::Phat:: closes a religion thread...

...I guess because he can read minds. I think it would only be fair to the membership if you only closed a thread that got out of hand, not when you think it would get out of hand. I don't care if every religion (or whatever) thread has been bad in the past. It would be nice if you didn't make assumptions like that. You're not saving any time -- it takes the same effort to close a thread no matter when you do it. And when a post is truly offensive, you can just delete it to protect the sensitive eyes of your subordinates.

This was especially disturbing because Bindibadgi, apparently with mod powers, came along after you closed it and added "the last word". If you do close a thread, that should be the last word. He should have added his comments in the staff forum.

Grump

 

I stick by :: Phat ::'s decision to close that thread to be honest. I saw it & thought "better keep a close eye on this", because threads on religion never do very well. They always descend into bitch-fests, and I mean always. It's a real shame and I know there are plenty of posters that could happily have a debate about such things in a sensible manner. However, as it is such an emotive subject, flamers and the immature rejoice in causing otherwise rational people to get upset & post without thinking how their responses will sound.

The reason this thread was probably closed as early as it was, is because tonight is New Year's Eve. I expect a lot of the mods/staff will have other stuff on and not be around to check a thread in GD continuously to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. Another reason would be that it seemed like spam. There was no basis for a discussion there, just asking for a yes or no answer.

As for Bindi's comment, I think adding that in the staff forum would've proved quite pointless as he was addressing the members of bit-tech's forums, not the staff.

 

Grump, not only by name, huh?

I stand by Phat's decision, and i added my "last word" to the people who posted lastly. It was to merely re-affirm what Phat has done, its something moderators do in order to say "we are a team". It hasnt anything todo with a Staff forum when i am addressing the members.

It takes TIME and EFFORT to moderate a forum, and if we can act pre-emtively, we will. I suppose we should also let these "free ipod" threads continue too, until you say otherwise i assume? Infact, *we* care if every other religion thread has gone bad in the past because it always, inevitably ends up bad - just look at the last few posts of the thread and it was less than 1 page long. We can see where threads are going and we know how to act, we have been doing this long enough and its why we are chosen to be in the positions we keep here. If you dont like the method of moderation there are plenty of other forums out there but we have to work with a big, 24/7 forum of 16,500 members. Im sure there are some people that can debate religion, but not in a FFA style like this.

Your point is noted, but we dont agree with you, sorry.

 

I concur with the other mods...

[SIZE=-2]You wont gat any long posts out of me[/SIZE]

 

You expected otherwise?

You added your opinion to the thread. You already had your chance and you could have closed it when you first posted your opinion to the thread.

Oh, I'm sorry, I wouldn't know that after 12 years of experience admining and moderating forums. You didn't know that? Well I didn't know you were a mod because your postbit doesn't indicate it. Now we're even.

Your snide remark aside, you don't have to do anything I say, obviously, but I would assume, since the admin thought it would be a good idea to have a Feedback Forum, you would listen to my comments without ill will or insult. You don't have to agree with them and you can even say so, but without the power trip.

I saw almost all posts had a similar attitude and there were no arguments. I have been here a while, in case you hadn't noticed, and I rarely complain about the moderation. So can your indignation and ease up on the insults. You're a moderator, not a Lord. In my book, moderators are servants to the membership. I question authority and decisions once in a great while. Don't treat me like the enemy and I won't think you're a pr...

Never mind. I've been a fan of and participant in Bit-tech for a long time. I don't necessarily need to find another forum because I have a problem here (I am a member and participant in many, by the way). I am old enough to know how to let go, but I still enjoy the freedom of expressing my opinion.

Grump

 

At the end of the day, i didnt have to say anything but i chose too, i dont see what adding my opinion to the thread has todo with anything, i was backing another mod. So what it was closed - its a mods privilage to be able to post in a closed thread. Go moan at Vb if youve got a problem with that.
Free speech huh? Id have thought coming from the "land of the free" you'd understand this?

Where did 12 years come from? Ive been moderating forums since i was 9?

Infact, it was your initial agitated thread starting post and how you've interpreted my reply in your, obviously continually grumpy state of mind that leads you to assume the worst. Point taken though, but i was just explaining why it was closed and how we do our job here, as was Hex. I didnt mean any offence, it's just the way your post came across.

Id love to have a serious discussion about religion with people, but it doesnt work on the internet for reasons shown in this very thread. We are all taking offence and mis-interpreting peoples posts.

 

I have to admit I did not see this thread in question, and only have the info from this thread but, posting a responce to a closed thread that has to do with a debate topic is not cool. Mods have the privilage based on vBs setup, but does it make it right to use this as a way to get in the last word. No one else can reply to the thread, why should you?

(Ignore if you only posted words on the threads closing and not about the thread itself)

 

Exactly my point, thank you. Unfortunately I didn't say it in a way that he understood it. It wasn't about backing up a fellow mod, it was about taking one last opportunity to express his opinion on the subject -- and he's still doing it in a thread that is NOT about religion.

 

To address your first comment on why it was closed; we'd be quite within our rights to close ANY discussion on religion because it *always* turns into a flame fest. Personally I'd like to ban ALL religious/political discussion on this forum for that very reason.. people forget that we're a hardware site and not a public soapbox.

And on making assumptions? I believe we can make any assumption we like because we've been running these forums since inception and know exactly what goes on.. you can throw your 'I've been running forums for 12 years' in our face as you claim, however you've not been running OUR forums for 12 years.

That post was started in the wrong forum by a new member and it had hassle written all over it, the fact it stayed open as long as it did is suprising.

Actually moderators are servants to the Administrators, and that's why you'll see far WORSE moderation in a lot of other forums, because the mods do the bidding of the owners who themselves run the forums in the way they decide. Believe me, some decide to run it in VERY strict and confusing ways.

There's lots of things that should and shouldn't go on, however we have to clean up the mess every day of people doing things they shouldn't do in our forums. We ask people to respect our rules and wishes and yet they don't, but we keep going anyway, without a moan and our unpaid mods keep things ticking over as best they can.

So Bindi posted an extra comment to the end of a thread and 'abused his powers', hell I've done it to get my final point across. Yeah, it's not very fair on the posters of the thread, neither is it an especially PC thing to do, but at the end of the day; Big deal. A small price to pay for the fact you have a lively exciting forum.

This is not a democracy, whilst we created this site for all the readers, people choose to come here knowing how we run things and if they decide they don't like that they are welcome to post elsewhere. Still, I'd say we've been doing a pretty good job given our membership statistics and the general buzz of the place.

But thanks for your comments, the feedback forum is the place for it and, as I'm sure you're aware with feedback, we'll take it on board.

I think it's appropriate to say this thread has gone on long enough.