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I think the funniest thing was the spam checker stuff. I wish I had paid more attention to what mine actually said when I posted. Any chance the admins could post a list of them just to see?
Important Nontrad Forum Announcement--Please Read!
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I had a strange feeling something was up because longshanks is going to med school and I couldn't see how the personality on display yesterday would get through an interview.
It was a pretty good joke.
It was a pretty good joke.
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That. Was a great joke. I fell for it.Although I would have enjoyed the controversy of an Ed regime. We would be having some good discussions. But people need this to be informative. So perverse desire for it as entertainment is selfish.
Bringing mrslongshanks into it was brilliant. You cold SOB's.
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Thanks for the one and only April Fool's joke played on me. That was worth it! Good job! My emotions ran the gamut, from sadness that Q was leaving, to surprise that Ed was named asst moderator, to annoyance at his comments, to feeling sorry people were picking on him, back to annoyance, and on to outrage of vc7777's banning and lastly to relief it was all a joke. Well done. Well done.
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Someone who gives people the benefit of the doubt. Thank you.
Edit: it also makes you someone without obvious liberal hot-buttons, because I pushed every one that I knew about.
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Those were really good. I especially like the "If you're going to be like that, you'll never be a good doctor." Which is Q's corollary to Godwin's Law. As threads become longer on SDN, the likelihood of someone being told that their post is evidence of a future failure as a physician approaches 1.
Wow. You are serious.
No offense, but if you wanted some of us to not participate, then you've made a great suggestion. If Ed could be as even-handed, dispassionate, humble, and gracious as you have been then fine. I, however, respectfully disagree with your last statement, but it seems that it is what it is.
Below is a true saying, and the second quote is something too many of us have had to learn the hard way.
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
It is in particular b/c of the truth in these statements that I'm disappointed in the choice for replacement. I am certain I'm not alone in this. Enough said on that.
Goodbye to the nontrads thread, and hello to oldpremeds.com for nontrad support. The moderators there are very evenhanded and tolerate absolutely no nonsense, and neither do they contribute to it. The result is that it's more of a true community feel and supportive place for interaction for nontrad concerns and issues.
Sorry to see you go Q. You've done an excellent job here. In agreeing or disagreeing or anywhere in-between, you've been pretty darn cool. You've consistently tried to be balanced and understanding, and you have managed to be nonjudgmental without taking a harsh or intemperate critical spirit, and often you have stepped back and made it about others and the topic at hand.
I wish you the absolute best in the future. Seriously.
I've seen plenty of unfounded banning at message boards over the years. Politics ends up being politics. I have disagreed w/ some way unfair decisions here, and I've been on board when the ban decisions were clear and right. People have gotten wrong and unfair warnings and suspensions here--all b/c people complained in unfair mobs over something that came totally down to opinion, and nothing more, period. No offensive language or revealing of personal information or anything that was in any way truly harassment or trolling. Sometimes those words are just out and out wrong and unfair. What are you going to do about it? Nothing. . .unless you own the site. At the end of the day, if the mat is put down for certain people in certain rolls, they can do whatever they feel like and call it whatever they want, period.
This is like real life. This is like at-will-employment. You can axe someone b/c you don't like their voice tone or hair color or cleavage or whatever. At the end, you get some folks to stand with you, politically speaking, and then they all call it whatever they want to call it. This kind of things happens many times every single day at work, on message boards, in all kinds of human interactions.
It's all about making a partiuclar perception seem as really and getting the right people to support you in the effort. You think most people always work by way of fairness principles? Think again.
Capricious antics is often the end of fairness and freedom. And it's a spirit and community killer.
Banning or any listed offense should meet strict, non-capricious criteria, but it often doesn't work that way in real life. Sad but true. The hardest thing for someone to learn when he or she is growing up is that life often in unfair. Live long enough and you'll see it.
