frugi said:
DB -
It is perhaps somewhat ironic that you feel Socrates was given special privileges in the "Journey to the Basement" thread when you enjoy a similar freedom in your private forum. In both cases the rules pertaining to the thread / forum are clearly stated and those that do not wish to abide by them are free to post elsewhere on the site. You moderate your forum very tightly and I imagine you do so for precisely the same reasons that we chose to moderate the Basement thread very tightly. (Actually I wasn't a mod then, but I understood exactly why the decision was taken at the time.)
Granted, you can't ban people, but surely you can see the similarity of objective?
Everyone -
It seems to me that the main thrust of the accusations of "moderator bias" is that Socrates enjoys a greater freedom of speech than other members. At any rate, this is the only possible interpretation of the accusation to which I am prepared to give any attention, although I do not agree with it.
But, it may be the case that we have overlooked some posts which transgress our guidelines. In fact almost certainly that will be the case, as we simply do not have the time to read every single post.
Also , if the "report post" button is not used we will have no idea that a certain post has caused offence. Yet, much later, accusations flood in of offensive posts remaining undeleted.
It is quite possible that some posts of this nature may have been penned by Socrates. So I invite those that are concerned that Socrates enjoys special posting privileges to find any of his posts that they feel transgress our site guidelines, or indeed common decency, and post the links to them here. If we agree they will be deleted. Is this fair? (cue accusations of a sudden shift to an anti-Socrates bias due to an unexpected swing in the hidden agenda. 🙂 )
Frugi, I don't share your sense of irony in this. A private forum is just that. A public thread is something else entirely. Surely you understand the difference. In any case, the Site Guidelines apply regardless of the venue, and abuse is abuse. Whether it goes on in private or in public is irrelevant to whether or not the guidelines are being observed. If Socrates wants to initiate a private forum in which he abuses all comers freely and there are those who welcome that sort of thing and the moderators are willing to let it all hang out, then I wish happiness to everyone involved. This is not nearly the same thing, however, as posting to a public thread, then being attacked by someone who is uncontrolled.
Unless I am mistaken, no one who opens a thread is given special privileges, except, of course, Albert. If the moderators were required to moderate Albert's thread "tightly", shouldn't that have been a clue? Were there no Site Guidelines then? If so, and members could be banned for "rudeness" (or whatever), why couldn't the originator of the thread be banned for same?
As for providing examples of posts, you must have enough after all this time. If you don't, and you truly believe that you don't know what any of us are talking about, then I suggest that we all have lives, just as you do, and almost any means of spending one's evening has to be better than devoting it to creating an Albert Scrapbook. If you're interested in posts, review the 220+ right here. If you find all of Albert's posts acceptable, then we will all have a clearer understanding of the current standard. As for reporting more, I've reported and reported, yet little or nothing is done (and then only by jon). Forgive me if I suspect that these reports end up in the same place as those little Customer Feedback cards that one finds in hotel rooms.
If you continue to insist that everyone who objects to Albert's behavior is misguided, then there's really no point in continuing the exchange, is there?
--Db
A final note before I move on from this. Whether the moderators truly don't know what everybody is talking about or know what everybody is talking about but disagree with it or know what everybody is talking about and agree with it but don't know what to do about it is only a tangential issue. A lot of people seem to be upset about what they perceive to be inconsistent and inequitable application of the Site Guidelines. Whether their perceptions are "correct" or not is immaterial. They have them. I suggest that someone at least ask why they have them. At the very least, perhaps the members and moderators won't then be on opposite sides and can work toward some solution that makes t2w a better site.