mod note

[mermaidshotel.livejournal.com]

if i'm terse and cranky-sounding in this entry, i apologise.
i'm just going to shorten names to A and S, because we know them already

1. A's comment - "I can't help but notice you belong to an LJ community called boy_touching. Maybe you should go back there." like astrokaiju, gryfindormia, and others, i took a look at the community and saw it was 18+, with no porn allowed. so that cancels out A's accusation that S was a pedophile. i interpreted a's tone as "go back to something lesser." that he was implying that being gay is something lesser. i hope that wording made sense.
2. both A and S were awesome posters. we know that. they will be missed. but just because you are a good poster does not give you the right to abuse another member. it doesn't give you the right to insult and lecture another member who has a differing opinion, or posted something you don't like.
it really, really disgusted me going through those entries and comments.

i am thinking of placing a temporary ban, but i'm still playing with it. if this happens, both A and S would be re-instated, to be completely fair.

i just want this to be a safe, considerate, and comfortable community where people can post without being scared they'll be attacked/flamed.

again, sorry for sounding so bitter and cranky. i used italics a lot. dumb me. i'm really tired. some sentences may have come out wrongly-worded. i'm going to bed.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think you did the right thing. Amado always had a negative attitude towards other users posts and acted like the head mod half the time. It was time for him to go.

don't reinstate!

[(Anonymous)]

neither of them need to be here; they were too dominating. good riddance.

Re: don't reinstate!

[(Anonymous)]

Ditto.

[acecamaro.livejournal.com]

dang it, I missed the drama. :-(

[inkytwist.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with your decisions. As a fellow moderator of a community (albeit a non-laid back and completely different genre) I know the frustration, and would like to pat you on the back. It's okay to feel bitter, you've basically been attacked over this.

[eonism.livejournal.com]

I for one whole-heartedly agree with your decision. Having lots of new content is great, but ultimately I don't think it was worth the two days of drama and flaming.

[orcasandowls.livejournal.com]

no, you're right. if someone wants drama from idiotic posters, head on over to ONTD, plz.

[clamnebula.livejournal.com]

Umm... what is ONTD?

ontd

[andromedanine.livejournal.com]

it stands for "oh no they didn't!"; all sorts of stuff goes down on that website. a guilty pleasure for me but i try not frequent it too often as it sucks your brain dry.

[orcasandowls.livejournal.com]

ohnotheydidnt. it's a celeb gossip community but there are a few members out of the many who are just idiotic and basically only read the posts to flame/insult others.

[sunflower-pixie.livejournal.com]

i totally missed the drama, and don't have the energy or the inclination to go and look for it, but you sound quite sane and balanced. :) modding is a pain sometimes, but it seems like you handled the situation well.

[pink-porcupette.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I love watching this community and did enjoy seeing posts from both of the banned users.
And I hope you reinstate, because I know certain people will just change their username/ get a new account and rejoin anyway. It has happened before in other communities. Maybe clearer rules in the use info would be good? That way if drama erupts again, there will be no confusion over why someone was banned.

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

iawtc.

It seems this community is getting popular/populous enough that it's attracting drama queens, and some ground rules about acceptable behavior need to be established. A good, clear set of rules will also help loyal comm members self-regulate if the mod can't be around all the time.

fwiw, mermaidshotel, I think you're handling this wonderfully and fairly.

[tanwen.livejournal.com]

I agree.

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

Hey new mod, take a look at this. You guys need to grow some balls and get a hold of this community really quick.
http://community.livejournal.com/vintage_ads/894264.html?thread=6634552#t6634552

[tanwen.livejournal.com]

Grow some balls? Nice, real nice.

They've already deleted it, who was it & what did it say?

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

reborn (sombersigh) replied to your LiveJournal comment:

Their reply was:

IF NOT THIS INSANELY OFFENSIVE COMMENT DOESN'T RESULT IN A BAN, I WILL
PERSONALLY REPORT THIS TO THE LJ ABUSE TEAM, AND REQUEST HIS JOURNAL BE
DELETED. JESUS!!!

