Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Sarah Palin for VP!

Mod Post Warning


As one of the moderators of this forum - and Paul is the other, though he was obviously posting in a personal capacity - I just wanted to respond here to this comment of Paul's:

Paul's quite right that he did email the moderators. There were replies to the email - I replied myself - and I'm sorry that Paul didn't see them.

The moderators' position is this: we want these boards to be a friendly, welcoming place. We do have rules concerning polite and respectful behaviour, and (very, very rarely) have had to caution individual members to observe these. Board members, for the most part, are courteous and respectful even when they disagree.

We felt that this thread has been almost entirely conducted with courtesy even where people are disagreeing. I've particularly noticed examples of members with opposing views doing their best to see the other person's perspective and trying to explain why they disagree. It's a thread about politics. You're never going to get complete agreement. In some cases, people are going to be poles apart. But I haven't seen in this thread - unlike one or two others in the past - people being insulted for their opinions or being called stupid because they don't see things another person's way.

The moderators' position on this thread, as with any other controversial one, is this:

- If you feel that you're being insulted, or flamed, or that a post in a thread is disrespectful, then report it: either to an individual moderator (email address at the top of the forum), or to the moderation team by using the Report this! button. Please don't just complain on your blog or LiveJournal or to friends; while we understand venting, if you feel strongly that someone has crossed the line or broken a boards rule, we need to know about it. We can't take action about something we haven't been informed of.

- Following on from this, we cannot and will not take action on the basis of anonymous complaints and word-of-mouth. It's happened before that people have complained elsewhere, and then the mods are informed by someone that 'people' are unhappy, not coming to the boards, wanting something to be done about the person or subject-matter they're unhappy about. We can't take action if no-one directly affected tells us about it. 'People are unhappy' is hardly a reason to censor.

- Finally, if you know a particular topic or thread is likely to send your blood-pressure sky-rocketing, then please just don't read it. Now, we all understand that impossible-to-resist impulse that hits us when our buttons are ready to be pressed. Please believe me when I say I'm speaking from bitter experience that it really is better to stay away. I made the mistake of not staying away from those kind of threads too many times. It's just not worth it.

We want these boards to be a place you visit to relax, have fun, read fic and chat with friends. If they're not, then find something to do that is fun and relaxing, or stick to forums and threads which you do enjoy, 'kay? Some people can debate and disagree without seeing their stress-levels rising, and it looks as if there are a few here who are like that. Others find reading posts which are in stark disagreement with their own opinions, perspectives and beliefs to be incredibly stressful. Do yourself a favour and recognise which one you are

I leave you on a humorous note, with this from the brilliant XKCD :




This mod post has been brought to you by:


Wendy
Boards Administration Team

ETA: It took me quite a while to compose this last night and I never noticed that while I was writing two other mods posted. Now it's looking kind of like overkill. I won't delete this post, but I did just want to mention that I never realised Bethy and LabRat had also posted.