"Benign Neglect"

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I'd like to think the corner of this place I moderate has been more or less under control for some time now. Thankfully.
There are several instances where I've had a finger hovering over a thread to action it, but I haven't done it and things stayed mostly under control.

TBH, I'm in a similar situation to UT with work demands and family situations taking a lot of time. My father in law was buried yesterday after a painful decline and for the last 3 weeks I've pretty much been in non stop crisis mode and not scanning a lot of threads.

IF UT wanted to add moderation / a set of eyes in the main forum I'd be happy to help there.

I truly don't understand the mentality of poster(s) that are driven to stir the pot and ruin things for everyone else. Then there are those who really don't start issues and are otherwise great members but can't resist biting the bait when provoked.

This place is pretty unique and I know of no other forum that hasn't been closed because of idiot posters, or displaced and rendered obsolete by other social media. I value the relationships with other posters here and would miss it if it disappeared... the point being that it exists solely due to the efforts of one man. Most of us appreciate this.

I would advocate much more for a zero tolerance policy towards those incapable of civility and whose enjoyment stems from annoying others.
 
This is just my 2 cents.

I have said this a few times in a few game threads last season. It comes down to 2 things in my opinion.

People think/want to be right and want people to agree with them. And users want to have the last word.

Not everyone can have the last word. Not everyone will agree with you. But people refuse to accept it.

But it goes in cycles from those two things. And than it goes to heck.

Herding a group of cats on this forum is a no win situation.

People bickering, why did you do this to me, but not to them? Why are you not banning them but yet delete what I wrote, what is taking you so long to act, why don't you act and the lovely comments and mail I got here and on and on refusing to accept they are part of the problem.

I will be honest, last season you almost lost me due to stress and anxiety from users just wanting to not grow up pass the age of 2. I had to stop many times to just step back and breath. I am
calm and patient person. But damn.

I love this place, love the fandom and people and I just refuse for people to ruin it for me. Some Sunday I couldn't even watch some games let alone enjoy it.

But I told myself this season, hmm, no, you are not doing that to me this year. Nope, nada, not anymore. As I have told users in the pass, if you don't like how I am doing it, talk to my boss.
 
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i think we non-mods could help if we would step back and look at our more "salty" posts and decide how we would respond if it were sent to us or a loved one before we post it. if we would get pissed,then we should re-word it so it is constructive,take the situation to a p.m.(and still reword) if it is a more personal beef,or simply not post it at all because is it THAT important to be right/get the last word on the internet over a person you likely don't even know let alone may never meet?
 
I think you all do a great job and appreciate it! Thanks for everything UT and all the mods.

~Dee~
 
HSanders said:
i think we non-mods could help if we would step back and look at our more "salty" posts and decide how we would respond if it were sent to us or a loved one before we post it. if we would get pissed,then we should re-word it so it is constructive,take the situation to a p.m.(and still reword) if it is a more personal beef,or simply not post it at all because is it THAT important to be right/get the last word on the internet over a person you likely don't even know let alone may never meet?
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My advice: before you hit 'Send', allow yourself to cool down. Go away from the board for a few hours or go to another thread. I've typed up posts on my blog and let it sit for awhile. I go back to it, sometimes a day later, and often delete it, saying, "What was I thinking?" Not necessarily inflammatory but do I really want people to read this? Could be TMI or just a subject that I decide the next day isn't that interesting after all.

The Internet is reactive and instantaneous. Maybe old school will work for some: remember how you actually had to sit down and think about what you wanted to write when you composed a letter? Lots of times crumpled pages ended up in the watebasket.

Also, ignoring what aggravates works really well on the Internet. As always, don't feed the trolls and you (and this board) will be fine.
 
Undertaker #59* said:
This was a term used by FallingAlice about 20 years ago now, and it spoke to the philosophy of a hands off approach to moderation, letting the board and its members moderate itself. It worked for a long time, until it didn't in spectacular fashion.

