72o wrote:I guess my thought is, let's investigate each of these incidents that "can't be spoken to" individually, and see if we can't produce sound, logical reasons for our complaints, to take those to the mods in a civil, organized manner. I firmly believe that this would be much better received than interjecting hundreds of threads with (to paraphrase liberally) "the mods are a bunch of power-drunk azzholes who ban anyone who gets in their way".
If these discussions are taking place, please, point me in the right direction.
Well, when I first witnessed problems with total moderator bias, I tried to address them, month after month, in private messages. I was informed by two other mods that word did get into the 'mod grapevine' that I was complaining about a select few. What I was experiencing, thus expressing concerns about, got worse; I was no longer merely witnessing moderator bias, I was experiencing it, even if only mild. I was informed by several players that some of the mods were instigating some of the stuff I was experiencing. I personally experienced some of the mods performing some of the stuff I was expressing concerns about.
Like I said, your statement 'it's no wonder people are being banned,' is an accurate depiction of SOME mods' tendency to be so power-crazed that they refuse to accept any criticism of ideas and instead, make all those who express the concerns (about them, their methods, or their lack of equitable moderation) into evil CC-tear-downers. Or, so power-crazed that they do ignore stuff from their 'pets' while bashing those who oppose.
them or their pets.
Seeing nothing being done on my original concerns, and an increase of those types of things with indications mods added to my building sense of indignation and disgust.
I elevated my concerns to admins (first Twill, then Hyrasri) neither of whom even had the decency to respond, not even with a "Thanks for the information," or "Message received," much less a "Hmm, maybe we'll keep an eye out for this sort of behavior."
I saw increased problems, not lesser. I ended up leaving CC for a time; a few friends I keep in contact with told me, "the site is getting friendlier, please come back."
So I came back. Took a look at complaint threads to see just how much more "friendly" the site is getting. Did so with every hope that I'd be forced to apologize to the new regime for any unfriendly comment I'd ever made about any admin or mods.
Reading what's still occurring made me realize, it's not getting friendlier, mods are just getting better at justifying specific targeting. Eliminating flame wars doesn't effect me one way or another; but to say eliminating flame wars would eradicate flaming from the site is totally bogus, considering the amount of flames that STILL get tossed off with, "use ignore." Even the "specific rules" about bigotry, sexual stuff and such are ignored for one user, punished to the max from another user.
Someone cannot show a pic of a famous painting that happens to glorify humanity, including the entire body, but someone else can "f*ck that bitch up her ass until she bleeds and screams," and WHICH one is more "pornographic"?
IF someone complains about a popular player or mod, that thread gets hit with flame after flame, from those on the "right side;" flames that are not addressed unless the original defender happens to make a counter-strike, THEN either that person gets warned, or the thread gets closed, or both.
So. For me, discussions that USED to take place in pm, are now out in the open. I merely exclude mod and player names; but if anyone wants the info, they can contact Hyrasri, Twill, or some of the mods who do know the instances I've expressed concerns about here.
As for those earlier private discussions that took place, I did have two mods willing to discuss the issues I was expressing. Their "sound, logical reasoning," for what I was seeing was, "that's a popular mod, so be careful saying anything against or you'll experience reprisal."
They were correct that I'd experience reprisals. The reprisals just weren't in "stahr gets banned" format because I rarely cross those lines into bannable offenses. Instead, the reprisals were an escalated scale of instigating and ignoring others' warn-and-bannable offenses against me. i.e. what I was originally complaining about, got worse, because I'd complained that no action was being taken.