A word from your moderator

[Anonymous]

During the last two weeks, there were three posts that were reported to moderators. I know this number is absolutely ridiculous when compared to other, bigger boards, but given that in our small community, such a report pops up only every other month (with most being made by unidentified Guests or trolls), I felt like I had to say a few words on it.
All these posts involved respected members of our community. I was particularly unhappy about the fight between Raven and Forostar, two members whom I like very much personally, and whose posts I always enjoy reading.
The advice I have made to all members in public, but which I would like to repeat here, is to take it easy. Take a post which annoys you or which even offends you, with a pinch of salt, and try to simply ignore insulting passages (I know it's not always easy). Of course, the same goes to the others. Do not insult other members. Just don't do it. If you feel the need to, there's a good number of things you can do. You can turn your computer off, have a cup of tea and calm down. You can type what you want to type in the reply field, and when you're done, close the window, without posting- this is a method that I find particularly helpful. If you feel you simply can't stand another member, ignore him/her. And so on.

There's nothing to say against healthy, and even heated, arguments. They are fun to have, they are entertaining to read, and they are often enlightening and insightful. But if you get to the point where you feel the need to say something like "fuck you", you should consider stopping it.

Apart from that, if you see an offending post in the Madness forum, then for Christ's sake, don't take it seriously! That's what that forum is for!

That's about it. Thanks for reading.

 

[Forostar]

Point taken.

On a  sidenote: 

If allowed, I'd like to take the opportunity to say something in favour of thousans_suns.
In the beginning he never communicated, never did a single dialogue, never a single respond to anyone. Now he tries to integrate more and more and I think we should see this as a positive thing.

I never reported anything about the thousand_suns madness, but even if we should not take anything seriously on that part of the forum, I think we should not take advantage of people who may communicatie in a different way from most of us. Especially not if they don’t deliberately offend us and when they try to improve themselves.

In other words, I considered that topic as pestering of an innocent forummer and I can’t really see the fun of such a thing. A moderator unworthy action. Yesterday, against my nature I tried to "take it easy", but now it fits this topic, so what the heck, here goes.

Thanks for reading and hopefully for understanding my point of view.

 

[Albie]

A valid point well made Perun. It is always totally different to type something down in response to something, than to speak off the cuff. It is not that difficult to read and re-read your post before pressing the button and then asking yourself "would I be happy to read that if it was directed at me?". We not just forum posters, we are humans as well.

And a good point also Forostar - although I did see the point made that he (used to, at least) constantly delete and re-post the same text. It can be a little frustrating to see the "New Post" marker only to see you've already read it.

 

[Forostar]

A valid point well made Perun. It is always totally different to type something down in response to something, than to speak off the cuff. It is not that difficult to read and re-read your post before pressing the button and then asking yourself "would I be happy to read that if it was directed at me?". We not just forum posters, we are humans as well.

And a good point also Forostar - although I did see the point made that he (used to, at least) constantly delete and re-post the same text. It can be a little frustrating to see the "New Post" marker only to see you've already read it.

Must have missed that. I am quite an editor myself as well, trying to choose good words constantly, even after I posted.

 

[LooseCannon]

There is a difference between editing a post once while discussion is live and editing a topic that has been dead for weeks.

I also want to point out this: moderators can't ignore users, otherwise we would do so with certain people, I am sure.  There are some things that are annoying but don't really require warnings, temp bans, etc.  Remember things in the madness forum are intended to be tongue-in-cheek, and that any use of ratings to show annoyance, upsetness, or anything are always put back once the point is made.

 

[Anonymous]

My comment about the Madness forum was not only about the thousand_suns thread (which I do not approve of, but I made my statement about that already), but also about another reported post.