A open message to the mods.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I've read with distress today about what's happened over the weekend and now seems to have caused us all to lose members.

I was a proud to be a mod here for several years and was also very proud of the friendly place everybody had carved out of an otherwise hostile internet. Just lately that seems to have been forgotten

One of the reasons I stepped down as a mod was the unbelievable workload! The guys and girls behind the scenes do an incredible amount of work behind the scenes for no reward other than trying to make this place the best on the net and I thing they do an incredible job full stop!

Do these kind, selfless folks a good turn by thinking before posting something controversial or allowing yourselves to be baited by people who are clearly taking the piss and are looking for a reaction!

I'm not a mod so I don't expect people to abide by the above, but a lot if my friends are mods and they deserve to give there free time to positive things rather than putting out fires that needn't have been lit in the first place.

Just my 2 pence.

Sent from my K013 using Tapatalk

[styx]

Well said

[SAK Guy]

+1

[firiki]

He's right, you know.

[N_N_R]

I totally agree, too.

It's been US, the users, all of us, who made this forum such a great place. It depends only on us to keep it like this.

To everyone who feels offended or insulted by something or someone: this is inevitable. It's such a big place with so many people that actually living in harmony is a miracle and something extraordinary, not the fights or arguments. We can't keep this place a paradise, it's a projection of the real world. There isn't life without fights, there isn't life without problems. But it's only up to us to be strong and keep fighting and going on and not paying attention to the surrounding crap.

So, please, good people, do not leave this place as it'll be nothing without you!
When good people leave, only the crap remains, that's not how it should be, I think.
We must all just try to stick to some ethics and moral norms just as we do in real life.

On one hand, as someone put it elsewhere, this all is a mere combination of 0s and 1a, but on the other hand, we all put a piece of ourselves here. So, since the 0s and 1s don't have a huge effect on our real lives, we may try to ignore the crappy "0s and 1s", but still remember that a lot of people put a lot of effort and enthusiasm in this place. I think it's worth staying for and because of them

[kkokkolis]

I missed most of the action but there were remnants that helped me understand what it is about.
I am a mod in Cloudy Nights forum and I made once a comment about birdwatching vs birdhunting and the different demands binocular users have. I used a powerful word (slaughter) and a user who is also a hunter protested. We solved it through pms, I said that I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and that I am just against illegal hunting and fishing, not legal that simultaneously adds to conservation efforts and population control. The hunter said he was a legal one and we concluded we had something in common, besides beeing cosmos and nature lovers.

 Mods have a hard work to do and I know that it is difficult to be alert continuously and act preemptively. They have the right and the duty to intervene and even cut a conversation. This forum is generally friendly, so a mod might see something and observe it from "a distance", hoping it will de-escalate, but some times it moves fast and on the other side of the earth (different timezone) so you can't do much but send it to the moderating archive.
My suggestion is to leave it behind, keep calm and keep walking.

But we might also learn from experience.

So, when a mod is not emotionally neutral about the hot topic (for example, the topic is against his nationality, religion, political beliefs, a non shared hobby etc) the best he could do would be not to interfere but call a fellow mod to take out the hot chestnuts from the burning fire.

And when an inside or outside minority seems to be attacked, a mod should intervene himself in order to avoid regular members to try to support the minority themselves, sometimes whith new hostile comments against the attacker.

It is very easy to say things that are not well thought. I have negative feelings too about whole societal segments (nothing racist, mostly against charlatans, television, gambling, drug dealing, abusive advertising etc) so I might say something silly someday about astrology without thinking first that a fellow MTO member has different views and likes to read his horoscope. If I do, cut my post immediately please, but I want to continue participating here and talk about different topics (how about SAKs?) with the fellow "astrologer" of my example.

Stay, don't go. Let's change our attitudes, not forum. Our attitudes might evolve to better, MTO is already great and we won't find something better I'm afraid.

Sorry for my post's lenght but I missed you!

[Chako]

Maybe I am too logical about this...but my personal opinions on the matter...if you want to leave...leave. If you wish to stay...stay. I don't buy into this good people leaving and only crap remains. Not sure why anyone would wish to denigrate themselves to crap status because they have stayed. I have noticed this thought in a few posts now. 

I have left this forum twice. I came back twice. Sometimes, a good breather is a good thing, and having some time away is a good thing. Chances are they will come back. if not...then it wasn't meant to be. I have been on this forum for long enough to have witnessed plenty of members who have just disappeared due to real life intruding or otherwise. MT.O will be here regardless.

[N_N_R]

Maybe I am too logical about this...but my personal opinions on the matter...if you want to leave...leave. If you wish to stay...stay. I don't buy into this good people leaving and only crap remains. Not sure why anyone would wish to denigrate themselves to crap status because they have stayed. I have noticed this thought in a few posts now. 

I have left this forum twice. I came back twice. Sometimes, a good breather is a good thing, and having some time away is a good thing. Chances are they will come back. if not...then it wasn't meant to be. I have been on this forum for long enough to have witnessed plenty of members who have just disappeared due to real life intruding or otherwise. MT.O will be here regardless.

Wow. Don't take my words too seriously, but if you imagine a huge pile of ... stuff, it's good stuff and bad stuff, it can't be all good. So if you take aside/away the good stuff, what remains? Bad stuff.

(I hope the number of "stuff"s used in one sentence doesn't speak too much about one's vocabulary, hehe)

[Chako]

No worries N_N_R.