OK, and I guess I never really got why ass is considered a "bad" word. How is it different from butt or bottom or buttocks, backside, bum, buns, fundament, hindquarters, hind end, posterior, rear, rear end, rump, stern, seat, tail, or my all time fav, tukus. What does slang terms better than Yiddish? It's like the sh word for poop. At the end of the day, it is what it is. . .poop, feces, who cares. It is what it is. This is one of those things where we should apply "What's in a name?"
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Sorry to hear about your mom, jl lin. Best wishes on a speedy recovery.
That said, I have been waiting on you, in particular, to see this thread and to watch your head explode about ed being made a mod
Glad you got to experience the head explosion regardless of the day-latedness of it Sorry to hear about your mom, jl lin. Best wishes on a speedy recovery.
That said, I have been waiting on you, in particular, to see this thread and to watch your head explode about ed being made a mod
Yea. Thanks. It felt a little like watching something scary come to power. I was like, wow. First Japan, now this. jk
It's usually OP that end up getting it, but now I've finally been punk'd.
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1) Please note I was somewhat playing along with the crowd when I wrote those messages. I wasn't in on the joke, but having been on these forums for a number of years, I can feel it's pulse pretty well. I cross-correlated the events going on in Pre-allo with the events going on here, the fact that it was April 1st, and put two-and-two together. I also knew that, in general, Asst. Moderators, do not have the power to ban. I saw the number of "new" members posting on these threads, too, displaying trollish behavior. Given all that, there was a high probability that the events going on in the forum were in jest. However, I wasn't completely sure because it was actually plausible that Q was resigning.
2) I've worked these forums as a moderator in the past. I kinda know how things roll. As far as forums go, my experience is that SDN tries to be as fair as possible and attempts to uphold the TOS in making decisions to discipline. I stand by my statement that banning does not occur arbitrarily on SDN. It is not transparent to most members, but decisions of this nature are discussed, reviewed, and decided on by lots of moderators, before action is taken, unless it is completely obvious that the member is a troll or spammer. Just like any governance document, the SDN TOS is subject to interpretation (and the faults of human nature), and not all members may agree with the interpretation or the contents of the TOS. There are certainly controversial and difficult decisions that lie in the grey zone, and decisions where the spirit and good of the forum must be considered. Just like medicine, moderating is not a perfect science, there is an art to it, and some of it is a judgment call that not everyone is going to agree with. While sometimes it may seem like banning or disciplinary action is taken arbitrarily, but that is because the whole picture isn't available. The thing is, I do think that SDN does a great job, regardless. It's not perfect, but it strives to be fair as reasonably possible.
3) I do not think the world is fair, but I am also not jaded. I am open to learning and try to listen as clearly as possible. I'm a non-trad, just like many here. I have at least 10 years on most of my colleagues, if not more. My life certainly has not depended on the world being fair. I've work through a lot of adversity to get to where I am. So, no, I don't care to think of the world as being fair, but I also think that it is not inherently unfair.
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I hear ya. But honestly, I know of > a few situations were folks were discipline precipitously and unfairly--and one person didn't even take the extreme opposite position that people thought--actually agreed more than they realized. One in particular isn't worth combing through, b/c, well, life is short, and we all have a ton of stuff going on in our lives.
I do think SDN is better than many others. One board in particular is a nursing MB, and the banning from a few moderators has been disgusting. You really can't interact on boards like that, except to get base information and then move on.
I do feel that Oldpremeds has a clear and evenhanded approach. There just isn't the nonsense. Moderation doesn't take sides, and frankly they don't seem to care about taking sides. They just want the board to be supportive and run smoothly. I respect that.
Sorry to hear that.
Thanks for that. I'm part of the sandwich generation, and my parents have had problems at relatively young ages. That compounds the roll of the hardness in the job of motherhood--that and having their ages spread out while working and teaching your own kids. I've loved many aspects of the latter, but given all the things that have gone down in my family, I am not sure if I would do it again. You can only spread yourself so thing, and then there is nothing left.
