Should moderators be elected by membership?

[85Hokie]

I'm pretty sure your talking to me. AND/or me - I have pissed off a few

I really want to know, what am I overly sensitive to? I am gonna guess .......... SP

Enforcing the forum rules? YUP - sometimes MANY do not understand a specific rule!

Getting rid of the scammers and spammers? Seems to be a daily job! some days more than others!

Weeding out the posting issues? Again = daily

I do get a little bent out of shape when I deal with 100's of posts a day and I have to weed out the riff raff, the muck, the junk and fluff. OR those that just make up stuff


Do I always make the right call... probably not... But I do my best. AND I salute you for doing all the above!

There are 3 moderators and any big or objectionable call I try and get the consensus of all the mods.
And I also deal with the owners directly and do the job that they expect me to do!


The sad thing is this - the people that are here and read this forum daily DO understand what to say or not say - we also need to understand there a few lovely ladies here that may or may not laugh at some of the funny jokes that come through. IF you cannot place "X" in a corporate email - chances are you should not place it here

BUT - if we leave out any mention of people that are involved in politics - things will go a lot smoother!

JUST maybe Kubota makes such a great tractor that so few break down and there is not much to talk about!

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Everyone feel free without any repercussion to vote or state an opinion!
I like input.

I listen to everyone's opinion and try and weigh them out within the rules of the forum.
Like I've always said I try and do the best job I can and that's all I can do.

 

[Sidekick]

It's up to the owner of the forum in my opinion. If you feel attacked or censored or don't like moderators opinion there's a federal site that you can report to and file a case to be investigated I recently saw on the news.

 

[Hugo Habicht]

Hi,

I am not very long on this forum but I think the moderators are doing a great job. People communicate here in a very civilised way, this may be because offensive posts are being removed, I never saw any. Help and advice is given to people, they are not being frowned upon even when asking beginners questions. Spammer posts (seen a few myself) are being quickly removed. Please keep it that way. Thank you very much for the good work you are doing from my side.

 

[armylifer]

Waiting with baited breath

Okay, Here goes.

I have seen you make personal comments about one member that was not popular on this site. I am speaking of Sidecarflip. The personal attacks made against him were mostly uncalled for by some more vocal members as well as from you. There were no vacations given for those posts. Also, when someone made an account with the name sidecarflop and made posts that mocked him, the real person, sidecarflip (Darrell) got banned from the site. He was set up by the imposter and no one investigated. I sent a PM to the site owner offering my professional services to find the culprit free of charge. I got no reply from him. I even outlined in summary detail to him how he could find the person and even identify what machine he used to make the imposter posts. Whether Darrell was popular on the site or not, he deserved a fair shake and he did not get one.

I got a vacation for posting in the daily chuckle a reply mostly similar to several other posts on the same subject and those other posters did not get the same treatment that I did.

I have seen several times where some members post blatantly political posts but the posts do not get removed and the members who violated the rule do not get a vacation. This seems to be a one sided affair where only those posts that you do not agree with get handled in a more strict fashion.

These are just two examples of unfair treatment. I can cite more but it really would just be redundant. I am sure that others on this forum can think of their own examples so I will just leave these two as my case.

 

[85Hokie]

Okay, Here goes.

I have seen you make personal comments about one member that was not popular on this site. I am speaking of Sidecarflip.

Well - I will jump in here. I have been here since 2013........ and I have seen a looooooooooot of stuff. AND I have tried in the last 1 plus years to help eliminate some of it.

I will tell you this - your buddy would aggravate the living hell out of the members here, he has a big ol MX and downplayed ANYONE with small tractors just to mention one thing.

He was crass - mean - ugly and downright condescending at times!!!!!! NIW did what HE needed to do - I would have done it MYSELF if I was in that position.

Now you bring up another point that I am NOT aware of - and that is the imposter.

Regardless - he is your friend - and I respect that, but ............ I see "IT" from a different perspective however.

As for the "fair shake" - I truly believe he got that and then some.



As for the political postings = you do realize it takes a butt load of time to "see" them - I MEAN all of them???? Now - if I have a post INSIDE that post, I will get a "bell" saying a new post was made. BUT to go through all the new posts and old posts that are not in my purview??

We have about 6 to 8 people that will flag them - and I know we all stop what we are doing and erase them.

Here is the sad part - some of them are funny as hell - I laugh out loud ......... but BECAUSE I understand that my point of view is less than the whole, I must do what must be done.

Now- lets do this, IF you have a problem with A N Y O N E - PM us - I will be glad to help in any way possible - hell 37 years in a classroom, I can listen to anyone!!!!!!!!

 

[Cape Cod]

If everyone followed the simple stated rules, there would be little need for moderators.

This goes for public life as well as online life.

