Posted to MBTV on 1-18-02
Wendy:
And Ace, maybe it's coincidence, but you seem only to get worked up over Sweeping
Generalizations when you happen to disagree with them. A little fair play from
the mods would be nice.
Sep:
If Ace and I tried to be any more fair we'd have to give up writing for MBTV
and join the circus as contortionists.
Wendy:
You see, herein lies the problem. You think you are being fair. But you are
not.
Sep:
When we come across a post that gives us pause, we say something.
Wendy:
And those things that give you pause are usually from those who disagree with
you. This makes sense, on one level, but on another, if you are going to take
on the job of moderating, then I think it's a job that needs to be done well
and fairly.
Sep:
We're not omniscient. We're not here all the time. We can't be. We don't catch
every little thing We're not robots. Sometimes the discussion has drifted far
enough as to make any moderation attempt outdated or useless. Sometimes issues
are addressed in a venue that not everyone is privy to -- email. And finally,
yes, we do sometimes make mistakes. See above about our not being robots.
Ace and I spend massive amounts of our free time trying to make these boards
run smoothly and remain a pleasant forum that people feel comfortable participating
in. As recent events have suggested that is not the case. However, pleasing
everyone all the time is an impossible task but every day we try and do the
absolute best job that we can. As long as I can go to bed at night and feel
like I've given it my best shot that's enough for me.
Wendy:
Interestingly, after saying you bend over backwards to be fair, you give a whole
list of reasons explaining why you aren't fair.
If you take on a job, then do it well. Maybe your best isn't good enough, and
maybe it's time to consider that. Maybe it's time to take on another moderator
to help you with the workload or give up your job to someone who will make the
time.
I'm not bothered that people disagree with me. LOL! I have plenty of that in
my life, both on and off the net. What does burn me is when people who have
power misuse it to try to make the people they disagree with feel small.
There's a point where you have to move beyond "Oh I can't please everyone"
to "Wow, more and more people aren't being pleased and, in fact, are leaving
MBTV. Is it time to reconsider some of my behaviors?"
Just saying.
After I was banned from MBTV, I wrote the following to Sars, the owner of
MBTV on 1-19-02:
To: sars@mightybigtv.com
From: ww1614@yahoo.com
Dear Sars,
I was pretty surprised to find I had been banned from MBTV following my admittedly
off-topic post. True, I was engaging in a little civil disobedience, but I had
said my piece and was not planning to post further on the issue.
And in fact, I accomplished my objective with one post. If my post made Ace
and Sep self-conscious enough over the next few days to refrain from being demeaning
and rude to posters they disagree with, then it was well worth the small sacrifice
of being banned from a board I rarely posted on anyway. (As a spoiler whore,
I tended to avoid the non-spoiler threads because it's difficult to talk about
the show with the spoiler-free when you're spoiled several episodes in advance.)
As I said in the post that apparently got me banned, I have no issue with disagreement
with my opinions. I do, as people who know me will attest, take strong issue
with unfair play and abuse of power. What motivated me to post what I did was
not pique at someone who disagreed with me but honest anger at yet another example
of the Buffy forum moderators abusing their power as moderators to put down
someone they disagree with.
While I understand that to some degree the moderators need to have a kind of
absolute power in order to maintain order on the forums, the Buffy board moderators
abuse this power again and again. It is one thing to maintain order; it is another
to take what seems to be obvious pleasure in trying to make someone feel small.
The incident with Drujan angered me in particular because her comment was an
incredibly innocuous generalization. It was okay to point out that such generalizations
are inappropriate. It is another thing to be condescending and hurtful. Ace
was the latter. If you are going to work to make sure the people who post on
the board do not abuse others, then you should extend that standard to the moderators
as well.
In the coming weeks, the Sex in the Sunnydale thread will become more heated,
as episode 13 will feature more sexual material, and it will be controversial
in nature. I urge you to keep a close eye on that thread as well as on the moderators
to ensure that they moderate in a fair manner. Furthermore, I urge you to consider
that this is just one example of an ongoing problem that can be addressed only
by you, the owner of the web site and the supervisor of the moderators.
Wendy aka Cobweb