So people like me come to interesting boards like this to learn and share and to take a break from the craziness of life.
I feel so punk'd right now.
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Q and Ed, well done. 
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Phew! Coming back from the dead is HARD!
Q and Ed (and Pons) - Well played! I fell for it early in the day too.
...And thank you everyone...It's like a glimpse of your own (virtual) funeral. It was interesting to watch. Also, for those of you who think you can still enjoy SDN post ban-inducing trollish behavior - not as easy as you probably think.
I should have known better too - one of my classmates had their neighbor break in, put food coloring into the shower head, and replaced his deodorant with sculpted cream cheese Yeah, that's how we roll in Cleveland.
Q and Ed (and Pons) - Well played! I fell for it early in the day too.
...And thank you everyone...It's like a glimpse of your own (virtual) funeral. It was interesting to watch. Also, for those of you who think you can still enjoy SDN post ban-inducing trollish behavior - not as easy as you probably think.
I should have known better too - one of my classmates had their neighbor break in, put food coloring into the shower head, and replaced his deodorant with sculpted cream cheese
Yeah, that's how we roll in Cleveland.
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Phew! Coming back from the dead is HARD!
Q and Ed (and Pons) - Well played! I fell for it early in the day too.
...And thank you everyone...It's like a glimpse of your own (virtual) funeral. It was interesting to watch. Also, for those of you who think you can still enjoy SDN post ban-inducing trollish behavior - not as easy as you probably think.
I should have known better too - one of my classmates had their neighbor break in, put food coloring into the shower head, and replaced his deodorant with sculpted cream cheese
Wait. Pons was in on this as well?! Nice. His "fear" is what got me thinkin this might be real. Damn it.
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The difficulty was finding something that could a reasonable person could believe would make me truly explode enough to ban a long-time and valuable member. Earning my mockery is easy, making me never want to see your name again is an entirely new level, surely that would take more than an hour or two.
But the Ed Muskie thing was a good solution. It sucked a few people in, anyway.
We also tried to play to the straw men that already existed. The caricature of Longshanks the destroyer of liberty, dreams, happiness, and all things Braveheart has been dutifully drawn here for some time by certain unnamed posters who I do not reply to anymore. Since the cartoon character existed, we might as well use it.
QofQuimica
Seriously, dude, I think you're overreacting....
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Heh, we had plenty of behind the scenes help, including Shy and Pons as well as vc and Ed. And evidently also some unofficial help from spicedmanna.
On a more serious note, I would like to address the issue of arbitrariness of modding on SDN, because some of you may be confused about our policies after the events of yesterday.
All of you are no doubt aware that SDN is a very large organization. We have tens of thousands of active users, and over 100 volunteers who help run the site, including moderating dozens of forums. These volunteers are organized in a four-tiered hierarchy, and are assigned to their areas based upon training status, interest, and site needs.
Assistant mods ("greenies") are the entry level staff members. Besides being responsible for washing the cars and mowing the lawns of the more senior mods (I kid, I kid!), they function as stewards of the forum to which they are assigned. This means that they facilitate discussions, help noobs find appropriate resources, report problems in the forum, and otherwise assist their area leads. Green mods do not *ever* discipline problem users, which means they do not infract or ban anyone. Thus, even if Ed had been a real green mod (which he wasn't at any time), he would not actually have been able to ban another user. In this case, vc7777 was one of Ed's accomplices. Having Ed "ban" him was vc's own idea, and he and Ed orchestrated their argument as part of the gag. But again, it was actually me who banned vc7777 behind the scenes. (For the record, the "infraction" that Ed gave toff was a spoof as well.)
Full mods ("reds") may serve as area leads or middle management, depending on the needs of the particular forum, while senior mods ("blues") usually serve as area leads. A large forum like Pre-Allo has multiple mods of each level, including more than one senior mod. However, a relatively small forum like this one does not require nearly as much oversight, and therefore it can be run by me and one or two greenies who assist me. Along with the site administrators, red and blue mods are also tasked with nominating new green mods and discussing promotion of current junior mods to more senior levels. We also help review and propose site policy, including the disciplinary policy. As the only Nontrad mod above an assistant level, again, I am the only mod in this forum who is able to infract or ban users for violating the SDN Terms of Service (TOS).
