My house, my rules. (RHJunior no longer mod)

[STrRedWolf]

I've just gotten another complaint about behavior unbecoming a moderator against RHJunior... and I've reviewed various posts.

Given that I've warned RHJunior before, another abuse complaint that is investigated and proven true forces me to remove him from moderatorship.

Congrats, RHJ, you offically abused your power. You claim to "own" this forum. Sorry, you rent it like you rent an apartment; you get to pay to repair any damage that I see, and you really screwed it up this time.

You are banned from moderatorship on all three of your forums. Any attempt to work around this will be met by a general ban from the forums. Any new forums created will also ban you from the forums. Any further abuse after you have been banned will cause me to take your comics and delete them.

Nominations for new forum mods will happen early next year. For right now, if there's a flame war going on, PM me, Kisai, or Mercury Hat.

[Tom Mazanec]

PLEASE don't delete the comics. It is unfair to punish the readers like that for the problems Ralph has. I know you have the power to do so, but concentrate on controlling him on the forums, PLEASE. If I miss out on my dose of TotQ forever I am liable to go into cold turkey withdrawl and require counseling (and I am not joking...I am an Asperger's and TotQ is one of my obsessions).

[Madmoonie]

Frankly, I think this is sad. I thnk this is the result of the increased trolling activity on these forums and the person who complained is just looking to start trouble for RH. This is absolutely ridiculus. Congrats, trolls, you got what you wanted.

[Deckard Canine]

Ever seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High? I'm thinking of the part where a very obnoxious customer causes a fast food employee to lose his temper and, with it, his job. I think the employer made the right decision, but it was still a shame.

[Shyal_malkes]

I find mysefl insulted by these, as Moonie put it, trolls.

lets get Ralph nominated back in charge asap so we can shut them up and maybe drive them away.

if you can't tell, now I'm mad. all this does is take things going from bad to worse.

[Tom Mazanec]

The "trolls" started out as people who disagreed with Ralph. Maybe this is the wrong place to do so...because HO was posted on the comic page, however, I feel it is appropriate. I think some of them nagged Ralph too much when he made it clear that he wasn't going to change his mind...they just HAD to get in the last word. That is a value judgement, when you have reached an impasse and need to just agree to disagree. But the administrator, not the moderator, sets the rules on what a moderator can do. I too am sorry that Ralph's shutting up people who disagree with him led to his loss of moderator status...probably what he should have done is just let the other person have the last word and the thread would die. But both the "trolls" and Ralph wanted to have the last word, so it continued till Ralph locked the thread. Apparently STrRedWolf told Ralph not to behave in this way and Ralph continued to do so, so...

[Madmoonie]

RH did overreact in some cases, but as a result of the trollish behavior of starting flame wars, people insulting the board members, constant re-posting of the same inflamitory material over and over, and deilberate attempts to cause disent and anger among the members. And this is all started Hard Onions was started. All this trollish activity started around then. Its like someone hitting you repeatidly in the arm over and over and they act surprised when you get angry and hit them back.

[The JAM]

Granted, Ralph had stated that he has a short temper, so the trolls apparently took advantage of that.
Still, his last declarations did seem a bit rushed, to me, at least. He COULD have sent a complaint to the higher ups (and that has worked before, too).
Perhaps, two weeks for a "time out" should be enough for EVERYONE to think a bit more before posting.

[Deckard Canine]

JAM, are you proposing that the three entire forums be put on hold for everybody? If that happens, I hope I remember to return when the time-out is over.

[Tom Mazanec]

I hope JAM was referring just to Ralph...would be tough to go without the forums for 14 days (hard enough on me to not get the comic every day )

[The JAM]

Yes, Tom. Sorry for not making myself clear there.

[RHJunior]

Yes, I could have sent a complaint to the higher ups. However I was under the impression that I was a moderator, and that I was given lock and delete authority so as to deal with this sort of thing WITHOUT bothering the admins every five minutes.

[Fusion]

Honestly, this whole pulling Ralph from the admin because he's trying to keep out a few people who just want to pick a fight is a very childish way of dealling with a problem caused by other childish people. It's almost like arresting a parent for spanking an unruly kid. I don't read he flame wars much, but it's easy to see some just egg him on and try to get him to blow. He should NOT have been pulled from his position as a Mod. And in all honesty, why wouldn't you give him full Lock/Delete power for his forums?

[Frigidmagi]

I've been on a number of other boards and I'm a mod on another. From what I've seen I wouldn't say RHJ did anything out of bounds.

[The JAM]

Well, understandable then. Still, we all should use these two weeks to see where we individually made mistakes (yes, myself included), and hopefully, come January, we'll have Ralph back on his feet and we SHOULD be able to discuss topics here without making anyone (not necessarily Ralph) lose their cool.

[Axelgear]

Yes, I could have sent a complaint to the higher ups. However I was under the impression that I was a moderator, and that I was given lock and delete authority so as to deal with this sort of thing WITHOUT bothering the admins every five minutes.

Actually, Ralph, that's not the issue I think people had here. Threads where people openly argue in favour of your view were left open while threads that opposed your particular view directly were closed. It wasn't the power, it was the abuse of it.

[Shyal_malkes]

after getting some sleep I came to a conclusion. all I really care about is that the forums are fun again. if that means that we need a new mod then so be it.

[RHJunior]

These forums were set up as a discussion point for three webcomics. After five years of moderation, I have seen just about every possible argument posted here. After five years I had gone past the point where I was willing to "let things run their course...." I would get up every morning, go online, and instead of simply locking off-topic threads I would foolishly spend several hours trying to "debate" with people who simply repeated the same long-refuted arguments over again.

I locked threads only to have the participants return in another thread to resume the noisemaking. I went to the admins to have certain individuals banned, only to have them return under other pseudonyms.... or to have people who seemed to be cloned in the very same vat show up and start the nonsense over again.

What's more, over the past month, it instead became a place for certain people to tell me how stupid, bigoted, ignorant, UnChristian, etc. I am.... and to twit me with insults thinly veiled as "advice."

So, yes, I am confrontational, abrasive, rude, and no, I can't be "unbiased" as is apparently expected of me. Ironically in the effort to avoid becoming a jackbooted Mod Nazi who threadlocked anything that was vaguely off-topic, I have instead gone the long way around and become an embittered and intolerant ex-Mod. STRedwulf is, more or less, doing what I should have done myself some time ago--- removing myself as a mod and finding someone else to take the job.

Loads of luck to whoever wins THAT happy task. And may you have much joy of whatever prejudices and biases that unnamed soul brings to the table.

[Mutant for Hire]

Or you could simply have ignored the postings. Frankly, after over twenty one years on the Internet, I've learned not to get too emotional about anything I see on it. There is nothing that says you have to respond to postings. People say we're not forced to come here and post, the same can be said for the webcomic creator.

[Skull]

I would get up every morning, go online, and instead of simply locking off-topic threads I would foolishly spend several hours trying to "debate" with people who simply repeated the same long-refuted arguments over again.

In almost every forum and bulletin board I'm a member of, from photography to programming, if they have an "off topic" forum, the rules specifically state "No Politics" and "No Religion". There's a reason for that.

You have three running webcomics, a LiveJournal and at least one side strip that deal either specifically or tangentally with both politics and religion, as the core philosophy and the primary content... and you expect readers to not discuss those topics in their forums?

The mind boggles. You're asking the hungry lion to not eat the wounded zebra that has been tied to a tree and slathered in barbeque sauce. What did you expect to happen?

~fin.