Now I get it, miamijim was the "bad cop," so that now when LowCel comes back acting conciliatory, we all say "yay!"
Originally Posted by
LowCel
How about something like:
Road cycing threads are to be road cycling related. If the threads get too far off topic they may be moved to a more fitting forum. There will be a redirect posted and the original poster will be notified explaining why the thread was moved.
Please treat others as you would like to be treated. Name calling or posts showing disrespect will not be permitted and may cause your post to be removed and if excessive may result in pm's, warnings, or infractions which could lead to a temporary or permanent ban.
Please keep threads on topic. It isn't fair to the original poster to throw their thread so far off topic that it has to be moved.
If you have a question about moderation or just feel like bashing me please do so via pm. If myself or another mod can't help you please pm an admin about the problem. We are here to help and hope to create a fun, relaxing atmosphere for everyone here including ourselves.
We still encourage everyone here to joke around, cut up, give each other a hard time etc, etc. However, if it starts getting too bad please try to understand and respect our decisions if we need to edit or delete a post or thread in extreme circumstances. Just because we need to "censor" your post or send you a pm doesn't mean that we have a problem with you, it just means that in this instance things went a little too far.
Basicly, lets try to make this a better place for everyone.
LowCel, this is, obviously, much more diplomatically worded, and I appreciate your final paragraph, but I'll be honest that I just don't agree with the intent of the second paragraph. I think disrespect is just fine,
lots of posts don't deserve respect. One of the best aspects of this forum is the straight-shooting, call-a-spade-a-spade response to BS. Name calling is generally OK by me, too (as is profanity, for that matter), both are a means of adding emphasis. I think the main problem is that even in 2008, many people haven't picked up on the fact that in real life, many of these comments would be accompanied by body language that pulls the sting - but that's just a fact of online life and people need to get over it.
In a similar vein, I think the objective of moderating threads to keep them on-topic is simply misguided. If all I want is basic factual information, we can shut down the forum today and just use the search function. What keeps me coming back is the conversations. Oddly enough, they usually have a way of circling back to something bike-related anyway.
Finally, I would even go so far as to say that your final line about "making it a better place for everyone" carries the seeds of the decline of RC. I believe that it is OK if not every forum is a good place for every person. That's the great thing about the interweb - hyper-specialization means that there is a community for everyone out there. BF is a big place, the people who complain about the abrasiveness of RC can probably find a forum where the existing culture is more to their taste. We don't have to be network television, reaching out to the widest possible audience.
Again, I do believe that there are limits and that moderators should step in to squash racist comments, sexual harassment, blatant spam and the like, but only in the most extreme cases. He who moderates least, moderates best.