Concerning disciplining users for violations of the SDN TOS, I need to reiterate what spicedmanna said about much of the decision-making going on out of the public eye. Upon joining the SDN staff, all new mods sign a non-disclosure agreement that requires us, among other things, to respect member privacy. This includes not discussing disciplinary actions with any user besides the user who was disciplined. Thus, were I to actually ban vc7777, I would not be at liberty to discuss why or how this decision was reached with any of the rest of you. Please realize that when an infracted user chooses to air his/her side of the story in public or by PM, you are only getting one version of events, because we are not in a position to present our side of the story.
In addition, the SDN staff has a set policy that we follow when disciplining members. The only reasons why we would ban someone immediately are if they join the site in order to spam, or if they are banned as a troll and attempt to circumvent the ban by creating a new account. For the majority of users, the first TOS violation results in receiving a warning. In most cases, this resolves the problem and no further actions are taken. Users who continue to violate the TOS after multiple warnings/infractions may have their accounts put on post hold or probation, depending on the offense and their history of previous TOS violations. In a few cases, if we cannot work with the user to resolve the problem after multiple attempts, that user may be banned as a troll.
Please understand that this is a rare occurrence, and when it does happen, it is not a decision taken lightly, nor is it a decision made by one mod acting alone. In the event that I felt the need to ban one of you as a troll, I would discuss it first with the other senior staff, and we would come to a consensus. In addition, we have a policy of recusing ourselves if there is any potential conflict of interest. So, for example, I would not be the one to infract someone who had attacked me personally or otherwise seemed to have a problem with me, in order to prevent even the appearance of my having acted in retribution. The purpose of involving the other senior staff in difficult or serious cases is to keep the application of infractions (including bans) as fair and consistent as possible.
For the record, we do not *ever* condone mods going on a "power trip." SDN is a website for professionals and future professionals, and we take the issue of unprofessional behavior by staff members very seriously. There have been a few unfortunate situations where a mod repeatedly did not behave appropriately as a representative of SDN. In these cases (thankfully also very rare), the mod was removed from the staff.
Obviously, with so many staff members and so many personalities, it is impossible to have perfectly equal interpretation and enforcement of the TOS across all forums. Some mods take a stricter approach, and some (including me) take a more laissez faire approach. I really dislike having to infract people, especially for a heated discussion. I'd rather post an in-thread message asking people to please cool off a little, or close the thread. Since our forum is relatively small, and I have the chance to get to "know" those of you who are regulars, I feel comfortable asking you to please chill out a little rather than meting out infractions for every little tiff. The most common violation of TOS that I warn people about is cross-posting, and by far the most common thing I ban people for is spamming. So it's not like people are being banned or infracted on a regular basis for the occasional rumble here and there, and IMO, this more hands-off style works very well for our forum.
That being said, if any of you have problems with or questions about how the forums are run, you should feel free to ask. Again, I cannot discuss specifics of infractions against other users with anyone else besides the user who received the infraction. However, if you feel that you have been treated unfairly by me or by another mod, or if you have ideas about how this forum could be run better, I'm open to hearing your thoughts. Modding the Nontrad forum has been (and continues to be) a huge labor of love for me. But what this forum is, and what it can and will be, is what all of us together make it.
On a more serious note, I would like to address the issue of arbitrariness of modding on SDN, because some of you may be confused about our policies after the events of yesterday.
All of you are no doubt aware that SDN is a very large organization. We have tens of thousands of active users, and over 100 volunteers who help run the site, including moderating dozens of forums. These volunteers are organized in a four-tiered hierarchy, and are assigned to their areas based upon training status, interest, and site needs.
