Wow

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Honestly, people need to lighten up a bit.

I understand that there needs to be a certain level of civility as should be attached to medicine but folks.........this is the internet. Don't take anything too seriously.

Preallo has become so innocuous and totally unfun.

Outright racisism, bigotry, etc. should be taken out but I think that otherwise there shouldn't be a lot of moderation as long as the forum stays near topic.

These topics about what watch to wear, good luck threads, why being a doctor is so cool, etc.........while necessary......are now the only thing that really dominates this forum.

We need to go back to the way it was.
 
sacrament said:
Now see, we've got me and we've got good Christian values on the same side. We've gotta be right.
👍 👍
 
MoosePilot said:
This forum gets enough crap that I don't mind a tighter crap filter.

Here's my problem in a nutshell. If we instituted a complete police state in America, there would be less crime. That's for certain. And if somebody said, "Look, things are better, there is less crime!" then I would have no choice but to agree with half of that statement.
The current scheme of pre-allo moderating pretty much ensures that trolls, or anybody that exhibits any degree whatsoever of trollish behavior, will be quickly eradicated--and not just eradicated, but apparently sometimes erased as though it never was. So yes, there will be no trolls in pre-allo. The price you pay for such incredibly strict moderating is a sterile environment where people are afraid to voice anything vaguely controversial that may get them labelled a "troll." After that dude got re-banned for his "volunteering sucks" thread, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a bunch of folks who have thought to themselves, "Holy crap, guess I'd better stick to the company line about volunteering!"
As for moving threads that aren't strictly pre-allo, anybody who reads both the Lounge and Pre-Allo recognize that lounge threads in the Lounge and lounge thread in Pre-Allo are two entirely different beasts (same goes with Everyone threads). You can always tell when a Lounge thread has been moved there from someplace else because it has a totally different feel to it. And usually pre-allos don't post these threads in the Lounge or Everyone because they don't want them there, because they hate those forums. So these threads end up petering out or get taken over by Lounge regulars and are essentially killed.
 
Khenon said:
I thought DrMom said you will get banned again if you re-register, so I was basing my comments on that.

Nope, this doesn't happen. Several members have been banned and reregister again. The mods do NOTHING unless the person says something inflammatory. check out cerebrus
I just think the mods should have a set policy and be consistent with it.
 
DrMom said:
Please re-read my post. If you're post-holded or banned & re-register to complain or continue trolling or otherwise make it obvious that you're the same person, you'll be banned.
.
 
MadameLULU said:
Nope, this doesn't happen. Several members have been banned and reregister again. The mods do NOTHING unless the person says something inflammatory. check out cerebrus
I just think the mods should have a set policy and be consistent with it.

Cerb is a rather special case.

Something that we like to call "tenure". 😀
 
leorl said:
Sometimes guests do not realize how what they've done is offensive to others, or even if they do, we give them the benefit of the doubt. The one-week (or less) post-holds or whatever serve as a sort of "time-out" period and a warning so that offending guests can realize their "mistakes." Glad you use these boards for your own personal amusement, sac. But some people are here actually trying to find things out. As an informative board, the mods also have a duty to make sure objective info. is spread and deter detractants. And lets face it, some people actively try to prey on innocent pre-meds and confuse them into thinking something false or get the wrong impression of medical professionals. These are private forums and we realize that as a public forum with wide viewership representing current/future health science professionals, there is a responsibility for portraying a professional attitude.

I agree. I got total flack for a thread i started and I absolutely meant nothing offensive by it and in fact my comment that offended everyone was intended to be sincere and compassionate. I am thankful i wasn't banned for it b/c I would have been flawed. I was already shocked posters were offended. I am curious if we are long time or at least frequent posters, if we explain our case after being banned can we be immediately unbanned if you find we are really sincere and did not mean to be offensive?

leorl said:
As for mod moderation, we also moderate each other. Usually before action is taken, there is actually discussion about the violation/offender and the mods come to an agreement. Lee also does a good job of overseeing the work of the mods. The "report a post" does work and we all check, but some posts reported we let go if there isn't really a violation.

oh ok, when there is no response I sometimes think it didn't work, espcially when it is something i rarely use. I would have expected a simple comment like "this post doesn't seem offensive to me".
 
