iPoop said...
When each of us signed up to this forum, we agreed to participate in a moderated forum and agree to abide to a listed set of forum rules. Mods do our best to keep things civil, ensure the rules are followed, and occasionally that might mean someone's thread might get edited, deleted, or locked. There's times when a poster might get particularly emotional or passionate about an issue and might get carried away (happens to the best of us, sometimes, and no worries)! I understand not everyone agrees with each and every decision a moderator takes (especially if it was my/your post that was edited, deleted, etc.). I get it that nobody likes Mods and perhaps the common perception is that we're all just bad cops, biased, power-mad, or whatever in most people's eyes.
Reality is it is much more measured, often mods talk amongst ourselves and decide before acting (to make sure it's a fair response) and it's not always easy decisions. There's more going on behind the scenes than most see. We try and treat everyone fairly (even if it might feel unfair your post was intervened in). We cannot possibly catch every instance of rudeness or subtle personal slight given amongst posters. What we do is catch the ones that are reported to us as problems, those posts that standout as the worst, follow repeat patterns of users breaking rules, and the like.
The mission is to be family-friendly, helpful, and to enable everyone to feel comfortable about asking any question without fear of being attacked/flamed (we talk about pooping our pants, and other embarrassing things here so being comfortable is key). Getting permanently banned is pretty rare here (unless you're a blatant spammer or selling your products here), most are given second, or even third chances after a cool-down period. I believe the overall atmosphere is fair, and mod interventions are pretty rare these days.
There's been a few times when Peter (admin) helicopters in and locks threads without telling anyone; no notes, no messages, no nothing. The mods unlock and then he comes back and locks again or deletes (he'll probably do it to this thread too). It's very silly, frustrating and unprofessional. Seems like the admin has cut out the mods and doesn't communicate; what would he do if there were no mods or the mods went on strike? It seems like he is taking the mods for granted.
My point about
banning established members is that it leads to less traffic, posts, and interactions. It all has a cumulative effect.