Assistant mods ("greenies") are the entry level staff members. Besides being responsible for washing the cars and mowing the lawns of the more senior mods (I kid, I kid!), they function as stewards of the forum to which they are assigned. This means that they facilitate discussions, help noobs find appropriate resources, report problems in the forum, and otherwise assist their area leads. Green mods do not *ever* discipline problem users, which means they do not infract or ban anyone. Thus, even if Ed had been a real green mod (which he wasn't at any time), he would not actually have been able to ban another user. In this case, vc7777 was one of Ed's accomplices. Having Ed "ban" him was vc's own idea, and he and Ed orchestrated their argument as part of the gag. But again, it was actually me who banned vc7777 behind the scenes. (For the record, the "infraction" that Ed gave toff was a spoof as well.)
Full mods ("reds") may serve as area leads or middle management, depending on the needs of the particular forum, while senior mods ("blues") usually serve as area leads. A large forum like Pre-Allo has multiple mods of each level, including more than one senior mod. However, a relatively small forum like this one does not require nearly as much oversight, and therefore it can be run by me and one or two greenies who assist me. Along with the site administrators, red and blue mods are also tasked with nominating new green mods and discussing promotion of current junior mods to more senior levels. We also help review and propose site policy, including the disciplinary policy. As the only Nontrad mod above an assistant level, again, I am the only mod in this forum who is able to infract or ban users for violating the SDN Terms of Service (TOS).
Concerning disciplining users for violations of the SDN TOS, I need to reiterate what spicedmanna said about much of the decision-making going on out of the public eye. Upon joining the SDN staff, all new mods sign a non-disclosure agreement that requires us, among other things, to respect member privacy. This includes not discussing disciplinary actions with any user besides the user who was disciplined. Thus, were I to actually ban vc7777, I would not be at liberty to discuss why or how this decision was reached with any of the rest of you. Please realize that when an infracted user chooses to air his/her side of the story in public or by PM, you are only getting one version of events, because we are not in a position to present our side of the story.
In addition, the SDN staff has a set policy that we follow when disciplining members. The only reasons why we would ban someone immediately are if they join the site in order to spam, or if they are banned as a troll and attempt to circumvent the ban by creating a new account. For the majority of users, the first TOS violation results in receiving a warning. In most cases, this resolves the problem and no further actions are taken. Users who continue to violate the TOS after multiple warnings/infractions may have their accounts put on post hold or probation, depending on the offense and their history of previous TOS violations. In a few cases, if we cannot work with the user to resolve the problem after multiple attempts, that user may be banned as a troll.
Please understand that this is a rare occurrence, and when it does happen, it is not a decision taken lightly, nor is it a decision made by one mod acting alone. In the event that I felt the need to ban one of you as a troll, I would discuss it first with the other senior staff, and we would come to a consensus. In addition, we have a policy of recusing ourselves if there is any potential conflict of interest. So, for example, I would not be the one to infract someone who had attacked me personally or otherwise seemed to have a problem with me, in order to prevent even the appearance of my having acted in retribution. The purpose of involving the other senior staff in difficult or serious cases is to keep the application of infractions (including bans) as fair and consistent as possible.
For the record, we do not *ever* condone mods going on a "power trip." SDN is a website for professionals and future professionals, and we take the issue of unprofessional behavior by staff members very seriously. There have been a few unfortunate situations where a mod repeatedly did not behave appropriately as a representative of SDN. In these cases (thankfully also very rare), the mod was removed from the staff.
Obviously, with so many staff members and so many personalities, it is impossible to have perfectly equal interpretation and enforcement of the TOS across all forums. Some mods take a stricter approach, and some (including me) take a more laissez faire approach. I really dislike having to infract people, especially for a heated discussion. I'd rather post an in-thread message asking people to please cool off a little, or close the thread. Since our forum is relatively small, and I have the chance to get to "know" those of you who are regulars, I feel comfortable asking you to please chill out a little rather than meting out infractions for every little tiff. The most common violation of TOS that I warn people about is cross-posting, and by far the most common thing I ban people for is spamming. So it's not like people are being banned or infracted on a regular basis for the occasional rumble here and there, and IMO, this more hands-off style works very well for our forum.
