kokonutz

How utterly flippin sweet, RichardInSF, another opportunituy to alienate an entire class of flyertalkers!

Moderation sucks. It disrupts the natural evolution of conversation and the community that our conversations create. I believe in open and free markets of ideas and Flyertalk ought to strive for that ideal.

Naturally however, time, place and manner restrictions become necessary when flagrant abuses and/or manipulation of the marketplace take place.

It is my view that moderators moderate best when they moderate least. Let people's words define who they are and what they are about.

The vast majority of moderators do a great job of this.

I utterly disagree with Dovster and Opus on the role of moderators, though. Moderators should be neither cops nor soldiers. They should be janitors...garbagemen. Their job should not be to run investigations, interrogations or invasions. Their job is to collect the fetid garbage left on the curb by posters from time to time and to also collect the recyclables and put them in the proper forum.

In this role, I believe that moderators should give WIDE latitude to the posters.

Otherwise the forum becomes all about the moderators. It takes on the tenor of their vision and theirs alone of what the forum should be rather than letting it be a vibrant, evolving community. And we do have some mods here who seem to relish keeping 'their' forum so neat and tidy that it stifles discussion and, more seriously, stifles the potential for community growth and fun.

Another thing that annoys the crud out of me is when mods close discussion with flip remarks like 'That's enough of that.' or 'This is done.' You know what, you're not our parents. Have some respect. If there is a TOS violation or the thread needs to be closed or moved per the Moderator Guidelines (and if such guidelines exist and if they do they SHOULD BE PUBLISHED FOR ALL TO SEE so we posters can know when a mod is being abusive of same), simply say so and if you want to be REALLY helpful, point out which TOS and/or Guideline has been abused.

I think most of the mods we have here, 95% of them, do exactly this and understand the reality that the less they interfere with the communities of Flyertalk the better they are doing their job. Most of the mods here do a great job of dealing with the garbage and recyclables we posters sometimes leave on the curb.

Should the Talkboard have a say in this? If Randy wills it, sure. But I would point out that the moderation style that Randy himself employs in the OMNI forum is the ideal to which all moderators should strive to achieve!

So thank you, and macaca to all you moderators out there!