Call him the godfather.

I agree with TaylorVA. The problem is consistency regarding threads. Members are getting mixed signals from the some of the moderators. Each Mod uses his own judgement when making decisions and that can lead to different interpretations on what action should be taken in any given thread. It doesn't happen all the time, but every once in a while I scratch my head and wonder what the hell is going on.

I do think they are doing a very good job, but I think the site would be served better if they put forth a united front across the board.

Just sayin'

We need moderators to moderate the moderators

Dear mods, that was a joke.

If you really want to get TFA all wound up just open a thread about this on RGP that he can reply to

I totally understand what you are saying, it's just a non issue from my perspective.

So now the Mods should email each other and have a vote aboot closing threads and if it meets the guidelines of the last thread they closed? It's just silly.

And that effects you how? You scratch your head and....so what? I don't mean that agressivly or rudely, it's just...what's the big deal? A thread gets closed and you don't understand why...but you should?

Meh!

They use their own judgment?! Oh the humanity!

You think maybe that's why it take THREE votes from three different moderators to get a temporary ban?

Why not? They email and vote about bans already and I'm sure they email and discuss closing threads.

I have been a moderator on several large forums in the past, and there is really no good answer for this. Once someone gets to the point of being aggressive towards individuals, it becomes a pretty cut and dry case. If you can make your point without calling someone else an idiot, you are fine, but at the point that you start pointing fingers directly at someone and saying they are dumb, you have crossed a line.

Being a moderator sucks. You have to look at posts every single day, and no one thanks you. In fact, all they do is complain about the decisions you make. Its worse then a low paying job because it literally pays nothing.

3 votes is fine with me. No argument there. My problem ( if you could call it that ) is the disconnect between the Mods on what action should be taken and when.

Email? Why bother, I am sure that the forum itself has built in tools for monitoring and tracking threads that are out of control, or contain information that is aggressive. Computers are powerful, and a thread that gets to a count of >50 posts in under 5 minutes deserves looking at since its probably going to contain heated material. Not to mention all of this is contained in Mod only threads that you cant see.

You can only please some of the people some of the time. You will never get 100% agreement on a topic, and given that the topic here was a highly political one, I am surprised anyone is shocked about it.

Thing is, most people don't go to political forums. Since they're only exposed to what media rubs in their noses (true or false) they can have a .. somewhat naive view on the world at times. For this reason, in my opinion political threads in off topic from time to time are somewhat interesting and valuable.

And yes it's a pretty busy forum, not as constantly active as Pinside is now, but there's a good 8000+ members and the door is as wide open as you can get. We get visitors from the US, UK Russia, Germany, China, Japan and everywhere inbetween. Mostly seems to police itself, but it's been around in various forms since the late 90s. Maybe we just got lucky, or maybe it's a side effect of a community that has had that much time to settle and mature - there's a critical mass of people who know how to behave.

Still laughing about someone thinking the karma loss mattered. It's really just a post counter.

Not my point. Mods need to be consistent in their actions regardless of their views on the subject. I assume their ability to "rise above" is one reason they were made a mod.

That was an example of the mixed signals from the Mods. I see threads that get closed and then I see a thread that I expect to get closed and they go on and on.

It's just an observation. Look at the OP ... 6 down thumbs and 6 up thumbs.

While we're on this topic, my favorite recent reprimand from a mod happened during a thread about the rising cost of pinball machines.

Someone agreed that the prices were getting out of reach for the average person and concluded his/her post with "oh well... the rich get richer."

A mod jumped on the poster, saying to refrain from political talk because "this is a phrase the left uses".

Having said that, Robin's site; Robin's rules. It's just a couple Mods wear their politics on their sleeve, whether they mean to or not.

Still... The best site for all things pinball.

I don’t think OUR Moderators need defend their position. When you bring a group of people together, you need some guide lines. Our Mods where enforcing the guide line.

By the way, this site is about Pinball and associated pinball things. Gun Control, good name for a game I suppose.

So what was your idea? Hoping to get locked right away?

Right, a group of us can't agree on anything but you want them to have a pow-wow aboot it before they close a thread? What if one mod is out getting ice cream for his kids...gotta wait till he get back to lock up a thread? Just silly.

Wow..real puppet master

Is that really what you think?

Lots of civil discussion?

My family wishes I would get banned.

I lol'ed on that one!

Why?
If its a topic you do not like simple skip over it?

Firearms tie in to current events and directly linked to the bill of rights / constitution so it is a legal discussion. I like seeing and hearing what others think or learn from similar incidents or topics.

If you have your own forum then you can set your own rules. Personally I think pinside is a little quick on the trigger for mod intervention but overall do a great job.

The Off topic section should be left alone and topics deemed offensive simple do not click on it.

Did I win anything?

In one country out of 196. i can see why you want this to be a dominating Pinball Thread.

I would hope. Obviously from my previous comments I am aware that it is not always the case.

Who cares, it's a temporary ban on an internet forum. If that matters to someone THAT badly, they needed a break anyways.

Not to mention, if someone doesn't like getting banned from a forum that is owned by someone else they can either be more careful with what they say in the future (to respect the owner's wishes), or go ahead and start their own forum. Freedom of speech does not apply on a forum that is privately owned. It is a privilege to post here, not a right.

My two cents.

It was in the off topic section though.

I dunno, I mostly come to Pinside for the Predator thread.