That being said, if any of you have problems with or questions about how the forums are run, you should feel free to ask. Again, I cannot discuss specifics of infractions against other users with anyone else besides the user who received the infraction. However, if you feel that you have been treated unfairly by me or by another mod, or if you have ideas about how this forum could be run better, I'm open to hearing your thoughts. Modding the Nontrad forum has been (and continues to be) a huge labor of love for me. But what this forum is, and what it can and will be, is what all of us together make it.
.
There have been a few totally erroneous and unfair "violation" warnings and such. What's more no apologies or corrections were issued. Sadly, they were allowed to stand.
I've seen people hit as "trolls" simply b/c they vociferously disagreed with others on some point or issue. That is beyond wrong, but it happens.
Mods are human and fallible too. We can get over it or not; nontheless, unfair and wrong is wrong. Sometimes an honest apology from a mod or two, and a, "you know we may have jumped the gun a bit," would go very far. Shows humility and a sense of humanity. Just b/c people complain does not mean that those people are fair or right in their take on the complaints. Group bullying behaviors go on that way. People can and do use the report post and complain buttons to control, manipulate, dominate, at times abuse, and then silence an opposing view. Not everyone believes in true freedom in speech within reasonable limits and including a general sense of respect. Still, it really has to be a glaring hot and true abuse of TOS before I hit that button. My own button is to put someone I deem as a stubborn, insensitive butthole on ignore. There are only a few people I have done this for.
Enough on that though.
Certain posts I can't see b/c of my choice to block. Some of theses "ignored" folks think they are reasonable to others, and in fact, it's just not so. Can't change them. Best thing to do is to use the ignore feature.
Regardless. Q, I am THRILLED you are still mod. You punk pretty good.
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There have been a few totally erroneous and unfair "violation" warnings and such. What's more no apologies or corrections were issued. Sadly, they were allowed to stand.
I've seen people hit as "trolls" simply b/c they vociferously disagreed with others on some point or issue. That is beyond wrong, but it happens.
Mods are human and fallible too. We can get over it or not; nontheless, unfair and wrong is wrong. Sometimes an honest apology from a mod or two, and a, "you know we may have jumped the gun a bit," would go very far. Shows humility and a sense of humanity. Just b/c people complain does not mean that those people are fair or right in their take on the complaints. Group bullying behaviors go on that way. People can and do use the report post and complain buttons to control, manipulate, dominate, at times abuse, and then silence an opposing view. Not everyone believes in true freedom in speech within reasonable limits and including a general sense of respect. Still, it really has to be a glaring hot and true abuse of TOS before I hit that button. My own button is to put someone I deem as a stubborn, insensitive butthole on ignore. There are only a few people I have done this for.
Enough on that though.
Certain posts I can't see b/c of my choice to block. Some of theses "ignored" folks think they are reasonable to others, and in fact, it's just not so. Can't change them. Best thing to do is to use the ignore feature.
Regardless. Q, I am THRILLED you are still mod. You punk pretty good.
jl lin,
I don't know which events you are referring to, and of course, I can't talk about it even if I did know. However, during my tenure as mod, I'm sure I've made a few mistakes. I've tried very hard not to let my personal feelings get in the way. As you noted, though, I am human and subject to mistakes and occasional bad judgement. I try to learn from my mistakes and do better. Mostly, my heart is in the right place, and that is toward the welfare and good of the forum and it's members. I know every mod here thinks the same way. I hereby apologize on behalf of my colleagues. Thank you for bringing up your opinions and thoughts. We take these things very seriously.
And you are right about the "ignore" feature. It is a good solution to many a problem.
lol!
come on guys. Even if this wasn't a joke, is it that serious?!