AND SINCE WHEN DID THE GARBAGE SHITTY STUPID_FREE VULTURE SITE ACTUALLY
ACQUIRE ANY CREDIBILITY AT ALL? IT SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT THIS POSTER THAT
HE READS AND BELIEVES THE MALICIOUS CRAP TO BE FOUND THERE. AND IF YOU
ARE NOT A (FAT) FAGGOT - WHY THE HELL DO YOU LIST ROCKY HORROR AS ONE OF
YOUR PRINCIPAL INTERESTS - YOU ARE ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH A BISEXUAL
COMMUNITY - AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO PASS JUDGMENT ON ME????

MIND YOU - THESE ARE NOT EMPTY THREATS - AND I HAVE ALREADY TAKEN
SCREENCAPS OF YOUR EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE POSTS - AS EVIDENCE TO LJ - SO YOU
BETTER COOK UP A NEW LJ, MISTER.

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

the complaint ended up coming from yet another sockpuppet journal of sombersigh / somber_sigh / nocturne333, from "whipit_devo" (whipit_devo copied me on the complaint), and I expect absolutely nothing to come of - but this person is walking all over your community and using it for his/her drama queen trolling ground.

[tanwen.livejournal.com]

The comment is gone & sombersigh has been banned. I also took the liberty of turning off anonymous commenting. I hope you don't expect miracles, but I think the mods will all try to be vigilant with this sort of thing.

I don't think we can see every single comment that is posted in this community, but if you see something that we should take care of, please let us know.

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

Which is what I was doing. Sorry I was a bit pissy about it, but I really don't think that discussions about potential unbanning are something to be discussed publicly, because things like this are usually the result when the butthurt banned go on the revenge backlash rampage. Was a pretty blunt and maybe not so nice in my assessment? - probably. But I've dealt with this type hundreds of times on LJ and if you are going to take it public, I am going to be brutally and completely honest in my assessment.

I understand you three are doing the best you can and there's nothing you can do ultimately to stop the drama queen(s). Hopefully, eventually, they'll move on. my best to all of you.

(frozen comment)

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

I think amadoj0nes shouldn't be banned or should be reinstated. But I don't seem to have as many issues as others here, so I don't know.

I think somber_sigh/nocturne333 needs to be ultra high super double secret perma banned from this community... from LJ... heck form the Internets if possible and their computer buried.

No, it doesn't need to be "fair" - it's not the same thing. somber_sigh/nocturne333 is a batshit insane lunatic with serious mental problems. His/her trolling and insane antics and drama queen idiocy across LJ are epic on stupid_free and sf_drama . If you remove the ban on them, I almost guarantee you'll be facing the same nonsense all over again inside of a month. If that's the kind of place you want to run and kind of thing you'd like to deal with, fine. But the ban threat doesn't mean much if you're going to generically go back on them *all*.

(frozen comment)

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

I rest my case, you nutter. Get some help dude/dudette/whatever. Seriously, you've got more issues than a newsstand.

[lsdiamond.livejournal.com]

I am sad for you, yes sad, that you've had to go through this mess. You've handled it all masterfully, and clearly with a great deal of thought. I'll miss both users' good points - they both did contribute quite a bit of fun material - but the overwhelming drama is too much.

When kids in the playground can't play nicely, they get sent away. You did the right thing for the good of the community.

Hooray for safe, considerate and comfortable!

[(Anonymous)]

I just wanted to say that I'm new here & that flame war thing gave me a bad first impression, so I'm glad that you have taken care of the problem. Thanks.

[drunklars.livejournal.com]

I've been a community member for 8-10 months and didn't know we had a mod. but I want to say this now that I've seen our mod in action, "Our mod kicks ass"

[malfeasanceses.livejournal.com]

I went back and read what this was all about, and I agree that they were both out of line. You're doing the right thing.

ditto

[(Anonymous)]

I think you're a great mod!

[nerdwerds.livejournal.com]

I still haven't seen the posts with the pieces of drama that are being referenced, but then maybe thats my own laziness showing. I've certainly looked at comments on previous entries, just not ALL of them.

I think I understand where you (mermaidshotel) are coming from and don't envy you. Moderating this community is probably more work than you signed on for. I would volunteer to help but I have never contributed, so I think that rules me out.

