Not following his own rules?

Firstly he closes this thread saying the subject is already being discussed in this thread. Fair enough. Then on Saturday he starts another thread of his own and closes the thread that he had been asking people to contribute too instead of opening new threads! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

[This message has been edited by Gaza (edited 06-02-2003).]

I realize this has been a discussion of great intensity. Coincidentally, there is a growing desire in the Air Canada forum to seek a moderator to help bring chaos back to order. I along with other like minded members have been asking and discussing with some of the more frequent members [of the forum] as to what would be the best for the Air Canada forum, one of the largest on Flyertalk. We have been talking to some candidates that we feel will be adequate choices for moderators including non-Canadians. On more than one occasion, the name of Patron has popped up as examples. Some fears that Patron's style is too strict and not leniant enough and do not wish to see the Air Canada forum become so. Others suggest maybe that's the way to go. I say I am grateful with the effort that Patron puts into this volunteer job, it takes a lot of time. More recently, here is an example:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum82/HTML/001525.html

He/she has very clearly and justified in details his/her reasoning which are all logical and make sense. The intention was for the good of the members and Flyertalk. And he/she was doing his job as good as possible.

I think there are two things we need to consider here:

1) Has the moderator been consistent?
2) What is a moderator?

#1 As far as I am concerned, Patron's style has always been well focused on eliminating duplicated threads. This is one of the main tasks of a moderator and it happens that there could be several threads on one topic. However, a moderator doesn't have to necessarily shut down the thread by the order it was posted. For example, in OMNI, two threads happen to be posted back to back by two different posters. One was clearly ahead of the other. But the first thread went pretty much unnoticed which generated barely 1 or 2 replies while the later thread has took of and ran into 2 digits and more. So the moderator, Sean, closed thread #1 and asked people to follow at thread #2.

In this case, as you quoted, Rudi has posted a news/unconfirmed report/rumor back in April which essentially was at a speculation stage. The replies in the topic were mainly discussions about speculating whether yes/no/neither US Airways will join *A. Subsequently, a another thread opened up much later with virtually the same news and same intent so Patron closes it. Then on May 31st, when it was confirmed that US Airways has indeed joined *A officially, Patron closed the speculating thread because there is no point in keep speculating as it was official. Since no one else has posted a thread confirming the admission of US Airways into *A before, Patron decided to start a new topic on this official announcement. Naturally, the replies in this new topic are likely going to be quite different to the speculation thread. Personally, I felt that a new thread was probably optional however, I do agree it would organize the information more orderly and clearer than having everything under one single thread. As I like to call it, it's efficient.

2) What is a moderator? As I said before, a call has to be made regarding every decision. While I might think something should be optional, another may do it differently. The difference in opinion is o.k. We are different but largely similar. And certainly, unless it's so drastically different, chances are one can live with it. But Patron as a moderator, has the duties and privileges to make certain discretionary calls. A moderator is someone who makes calls to faciliate a discussion. In a formal debate, the chair/moderator is the one making all kind of calls on how the meeting/debate/discussion should proceede. Say I request an unmoderated caucus [ a break], the moderator may or may not accept my request but I just have to live with it. A moderation is not usually ruled by democracy.

On a side note, I have found that gleff, the moderator of the MilesBuzz and I seldom agree on anything. But my impression of Garry has been positive, he always has good reasons and more than capable of justifying them and he is not biased [nor does he crack under pressure - hey I tried that once on him!] and he was doing what he should be doing. I don't have to agree with him to see his reasoning. It was his call.

Yet another example of anally retentive moderation.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum82/HTML/001534.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

All I can say is that Patron is helping a lot of people with very useful information on both the *A and the LH board, which by far outweighs a perhaps sometimes kind of quick closing of threads.

Please let it go.

I think this thread has run its course.

[This message has been edited by attorney28 (edited 06-09-2003).]

Before you lose any sympathy that you have left, I suggest you stop right here. If anything, the thread you provided only reinforced the consistency behind Patron's logic regardless one agrees or not. There are similar precedents where Patron has acted accordingly, he is no different this time.

Now, I think this thread is getting way too personal for my comfort. I suggest that if you really have a problem with this still, why don't you e-mail Randy privately? You can even e-mail Patron privately and try to sort things out. I am sure if the two of you can talk over, it would be much better. If not, I think I would like to start a petition to have this thread closed because it's pointless and annoying to criticize every single call a moderator has to make without strong points.