I feel like we were dealing with a possible declaration of war the way some people reacted.
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If this april fools joke were an event capturable on film, its' real internet home would be failblog.org.
jl lin,
I don't know which events you are referring to, and of course, I can't talk about it even if I did know. However, during my tenure as mod, I'm sure I've made a few mistakes. I've tried very hard not to let my personal feelings get in the way. As you noted, though, I am human and subject to mistakes and occasional bad judgement. I try to learn from my mistakes and do better. Mostly, my heart is in the right place, and that is toward the welfare and good of the forum and it's members. I know every mod here thinks the same way. I hereby apologize on behalf of my colleagues. Thank you for bringing up your opinions and thoughts. We take these things very seriously.
And you are right about the "ignore" feature. It is a good solution to many a problem.
spiced, you are right, and I believe your heart is in the right place. No worries. We are all human, and one thing I have learned is that humans are funny creatures. We are all affected by so much on any given day, week, month, year. Yes, I have to admit, I have had some bad years. When I was real young it would be bad days, weeks, or even months. What sucks sometimes about being a grown-up human is the direct realization that you can have even bad years. Usually the bad varies, but sometimes. . .well. . .
At any rate, like I said, no worries. By and large I believe that things do generally run pretty fairly here--especially for being a big site with so many forums. I think the mods can get hit hard by individuals on strong or controversial "discussions" that some of the complaining members may misunderstand or severely disagree--and they seek to silence the one with whom they disagree or misunderstand. I am sure it must bite for mods to get all those complaints. Sometimes we as humans can get worked up over something, and so we may go into lynch mob mode. So those situations in particular are what I am referring to--when members don't seek clarification and jump into lynch mode by way of the report button or using pms to the mods. So the mods can sometimes want to chill everyone out, or they may rarely pulled into something. And I think that is the key as mod--not to get pulled into the fray--stay dispassionate--focus on not taking sides--and that can be hard if you feel a particular way on something. Actually from what I've seen, Q, for example, seems pretty good at looking for the balance and staying out of the fray, while also holding true to her own stand on things. Not everyone can do that.
And Mcat is right too. No need to get real serious. It's enough to say that junk happens sometimes.
What's more, if I am going to be punked by someone, I am glad it was Q. I really have this feeling that Q is going to be a phenomenal physician. Call it intuition if you will.
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Wish I knew what all the fuss what about. Have mods been abusing their power in the past?
My comment about the "power trip" was a joke, as the trick was obviously over at that point. I can't say I knew anything about mods banning history, nor why one gets banned.
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I know that if I were ever in need of a physician in Q's specialty, I'd definitely look her up. (and that's saying something - because in general I hate doctors.)
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Agreed, Q is my kind of physician. Whoever got her for residency it lucky.
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Heh, we had plenty of behind the scenes help, including Shy and Pons as well as vc and Ed. And evidently also some unofficial help from spicedmanna.
On a more serious note, I would like to address the issue of arbitrariness of modding on SDN, because some of you may be confused about our policies after the events of yesterday.
All of you are no doubt aware that SDN is a very large organization. We have tens of thousands of active users, and over 100 volunteers who help run the site, including moderating dozens of forums. These volunteers are organized in a four-tiered hierarchy, and are assigned to their areas based upon training status, interest, and site needs.
Assistant mods ("greenies") are the entry level staff members. Besides being responsible for washing the cars and mowing the lawns of the more senior mods (I kid, I kid!), they function as stewards of the forum to which they are assigned. This means that they facilitate discussions, help noobs find appropriate resources, report problems in the forum, and otherwise assist their area leads. Green mods do not *ever* discipline problem users, which means they do not infract or ban anyone.
I knew a PI once who actually did that with his graduate students. Scary stuff, but some of that happens in real life.
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I think she is careful about privacy.
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Ditto this. All of it.
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yes but sometimes...not often but sometimes....those who are told they have no chance this side of hades prove everyone wrong.
just saying
