Moderators - You are not gods

[Knestis]

As one of the people given moderator power on this site, it really pisses me off when someone else with those same powers (aka rights and responsibilities) chooses to lock a topic seemingly because it offends their sensibilities.

Bill asked us to please police this community to delete autobot posts advertising porn, prescription drug, and the rest of that crap - not to be content police.

You have an obligation to exercise your controls over content based on the dominant values of the community, and NOT to avoid upsetting any individual or group. That the MazdaSpeed thread was locked strongly suggests that it was about keeping a corporate interest happy, which is particularly troubling. That precise kind of action quite literally killed the real motorsport community at hondatech.com.

K

 

[Andy Bettencourt]

Kirk,

What topic are you referring to?

 

[erlrich]

Well said - thank you Kirk. I believe you express the sentiment of 99% of the moderators here; unfortunately it doesn't appear to be 100%.

 

[lateapex911]

Yes, I was quite surprised to see the "Whats up with Mazdaspeed and the SCCA" thread locked. It hadn't gotten into any name calling, and I felt that all the responses were rather respectful and responsible, as is the norm around here 95% of the time.

But...while I was going to immediately unlock it, I thought I'd be conservative, and see if someone fessed up with a perfectly good explanation that I just didn't think of.

Interestingly, while Kirk thought it might appear that a corporate interest was being protected by the locking, I thought the opposite...that the clubs interest might be seen as being threatened.

In any case, I hope we can control such actions and limit locks to threads that are obviously off subject, clearly advertising, or those that have turned into abusive typing matches.

 

[JeffYoung]

Hey! I don't know about you guys, but I definitely a god. I personally am a gnocchi with marinara sauce, one of the lesser deities and a third cousin (twice removed) of the almighty Flying Spaghetti Monster.

But I still didn't lock that thread.

 

[Andy Bettencourt]

Jake tald us what theread above. Must have been unlocked before I saw it. NOT COOL. There has to be a way to find out who is locking stuff down lately.

 

[Greg Amy]

I was at the shop working on cars all day. For realz... - GA

 

[Knestis]

Yup - it was the "What is up...???" thread that was locked. I started this one and in my original post asked the responsible party to unlock it. Then I went looking, discovered that the unlock control was active on my control panel, so screw it - I unlocked it myself and amended my request out of my original message.

K

 

[JeffYoung]

Kirk, where is the unlock function? I tried to unlock earlier in the day and could not. Like I said, I am just a minor deity.

 

[tnord]

Bill asked us to please police this community to delete autobot posts advertising porn, prescription drug, and the rest of that crap - not to be content police.

K
[/b]

one of you locked down my jim daniels thrashing content!

just messing with you guys of course. glad to see the mazda one was unlocked.

 

[Knestis]

Kirk, where is the unlock function? I tried to unlock earlier in the day and could not. Like I said, I am just a minor deity.
[/b]

If you are in a locked thread and go to the "Moderation Options" pulldown at the bottom of the page, an "Open thread" choice is activated.

K

 

[RSTPerformance]

who are the moderators?

 

[lateapex911]

who are the moderators? [/b]

Thats a secret, although you should have a good idea if you pay attention....

 

[mbuskuhl]

Thats a secret
[/b]

Why? Secret Car Club of Amercia?

 

[erlrich]

Thats a secret, although you should have a good idea if you pay attention....
[/b]

What Jake really meant to say was "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you"

 

[lateapex911]

Hey, it's not my site...I don't know who all the mods are. I've kept track though, so I know a bunch of them, but only the site owner knows them all...I think. And I know him too, but I'm not sure he wants to be revealed. Or not revealed. He probably doesn't really care, but I'll keep my mouth shut....for once...anyway.

 

[tom_sprecher]

Speaking of moderation someone needs to terminate the screen name "JohnTheLazy". He is without a doubt the most prolific porn spammer I've seen to date on this forum.

 

[Greg Amy]

Speaking of moderation someone needs to terminate the screen name "JohnTheLazy". He is without a doubt the most prolific porn spammer I've seen to date on this forum.[/b]

Agreed. Problem is, none of the "pseudo-gods" have the rights to delete users (probably a good thing, in light of the current discussion.)

I delete around 8-10 spam posts a day, and I know the other guys do similar. The other option was to manually approve new subscribers, but "Webmaster" tried that some time back and it didn't go over too well... - GA

 

[gran racing]

Sooooooo, who has been locking the various threads? It almost seems like it is being done by someone not active on this forum. Don't know.

How many moderators are on this site?

 

[tom_sprecher]

Agreed. Problem is, none of the "pseudo-gods" have the rights to delete users (probably a good thing, in light of the current discussion.)

I delete around 8-10 spam posts a day, and I know the other guys do similar. The other option was to manually approve new subscribers, but "Webmaster" tried that some time back and it didn't go over too well... - GA
[/b]

Whenever I delete a porn post I send a PM to Webmaster stating the screen name. Maybe he should give at least one of us the ability to also terminate screen names otherwise it can take a while.