OT: Superman and Stemcells

[johan osterman]

Shrug. Considering Arryns history of egging you on in your insults and her own history of calling her own incivility for honesty and 'not mincing words', I think Arryn should be prepared to take a few hits.

Also I haven't noticed any sharp decrease in your insults, but perhaps I just haven't been paying attention. Or perhaps you do not consider implying that boron is a moron an insult? A happenstance which resulted in a short congratulatory remark from Arryn, that paragon of consistancy.

[Arryn]

Johan, you're a first-rate hypocrite. It's okay behavior when you flame someone, and your groupies Truper and Graeme Dice chime in with their support, yet you find it objectionable when someone else does it. And the admins and Moderators of this forum are contemptible. They sit back and do nothing when one of their own flagrantly abuses the forum rules, letting you flame someone simply because you don't like them and don't agree with them, as you did in this thread. And they continue to do nothing as you go on to taunt me in further Posts to see if you can get a rise out of me. You're petty and vindictive, and the Moderators are pathetic for allowing you to get away with it. In fairness to at least two of the mods, it's probably because the senior forum admins won't let them step in and moderate in a just and balanced manner (as they used to a few months ago). The best and fairest mods are now all but impotent, and (sadly) it shows.

As for track records, shall I dig up your old Posts where you react to criticism by flaming? Your record is that of slinging the first mud. You've always given excuses that you were "justified". Quit pretending to be holier than thou. You're not only no better than Caine, myself, and others, but you're actually worse, because as a "moderator" you're supposed to set an example for behavior. The only example you set is the worst possible one. Disgusting.

[johan osterman]

I have not written in order to get a rise out of you. Though I have certainly been annoyed at you. As for the other Moderators they have to speak for themselves. I am not Zen or Gandalf. I have never used any moderator powers at all, whatever that is worth. And I do not feel I have flagrantly abused the rules. Also as far as I am concerned I have not claimed to be holier either than you or Caine. I am not even aware that I flamed anyone, although I have been snide at times, includinf towards you. However I will bow out of this now since I am getting irritated to the point were I will become abusive if I continue.

[Kristoffer O]

Arryn: I agree that my brother was more rude than was called for and I apologize for not keeping him in line .

However I wonder what you mean by saying that the mods and admins do nothing. Is it because you do not percieve any changes in mod activities? Discussions between mods and admin are evidently not official. Some matters take a bit of time and might not be resolved as quickly as you would prefer. I hope that you can trust us and believe that we are concerned about keeping the forum civil.

Regarding senior admins disallowing Moderators to moderate I am baffled. What do you mean? I'm not too happy about rumor mongering. If you mean Psitticine when you refer to the fairest mods I can only say that I miss him as well, both as beta tester, manual writer and as moderator, but admin policies has nothing to do with him disappearing.

Moderation should be something each and every one of us did, to ourselves and to our friends at these Boards. Instead of encouraging snide remarks we could tell our friends to refrain from them (Jesus has spoken ).

[Arryn]

Kristoffer O said:
Arryn: I agree that my brother was more rude than was called for and I apologize for not keeping him in line .

Thank you, Kris. BTW, are you your brother's keeper?

Kristoffer O said:
However I wonder what you mean by saying that the mods and admins do nothing. Is it because you do not percieve any changes in mod activities? Discussions between mods and admin are evidently not official. Some matters take a bit of time and might not be resolved as quickly as you would prefer. I hope that you can trust us and believe that we are concerned about keeping the forum civil.

Well, for example, the lack of balance in moderating has been really irksome and unfair. Someone will jump into a thread in which they haven't been participating at all just to flame me (Truper's done this in two separate threads recently) and if I respond to his attack, an admin (like Tim) will chastise *me*. That's hardly just. What am I supposed to do? Just sit back and allow anyone to insult me (or worse) and say nothing at all? If you say that I should complain in PM to a mod/admin, I've done that. As of today, I'm *still* waiting for a reply to a PM I sent Tim a week ago. Nor did my clicking on the "report this post" icons have any response. It very much seems that Shrapnel's management of this forum is anything but impartial or fair. And anyone that tries to criticise the way they manage things gets threatened. I trust and respect you, Kris. You've been fair in the past, even when you weren't particularly happy with me for that stupidly-worded poll I made. And I trust Gandalf and Zen. But none of you run this forum. You may be more important than the average person on this forum, but you don't control it. Essentially, you're a guest here, as the rest of us are. Albeit an honored guest.

