What to do when you feel a moderator is unfair

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tendy

tendy

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I never thought I would be posting in this section, especially in regards with a moderator, as I have high regard for most. But when intimidation and position are used by a moderator actively participating in a thread then I feel there needs to be accountability. At the very least participating in a thread and then flexing ones moderator muscles when disagreed with is a conflict of interest, at worst using ones position as might a bully. How does a member proceed, this has bothered me eneough that I am considering cancelling my membership after 6 years here.
 
Almost every forum has some mods that let it go to their head. Doesn't usually bother me. It's just part of the game.
 
You'll need to provide a link to the thread in question.
 
When you have a gripe with a mod, I would say:

1) complain to the mod privately via PM

2) if that doesn't give you satisfaction, complain privately to Spark

3) if you are still unhappy, just move on. Whoever you have a gripe with is a faceless stranger sitting in front of a computer 600 miles away, whose arthritic back may be flaring up and making them grumpy. Who knows. They do the tough job of keeping this place running smoothly, but in the end its just not worth worrying about. And don't let a conflict with one person run you out of here. :thumbup:
 
When I started the thread pertaining to an Ebay seller, Karda brought information to it, pertaining to the same sellers questionable past practices, and association with others who were also considered less than honorable...
IMHO , it added to the conversation. The members here range from what I would consider experts, to those just getting started in the hobby. It is the best place there is to gain knowledge and ask questions.

I know his intent was the same as mine. To bring something to light, that may help people that are less informed and educated, from getting burned on a knife.

Karda posted links on the subject, and some were from BRL. There were a couple members that absolutely refused to acknowledge these links, and were basically saying that, These people were not to be deemed reputable, and that the statements basically held no water.

I know when Karda was getting frustrated, because the continual replies from these members, was the same over and over, and neither one would offer anything that would possibly show a different light on the subject. Or just accept the thread for what it was intended to be. Informational, not mudslinging...
I myself was getting frustrated because on numerous attempts, I could not get either person to answer a very straight forward question.

When Karda was accused of imtimidating, and misuse of his moderator power, he sent me a P.M... He wanted to make sure that I wasn't unhappy with anything he had posted in my thread, and if I thought he was out of line. He was very concerned that he hadn't crossed any lines. He mentioned to Trend and Gastonknives, that they were close to trolling with a few of their posts, and if it continued, the would be given an infraction. That is what moderators are suppose to do, and have done in certain instances. I have yet to see one handed out, where the person wasn't fairly warned.

I know I'm looking at it differently than the members in question, but in all honesty, if I thought Karda was out of line in my thread, or any thread for that matter, I would have reported him.
This is a small community, and there is no tolerance for poor behavior. Doesn't matter who it is. I don't think in this particular instance, there was anything posted that was inappropriate, with the exception of a few comments by other members.

As a side note, my thread deteriorated, and I will be closing it tonight. It is no longer serving a purpose, so IMHO it needs to be closed, before it goes to far in the wrong direction . I gave fair warning, so anyone could post final thoughts before it is closed. Hopefully someone will post something of significance beforehand
 
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I read the thread.
I see a heated argument.
I see a couple of posts, not by a mod, which were on the edge of being unacceptable.
I see a verbal comment given that those posts were on the edge of being unacceptable.
I see no red infractions given.
I see no yellow warnings given.

At the end of the day, I see a heated argument in which both sides got a bit hot under the collar. And that is all I see. I do not see a moderator abusing his authority.
 
tendy said:
I never thought I would be posting in this section, especially in regards with a moderator, as I have high regard for most. But when intimidation and position are used by a moderator actively participating in a thread then I feel there needs to be accountability. At the very least participating in a thread and then flexing ones moderator muscles when disagreed with is a conflict of interest, at worst using ones position as might a bully. How does a member proceed, this has bothered me eneough that I am considering cancelling my membership after 6 years here.
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Gastonknife was trolling by continuing to repeat the same exact (rather silly) lines. He deserved fair warning.
If that's your idea of intimidation, then your decision to cancel your membership is probably wise.
It is of my opinion that sportcolbs may have one or more shills in that thread.
Or at the least, some folks are in denial because they don't want to admit they may have been taken to the cleaners.
As a person who buys the occasional slipjoint, I'm glad sportcolbs is now on my radar.
 
The oddest thing about that thread is that Roland, Mike, and Karda all agreed on what SPORTCOLBS does. They just disagreed with whether that is acceptable business practice.

Bernard Levine is of the school which says, state exactly what the knife is, and based on that, let the customer set the price.

SPORTCOLBS shows you the knife, and gives a description which is open to interpretation, and lets the customer set the price based on what the customer thinks it is.

I think I agree with Mr. Levine's method, but I am an engineer and trained to be precise. Horse trading isn't my thing.
 