DrMom said:
Please re-read my post. If you're post-holded or banned & re-register to complain or continue trolling or otherwise make it obvious that you're the same person, you'll be banned.


He didnt do either of these things the second time he was banned.
 
Fermata said:
Cerb is a rather special case.

Something that we like to call "tenure". 😀


In all fairness, why should there be "special cases" on SDN? That's why I think there should be some type of policy. Dr. Mom said it herself. There is -NO- set policy...
 
MadameLULU said:
He didnt do either of these things the second time he was banned.

but since everyone knew who he was, just using the same name made it obvious 🙄
 
MadameLULU said:
He didnt do either of these things the second time he was banned.
Maybe he made is obvious he was the same person? That's what I assumed happened . . . the mods somehow knew he was the same as Greenspan. I figured that's how they caught all re-offending banners . . . some special computer thing that I wouldn't understand. 🙂
 
MadameLULU said:
In all fairness, why should there be "special cases" on SDN? That's why I think there should be some type of policy. Dr. Mom said it herself. There is -NO- set policy...

The reason is because most of us know that it's just in fun.

Preallos, on the other hand, have their panties in a bunch.

The reason why people like him get banned is because a handful of people cry to mods.
 
Khenon said:
Maybe he made is obvious he was the same person? That's what I assumed happened . . . the mods somehow knew he was the same as Greenspan. I figured that's how they caught all re-offending banners . . . some special computer thing that I wouldn't understand. 🙂

IP addresses are revealed to mods when people post. However, what about dynamic IPs or those posting from schools, etc that have the same IP addresses?
 
Khenon said:
Maybe he made is obvious he was the same person? That's what I assumed happened . . . the mods somehow knew he was the same as Greenspan. QUOTE]

-WE- the casual readers didn't know. The mods knew b/c they can look at IP addresses.
 
MadameLULU said:
This isn't a valid reason why one should repeatedly violate TOS.

Once upon a time the TOS policy wasn't nearly as strictly enforced. There eventually was a crackdown because it got too out of hand.

Heck, a rebel SDN site even popped up.

The backlash of all of it is this hyper-sensitivity that can now be found in this forum.

The only thing I'm trying to say is to lighten up. It'd be a lot more fun if you did.
 
FREE VOLDEMORT!!! PM me to purchase the T-shirt. j/k...or am I? :scared:
 
Fermata said:
Once upon a time the TOS policy wasn't nearly as strictly enforced. There eventually was a crackdown because it got too out of hand.

Heck, a rebel SDN site even popped up.

The backlash of all of it is this hyper-sensitivity that can now be found in this forum.

The only thing I'm trying to say is to lighten up. It'd be a lot more fun if you did.

wow really? I guess i missed that or was never invited to it. 🙁

I agree people should lighten up as we are all so very stressed already just by the process we're going thru in pre-allo. I definitely support banning for attacks, bigotry, racism, etc but I do think mature discussions are informative and even helpful.

I mean i am here right now, trying to stay awake and not freak out over my final later today.
 
Fermata said:
Once upon a time the TOS policy wasn't nearly as strictly enforced. There eventually was a crackdown because it got too out of hand.

Heck, a rebel SDN site even popped up.

The backlash of all of it is this hyper-sensitivity that can now be found in this forum.

The only thing I'm trying to say is to lighten up. It'd be a lot more fun if you did.

Rebel SDN? That would be cool :laugh:
 
Psycho Doctor said:
wow really? I guess i missed that or was never invited to it. 🙁

www.studentdoctors.net

Unfortunately it didn't achieve enough members to hit that "critical mass" that ensures forum sustainability, so it's pretty moribund.
 
sacrament said:
www.studentdoctors.net

Unfortunately it didn't achieve enough members to hit that "critical mass" that ensures forum sustainability, so it's pretty moribund.

ah ok, well that started before my time.
 
