Giacomo1968

+1: I agree with this idea wholeheartedly and will amplify it with these two cents: There are users who come here who grow and accumulate rep but don’t do so with any great competitive aspirations; they simply “mesh” with an SE community. Others here clearly just want to make every interaction a game to gain rep and end up suspending themselves. Yes, there are other reasons for suspensions, but that happens. Which is to say someone running for a mod role clearly should have a more responsible mindset from the beginning and—as a result—would be able to accept a nomination framework like this.

@Shog9 There’s no discussion here I see. Look, the reason I posted this is because there is a logical “Catch 22” here and that’s it. If your past impressions of me are somehow tainting the overall spirit of this post to the point you need to immediately rant about supposed “passive aggressiveness” then who is approaching this with an open mind towards the topic and who is getting bent out of shape. You can confirm my overall SE activity is down, correct? Well there you go.

@MichaelT That might be the answer. But how can a regular user alert a room owner about behavior like that?

@Shog9 How can I bring up concrete examples of deleted comments in a chat room? That is the “Catch 22” here. Also, I would have commented on the nominated moderator’s post if I could saying something like this, “I seem to recall you posting comments in chat and then deleting them right away. Do you want to address that here? Now that this has reminded me I will be posting a lager Meta thread on the overall concept of persistent comment removal from chat rooms in general. Feel free to comment there.” Please assume good faith here; because past this issue I really don’t care about SFF.

@Shog9 Which is all to say… Forget about SFF… Is it acceptable for someone to be in a chat, disparage another user there in front of others and delete their trail like that? And I clearly state at the bottom of my question the moderator aspect; if this behavior is acceptable for regular users in some way does it factor into a moderator decision? As for your “therapist” rant, you realize I posted this after simply reading this stuff in the past 24 hours and saw that thread, saw that user and noted, “You know what, they do this. Is this right? I should ask.” That is all I did here.

@Shog9 I can’t post on Meta SFF due to suspension which you are aware of and I am clear about here. And the issue of the chat aspect is valid outside of SFF since there are 150+ sites. Do you want me to simply not post anything about negative user interactions and tools to deal with it? Because the reality is if you remove the SFF aspects I mention you probably would have chastised me for not being clear about what started this thread. Now that I have added that info… I am genuine about how to deal with users who engage in non-“be nice” behavior in the chat who then delete their comments.

@JonEricson This is not about anything recent. Examples I know of exist from a month or so back at least; I didn’t check today. But honestly I have seen this one user consistently engage in this behavior when they are in the chat room. Note that I have witnessed this when I have logged into the chat under my username or simply viewed it as a non-logged in user.

@Quill Oh, I have learned. Peace out!

@Quill Well, how about this crazy idea… Somehow these sites need non-moderators/non-deep-involvement users posting content. These are the casual humans who create content here. Without us humans, what else is happening here? A handful of mods just conversing amount themselves.

In the case of these comment threads, I simply flagged items myself. I would state, “These comments are obsolete.”

@Quill Quill, I didn’t cause flags on my own content past—perhaps—these meta posts that are closed or down voted.

@Quill One simple message targeted in chat or on a comment thread with the diamond character clearly visible ends tons of issues quite quickly. I have seen it myself.

In contrast, just dumping a suspension without notice helps who and lessens what?

Because at the end of the day on a raw/operational level, a simple message actually ends a lot of misunderstandings.

My reputation as a positive contributor to other sites speaks for themselves. A moderator can’t act like a human being and maybe think, “Hey, if I send this user one simple chat message it might save me hours of other work?”

And I’m not somehow a random dog just picked up by the dog catcher for walking around the front of a building? What should I do when I am tossed in the back of the truck headed to the dog pound? This is a two way street.

@Quill How did I put anyone in a corner by simply engaging in content processes I thought were innocuous?

It‘s not like I went to my content—and the content of other—and just entered piles of gibberish.

You’re talking about backing a snarling dog in a corner. That’s bad analogy: I had no idea who these dogs are or where the corner is. That is the issue.

@Quill But then you have moderators who are not policing comments, see flags as an annoyance and then decided to just randomly delete content—or in my case suspend a user—as a message of what.

@Quill At the end of the day this is the deal… If SFF:SE has a “faceless” moderation style, I’m fine with that. I am done with actively attempting to be a part of that community past the casual interaction.

@Quill “If your post had been about Faceless moderation, that might've been actually interesting, and very much more relevant.” Well, let me state this… I have repeatedly stated SFF:SE mods are not visibly active on the site. But now you use the term “faceless moderation.” Is there a thread or discussion on the subject? Has it come up before? Genuine about this.

@Quill This is a stark contrast to some times in the past SO and Super User mods have “tapped me on the shoulder” to give me a heads up about something I was not aware of.

@Quill I disagree. In particular with SFF:SE. On all other SE sites moderators are fairly right there and active in the process. I know who they are just from usage. On SFF:SE I literally cannot recall any of the mods who have been cc'ed on my suspension notices being active at any time prior to the suspension. No warning. No message in chat. Nadda.

@hichris123 Also, I will pull my NYC card… I was born and raised in Brooklyn. So there’s a stereotype.

@hichris123 We’re going to have to agree to disagree. But at the end of the day you need to just realize that I posted an earlier meta post about the need to clarify how different sites act/behave and that was down voted and “begged” to death. In light of this suspension, I affirm that post is even more needed. I’m vocal, but what about others who just get turned away before even participating? meta.stackexchange.com/q/272279/243319

@hichris123 And my emotions are fairly calm. I honestly state if the suspension was removed right now I would not do much on that site past accepting an answer to the las question I posted. What does 30 days of being cut-off do exactly? Just make one more vocal towards anyone else who gets suspended unjustifiably? Mods can confirm; all I have posted.

@hichris123 So basically, in your mind an authority figure is infallible and anyone who falls to misuse of power needs to be more and more trite and subordinate.

@Doorknob Yes, it was “handled” elsewhere. The unwarranted 365 day suspension was lowered to a 30 day unwarranted suspension with no response from mods or community manager.

@hichris123 In general, if I am wrongly accused of something—here on the Inter-webs or in real life—I will push back. I expect anyone to do that; not just me. Just because someone has privileges doesn’t mean they are infallible. My attitude towards tone is one one the people in the equation has power they are using with little regard towards others. If the only power I have is my voice and facts, I will use that. You should ask yourself why the meta thread was shut down.

@Andy I don’t think bwDraco should be involved in this, but I appreciate the support. Honestly? I think there was misuse of moderator privileges and the rationale was suspicious. I have reached out to the mod as well as community manager, but I doubt they will respond. In general I have never seen mods on SFF:SE actively jumping into threads and saying “Cool down…” or even trimming content. Moderation there seems to be all behind the scenes.

@bwDraco Well, it proves the thread was closed.

@bwDraco The mod—and community manager’s—response was to lower the suspension for 30 days which I still feel is unwarranted despite private messages explaining that rationale. I’ve been transparent in all of my posts about this; these are not battles I am choosing. And hey, the meta thread was deleted so hey! meta.stackexchange.com/q/272744/243319

@bwDraco I’ve generally had pleasant interactions with Journeyman Geek so I think he basically means he takes being a moderator seriously, but doesn’t get too wound up in it as if he needs to “suit up” and practice all the time. It’s a fine balance but ultimately you should do what you feel comfortable doing.

@bwDraco Sorry to see you go. Your contributions on Super User have been great and consistent. Take care of your self and hope things get better.