If you don't like the rules, work to change them or "move" to somewhere that has rules (or lack there of) that align with you.

I was a member of a once great forum that has jumped the shark with Mod problems and politics.
My personal opinion is if you want politics on a forum join a political forum.
If you want info and comradery about tractors join a tractor forum.

 

[Tarmy]

All right you mods…you want the truth and you asked for it so here it is…pay attention you power hungry maniacs.

I…uh…

Welp….there was….

Then there was this….

Nevermind

Wolfman…I looked at your invitation to freely comment without repercussions with a grain of salt…as I have been married 45 years this year. If wifey said that to me I KNOW there will be…um…consequences.🪖

On a serious note. Works well for me…learned a lot here. I got pounded on by a few when I was new and then figured things out…no issues since

Thank mods….great place to hang out daily For 16 years.

Oh, almost forgot. IBTL.

 

[old and tired]

So, 19 (so far) said No; with 1 yes...

 

[armylifer]

So, 19 (so far) said No; with 1 yes...

That is why it is a poll.

 

[RCW]

Deleted- was a duplicate of what I wrote earlier….

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

Ok, I’ll take the bait…but I am going to preface it with I am a very flawed individual and I say and do inappropriate things on a regular basis. I am sorry if I offend. I am pretty snarky and I understand that is not a competency valued ball. Sorry team if I get out of tolerance. Don’t feel sorry for me, feel sorry for my spousal unit. I’d like to be the person that my dog thinks I am, but who am I kidding?. That being said I have been trying to do better not to be an ass to others…sometimes it’s very hard.

I’ve taken the bait a time or too on this site and self moderated as I knew I was an ass…I get that. I am sorry and was wrong for comments not helpful.

I work for a fairly large company that has a fairly healthy HR department, and I can tell you I feel like I speak more freely at a corporate job than I do here. Not bad, but that’s the impression I have.

For me this is a great site and very informational and despite any of my personal disagreements on a few non tractor related topics, this forum is full of some mechanical geniuse as well as a lot of members with incredible manufacturing capability and general product knowledge…it really is and that is why I am here, to learn from others. And the best part is the members and all moderators are trying to help others regardless of experience and background. That is benchmark in my book.

However it seems some like there have been a couple posts where some regular trolls (they are either trolls or are dealing with some mild to severe cognitive capability) that bait others (i did not keep track so I don’t have data or specific incident…but I know I am guilty of taking the bait), intentional or not I really don’t know, and when someone responds, seems like the master baiters are left alone and the person who took the bait has been dealt with…in my perception it means a common direction.

I don’t know that background or history of those incidents or what might be going on behind the scenes either, but that is the sole reason that I am not a paying member. I just struggle to pay my money (personally and fundamentally) to a club or whatever this is if there is potential to be censored. Don’t feel bad, I would not join a HOA either….i live under a mailbox umbrella policy. That being said is the limited censorship of this site better than none, yes I think it is better with some than none.

That being said I am afflicted because I have also been greatly helped by the site moderators and I really appreciate and value them. I really do. So I feel like I should be a paying member. But, Every time I feel guilty and plan to join it seems like I am reminded why I have not come to terms with paying. It’s not much money and it’s a great site and I don’t have better idea.

OTT was the first and only forum I have ever been on. Recently I joined a financial/investing forum and oh how aweful from a friendship/fellowship site that is…it’s informational, but holy crap is it dull and low or no personality and it’s locked down really tight in terms of what is acceptable online comments. In that case there is no perception of favoritism, it’s all banned…to me that is much worse.

At this site honestly I think if there were a local meet up I would be proud to buy most any member and moderator a beverage. Great job everybody.

Do I have a better answer….nope. I think on the whole this a great site and ALL the moderators are doing a great job….better than I could do. Not only could I not do their job better, more importantly, I don’t want to to do their job. So moderators thank you.

Best thing I can do is stick to the tractor topics.

That’s my $.02. I am not voting.

Tractor on friends and keep the rubber side down!

 

[85Hokie]

However it seems some like there have been a couple posts where some regular trolls (they are either trolls or are dealing with some mild to severe cognitive capability) that bait others (i did not keep track so I don’t have data or specific incident…but I know I am guilty of taking the bait), intentional or not I really don’t know, and when someone responds, seems like the master baiters are left alone and the person who took the bait has been dealt with…in my perception it means a common direction.

when these trolls fire up - PM us and we will get to them proto - hard to see all posts daily - but with your help, they will come to the forefront!

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

when these trolls fire up - PM us and we will get to them proto - hard to see all posts daily - but with your help, they will come to the forefront!