I rather think of the banning as dealing with drunk drivers. You get caught, you're not supposed to drive for a while. Does it matter if you drive and do it well? no... because the point is you're being punished in an attempt to modify your behavior. Does it always work? Sadly, seems trolls and drunk driving have alot in common... once an offender, the rate of recidivism (sp?) is outrageously high.

I applaud the mods. Their job isn't always easy, but they ARE allowed to have fun. Don't ask them to be robots without fun or feeling. And personally, I always thought the rules were rather simple and easy to understand. If you're banned, lay low and shut up for a while. Stupid oughta be a felony offense.
 
Fermata said:
Of all the things to throw your arms up about...I don't see how this one is the big deal.

I thought it was stupid that voldemort was banned for nothing.

DrMom said:
Please re-read my post. If you're post-holded or banned & re-register to complain or continue trolling or otherwise make it obvious that you're the same person, you'll be banned.

He didn't do any of these things DrMom mentioned. Therefore it didnt make sense to ban him. Someone said that people are banned if they return w/n a week. So I asked why have ppl like cerebrus not been banned when they return w/n a week.
 
That other site is hilarious! It's got a lot of the same guys from this site as mods. How frickin' funny is that?! :laugh:
 
The problem with the "rebel" site is that, ironically, it has moderators. It was created in response to an overmoderated SDN and yet the first thing they do is make a bunch of people moderators (including, hilariously, EvoDevo), and the second thing they do is start moderating. Yeah you can curse and post porn... who cares. I don't need any help finding porn. So I stopped posting there.
 
sacrament said:
The problem with the "rebel" site is that, ironically, it has moderators. It was created in response to an overmoderated SDN and yet the first thing they do is make a bunch of people moderators (including, hilariously, EvoDevo), and the second thing they do is start moderating. Yeah you can curse and post porn... who cares. I don't need any help finding porn. So I stopped posting there.

So what brings you back here?

Do you like to observe the human condition?
 
Fermata said:
So what brings you back here?

Do you like to observe the human condition?

The pre-med condition is especially worth observing.
 
Fermata said:
Do you ever wish that you would have stayed an engineer?

Sometimes. But in the end I usually decide that while medicine is a lot of unenjoyable things, it takes quite awhile for it to become boring, which is what I was fleeing.
 
sacrament said:
Sometimes. But in the end I usually decide that while medicine is a lot of unenjoyable things, it takes quite awhile for it to become boring, which is what I was fleeing.

So I'm assuming this feeling of moving on to other things is what is going to force you to become a world traveler some day?
 
Fermata said:
So I'm assuming this feeling of moving on to other things is what is going to force you to become a world traveler some day?

Or maybe a woman. I'd like to try that for awhile.

Speaking of travelling, time to go to the hospital and have people puke on me for twelve hours. This will be your life, kids.
 
sacrament said:
Or maybe a woman. I'd like to try that for awhile.

Speaking of travelling, time to go to the hospital and have people puke on me for twelve hours. This will be your life, kids.

Drive safe dude.
 
i love how when a person become a moderator and they think act as if they have god's power in their hands.
 
chitown82 said:
i love how when a person become a moderator and they think act as if they have god's power in their hands.

haha welcome aboard chitown.
 
my only major complaint is that a lot of times i see new threads being closed or moved because they've been discussed already. if every possible topic has already been "discussed ad nauseum" perhaps it makes sense to just shut it all down, and just have some scrollable archives. lately the attitude here is that all the discussions were better and more thorough in the past. even the trolls were funnier in the past. and apparently no one else is capable of bringing up new points or old discussions are not worth re-visiting.

while i have to admit, i've seen a consierable deterioration in post quality over the last several months, i think sometimes it just makes sense to allow new discussions. its also pretty sad to see that so many of the threads that have good potential for debate or critical thought and input are shut down pre-emptively to prevent "flame wars" or some other drudgery. though this is largely the fault of some immature posters, i also think that the pre-emptive responses, closing threads, moving threads often happens too early.
 
RunMimi said:
Its the internet and every opinion should be allowed to be posted in my opinion.

