Should we bring back a moderator team?

[Jersey Girl]

In the first version, you could get an entire thread jettisoned from Terrestrial to Telestial, by simply swearing in your posts. I am sure some posters took advantage of that, not that I would know. Now we have a word censor to handle the matter so swearing itself isn't a huge issue unless someone cuts loose in Celestial.

But yeah, the knock down drag out and call outs, belong in Telestial and Prison, or at least a new topic thread where mods can relocate them to those two forums.

Hardly anyone follows that protocol these days. Instead they derail the topical threads. I recently raised just that very issue in Paradise. It's a simple courtesy to the community, admin, and mods.

Posters can cut down on the need for moderation by simply following the rules and standards for each forum.

Not surprising. Make a rule and someone will devote time and effort to exploit it.

I have a different view of the swearing issue. The rule for Paradise is PG to PG-13. Using R rated language in Paradise breaks the general content rules.

in my opinion, unforced rules breed disrespect for the rules. in my opinion, either enforce the rule as written or write a swearing exceptions into the content rules. I’m happy either way. But having a rule but ignoring it because of an imperfect word censor undermines respect for the rules as a whole.

I can't disagree with any of the above. Just read through this thread and notice how many fairly regular posters here don't even know where the board rules are located! Instead you read comments like...I was under the impression, I thought...when the board rules are right there in every single forum on this board.

This board is hosted by Shades. We are his guests. It is a simple matter of courtesy to familiarize yourself with his house rules.

I mean, when you visit someone in their home don't you ask them "Would you like me to take off my shoes?" Same thing with this board, it's incumbent on every single poster here to learn the rules of this particular house.

The going round in circles with these new posters and the alts is ludicrous. If you can read, you know what to do. If you don't know what to do, you ask.

[Gadianton]

RE: Trolling.

Shades himself has been banned from pretty much every LDS board he's posted on because he is a highly skilled practitioner of the art of the "zinger" -- a quick, one line response that undermines his opponents position and causes his opponent psychological discomfort. For folks like me, this is great entertainment. However, for the pro-apologist venues, it's seen as trolling. I'm pretty sure Shades isn't against trolling on this forum.

Consider EA. EA is spoken of as a godlike moderator and board participant. However, EA once registered a sock-puppet on the previous forum called alightinthedarkness and trolled the crap out of me. He kinda made me look like a fool. I wouldn't say it was a bonding moment friendship-wise with EA, but I did learn something from it. Often, we get a narrow idea in our heads of what an ideological opponent is like and then when we see those positions taken on a forum, by golly it must be for real and now there is license for blasting with both barrels. Okay, I admit, in today's world with capital riots and people dying in hospitals rather than get a vaccine that they wouldn't have questioned prior to 2016, the online caricature might actually be the real deal. But you guys know what I mean.

The old board had a graphic on the home page with two participants calling each other names and saying, "yes, you can say that here". One of the board rules is to encourage board wars. There is no rule that says you have to be nice to each other, or respect each other, or even refrain from personal attacks; however, there are rules about derailings, graphic language and swear words and in general NSFW guidelines so a person can open their browser at work or at home with kids around and not have to regret it. I think shades also worries about balance of power -- apologists getting less leeway than critics, and right-leaning posters getting hampered worse than others, when the majority is left-leaning. Shades is spot-on with that concern.

However, the board is still primarily a free-speech forum, and it's never going to be a case of government handing out personal respect to A-Mike and Cultellus, or the political party they think is cool.

Where are you on the spectrum of substance and board drama? Do you know? It's been suggested to further granulate forums so that people can go where they are happy -- as LDS doctrine ultimately says of a person's fate. The problem is, people aren't always self-aware of what they want. People have never flocked to the Celestial forum, but it's there if you really, really need a super safe space.

Go back through your posting history. Take a large enough sample. Count how many posts you have posting on the substance of a topic aside from this board itself or the posters on this board. Only count that post if there's at least one response. Now count how many posts you have talking about the politics of this board, or which posters are behaving or not, and compare the two. That will tell you what you're looking for in a forum. So don't say that you want a forum with a ton of moderation if it's board drama that is primarily keeping you here. Because if we implement that, then Mormondiscussions will basically die.

[Dr Exiled]

Lem, that’s good to hear. Knowing Dr. Exiled, I expect it was an oversight. Yep, temple content is allowed only in Telestial and Prison.

Gentle reminders of the rules from the crowd does work, at least for me.

