Quote:
Originally Posted by JMintzer
Several people are so appalled that they actually received a "time out", that they take their ball and go home... Their sense of self importance was deflated, I guess...
I can think of several recent ones...
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It is pretty subjective: not so much the rules but how people interpret those rules. What might seem relatively innocuous to some may be insulting, derogatory or out-of-bounds to others.
I was an online "sheriff" for AOL back when they were one of the bigger fish in the pond (you actually had to PAY for their service back then). I was one of five moderators who reviewed posts in one certain area, eventually becoming the supervisor. We had pretty definite rules but it was amazing how posters used various and sundry tricks to get around them. For instance, no personal insults. But what difference is there in "you are an idiot" and "don't be an idiot"? Not much. The point still gets across. We did a lot of reading between the lines for stuff just like that. Even trying to get the other moderators on the same page was a challenge.
One of the differences there was that as many posts as possible received a response from a moderator. Pretty challenging as AOL was huge back then and message boards in general received bushels of posts. This is something I wish moderators would do here as well. But in general, having been there myself, it is my opinion that the moderator(s) here do an excellent job. You have to be pretty far out of bounds, as far as I can see, before the axe comes down.