Moderators

[B.K.]

I have received notice of "infractions" twice in the past by City Data Forum Moderators-tho' never by the moderators of the Baltimore City Data Forum page, who seem to actually follow and believe in the time-honored American right to Free Speech, even if such speech involves a dissenting opinion to their own. Kudos to them!

I was notified of my infractions after posts I made in the "Parenting" section of the Forum. Each occurred at different times, several months apart. The first assessed me a "penalty" of 1 point-whatever that means-and barred me from being able to post in any Forum for 3 days, I believe. The second assessed me two points, and barred me from posting for 1 week. Both came with stern warnings that if I accumulated enough "points", I would be banned for life from the City Data Forums. I believe both of these "violations" were levied against me due to the fact that the Moderators (two different ones, purportedly) of that Forum did not agree with my point of view.

In the first instance, my post was described as, "rude, and a personal attack", after I described the 4-year old child of a never-married, no-father present post conception, 21-year old woman, as a "bastard." I then went on to give the dictionary definition of the word "bastard." Apparently, accurate descriptions and true meanings of words are an affront to that Moderator's sensibilities. That was the reason given, anyway. My belief is that the substance of my post, which dealt with the failed policy of rewarding welfare mothers with increased benefits for every out-of-wedlock birth, ran counter to said Moderator's beliefs.

In the second instance (even more absurd than the first, tho' carrying twice the number of "points", and a longer posting ban), I received an infraction for "trolling, via racist comments". Believe it or not, this was in a long thread about whether it was normal for teen-age boys and adult men to be heavily involved with "Brony" culture-look it up: these are males obsessed with a children's TV show aimed at pre-pubescent girls that features big-eyed, makeup-wearing cartoon horses that fly around doing good deeds, and finding new ways to be nice to each other. I'm not kidding. I guess you can figure out where I stood on the issue of whether this was a constructive, manly, character-building pursuit for impressionable young men to be involved with.
In any event, I should have seen this one coming, as a couple of my earlier posts had been partially edited by the same moderator that ended up assessing the infraction-I used a 3-letter abbreviation for a phrase that could have been construed to contain a curse word. This despite the fact that "pro-Brony" posts that featured explicit sexual terms and references were left up (and are still up, I just checked). I ended up being cited for describing a "Mexican Yard Man" as a "Mexican Yard Man." Apparently, either "Mexican", "Yard", or "Man" is a racist comment in that Moderator's opinion. Good thing I didn't say "Famous French Chef", or "American War Hero", or I probably would have been burned at the stake. This "violation" was clearly a demonstration of the Moderator's bias.
Unfortunately, there is no where to turn to complain when such an "infraction" occurs.

[steppinthrax]

Originally Posted by B.K.

I have received notice of "infractions" twice in the past by City Data Forum Moderators-tho' never by the moderators of the Baltimore City Data Forum page, who seem to actually follow and believe in the time-honored American right to Free Speech, even if such speech involves a dissenting opinion to their own. Kudos to them!

I was notified of my infractions after posts I made in the "Parenting" section of the Forum. Each occurred at different times, several months apart. The first assessed me a "penalty" of 1 point-whatever that means-and barred me from being able to post in any Forum for 3 days, I believe. The second assessed me two points, and barred me from posting for 1 week. Both came with stern warnings that if I accumulated enough "points", I would be banned for life from the City Data Forums. I believe both of these "violations" were levied against me due to the fact that the Moderators (two different ones, purportedly) of that Forum did not agree with my point of view.

In the first instance, my post was described as, "rude, and a personal attack", after I described the 4-year old child of a never-married, no-father present post conception, 21-year old woman, as a "bastard." I then went on to give the dictionary definition of the word "bastard." Apparently, accurate descriptions and true meanings of words are an affront to that Moderator's sensibilities. That was the reason given, anyway. My belief is that the substance of my post, which dealt with the failed policy of rewarding welfare mothers with increased benefits for every out-of-wedlock birth, ran counter to said Moderator's beliefs.

In the second instance (even more absurd than the first, tho' carrying twice the number of "points", and a longer posting ban), I received an infraction for "trolling, via racist comments". Believe it or not, this was in a long thread about whether it was normal for teen-age boys and adult men to be heavily involved with "Brony" culture-look it up: these are males obsessed with a children's TV show aimed at pre-pubescent girls that features big-eyed, makeup-wearing cartoon horses that fly around doing good deeds, and finding new ways to be nice to each other. I'm not kidding. I guess you can figure out where I stood on the issue of whether this was a constructive, manly, character-building pursuit for impressionable young men to be involved with.
In any event, I should have seen this one coming, as a couple of my earlier posts had been partially edited by the same moderator that ended up assessing the infraction-I used a 3-letter abbreviation for a phrase that could have been construed to contain a curse word. This despite the fact that "pro-Brony" posts that featured explicit sexual terms and references were left up (and are still up, I just checked). I ended up being cited for describing a "Mexican Yard Man" as a "Mexican Yard Man." Apparently, either "Mexican", "Yard", or "Man" is a racist comment in that Moderator's opinion. Good thing I didn't say "Famous French Chef", or "American War Hero", or I probably would have been burned at the stake. This "violation" was clearly a demonstration of the Moderator's bias.
Unfortunately, there is no where to turn to complain when such an "infraction" occurs.

This is generally any kind of moderation in any type of forum I've been to. Moderating is more/less politics. You have some that plainly don't care, you have some that follow the rules to the book and you have some that have a personal grudge to you, therefore they ban/kick/penalize you on every instance possible. There no forum yet that I've been to that has a clear and concise set of rules that is consistent and fair to everyone.

[elnina]

Direct your complaints (and/or compliments) directly to the forum moderator or senior moderators Marka or Yac.

Discussing moderator actions in public is against ToS.

See list of mods, ToS and other useful stuff on the bottom of my post (in bold). Just click on it, and gain some important information you could use in the future. You can also use the "search" button located on the top of the screen.

If you want to report a post, click on the red triangle located on the top right of every post.

Closed.