The link to the thread is http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...OLBS-quot-...-Listing-descriptions-misleading. As some have pointed out there were others involved in this thread whom were not particularly pleased with the mods behaviour as well. I believe that if a moderator finds themselves engaged in a thread and actively posting as any other member then either they must decide if they are going to be a moderator and step back or remain as an active participant in the thread. When anyone takes a quote from a member and inserts there own bit of sarcasm ie. Blah, Blah, Blah into that quote how is that not inciting a reaction. I have never had a problem with people being educated about potential threats on Ebay, but when innuendo and third party speculation are used as "evidence" of wrong doing. I don't care whom it is about, good old fashioned proof where one cant ignore the facts is required. Should people be cautious buying on Ebay from a seller, any seller....absolutely. Why is it that people whom have purchased knives from this particular seller and been satisfied were dismissed by the OP and Moderator involved. At what point does information or a heads up become character assassination??? Please remember I alone did not feel the mod behaves improperly. I can say neither I nor the two other members are shills for the ebay seller involved.
 
Tendy,
As a participant in the disagreement, you are hardly one who could be expected to be objective in your assessment of the other sides behavior.

I was not part of the argument.
I don't completely agree with either side.
I saw nothing overly wrong with Karda's behavior.
 
tendy said:
The link to the thread is http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...OLBS-quot-...-Listing-descriptions-misleading. As some have pointed out there were others involved in this thread whom were not particularly pleased with the mods behaviour as well. I believe that if a moderator finds themselves engaged in a thread and actively posting as any other member then either they must decide if they are going to be a moderator and step back or remain as an active participant in the thread. When anyone takes a quote from a member and inserts there own bit of sarcasm ie. Blah, Blah, Blah into that quote how is that not inciting a reaction. I have never had a problem with people being educated about potential threats on Ebay, but when innuendo and third party speculation are used as "evidence" of wrong doing. I don't care whom it is about, good old fashioned proof where one cant ignore the facts is required. Should people be cautious buying on Ebay from a seller, any seller....absolutely. Why is it that people whom have purchased knives from this particular seller and been satisfied were dismissed by the OP and Moderator involved. At what point does information or a heads up become character assassination??? Please remember I alone did not feel the mod behaves improperly. I can say neither I nor the two other members are shills for the ebay seller involved.
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I was not going to participate any further after my earlier pot, but after reading your thread, I changed my mind...

Tendy, you still aren't geting it. You claim that we were being unfair to the seller, but you state that Myself and Karda dismissed those who had purchased from Sportscolb. If you are going to make accusations, get your facts straight beforehand... Neither of us dismissed them. I acknowledged them, AND welcomed input from those who had dealing with the seller, they were satisfied with. There were others who agreed that there are reasons to "watch" when dealing with Sportscolb.
They took the thread for its intended purpose, Informational... NOBODY, ever said, Don't deal with this seller. Only use caution and do your research.

You continue to make this more of an issue than it ever needed to be. Learn to walk away, and let things go.
 
338375 said:
I was not going to participate any further after my earlier pot, but after reading your thread, I changed my mind...

Tendy, you still aren't geting it. You claim that we were being unfair to the seller, but you state that Myself and Karda dismissed those who had purchased from Sportscolb. If you are going to make accusations, get your facts straight beforehand... Neither of us dismissed them. I acknowledged them, AND welcomed input from those who had dealing with the seller, they were satisfied with. There were others who agreed that there are reasons to "watch" when dealing with Sportscolb.
They took the thread for its intended purpose, Informational... NOBODY, ever said, Don't deal with this seller. Only use caution and do your research.

You continue to make this more of an issue than it ever needed to be. Learn to walk away, and let things go.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but normally I do let things go, however I consider what happened to be a conflict of interest, and as Knarfeng put it to me "As a participant in the disagreement, you are hardly one who could be expected to be objective in your assessment of the other sides behavior.", I think it goes both ways.
 
Paddling_man said:
Participating as a user and not a mod: :rolleyes: I AGREE.
Click to expand...

Thankyou Paddling man, my objective here was not to air the whole thing all over again, but to get information on how I should proceed with my concerns. I cetainly never wanted all this, but here it is, and one must deal with it.
 
Participant or moderator?

Moderators are members Spark has asked to help run the place. We are members first. If we are going to be challenged on our objectivity whenever someone disagrees with us -- as members or as moderators -- we aren't going to participate as either. If Bladeforums isn't fun, we need to find someplace else to play.

It is precisely in the serious threads, with committed members airing firm opinions on both sides, that you will see moderators participating AND moderating. Sometimes it gets to be too much even for us. I have dropped out of threads and asked another moderator to look at what was going on. That's when someone accuses me in the thread of bias. (That accusation is generally close to Sassin' the Mods, is why I drop out.)

It is always a good idea, in a heated discussion, to back off for a while, before making an attack personal. "You" can be a dirty word. It's also a good idea not to take it all too personally. In the thread under discussion, someone else crossed the line into personal attack. But you're the one who is bringing the complaint.
 
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