Kristoffer O said:
Regarding senior admins disallowing Moderators to moderate I am baffled. What do you mean? I'm not too happy about rumor mongering. If you mean Psitticine when you refer to the fairest mods I can only say that I miss him as well, both as beta tester, manual writer and as moderator, but admin policies has nothing to do with him disappearing.

Actually, I didn't know he'd disappeared until you told me now. And I miss him too. Regardless, I wasn't referring to him. You may not have noticed (though I and others have) that Gandalf and Zen no longer try to step in to calm things down and reason with disputing folks to get them to see each other's points of view, or at least to lay off the flames. This change in behavior coincides with the forum upgrade and also suspiciously with Zen's hiatus not long ago. Neither Zen nor Gandalf have been particularly reluctant in the past to express their personal views or to step in, whenever they thought they should, and especially if they've been asked to intervene by someone in PM. Until recently. Furthermore, the forum software no longer permits Moderators to trim individual Posts that are found to be offensive. All of this smacks very much of an official policy decision on the part of Shrapnel. A policy that IMO is not conducive to a smoothly running forum. And policy issues aside, there's still the matter of balanced enforcement of etiquette. "Do as I command, nevermind my own behavior, and don't you dare criticize me" isn't the way to win hearts and minds.

Thanks again, Kris, for caring enough to ask questions, and even more so for listening.

[Graeme Dice]

Arryn said:
Someone will jump into a thread in which they haven't been participating at all just to flame me (Truper's done this in two separate threads recently) and if I respond to his attack, an admin (like Tim) will chastise *me*.

What, you mean the "A Simple Thank You" thread where your Posts consisted of little more than a barrage of insults directed at anyone who disagreed with you? Why shouldn't you have been told off there?

[Arryn]

Graeme, to you, *anything* I say you'll construe as an "insult", since you're on record as stating that you hate my guts. You have zero credibility. You, just like Truper, only post in threads I post in so that you can flame me. You did it in that "thank you" thread, and you just did it again. I can tolerate that you don't agree with me, and that you hate me. But jumping into threads you're not otherwise participating in just to flame me without posting anything else of substance to the discussion in those threads goes well beyond the bounds of acceptable etiquette. If the Moderators were doing the job they used to do on this forum, they'd've taken action against you (and your friend Truper) by now.

At least Johan and I were having a discussion (and disagreement) before he decided to flame me. I give him that much credit. You jump into threads for no good reason at all, and contribute nothing positive. The words I could use to describe *your* behavior I won't inflict on the rest of the forum members. Use your imagination and pretend I've said whatever offends you the most. Then go back to lurking. If you have nothing useful and positive to contribute, do everyone a favor and don't post.

[Richard]

I am going to lock this down for now. It seems there is a misunderstanding of the policies of this forum, but that will be rectified. Over the weekend we will post the rules for the forum so everyone can be clear. We will also be working to nominate some new Moderators for this forum, since when you only have one active moderator anything he does as far as actions is going to seem personal and biased.

Let me be clear about one thing, public discussion about how a moderator is doing his/her job is not warranted. I will put in an official policy for how anyone can deal with what they feel is unfair attention from a Moderator/Admin. This will clear up any misunderstandings in how to escalate forum issues.

As far as Zen leaving, I won't completely speak for him, but I do know that it had to deal with being tired of being the only moderator without much backup dealing with a lot of recent issues on the board. Most of our communities are run well, with very little in the way of controversy, with the same rules we had intended to use here. The problem lies in that there is too much being asked of too few, not a real clear understanding of boundaries, and to be honest a lack of civility in the way some deal with others. I am frankly disheartened at the level of lack of respect that some show for others in their Posts. There is no problem with disagreeing, even with a moderator, but there has to be respect there in the post. Too often I see some disagreements devolving into petty arguments versus people disagreeing, but seeing that their opponent has a right to hold their opinion.

So expect some more on this, this weekend. If you have interested in being a Moderator please PM Mindi or myself, and we consider it. Please give us past experience, your opinions on how to run a forum, and other items you feel speak to your ability to affect this community in a positive manner.

If you have any questions on this please email me at richard@shrapnelgames.com.

Thanks.

P.S. Please no more name calling in this thread or others. There are multiple people guilty of that right now. Keep it to PM's or email, but keep it off of the Boards.