[Gadianton]

posting a picture of temple robes in the Terrestrial Forum

thanks for mentioning this. In Shades' relative absence, I'll try to spot this kind of stuff also. In Shades' wisdom he put certain rules in place to keep a fight a fair fight. As Res mentioned, the guy who posted that is a first-rate individual and it looked like he self-edited when the matter had been pointed out to him.

[Shulem]

Lem, that’s good to hear. Knowing Dr. Exiled, I expect it was an oversight. Yep, temple content is allowed only in Telestial and Prison.

I believe it was an oversight and the photo was promptly removed as requested.

[Dr Exiled]

I voted yes because I like the way this board is set up. It would be nice to see people keep the rules in the Forums because everyone has a place to be in a comfortable environment.

I was very offended by Dr. Exiled posting a picture of temple robes in the Terrestrial Forum. I come here for conversation not for people to be rude and set out to make fun of the most sacred things in another person's religion. Maybe there would be fewer things like that popping up here if more moderators were on the job.

Sorry for offending you. I get carried away with my personal feelings at times about the church. However, I don't wish to push someone away due to my personal beliefs and took the offending content down when reminded about it by other posters. Reminders from other posters works. I hope this doesn't make you wish to go elsewhere and perhaps I could learn something from your future comments even though I still have certain raw feelings for the church.

[Sledge]

Sorry for offending you. I get carried away with my personal feelings at times about the church.

The sign of non moderator material.

My posts are generally void of emotion.

[Gadianton]

Epistle to Cultellus:

This will be my last post on this thread for a while so it doesn't come across as an insurrection followed by endless speeches from the new regime. We await the triumphant return of Shades, and if he is displeased with what's gone on here, I will voluntarily withdraw from the board entirely for a while as punishment.

But there is one last thing. Cultellus has followed me around calling me a "bigot" and screaming about my unfitness to moderate and so on. As he's been doing this, I've been in a major shop cleanup where I'm getting rid of lots of dust, cobwebs, and other things I wasn't aware of, but a family member recently brought to my attention. Last night, I had some red marks on my skin, and I assume I'd been bitten by something, maybe a flea?

Personally, tiny insect bites and insults from Cultellus are perfectly fine with me. Like my shop, it comes with the territory and I don't mind it. Have at it. I know I'm a sucker for board drama so it comes with the territory.

I do need to point out something though. Your voice here has zero credibility. Nobody cares what you want. The closest you've approached to substance that I can see, is arguing that the Covid vaccines have zero-percent effectiveness and then citing sources that contradict everything you claim. That's you at your best. Obviously, you're intelligent enough that either you're just trolling (which is allowed) or totally brainwashed. From there, most of your 1000 posts are tone trolling, board nannying, melting down over Doc Cam (who isn't breaking rules from what I can tell), using the 'F' word profusely, direct name calling like crazy, and mainly just being a pest. You've gone fully unchecked except a single post I deleted yesterday. Barely a member for a couple of weeks, and you've also threatened a lawsuit against the board because people don't just up and make you happy. A-Mike has gone way overboard with language and spam and whatever else, but, A-Mike does have a handful of posts where he really was trying to get his point across in a normal way, about a subject aside from the forum, and it was an actual discussion.

You can spend the next 10,000 posts calling for civility on your terms and fairness and you may be allowed to do so, maybe not, I don't know yet. For now, yes. But, your demands have no credibility. Nobody wants to make you happy. Nobody cares about your idea of justice. I'm pretty sure Shades don't either, or he won't after I've explained a few things that he might not know about.

You might want to look into being less of a snowflake if your best ideas in life are really so unhinged.

And to all else, in the spirit of Shades, please remember the "ignore" feature. I use this feature myself. There are also some filters that can be set up that will give you better coverage against blocking posters you don't want to see. I'll try to test that stuff out and get a tutorial up, if it's worth doing. A week or so.

[Dr Exiled]

Sorry for offending you. I get carried away with my personal feelings at times about the church.

The sign of non moderator material.

My posts are generally void of emotion.

Maybe you need some time to get in touch with your emotions? I have a hard time thinking you post here due to a lack of emotion. It's with everyone. We aren't computers/automatons.

[Sledge]

The choice is clear. Sledge for moderator.

Here’s my moderator resume:

- Pro-vaccine, pro-Biden leftie
- I have (and do) act as a moderator on more than one large subreddit as well as—in the past—some large independent forums. 7 years experience in total. (Don’t ask which ones, please. I don’t want to be doxxed.)
- I have a low stress (but low paying, lol) job that allows me to really get involved in the online communities I love.

Give me a 90 day trial.