Moderators
The moderators (short singular form: "mod") are users (or employees) of the forum who are granted access to the posts and threads of all members for the purpose of moderating discussion (similar to arbitration) and also keeping the forum clean (neutralizing spam and spambots etc.).[12][/url] Moderators also answer users' concerns about the forum, general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. Common privileges of moderators include: deleting, merging, moving, and splitting of posts and threads, locking, renaming, stickying of threads, banning, suspending, unsuspending, unbanning, warning the members, or adding, editing, removing the polls of threads.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum#cite_note-vBFAQModAdmin-14][13] "Junior Modding", "Backseat Modding", or "Forum copping" can refer negatively to the behavior of ordinary users who take a moderator-like tone in criticizing other members.Essentially, it is the duty of the moderator to manage the day-to-day affairs of a forum or board as it applies to the stream of user contributions and interactions. The relative effectiveness of this user management directly impacts the quality of a forum in general, its appeal, and its usefulness as a community of interrelated users.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum

I didn't delete your posts because you brought a different viewpoint to the discussion. You were, in fact, not discussing the topic at all in the posts which were removed. They were just childish, off topic digs that serve to raise the heat in the room without contributing any light.

I explained above exactly why I had to delete those posts. It's part of my duties as a moderator to keep the threads on topic.. Well, at least this time you aren't carrying on a personal rant in the middle of a thread.

I'll take that as a sign of progress.

Last edited by Goose (2/09/2016 10:11 am)

Believe me that I feel that these deletions are both rare and appropriate.
Moreover they were not posts that expressed any opinion or content that was thread related.
Just off topic backbiting that derails threads on so many other internet sites.

I am honestly trying to do a good and fair job

The current situation works remarkably well. We just have one problem poster.

One thing for certain is that we  are not all going to completely agree on this.

Everyone, I think would agree that content that is threatening should be deleted.

I think that an overwhelming majority would agree that content which is racist should be deleted.

A majority thinks that obscenities should be deleted.

Perhaps I am in the minority here, but I have very little patience with posts that do not address the issues being raised in a discussion, and are offered merely for the purpose of engaging in personal attack and verbal combat. Some would call it trolling. And, unaddressed, it kills a discussion.

I've been around a long time, and I have seen discussion groups ruined because they just turned into an endless back and forth. The old Exchange suffered from being completely unmoderated. And, there really wasn't much obscenity there. What there was was endless backbiting and personal back and forths. Too many threads, within a handful of posts, were hopelessly distracted from the topic by this dynamic. The atmosphere was ugly, and it became intellectually uninteresting all too frequently. I am determined to keep this discussion group on the high road.

If one looks at the thread in question, the one about Massachusetts gun laws, one will see strongly held opinion expressed, and the usual amount of snark. None of that was deleted. What was removed was some completely off topic personal attacks, and attempts to draw other posters into such attacks. No one deleted any opinion because it conflicted with the moderator. The deleted posts didn't address the topic at all.

If we are to have a productive discussion, we have to have rules. We have to have a moderator enforce those rules. And we have to be supportive. Even when we might not totally agree. Hey, Tarnation deleted part of one of my posts because it included the F bomb. I'm OK with that. Personally, I don't have a problem with the occasional, well placed F-bomb. But others do, and Tarnation felt that he needed to take the action.
I was over the line and Tarnation brought me back. I respect that.

But, whenever I ask CS to knock off a personal attack, I get the "who me", followed immediately by the next personal attack. If I ask him to take up a problem with a PM, I immediately get attacked again.
CS, you are not above the rules. Work within the guidlines and there will not be a problem.

I have to do this task as I see fit. And, I honestly believe that I am very slow to hit that delete button. Someone is purposely testing the limits here to create a "crisis" where none in fact exists.