New Mods - a *tad* overzealous?

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There is another moderator criticism thread?

I wonder if I could still edit the title of this one, this pruney offtopic seems way more popular

No, it's not. This is just a dream. You're in a coma and need to wake up or else the doctors are going to euthanize you because they're running out of hospital beds and your insurance has ran out.

NHS, yeah baby

well, the pink cricket bat was cute, in its way.


I once laughed uproariously when my German friend explained a social situation where one person passes gas is supposed to admit to the deed immediately or paranoia would over come the group and they would leave the social situation due to lack of trust. I thought she was joking, however, and had a great belly laugh over it. My German friend was mortified at my behavior had me know in no uncertain terms she was not amusing me, but giving me social guidance.

You guys crack me up.

For lack of a better place to put it, and having had some upsetting conversations and reads this AM, here are some of my personal feelings on moderation, in general:

1) Each team has the right to develop their own tone. The rules are not black and white, no matter how good some people are at reading them that way, it is always open to interpretation. As good as consistent enforcement would be, that is impossible given the turn over with mods. Since all moderators are volunteers, you let them do it their way and hope for the best. That is a golden rule of volunteerism; it has to allow for individuals to leave their own mark.

2) Every person accepting the position holds the intent of serving this site, and accepts because of the good things that happen here. Nothing good or bad that happens after they take the job changes that this was the original driving factor.

3) All moderators are human and sometimes their emotions get the better of them. As long as everyone agrees that most (non-spammer) bans are temporary (even if not expressly stated, since how much time any one person needs off is an open question), any problems arising from that should iron out in the long run. Really good reason to allow most banned members another shot eventually.

4) Even though the site is dependent on Alex for certain functions, the site is not Alex. It is a community that has taken on a life of it's own and that community is worth protecting. Harming the community over a grievance with Alex or even the current moderation team is counter productive.

5) I have watched moderation decisions I admire, and ones I strongly disagree with. But having sat in those shoes, I know that perfect decisions are not possible. All that is left is to respect the decisions as made and do your personal best to keep this place the valuable resource it is for so many seeking answers on AS. And that it is: an extremely valuable resource.