4myGod wrote:
It is a good step in the right direction, but I think it might be just a step, and by only one mod. It is good that you got an apology, but people like t-o-m get raped and then were left to cry alone in the shower. A lot needs to change around here I think. Right now mods are like people, having friends and people who they personally don't take offensive and other people who they take much more offensive. Thus the banning ends up being everyone they "think" is bad, because everyone is breaking the rules. Mods need to be more like robots, but they can't see that they are viewing things with a huge bias.
It is a step in the right direction. It was only one mod. It happens to be a quite popular mod.
I'd suggest there's a difference between t-o-m (whom I consider somewhat a friend) and I; t-o-m would be the first to admit he frequently broke rules, sometimes gloated about having done so, and definitely taunted. Admittedly, he added to maps, something I didn't do (Had begun to do so, but deleted all that stuff when I left before.) I only "broke rules" - and barely - when retorting to consistent aggravations, and I left when I realized I was starting to get gleeful about the idea of breaking rules just to "in your face, CC." I know from speaking with t-o-m that he'd had many warnings of what not to do, but continued to do whatever it was until Twill got totally fed up. I may be wrong, but I think they even rescinded his forum ban once, until he did whatever it was again. When I received an unjustified warning - unjustified in my mind because I never instigated - I obeyed it; continued to obey it even when those others ignored the warning, and even when those others did not get penalized as that warning said they would. I had private fits with the mods at the time, and left for a few months.... but I publicly continued to obey the warning, so I was never banned.
Now, today, I've received this apology from one of the mods who allowed stuff to go on for so long that it came to that sort of festering head.
The thing is, if one popular mod has realized an error in moderating tactics - per the mod, realized after other mods did some coaching - then, others mods who may be making similar errors can realize the errors of their ways, as well. They may be more willing to do so if credit is given where credit is due - and that's why I'm "trolling threads" with this 'mod apology' post every bit as much as I "trolled threads" with my complaint posts after I returned.
I put "trolling threads" in quotations, because on some of the threads where the complaint was a valid addition to the topic, I was accused of "trolling" because the complaint was a valid addition to more than one forum topic. Sometimes those who accused me of trolling also flamed me; and typically "both" of us were warned rather than the original harasser.
So.. is there more work to be done so that more people see "equal moderation"? Certainly. If I'd been banned because of this mod's tactics, and the mod now realizes errors were made with those tactics, would the judgement be reversed? Unlikely; history reflects that "bad moderators" may be 'fired' from their volunteer power tactics, but their original judgements stand.
For me, this first step, a personal apology from a previously-offensive mod, is a potential light at the end of a long tunnel. It gives me hope.
I'm not ready, yet, to re-purchase premium, start gathering more map-making notes, and re-invent the tournament ideas I'd prepared but trashed, but I'm closer to feeling like this is a community I wouldn't mind contributing to, than I was yesterday.
I don't expect mods to be robots; I expect them to be human. As part of their humanity, I want them to realize they can make errors, try to see where they might be making errors and - yeah, I know, a lot to expect - see them attempt to rectify some of those errors.
Site improvements I'd like to see (as discussed in other threads) include ways of trying to ensure any mod bias does not result in permanent wrongful bannings. In other words, i don't think minor mishaps should
ever result in perma-bans, especially the types of minor things that others can get away with without penalty. I'd also like to see a ruling that any mods stepping in warn FIRST, only the original instigator; retorters warned only if they retort after the warning to the originator of whatever flack is occuring wherever. I think that would go a long way toward people thinking things are more fair. In other words, allow "defend an attack by attacking" posts until a mod steps in to do any defending; after that consider any nasty retorts, an attack. If that rule were established, it's very possible that t-o-m would never have been banned.
