General Discussion Of Moderation Procedures (aka 'The Whine List')

As long as it is a suggestion related to the topic -- earth science curriculum, I've got no problem with it. If a YEC believes they have a science topic that should be covered and can explain why, I'm cool.I do agree with where you drew the line in that thread -- that post wasn't on topic at all. ThanksJB

Regarding my suspension (Message 219)First, it's y'all site and you can ban me for chewing gum as I type and you are within your rights. I accept that.Second, a few procedural questions as I'm completely confused by what went down.1: What's a "little red dot suspension"?2: Inside that admin message Message 219 is what appears to be a quoted section (when you peek, is accompanied by the quote codes.). Inside that quoted section appears (among other things) the words "You're supposed to be the smart one." Where are those words quoted from? It such strange formatting as the admin's handle appears both inside and outside the quoted material, but yet when you click on the message link that is inside the quotes, it doesn't take you to any message that says any such thing.Here's my reason for that second question -- when I saw the suspension and that message, I immediately thought the suspension was triggered by the "You're supposed to be the smart one." text. That's clearly a personal attack on one's intelligence. Of course I was rather confident that I hadn't written those words or anything like them so I went to the 'offending' post (Message 160) to make damn sure. When I arrive at my post, I see that it says it has been edited by the admin. Well, it doesn't appear edited to me at all - I'm pretty sure what I wrote is what is there. I could be wrong about that and admin changed a word here or there, but I'm still damn sure I never wrote "You're supposed to be the smart one."So, If I were an observer I would look at Message 219 and then click through to Message 160 and I would conclude that ThinAirDesigns made a personal insult to Marc9000 of "You're supposed to be the smart one.", the admin edited the post, removed the personal insult and then suspended said user.But I'm pretty sure that's not what happened. It looks more likely that there is some weird formatting going on with Message 219 and an 'edited by admin' flag on Message 160 that makes it look like I said something I didn't and it got edited out and me suspended.So, can someone please tell me if I'm being accused of the "You're supposed to be the smart one." personal insult and thus suspended or something else?And if it's something else and those are the words of the moderator aimed at me, I think the obvious follow up question is -- WTF is the moderator doing throwing around personal intelligence insults while suspending me for a post where I didn't include any personal insults? For crying out loud, I don't think I've even had a single exchange with this admin so I can't imagine there's any history that caused this. It appears to have come out of left field. When I composed that post to Marc9000, I had just endured a 10 post exchange with Faith where she insulted my intelligence directly (along with the rest of the world) and I was patient and let it go (I have rather thick skin for that sort of thing on public forums) only to wake up to find that it was ME who was suspended on a completely different thread for a post that doesn't even come CLOSE to what Faith was writing.So, I like your site and I find the general level of moderation here to be productive, but this situation was handled by the admin like absolute shit as far as I can see. My intelligence isn't so fragile that I give a crap about the admin jab, but according to the guidelines of the forum, admin deserves a suspension if that's his mode in an unprovoked situation.Thanks for your attention. I do like this place. Clearly some folk have put a lot of work into it and it is appreciated.JBEdited by ThinAirDesigns, : typo

Ok, so if I'm understanding this correctly, if I had known to click on the "red dot", I would have been shown the message "You're supposed to be the smart one.", and that is where the quoted message came from in Message 219.Well that explains which one of us was throwing out insults. I'll be interested to learn why Message 160 is flagged as edited by the admin.Thanks
JB

Well, this confuses me even more as you make it sound like a warning was given and I ignored it. The problem with that scenario is that the warning came in message #161 (Percy), while the post I was suspended for (by Moose) was message #160. Notice those numbers. My post was up before the warning was issued.Your "this time seems no exception" makes it sound as though it's normal to issue warnings and then retroactively go BACKWARDS from the warning and issue suspensions. While technically that would temporally qualify as "suspension follow warning", I hardly think that is the traditional definition of the word "warning".Again, y'all can do what you like, but especially considering other's comments that were not considered out of line by Percy in the thread, that suspension without any warning before the post was written is pretty much the geek definition of random (or arbitrary).RespectfullyJBEdited by ThinAirDesigns, : No reason given.

I do want to echo what Tangle says above about the moderation generally being fair here.I've been on forums of all sorts for decades now and been moderator more than once. Tough job.Thanks
JB

No worries Percy, I really don't want to blow this up though I am interested in the thought process that created it. But know that I recognize that I'm not entitled even to know that as I'm simply a guest.I'll let moose speak his mind and let it go.Thanks to all.JB

Wow. Just wow.JB