It wasn't intentional on my part, but I personally have not been involved in moderation of any kind here since about April. I haven't even had time to read too many threads. I have notifications on for the moderator's forum in case there were any issues that I needed to address, and was always quick to respond to any message there if needed, but for the first time in awhile, I was completely hands off. My department at work is going through a painful reorg and I haven't had much time to deal with anything outside of that. It has been quite stressful, but I am hopeful things will improve soon. Even before then, I knew I couldn't do it by myself and was glad there were three wonderful and respected members willing to take on the thankless role of moderation.

With the first Patriots preseason game tonight, something I have very much been looking forward to as a temporary distraction, I tried to set aside some time to start getting caught up with things here, only to find I am being blamed for the board's ills and some laughably insulting accusations. I can only assume those were made to intentionally be insulting.

When we moved here almost three years ago from the previous domain, I took on the project because I have the history with the board going back to nearly the beginning, the technical knowhow, and the willingness to spend hundreds of dollars a year of my own money to do my part to save the place that I once loved. If anyone would like the actual numbers, I can provide them, but I thought it was the least I could do to keep this site going for those that were still here. I spent a lot of time and money trying to make this place be as close to what it always was, from a usability and appearance standpoint, and was proud that we were able to preserve the millions of posts that were made over the last 20 years.

And so I come on today to find insults leveled against me from some sort of perceived Nazi in the woodpile point of view. Certainly not a very pleasurable return, but I am still looking forward to the game.

Anyway, I locked the preseason thread, not just for that, but for how off the rails it was. Brady talk has no business in that thread, and the thread was too far gone for me to attempt to clean it up. Feel free to try again in the new one.

If someone needs to be banned they will be and it generally wouldn't be a unilateral decision. If you don't like reading someone's viewpoint, stop responding to it and making the problem worse. For my part, I will try to monitor things better, but it is very challenging for me right now. Hell, start a poll if you'd like an action to be taken and see what everyone else thinks. If we need more moderation and the current moderators agree, we can add more. In other words, any problems that you may think exist on the board are from the members themselves, not from any moderation directives. You can either help to solve the problems, or you can contribute negatively and make things worse.

Anyway, I mainly just a tech guy that is doing his best to keep this community going. I don't pretend to know all of the sociological solutions. If the majority of you feel that my hosting of the site is part of the problem, then I can look into some sort of alternative to hand the site to someone else. I worked too hard on this site for too many years to come here and only read insults and negativity.
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Greatly appreciate what you and the mods do. I volunteer for youth athletics and have mutual respect for volunteers who help create or improve communities.

Having said that, there are some here who are trolls and also act like a mob. If you wouldn't mind, why is my account throttled and can that be removed. It's a bit ridiculous some cannot just use the ignore button (or claim to but clearly lie about it) and just go about their day. Some here definitely practice censorship or unreasonably flip out over differing opinions, and I see brownnoser culprits even in this thread who attack others and contribute to part of the reason why engagement/activity in the forum is only down to a handful of the same usual suspects.
 
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Muse said:
This is just my 2 cents.

I have said this a few times in a few game threads last season. It comes down to 2 things in my opinion.

People think/want to be right and want people to agree with them. And users want to have the last word.

Not everyone can have the last word. Not everyone will agree with you. But people refuse to accept it.

But it goes in cycles from those two things. And than it goes to heck.

Herding a group of cats on this forum is a no win situation.

People bickering, why did you do this to me, but not to them? Why are you not banning them but yet delete what I wrote, what is taking you so long to act, why don't you act and the lovely comments and mail I got here and on and on refusing to accept they are part of the problem.

I will be honest, last season you almost lost me due to stress and anxiety from users just wanting to not grow up pass the age of 2. I had to stop many times to just step back and breath. I am
calm and patient person. But damn.

I love this place, love the fandom and people and I just refuse for people to ruin it for me. Some Sunday I couldn't even watch some games let alone enjoy it.

But I told myself this season, hmm, no, you are not doing that to me this year. Nope, nada, not anymore. As I have told users in the pass, if you don't like how I am doing it, talk to my boss.
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As a former Mod in another place I do understand. Just before the place was shut down I was at wits end and had let some of the stupidity get to me. I more than understand how you felt and am pleased that you stayed around and didn't let it ruin your enjoyment of this place.
 
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