Thank you for the reply and follow up. I appreciate you. But thats not who I am. I am here to learn, share my perspective and to help others determine their criteria. I don’t have much to offer beyond that. I do my best to share when there is something phishy though. That’s my contribution, well that and some pics of pretty awesome GSDs. . Anyone who doesn’t like a GSD should be moderated and for that I guess I could make an exception and let you know. Thanks for all you do.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Okay, Here goes.

I have seen you make personal comments about one member that was not popular on this site. I am speaking of Sidecarflip. The personal attacks made against him were mostly uncalled for by some more vocal members as well as from you. There were no vacations given for those posts. Also, when someone made an account with the name sidecarflop and made posts that mocked him, the real person, sidecarflip (Darrell) got banned from the site. He was set up by the imposter and no one investigated. I sent a PM to the site owner offering my professional services to find the culprit free of charge. I got no reply from him. I even outlined in summary detail to him how he could find the person and even identify what machine he used to make the imposter posts. Whether Darrell was popular on the site or not, he deserved a fair shake and he did not get one.

I got a vacation for posting in the daily chuckle a reply mostly similar to several other posts on the same subject and those other posters did not get the same treatment that I did.

I have seen several times where some members post blatantly political posts but the posts do not get removed and the members who violated the rule do not get a vacation. This seems to be a one sided affair where only those posts that you do not agree with get handled in a more strict fashion.

These are just two examples of unfair treatment. I can cite more but it really would just be redundant. I am sure that others on this forum can think of their own examples so I will just leave these two as my case.

WOW a 4 year old axe to grind!
You have his name wrong, I know his real name, along with his email, phone number and address.

I didn't ban Sidecarflip the Owners of the forum did!
Did I agree with it, you betcha!
Those that didn't get the pleasure of dealing with him count yourself lucky.
Those of you that did, sorry you too had to endear that pain with us.

There was also a ton of other things behind the scene that earned him a Lifetime Permanent BAN!
That honor is been reserved for only 3 people that I know of off the forum.
There are a few things a member can do to earn this, and he did them all!

This is going off of a fuzzy memory of the events.
As far as the sidecarflop thing goes, three details.
Sidecarflop came on while sidecarflip was temp banned and under review.
Sidecarflip made mutiple attemps to register new user names, and he got caught every time.
And you do know that we can see IP addresses and other info like Email addresses and unless someone crawled in his window, logged onto his computer and registered a new user, it was him.

With this new information on why you dislike my Moderating so much.
I will strongly and kindly suggest you go over to the other forum that Sidecarflip is on and join him there in your rants on how much you dislike me.

 

[MOOTS]

I will tell you this - your buddy would aggravate the living hell out of the members here, he has a big ol MX and downplayed ANYONE with small tractors just to mention one thing.

It was an M, and he had two of them. Anything less was inferior.

 

[85Hokie]

It was an M, and he had two of them. Anything less was inferior.

Sorry - I sit corrected - you are right they WERE "M's"

 

[Scottly]

I found this site back in 2016 while researching Kubota's prior to buying mine. It was so helpful to me in making my decision.

This is first and foremost a tractor forum. I would bet most issues pop up in non-tractor related sub forums.

While I really enjoy the Daily Chuckle, Hunting posts and Photography, I want to know what people are doing on or too their tractors.

This is a great place, and I check it multiple times a day.

I voted No.

 

[armylifer]

WOW a 4 year old axe to grind!
You have his name wrong, I know his real name, along with his email, phone number and address.

I didn't ban Sidecarflip the Owners of the forum did!
Did I agree with it, you betcha!
Those that didn't get the pleasure of dealing with him count yourself lucky.
Those of you that did, sorry you too had to endear that pain with us.

There was also a ton of other things behind the scene that earned him a Lifetime Permanent BAN!
That honor is been reserved for only 3 people that I know of off the forum.
There are a few things a member can do to earn this, and he did them all!

This is going off of a fuzzy memory of the events.
As far as the sidecarflop thing goes, three details.
Sidecarflop came on while sidecarflip was temp banned and under review.
Sidecarflip made mutiple attemps to register new user names, and he got caught every time.
And you do know that we can see IP addresses and other info like Email addresses and unless someone crawled in his window, logged onto his computer and registered a new user, it was him.

With this new information on why you dislike my Moderating so much.
I will strongly and kindly suggest you go over to the other forum that Sidecarflip is on and join him there in your rants on how much you dislike me.

I did not say I dislike you. I met you and we got along as far as I am aware. I just do not like what appears to be uneven enforcement of the site rules.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I did not say I dislike you. I met you and we got along as far as I am aware. I just do not like what appears to be uneven enforcement of the site rules.

Come at me with something within a time frame that I can actually look at and review and care about then we'll talk about how I do or don't enforce the rules fairly.
Or just post something political and you find out in a quick hurry!