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Simply Put, Too Much
- Thread starter willmtaylor
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I just wanted to talk about in this thread with people to show everyone what some of us were talking about. Its a good example, in my mind. Yes, a silly issue, but still, it fits.
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Oh, sorry, I do waive my rights.
Thanks... post away then and I'll ask one of the admins to respond.
You do realise your entire moderation history will be made public?
OK.... in a thread that was about 6 pages long, I posted a picture and said OP, is this you? It wasn't offensive, it was a picture of Monk from the tv show Monk. Some people liked it, the OP included and even responded with something like, LOL yeah, I love that show. The thread continued on for at least another page. My post and the OP's response was deleted due to being off topic. Here are my thoughts (And I say again, this is a silly, not important example but an example none the less)
1. Its not over topic, its about the OP.
2. Its a joke, jokes are allowed.
3. Its not offensive. The OP even liked it.
4. It didn't derail the thread at all. Some people liked it, Op commented on it, thread went on.
So why was it deleted when other jokes and memes aren't deleted.
1. They ALL weren't reported but mine was? Don't buy it.
2. I was kicked out of PRSI and someone doesn't want me back in so they need to built a history of breaking the rules. Possible but damn, that would be crazy.
3. Some moderators follow the letter of the rules but not the spirit of it. Good Chance.
4. I reported too many posts lately (thought I was being helpful, please move this to the proper folder type reports) and someone is saying, ok, you're gonna report others, let's report you. Probably not but just spit balling here.
This has happened to me before when a joke was deleted and I was told since it was the second post it could derail the thread but the thread had many response after mine so that was just flat out wrong.
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Ha-Ha, Well, I do now. That's fine...
A reminder for an off-topic post would have had no bearing on your ban from PRSI.
I've given the admins a heads up and one of them will respond to you. It may take them a few days to get to it, so please be patient.
So what does have a bearing on getting back in to PRSI? If you ask to have access returned to you, what do they use to decide?
If I had to guess, it was because someone who reports every little perceived violation of the rules reported you. There are a small handful of members who are real petty about that stuff. It drove me crazy when I was still on staff. That goes back to my response to your other thread about why we moderate and why I retired.
But just because its reported, it doesn't mean it has to be acted on. That's what I'm trying to say. That the moderation is all over the place. If I got that report, I would simply write back, post doesn't need moderation.
I won't disagree with you on that. Just offering a potential partial reason for this particular scenario.
I remember that post. Seeing how the OP made a point to state he had OCD issues, I found your post benign. If the OP hadn't made a point to state such, it could have been construed as an off topic insult.
I too have had a handful of posts over the years moderated as off-topic etc.
I get that the mods want to make sure that threads don't get purposefully derailed and end up in a mine field. At the same time, this sense of community that many here have spoken of, should be able to post with some personality and at times, a light joke or two to others we have come to know here. If we can't have a little casual fun at times while still conversing about the subject at hand, what is with all the "sense of community" drivel? We aren't robots.
Sometimes, it is better to take a step back (mods) and observe the flow, before taking action. And if action is needed, sometimes a quick friendly reminder post in the thread goes a lot farther in adjudication, than removing every little off topic post and turning the forum into some kind of sterile hospital post setting.
Wasn't there a thread recently showing report percentages? If I recall, just a couple-dozen posters were responsible for a huge percentage of all reports on the site.
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Yeah...on my other main forum, our moderator is a thorn in everyones' side. She is hell-bent on moderating with an iron fist on every possible rule violation. Even the slightest off-topic post will get a thread closed or entirely deleted. People are sent on vacation over the silliest of "infractions". I got sent on vacation for a week for posting an eyeroll emoji. Been trying to figure out how to start a petition to have her removed.
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One of the admins posts the statistics annually.
Here are 2017's statistics. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2017-post-report-statistics.2103406/
Humour is a very subjective thing, - and often, quite culturally specific. This is even more true especially in an online environment - in the absence of face to face (or voice to voice) contact, it can be difficult to ascertain whether the intent behind it is gentle teasing or something more spiky.
I get that in this context - the one cited - the OP did not take offence, and actually "liked" the post under discussion.
However, as with the use of language, to my mind, the onus is the person who makes the "joke" to ensure that it cannot remotely be construed as offensive (if that is his or her intent, if the intent is to give offence, that is different), rather than on the person on the receiving end of the joke to prove that they have a sense of humour.
If MR is not what it used to be, that cannot be laid solely at the feet of the moderators. I've been here a long time too, and it's obvious nowadays (not just at MacRumors) that online commentary has become more provocative, thoughtless, insulting, etc., no matter the venue.
