i see the ghosts of moderators

rahvin

keeper of the flame
Oct 10, 2001
17,571
245
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safe but not far from the city
[it's been months since i wanted to rewrite the lyrics to that iron maiden song. but this is not the topic of this thread. move along. nothing to see here]

ultimatemetal has changed owner, and i feel that there is a request moderators from some board might want to make to the new boss.

up until this very day, forum mods cannot ban users from the board they're administering. this has/had to pass through the rather tedious process of "writing a pm to mark and hope he would get online soon". this situation has made more than a moderator uncomfortable, because what do you do exactly when trolls from the nether world are spamming left and right all nite, you have three exams to take, or fifty pages of paperwork to write (or a date. but let's keep this in the realm of reality for a while), and mark is sunbathing half a world away?

as some of you might remember, yours truly only asked for the banning of two users (at the same time). mark replied and acted according to my request in a matter of hours, so i never got to feel the unnerving sensation of not being the master at my own place.
still, i know of others who have been left waiting, who are still waiting in some cases. so what i mean to do is ask the new owner of the site and the forums to grant single-board moderators the powers to ban users from the forum they administrate.

it seems to me to be a rather fair request: in the case of band boards, for instance, the mods are obviously trusted by the band, and if they're half insane and go on a banning-spree because it's their bad day, well, it's the band's problem. not to mention that you all know what i do on my bad days: i run crying to busy friends.

it seems extremely unlikely as of now to ever find myself in a situation where i have to ban someone. this community is so protective of its own members and integrity, that it's far more likely i'd have to save the occasional troll from public lynching, should any come here. plus i'm online quite often, and deleting posts is usually a sufficient deterrent for anybody with a life. yet this issue seems - if not important - at least appropriate to take into consideration at this very moment of transition between the old and the new.

i'd like to hear the opinion of other mods (lina and magsec mainly, and also xenophobe if he ever happens to drop by) and that of the users as well: do you trust this forum's administrators and those of other bands you visit often not to ban you for stupid shit? please bear in mind that the asking/receiving process so far has been more or less automatic unless the moderator asking was clearly on a crusade or had suddenly become a basketcase, so it's highly likely that nothing much will change even if such "powers" are finally bestowed upon the likes of me and the rest.
 
Caelestia said:
I can't see him banning you, Koichiku.
in fact i do hope the 2 boards he's referring to are this one and the sot forum. i certainly wouldn't dream of banning any user like koich, but i think this is pretty evident.

edit: and his point is quite valid. obviously the privilege would be granted to every mod. if you're visiting a board whose mod you deem very strict and likely to ban you - whereas on here, for instance, what you do is ok - then you have good reasons to be against this new powers. still, it's possible that some mods who are seemingly against you could ban you anyway by simply asking.
 
rahvin said:
in fact i do hope the 2 boards he's referring to are this one and the sot forum. i certainly wouldn't dream of banning any user like koich, but i think this is pretty evident.

edit: and his point is quite valid. obviously the privilege would be granted to every mod. if you're visiting a board whose mod you deem very strict and likely to ban you - whereas on here, for instance, what you do is ok - then you have good reasons to be against this new powers. still, it's possible that some mods who are seemingly against you could ban you anyway by simply asking.

No offence Rahvin, I was talking about SOT and Maiden Downunder, both of which are basically unmoderated.

If the situation arose, and someone pissed me off here, you'd at least delete my posts, right?
 
Koich said:
If the situation arose, and someone pissed me off here, you'd at least delete my posts, right?
well, no. the only things i might end up deleting are blatant, manifest racist or exceedingly vulgar remarks that are not a joke or stuff that makes the board hard to browse. i never deleted anything else aside from obvious mistakes.
so if you start insulting someone, even in a harsh way, i'm not going to intervene in any way - except maybe by expressing my opinion. so i think you're pretty safe here unless you intend to start fifty threads within ten minutes or something equally unfunny.
 
Why is Italy shaped like a boot?




































Do you think you can fit all that shit in a shoe?










Ban me Rahvin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
 
@koich: you never struck me as the type who posts a "i wanna burn my pals" thread. of course if you do i'll remove it - for reasons i've explained before and you've certainly read already - but it's not the end of the world, and unless you really can't do anything else but that (and we know you can) i wouldn't ban you anyway. however, this is clearly a moot point, don't you think?

@arch: your observation skills in attributing me any sort of patriotic feeling are pathetically low, i hope you know that. :p
 
rahvin is too polite to mention it, but I'm the one who's had nothing but frustration trying to get Profanity banned from SOT. And I feel like ranting, so... :p

Mark granted xenophobe's request to ban him from Chat, yet has ignored my repeated requests, as well as my insistence that he at least give me an explanation. I made a thread announcing this on my board, because the many members who've questioned me privately as to why he hasn't been banned deserved an answer. Russell came along and deleted that sticky and told me Mark is on holiday in Australia...where they apparently don't have computers...?

Throw in a bit of suspicion that Mark knows Profanity personally -- quite personally indeed -- and we've got a scandal! Or, at the very least, an unprofessional admin and a loyal set of lackeys.

I'm obviously all for asking Deron for this ability. But at this point, I have no idea how autonomous (or responsive) he'll be. :erk:

Anyway, it should go without saying that I would use this power very sparingly -- Profanity and Iron Flames are the only two I've ever wanted to ban. (And Mark did ban IF). I wouldn't ban people like Koich or MightyA or many of the others who do, indeed, elicit complaints from others. Yes, they flame and even torment some other members, but that's usually the result of provocation or a silly disposition on the part of the "victim." And more importantly, it can be taken in context. You expect abrasive posts from them, so people read them, possibly giggle, and move on. A member should be banned when he becomes a disruption to the board. Even this isn't necessarily Profanity's fault: Many members stupidly feel the need to respond to his every non-response, on and on. But regardless who's involved, he is the cause. And it interrupts the flow of conversation; one can't just put him on ignore.

I'm no doubt pleading my case on the wrong board. I just want there to be a record somewhere of my frustration, and this seemed like an appropriate time.
 
i didn't pay much attention to the thread, as i giggled for about ten minutes after reading its title. but yeah, you can ban me anytime, if that's what you were asking. :D
 
Lina said:
I'm obviously all for asking Deron for this ability. But at this point, I have no idea how autonomous (or responsive) he'll be. :erk:
i don't know, but the idea of a whole congregation of figureheads for mark sounds like a conspiracy theory. i do hope this new guy is a separate entity, unaffected by asperger's syndrome, amongst other illnesses.


Yes, they flame and even torment some other members, but that's usually the result of provocation or a silly disposition on the part of the "victim." And more importantly, it can be taken in context. You expect abrasive posts from them, so people read them, possibly giggle, and move on. A member should be banned when he becomes a disruption to the board.
i agree with the above, and stick to very similar standards.


I'm no doubt pleading my case on the wrong board.
goddammit if there ever was a board for, err, pleading one's case, that's the dark tranquillity forum! *punches table vehemently*