That's very nearly a good idea for a t-shirt.

Well you can stop hoping cause that isn't what happens on any website. Little boys don't drink their milk and study homework nightly to grow up to be a great poster, and then finally graduate MOD University.

The point isn't about email, it's about mixed signals. Look further up in this very thread and you'll find two Mods with completely different points of view on whether guns should be a banned topic.

I'm not tying to create an argument, I'm simply making a comment about some inconsistencies with the way decisions are made sometimes, that's all.

Since its a current event in the country I live in I prefer to read or post on it.
Dominating,no.

Of the many thousands of posts its hardly dominating but nice try mate.
Cheers!

Pretty simple concept at work here...

Are you being a douche?

Yes = You get banned.

No = Carry on.

Are you TheFamilyArcade?

Yes = You get banned.

No = Lucky you. Carry on.

Moderation, it is so easy for people who have never had to do it

At 2000 Karma points , it's getting there.

I appreciate that is a contentious issue in the States, it’s all over our news too!!!

In Australia we only see the bits where the pro-gun people say striped things, not good for their cause.

Getting back to the OP of this thread, To be a Mod is a thankless job, and we should support them.

Thanks for being my MATE, Mate

Oy vey.

The mods do a great job. And this site is certainly a better alternative than RGP with all the constant personal attacks and Nike shoe ads that are there. As mentioned earlier, if someone does not like their little time out they can go start their own site.

Thank you mods for your efforts to make this a civil place to be. It was long overdue.

....keep shipping the Fosters.....

No don't! It's terrible!

Haha

rd.

Let me guess. You're more of a Lion Red kind of guy ...

Why are we going on about this?

He broke the rules, he got banned.

It's one week.....not a lifetime.

Nothing to see hear folks...........

These guys don't get paid to moderate, they volunteer because they are trying to support the hobby and reinforce the environment the board owner (Robin) has created.

Let's put it another way in our pinball geek speak. Consider Robin "The Creator" from Tron, Moderators "the Recognizers" and we're all "users". We have the choice to go into the portal to leave an re-enter the real world if we don't like the Grid. While in the Grid, you play by their rules.

Now I'm going to knock on the sky and listen to the sound.

Gun related topics by no means have to be political. As a matter of fact, the gun collector and the pinball collector have more in common than you realize.

For example, about 6 years ago, I was looking for a couple of Yugoslavian SKS's. I wanted a good deal, and I was going to give one to my father as a gift. I found a dealer with a pile of what seemed to be some pretty ratty Yugo SKS. So, I went to work. I examined all of the rifles, and ended up picking 2 rifles from the lowest price pile. To the untrained eye, they looked like junk. One was missing the bayonet, the other missing it's cleaning rod. They were both absolutely filthy.

However, the experienced military collector knows that cosmetics can be deceiving. The two rifles I chose had excellent bores, and strong rifling. Most importantly, all serial #'s on the rifles matched, including the stocks. This means that the rifles were well cared for, and never had to have any major parts replaced. I paid $110 for each of them, and the dealer threw in an extra bayonet to replace the one that was missing.

I took the rifles home and completely disassembled them, to include removing all hardware from the stocks. I put the stocks in the dish washer and ran them through the pots and pans cycle twice each. This is the easiest and most effective ways to completely strip and clean an SKS stock. It also steams out all of the small dings and blemishes on the stocks. This is what they looked like after they were stripped (I had not put all of the hardware back on):
<img src="http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/q742/nhm11/1354768232767_zps72e34277.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 1354768232767_zps72e34277.jpg"/>

I then applied a beautiful stain and oil that really brought out the beautiful grain of the wood. I reassembled them and gave one to my dad. Astonishingly, the one I gave him shoots MOA at 100yds. I have never heard of an SKS with such a level of accuracy. This is what they looked like in the end:
<img src="http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/q742/nhm11/IMG_2137_zpsebbb3994.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_2137_zpsebbb3994.jpg"/>
<img src="http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/q742/nhm11/IMG_2139_zpsbbba950d.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_2139_zpsbbba950d.jpg"/>
<img src="http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/q742/nhm11/IMG_2138_zpsb908cc04.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_2138_zpsb908cc04.jpg"/>
<img src="http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/q742/nhm11/IMG_2141_zps89f7ea60.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_2141_zps89f7ea60.jpg"/>

The point I'm trying to prove is that you shouldn't stereotype a subject as "political" when it is not inherently political. They become political when you start talking about politics. Regardless, this is probably the only gun post I will make, I don't come here to talk about guns.

If this is what you are seeing and participating in on a "daily basis from countless members of this site" then maybe it's time to find a new site?

Talking about guns, thats cool. Talking about gun control laws, not cool.

That's why we ship it off.

Jon is a super cool guy. I don't agree with him here, though - I think the mods do a great job in separating the wheat from the chaff. They can't be everywhere at once, and they can't be 100 percent consistent with every single decision, but between their work and some of the controls Robin put in, the site has really scaled well as the user base has grown exponentially.

That is the best post I've read on this thread! My family feels the same way. They call my laptop my 'girlfriend'!!! I seem to spend more time with 'her' than my wife.
Mike

Lion Red!!!

How does a man from Illinois know of such things?

rd.

We used to get a beer called speights ( I thought) at my rugby bar. I had one but I prefer new castle.