Different sites apply different remedies in in this era of "road rage on the info highway". Most are now offering users more options to alter the universe of what they see to begin with. They also try to clarify guidelines and then apply their formal moderation however best they can.
Of course one can end up on the wrong end of a ruling, and it's easy to end up there if posting often to topics of controversial interest.. like whether the iPhone SE deserves the axe.
and one may forget there's a point at which bailing from a thread is a good idea, or else considering whether one's in a flame war -- or "bickering" instead of debating? To continue to engage at that point instead is almost asking for some sort of moderation to occur. Whether it does or not is up to the set of all members reading those posts. Not up to the mods at MacRumors, unless they're summoned to the scene. The mods here do not wander through each thread each morning to see if all the guidelines have been followed. They depend on the post reports submitted by users. So if we feel we have been singled out, it's possible that no one reported some other set of posts that also would have been viewed as having broken the same guidelines.
I like prowling around this site to see what's up, but have my moments when I either figure the mods messed up or no one reported something that sure looks like a violation. I don't usually stop to report it though, since there are a bunch of email briefs and newspaper subs waiting. I think that's typical, even if most longtime members will report a post that he/she realizes is one of of a sudden flurry of spam posts splattered all over the boards.
Anyway if some other forum member takes the trouble to report spam or some one-off possible violation in posts that I never even saw, I won't notice that either, will I? By the time I show up that set of spam or atrociously over the top post in some subforum is already gone. What does that mean? That I don't notice when the moderation is excellent. I only notice when someone has tried to drop a hammer on me.
I agree with you when you say the onus is on the person posting but not to the extent you wrote. “Remotely” is way to high a bar in today’s world. Someone is going to be offended about something.
Yes and no.
Memes can be adjudged pretty insulting, although, in this instance, the OP was fine with it.
However, in my experience, in face-to-face communication, if someone is coming up with the line of "I was just joking" as a response to something they have said or sent, they have crossed a line, (and privately may be fully aware of that) and have been called out on it.
Memes to describe a situation are one thing, but to describe a person? Someone you don't know as a friend, family member or close colleague?
I shouldn't like to be a moderator when it comes to a presidential election year and the flood of offensive memes that end up posted into PRSI in the name of political commentary, I'll say that much. "Remotely offensive" doesn't even figure in assessment of a lot of them if they are reported. The questions of moderation are more like "did it slur an entire group, did its graphics finesse the profanity filters?", etc. Which may still let stand memes that could seem pretty offensive to a broad swath of readers. Multiply by large number of participants in an election season... and that's when we have to haul out our mud boots or else bail from the subforum for awhile.
Lately I've taken to muttering "It's all just ones and zeros" and bailing out to a world that's more concrete and usually less binary.
To me that post comes across as an insult and should have been moderated vs posting a meme regarding the general thread; such as beating a dead horse meme.
It’s always best to not make inferences on the character of posters here. Not even as a joke. While the tv show Monk is one of my favorites using that picture as a meme comes across as insulting, imo.
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Not all jokes are funny, especially to some people other than the person who told the "joke".
And why make a joke - or wish to make a joke - (even though subsequently, in that context, the OP had no quarrel with it) about a person?
In the context of online debate, surely it is better to make such jokes as one wishes to make at the expense of content or subject matter or situation or the topic under discussion, rather than at a person?
Why seek to offend? Why not argue against what they have to say (or write)?
There is a significant different between making a joke at the expense of a topic, or subject matter, and making one at the expense of a person who posts.
To my mind, there is - and, as I have remarked earlier, if you have to resort to the "I was only joking" defence, it really wasn't all that funny and didn't come across that way to others.
Well said.
And, to that I'll add: Until I read this thread, I had never heard of the TV show Monk - some references are very culturally specific and don't travel all that well.
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It was moderated for being off topic. That's ridiculous. Show me one thread that doesn't have a bunch of off topic posts.
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Right not all jokes are funny but that line is different for everyone. A poster here made two jokes about beating women, one posted just to rile me up. Both posts were allowed because the moderators said what's funny to some might not be funny to others and we always want to err on the side of caution to not over moderate. But a picture of Monk is worse than that? Come on.
I didn't seek to offend. And me saying its only a joke is not a defense because I have nothing to defend. Other people liked the joke even the OP. And that's all besides the point.....again, this post was deleted for being off topic.
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The way that I look at it, is that the post was caught. A cop doesn’t catch every speeder in the world nor does a moderator catch every post that goes against the rules.
To me the post seemed like an insult and if you view that post as a joke, which it might be to you, it’s an example of how posts are viewed differently. Which is why I stay away from discussing the posters as much as possible(vs discussing the posters content).