bad enough to report.

I'm not really sure being "upset" is a reason to report a post. I think the few rules of conduct there are are for the most part pretty clear cut. I'd bet that very, very few things go unread by one or more of the three of us, Jeff, Susan and me. Being the more "libertarian" one, I am not liking the trend I am seeing of going from "You're a moronic jerk!!!" (in stronger language)- okay, that is a blatent insult, abusive, and obviously against the rules to "I find your views to be a bit sophormoric" which to me is an opinion- which is suddenly infraction-worthy, due to this slippery slope of tattletale-ism we are avalanching down recently. In my opinion, MY opinion, not speaking for anyone else, if you want to go to somewhere where it's all sweetness and light and no one can disagree, much less heatedly- I can give you the link. Otherwise, sheesh- quit getting so upset over every single little thing. And if you have to hold a grudge over some real or perceived insult for eternity, please do not bring that baggage to current discussions-it's water under the bridge. You can disagree without being SO disagreeable. Thank you.

what about unpleasentness in the chat rooms, I made a comment about how small and Poor quality the breeding pool is in and around my city, in ALASKA, and everyone jumped down my throat about it. I said I was sorry and they ignored me. it was rude and trollish. not only did they ban togather to become angry at me, they got upset about everthing I said after that.

xreinx said:

what about unpleasentness in the chat rooms, I made a comment about how small and Poor quality the breeding pool is in and around my city, in ALASKA, and everyone jumped down my throat about it. I said I was sorry and they ignored me. it was rude and trollish. not only did they ban togather to become angry at me, they got upset about everthing I said after that.

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Not speaking for the mods here but unless they made personal attacks on you, "ganging up on one person" is generally not infraction-worthy on other forums I'm on. Try and make note of the people who did it and if you feel like they are continuing to antagonize you, copy/paste the chat and report it to a mod, but otherwise just ignore those people and say what you want. There are thousands of members here and hundreds of active ones... eventually someone is bound to wander into the chat who wants to talk about the breeding pool in Alaska with you

Forum rules apply to chat as well as private messages and visitor messages. If there are rule violations, try to save and send a copy of the chat to the moderators so we can review it and deal with it appropriately. However, just make sure that site rules have been violated. Just because you don't like what someone has said doesn't always mean the rules have been broken and reporting such posts may even lead to you yourself getting the infraction for making a frivolous report.

What about a moderator issuing infractions where another moderator has already said something and deemed the issue non-infraction worthy? What is the policy in this situation?

I'm guessin' the mods will back up the mod who already made a decision. I'm not a mod, here, and likely never will be, so don't quote me on this, but in other online places where I HAVE been a mod (and/or still am), it's generally policy to go with whatever the head honcho decides.

I wouldn't worry about it.
I'm really a horrible get, and I only ever got one infraction.... Because James I came back.
Oh no.... There goes another.... Rule is... Never mention British Royalty in your posts...
And don't bother reporting threads.... Unless it's porn or ads...
It will only attract the mods to you and Susan is mean.... So watch her...

snakewispera snr said:

I wouldn't worry about it.
I'm really a horrible get, and I only ever got one infraction.... Because James I came back.
Oh no.... There goes another.... Rule is... Never mention British Royalty in your posts...
And don't bother reporting threads.... Unless it's porn or ads...
It will only attract the mods to you and Susan is mean.... So watch her...

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I feel left out of the joke, care to explain for us ignorant Americans? :dancer:

I have argued in many threads here. I just try my best to avoid making it personal. I have never reported any posts and so far as I know have never had any of mine reported. At least I never received a warning or infraction. I guess I will just trudge along the way I have.

desertanimal said:

I think what Susan was saying is that 3 months is ridiculous, not 3 days.

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I don't report posts much (never have), but I would like to point out that threads may be months old and get brought up to the top again if someone else makes a post to it. The complainer "might" not realize it is a 3 months old post they are reporting. For the record, this can't apply to me. I haven't reported any posts in a good long while (and very few ever). I'm just saying that I could see where someone could make this mistake once, and I think consideration should be given in that case.

Nanci said:

obviously against the rules to "I find your views to be a bit sophormoric" which to me is an opinion- which is suddenly infraction-worthy, due to this slippery slope of tattletale-ism we are avalanching down recently. In my opinion, MY opinion, not speaking for anyone else, if you want to go to somewhere where it's all sweetness and light and no one can disagree, much less heatedly- I can give you the link.

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That MIGHT apply to me. This is my first post outside of the classifieds or my own forum in 2 months because I did get an infraction point for calling a statement taunting a handicapped person sophomoric. I have no intention of telling the moderators how to do their job. I have no intention of telling Rich how to run his site. I am not criticizing the moderators, rich, or this site. I'm not doing ANY attack in this post.

What I'm doing is saying that I (1) either don't understand the new rules or (2) don't like the new rules. Either way, I shouldn't heavily participate in a forum in which I don't understand OR agree with the rules. (It is disrespectful to the owner and other members - both groups are people I like a lot - for me to do otherwise.) This has generally caused me to mostly stop posting here of my own volition. To tell the truth, I am more than tired having to be careful who I disagree with because they might turn around and call me an insulting name like "retarded" or just spew out a personal threat.

That's just my opinion. It isn't worth anything to anyone but me.
...and I kinda like it that way!
KJ

mike17l said:

What about a moderator issuing infractions where another moderator has already said something and deemed the issue non-infraction worthy? What is the policy in this situation?

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The moderators generally go with the ruling of the first moderator to deal with the situation. Sometimes, one moderator has dealt with the reported post by making a simple post in that thread. However, another moderator, going to the reported post directly through the link provided in the reported post forum, may not see that post by the other moderator until after they have also dealt with the issue in the manner they saw fit to perform. That has happened at least once, probably more, even in a closed thread as moderators that jump to a thread via a link do not see that the thread is closed, are able to post in that thread without knowing it is closed, and only find out about it later on.

HOWEVER, we do not always hold to the ruling by the "first come" moderator and another moderator may issue or remove an infraction if they feel the situation warrants a change in ruling. In those very rare cases, the moderators have discussed the situation behind closed doors, usually with Rich being involved as well. Most of the time, it is simply a misruling by a newer moderator that doesn't know that similar situations have been dealt with in a certain manner as per Rich's instructions. Sometimes, Rich over-rules the decision himself.

KJ, if you want to discuss the differences between petty squabbling between members of known differing opinions which occurs in simple harmless threads that end with the failure to heed a moderator's cease and desist warning and the issuing of infractions to all involved parties and the heated discussions of known volatile subjects by members from opposing sides that are generally left alone until they go overboard into personal harassment and attack, feel free to PM me.

Teddy Roosevelt said:

I feel left out of the joke, care to explain for us ignorant Americans? :dancer:

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It was a while back when a member had a hissy fit and made a GBCW thread. They made some comment about never returning, like James I.
Then the next day they made another thread and I commented that James I was back. Got me my only infraction.