Replies

1. Moderating should be done fairly. IE, when a moderator's pet baits people, and they finally respond in kind, either both people should be punished, or neither should be punished.

2. Messages (and threads) should not be pulled simply because a moderator doesn't like the opinion expressed (such as innocence or guilt of a defendant), or because the moderator's friends did not like the opinions expressed. (We're not talking state secrets and major political opinions here--we're talking about a non-political subject!)

3. The smokey backroom should be as Jim wrote of it--a place where people can, if needed, duke it out (within reason). It's not. It's moderated as heavily as any other part of the forum, see #1 & #2.

In one instance, someone responded to a MP's "wink wink" comment with "Is something in your eye?" and the post got pulled. Where's the liberal, racist, obscene language in that post? In another, someone said "bite me;" an MP responded "screw you." "Bite me" got removed; to my best knowledge, "screw you" is still there.

That's not moderating. That's just wielding power because they want to, and because they can. And that is what I'm objecting to. I have no qualms about removing the bad language, the racist posts, the threatening posts, and the garbage from the liberal trolls. None whatever. This other stuff, though...(shaking head)...

Well said, Miz. If all actions are as close to even-handed and across the board as possible, there is really nothing to complain about.

Inconsistency rarely accomplishes a goal and it didn't here. If nothing else comes of this "airing", I hope that there is less of a double standard/special treatment atmosphere. I have some doubts, given some of the things stated within this thread, but I am an optimist and always have hope.

After all, the donations come from all corners. I doubt the privileged are the only ones that give.

I agree that moderating should be done fairly. But you lost me after that first sentence--the moderator's "pet" and all that. It sounds to me like you're pining for a certain banned FReeper, who I think deserved to be banned and should never be let back on. You would have had to pay me good money to moderate those DW threads--nastiness on both sides and both sides so caught up in that trial that they started to lose touch with reality.

How about starting from today and moving forward? Let the past go. Jim Robinson already said he was going to make changes, so it does no good to keep going over the past over and over and over. Just give him a chance to see if the changes suit you or not.