[onyx-noir.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[esme454.livejournal.com]

I'm a fairly recent addition to this community, but I must say you've handled this very well. I adore this community and wind up saving most of the ads that people post.

(frozen comment)

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

I think the bans were a bit harsh and overreacting. Yes, the tone was out of line for both parties involved and the wanking annoyed everyone, but I think posters should be given a better treatment than a kneejerk reaction to a thoughtless comment made in anger.

I can't so much speak for S since I only actively noticed two or three posts and then the massive wankery and flouncing, but in A's case I can say that there were many high quality posts that I enjoyed a lot. So yeah, whereas making good posts doesn't give you the right to be a constant raging idiot, it should give you a bit more lenience and consideration when being banned. It's like there's a huge long list of positive contributions as opposed to a few instances of negative ones, all related to a certain incident. That should be taken into account.

Of course it's your community and your decision and at least a temporary ban was a good idea, but I think eventually the decision should be reconsidered. Also, I think the accusation of the comment being homophobic is a bit over the top as well. It seems vasty based on personal interpretations IMO.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

"A's comment - "I can't help but notice you belong to an LJ community called boy_touching. Maybe you should go back there." like astrokaiju, gryfindormia, and others, i took a look at the community and saw it was 18+, with no porn allowed. so that cancels out A's accusation that S was a pedophile."

(frozen comment)

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

Uhm yes? Why repeat this to me? I've read it and my opinion still stands O.o. I don't see any accusation of pedophilia in that line. If A had said "I see you're a member of carebear_friendz. Maybe you should go back there" it still would have been rude, but nobody would have even thought to accuse this of being homophobic or A accusing someone else of being a pedophile. So it's really just interpretation.

(frozen comment)

[faedreamer.livejournal.com]

In a later comment, to me actually, he called it a "thinly-veiled" pedophile community. It is nothing of the sort and made it clear that he was implying anyone who was a member there was a pedophile.

Just to clarify,not trying to restir the wank pot.

(frozen comment)

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

Ah okay. Well, that is clearly wanky, I agree. But again, I'd be willing to notch this up to "stupid comments made in the heat of wankery". I think mistakes were made on both sides. I'd hate to be banned from a community I was active in for a long time over a couple of stupid angry exchanges. But then again, I may just be too soft-hearted >.>;.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

amadoj0nes
2008-03-15 01:06 am UTC (link)

I called the guy out on the fact he's a member of an LJ community called "boy_touching".

The mod here apparently considers pedophilia a homosexual thing, and therefore my comment is "homophobic" in nature.

Yeah, I know.

Hell, I didn't even know the guy was gay, assuming he even is! Silly me, I point out a pedo, and I get banned. :) What bothers me is that she apparently equates homosexuality with pedophilia. Thats kind of, uhm.. wrong? Massively wrong?

(frozen comment)

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

Please stop repeating stuff randomly without further comment. It's not really adding to the discussion. Thank you.

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

So an accusation of pedophilia is "better" than an accusation of homophobia. Please?

(frozen comment)

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

I never said INSULT#1 > INSULT#2. I said that the line that was quoted in this post was not enough evidence for me to warrant that kind of interpretation. Additional comments may have been made that confirmed that.

Regardless, as I explained in my post above, I think evaluation needs to be made based on overall performance in a community as opposed to just looking at random comments made in anger as we all are prone to do at times. That includes all parties involved. I'm neither friend or foe of either one, I'm merely adding my opinion.

[seasaidh78.livejournal.com]

no matter whether people agree with you are not, if you feel you did the right thing, then you did. Huzzah!

(frozen comment)

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

Too late - look it its comment to me in this post. The nut is back and at it again.

[ozgoelz.livejournal.com]

Not sounding bitter or cranky at all. mermaidshotel, I think I love you!

(frozen comment)

[midnightmadness.livejournal.com]

Hey mod moderator, take a look at this. You guys need to grow some balls and get a hold of this community really quick.
http://community.livejournal.com/vintage_ads/894264.html?thread=6634552#t6634552

NOW do you guys see why it's a mistake to let crazy people back in. Just like I told you.