The thing is, this isn't the internet. This is one isolated corner of the internet, bought and paid for by private funds. There are signs on this corner of the internet saying how it will be run and for the most part, that's how it's run. So what's the problem? There's lots more space on the internet, as evidenced by the Bizarro SDN.
 
sacrament said:
Sometimes. But in the end I usually decide that while medicine is a lot of unenjoyable things, it takes quite awhile for it to become boring, which is what I was fleeing.

I hear that, bro. 👍
 
To those who are saying that some members are saying outrageous things that they think are valid and vice versa, we can see how it may seem inconsistent. This is when we take past posting history into account and actually review past posts, past offenses, etc. So sometimes a member is banned for something that seems pretty innocent, but in actuality was a "last straw" sort of post that was a cumulative offense. Also, some things do slip by because at the end of the day, we're students/professionals as well and don't really have time to read every single post of every single thread. If you notice something particularly offensive, please do use the Report a Post function or PM the mod of that forum.

Things on SDN are increasingly moderated as of late. One reason is that we moved the Everyone and Lounge forums to a separate Drs. Lounge that is unmoderated (for the most part. Certain offenses like overt racism etc. aren't allowed). In doing so, we agreed to be stricter in the actual student doctor forums so that these are more professionalized, and "fun" topics stick more to the Drs. Lounge.

If you wish to bring up certain points or disagree with a mod for a particular action, just PM us and we would be more than happy to explain.
 
MoosePilot said:
The thing is, this isn't the internet. This is one isolated corner of the internet, bought and paid for by private funds. There are signs on this corner of the internet saying how it will be run and for the most part, that's how it's run. So what's the problem? There's lots more space on the internet, as evidenced by the Bizarro SDN.

This is the internet. And this is partly paid for now by the members here (atleast the ones who contribute 😳 ). You do realize that, right? And as such, as long as this site accepts donations from members, it seems to me that it has a duty to be fair to the members, and not just rip necks off whenever the slightest opportunity presents itself. I have just a slight understanding of what went down, and if it's the policy to ban a post-holded member who makes a new identity within the week he's supposed to be reforming his habits, then fine. But be consistent with it. I've seen numerous instances where the rules around here have been stretched or just flat out broken for certain members. I'm not anti-mod (in fact, I greatly appreciate the work they do for us on their own time), but damn, just be consistent.

It's clear to me that the dude that was post-holded came back, made a completely innocent thread, and was unnecessarily knocked off with cat-like speed. I mean, surely, you can see how benign his thread was, right? Surely, EvoDevo or another mod could've PMd the member, discussed the issue with him and made sure he was going to walk the straight and narrow from here on out and given him the benefit of the doubt. Dropping the ax that fast just seemed so unnecessary to me, since it's clear the kid just wanted to discuss the issue, and seemed to want to do so in an innocent fashion.

As long as this site accepts donations from members, I believe it has a duty to be more pro-member and give the benefit of the doubt. But that's just my opinion.
 
Fermata said:
Heck, a rebel SDN site even popped up.

oooh...is it overrun with pirates? :laugh: 😉
 
DAL said:
As long as this site accepts donations from members, I believe it has a duty to be more pro-member and give the benefit of the doubt. But that's just my opinion.
It's not the donors that are causing the problems in pre-allo. The people with the inflammatory comments don't have anything to contribute to SDN....advice or money. So why should they be given the benefit of the doubt? They should just either peace-out or start another name without any mention of their old identity and act as an appropriate member.
 
SFAJess said:
It's not the donors that are causing the problems in pre-allo. The people with the inflammatory comments don't have anything to contribute to SDN....advice or money. So why should they be given the benefit of the doubt? They should just either peace-out or start another name without any mention of their old identity and act as an appropriate member.

We should make non-donors wear a star of SDN so that we can better isolate them from the donors. It will help the web-gustapo regulate what is and isn't posted on here. It will also help keep pre-allo using donors from having to use
their common sense when reading threads.
 
Psycho Doctor said:
Do moderators actually respond to "Report Bad Post" . The only mod I've ever see respond is Dr. Mom until now.
Yes they do.. I know of other moderators do respond to the report bad post button as well.
 
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