Forum Retaliatory Rudeness and the 7 Levels of Ehell

[TheBardess]

I will post in this thread one last time, reason being something happened IRL today and I'm a bit upset by that.

  Hope everything is okay with you, cass.

[kingsrings]

I haven't noticed any favoritism, but I have noticed unequal moderation. Certain things resulting in gagging or ban, while others things that seem just as bad only get a warning. I know this is all subjective though.

[kingsrings]

Perhaps I don't spend enough time on eHell or perhaps it's my general cluelessness but I haven't noticed any particular favouritism. I actually felt as though the 'dogpiling' trend has decreased a little lately. I was nervous to post for a while there but IME it had settled down a bit, so perhaps it just depends on the particular threads you are following at any time.

I will say that I have been surprised by how vehemently and bluntly some people will express themselves here. On occassion I have seen people saying things to others that I would consider frankly insulting IRL. However I don't think it is reasonable to expect the mods to read every single post on every single thread so I've always just assumed that perhaps the insultee didn't care enough to report it.

One final point - I know that I am probably more likely to interperet an ambiguous post as benign if it is posted by someone that I have seen many posts from and that in my experience is usually a polite and respectful poster. So perhaps the mods are the same - if they've seen someone post for 5 years and they have no history of rudeness they may be more likely to dismiss a post as an aberration, whereas if it is your second post ever...

Not saying that's the case. Just an idea.

ITA. Some posters just seem to always find just about everything negative or insulting in some way, and they don't hold back on expressing that, esp. in a blunt way. That is why I wish there was an ignore button!

[kingsrings]

Given how the threads have been going and how frequently they're being locked or they disappear, never mind the increased level of snarkiness and, even, people getting chastised on the Hugs board, I've pretty much decided against starting threads of my own anymore.  It's just not worth the risk of dealing with the weirdness of late.

I'll agree with the chastisements on the Hugs board. It's one thing if the person asks for advice, but the Hugs board is not really the place to tell an OP that they're doing their whole life wrong. I wish more people would ignore Hugs posts that annoy them.

ITA. It's called "Hugs" for a reason, and that is not to chastise others. It would be called something else if that was what it was for! I've seen too many instances, and even encountered some myself, of people going there to get a hug and instead being chastised and worse. It's not the place for that. If you feel like doing that instead of giving them a hug, then decline to participate.

[kingsrings]

I have definitely noticed that posters who call out rude behavior by another poster are far more likely to be mod-smacked than the people actually having committed the rude act. Any discussion of how the OP's behavior could have been lacking results in the same.
I hope LaciGirl was addressed as well because the active ignoring of her inappropriate post essentially calling any who disagreed with her gluttonous sinners in favor of mod-smacking a much less offensive post by someone tired of the holier-than-though, ignorant attitude often displayed towards her personally and professionally by the same poster smacks like mod approval and favoratism.

I haven't seen the bolded, at all. I actually think that OPs can get piled on too much some of the time-I have also seen some justified calling out of people piling on an OP.

One of the recent posts where an OP got piled on, she had gone away from the computer for a while. Someone asked a question, she wasn't there to respond, so a bunch of other people piped up to repeat the same question for a couple of pages. She answered it when she got back online...and not in the way the pilers expected. I can understand asking once or twice about whether the OP's own behavior might have influenced the etiquette issue, but if they don't answer right away, it might not mean they're dodging the question. They may just not be popping onto eHell all day like some of us are (guilty as charged). 

Or maybe they're inacting Scritzy's Coke Rule, and shouldn't be dogpiled upon or criticized for not answering something someone's asked. They're just following the rules of the board, which is that if something offends or upsets you so much, enact the Coke Rule.

[Outdoor Girl]

I like 'Thread locked for moderator review', too.  If the thread can be salvaged, great, but if not, a further note to say locked for whatever reason is good, too.

I think some of the unevenness in moderating could be because there are several moderators and they're all people, too.  They have stuff going on IRL that could affect how they react to a particular comment.  I know I have days where a particular comment may hit me harder than other days.

And a thought for people as they report threads:  maybe try to report the post that caused a reactionary post and include the explanation:  This post (by poster A) was over the top and unfortunately caused a reactionary post by poster B.  And if you report the reactionary post, indicate the initiating post in your explanation.  What do you guys think?

[Ticia]

Okay, here's the thing. When we lock threads, we get criticized. If we don't lock threads, we get criticized. If we delete things... criticized. Don't delete things? Criticized. All the criticism is one reason we don't usually explain why we moderate things the way that we do. We can't please everyone all the time.

The mods are a very diverse group of individuals, also. A post that might not bother one mod might bug the living snarg out of another mod. We tend to go with the moderation of whoever feels the strongest, tempered with the opinions of the other mods thrown in.

I'd also like to emphasize that we mods are all volunteers. None of us get paid for what we do, and we do it in the time that we have. If you do have a problem with the way we moderate, a PM (Not a demanding PM, let me state, please) explaining your point of view, will be read and shared with the moderators and we'll see if we need to change the way we do things.

A thread "Calling out the moderators" for their actions is just never going to go over well, though.