I want to attempt to change the tone of our interaction before going any further here. My natural inclination, as backed by my poasting history, is to to lead with snarkiness so I want to assure you that what follows, while direct, is free from any of that.
I appreciate the time you’ve invested in taking on the mod role. I want you to know that I recognize that until this relatively minor (but eye-opening, to me) issue arose, I haven’t seen many signs of your moderation at all. That is meant as a compliment to you. Perhaps I’ve missed some things, but as far as I can tell you’ve been fairly straight-down-the-middle as to what’s been allowed to be poasted; no complaints. I mean, yeah, you might give a behind-the-scenes guiding hand to some folks that you wouldn’t lend to others of differing political persuasions but no big deal. Conversations can get heated, but they’ve been unaltered. You’ve done a really good job. That’s why I wanted to address this particular situation with you and called for you to “do better”.
First, we need to get the facts right. The “lyrical death wish” that you attribute to me, wasn’t actually written by me. It was a quote taken from the poast directly after my “offending” gif. I merely placed them together to show the objective absurdity of deleting the one while allowing the other. I didn’t use traditional quoting for my poast because I didn’t want to embarrass the poaster (anymore than he has done to himself over the past few days) or imply that I wanted any direct action taken against him for his poast. As much as I might chide him for his particular quirks, he’s actually one of my favorite poasters on the board; he’s quite the character and there are tinges of brilliance in his saner moments. If you notice, after his breakdown became obvious, I didn’t continue to interact with him. But…he is still poasting and this is supposedly an open board; I’m sure our paths will cross again. Prior to that potential happening (or a similar potential interaction) and with this instance as a backdrop, I think it’s fair to ask if all poasts will be afforded the same leeway by you, the moderator.
Look, I’ve been called plenty of names on this board: Nazi, racist, cunt, fuckface, jerk, whatever ... none of that bothers me. I don’t put folks on ignore and I don’t whine to you or Rock about any of it. So please know this isn’t a call to ban others, increase bannings or moderation of others, or anything of the sort. I’ve consistently argued for a wide-open and free-wheeling forum where as many opinions can be expressed and heard as possible. I could do without seeing yet another Aaron Rupar X post
but I’d argue for your right to be able to poast it in a heartbeat. Until this, I thought you might have agreed with that sentiment.
This is silly in some ways. It is just a poast. It is just a message board. I get all of that. That said, I have supported this site regularly in small sums since its inception because I saw its potential as a place to actually have unfiltered conversations with some folks who might not agree on everything but might have some common life experience (Carolina). I don’t want to support yet another site that eventually devolves into a left-of-center-or-else haven moderated by someone who can’t get beyond her own biases to make objective decisions, even in particularly stressful times. Hence my questions to you…do you think, in this particular instance, you made a good/fair decision? If so, do you think that the gif you deleted was more or less likely to move things toward “getting out of hand” than the “lyrical death wish” poast and why? If not, do you think this was a one-off mistake or do you think you will be susceptible to doing the same in the future? Im not judging you as a person, we’re all human. I’d just like your honest response(s) so that I can make decisions on what I choose to support with either my time or my money. Fair?
