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Everyone's Doing It, These Days

22:08 / 23.09.03

(This is, by the way, entirely unrelated to Ganesh's thread, which I saw with amusement just now.)

I, too, am giving up Mod status. In contrast to Ganesh, I haven't PM'd Tom about this - in fact, I don't think I've had more than a few words with Tom over the couple years I've been active here, and since I simply woke up one morning and was a mod, I'm not too worried about it.

But unlike Ganesh, I prolly won't be back much. More and more, any potential effort I could put into posting or ongoing discussions seems to be wasted energy, and I don't need that.

Combined with the circular arguments about handling outsiders and trolls and the new 'members-only' policy, I'm a bit sick of the place. Like Ganesh, I don't think Barbelith has failed me, but I also didn't have any expectations when I came in, so perhaps we're looking at it differently. I do think that, like any other community, Barbelith is all too suceptible to perceptions of threat, no matter how revolutionary the sign on the door proclaims it to be.

Anyway. No big deal - carry on.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:09 / 24.09.03

While I respect your decision, I'd like to point out a couple of things:

1) The "members only" policy has been clearly stated to be a temporary, emergency measure. It's a necessary evil rather than the luxury which that term usually evokes.

2) If the arguments are circular, this is only because people have been either a) unwilling to read up on what has gone before and why certain decisions have been made, b) tolerant to a fault, far beyond the point where others would institute more rigorous terms of service and security measures, or c) persistent trolls.

3) One symptom of 2)a) is the belief that Barbelith's current system and/or problems in any way represents a failure to be "revolutionary". I think Tom's post in 'The once and future board' thread explains this adequately.

12:33 / 25.09.03

Hi videodrome.

Let me say two short simple things:

1) Congratulations on hanging up your mod. I did this recently in a couple of ways.

2) Don't leave. At least, don't leave us forever. I don't think we've had many interactions (but if I am correct about the photo, then I aspire to your mostache...) & I've never hung out much in FILM. Not becuase I don't enjoy them, mind you, but becuase, like you note, there is only so much time and energy as person has.

Sigh.

But. As far as I am aware, aren't U our resident film-spy-in-the-know? I mean, we need you here.

And you're named after one of the best movies ever.

I hope you'll change your mind. Perhaps after a short break.

AND

I'll say it here in the Policy (where I still believe things are to be taken seriously), wrt Ganesh's concerns about trying to get political leverage out of thanking people to relinquish their mod status:

I have no interset in politcs or its power, but only am happy to see people turning in something that I personally feel to be unnecessary or superfluous ("personally" being the operative word). But that is only my opinion & perhaps only my opinion about the current moderation structure.

I saw some good talk about even further spreading out of moderation, how it might be plausible & some good things about rotating mods.

Good stuff. Better days ahead.

Come back for them, eh videodrome?

16:02 / 25.09.03

[i] am happy to see people turning in something that I personally feel to be unnecessary or superfluous

well, thats a great luxury you have afforded yourself there...
do you also believe the world would be better with no policemen at all?
surely what you mean (or at least a more tenable position) is that it is uneccesary for you to be a mod, and you can relate to ganesh's position?

20:03 / 25.09.03

well, seeing as I am only another human, I likely don't always say what I mean or sometimes I phrase it badly. Or I simply don't know what I mean.

Like Others. Like you?

Who knows. But I guess I might have meant something like you said I surely meant, and I hope that it is OK.

Have you ever read Flow My Tears, The Policeman SAid, by old PKD?

It's sorta' about, but perhaps I read it wrong--being a mistake making human, learning to become your own policeman after first figuring out who you are.

Or something like that.

20:14 / 25.09.03

sorry, forgive mny lack of perspicacity...

do you mean to say that you DO understand the need for moderators, or do you mean to say that you would rather not get into trouble for what ever it is you do believe?

Matthew Fluxington

20:35 / 25.09.03

Well, I'd be happy to pick up Videodrome's slack in Film/TV forum.

21:10 / 25.09.03

1) Congratulations on hanging up your mod. I did this recently in a couple of ways. - Mod3

So, after starting an attention seeking thread clamouring to become a moderator you saw the error of your ways? Obviously, sending Tom a PM would have been too much hassle so abusing other posters, spamming the board and generally throwing your toys out of the pram until your moderator status was revoked and you were asked to spend some time away in the corner was far preferable. I don't know about everyone else, but it all makes a lot more sense to me now.

22:36 / 25.09.03

“do you mean to say that you DO understand the need for moderators, or do you mean to say that you would rather not get into trouble for what ever it is you do believe?”

I understand the need for moderators. & I don’t. It’s this direct contradiction that I can’t seem to unify. Others, well—you know, but this one is a doozy.

I wish we didn’t need mods & if more people felt the way I did and for similar reasons, then we wouldn’t need them. They’d be the “trolls” (not calling any current mods trolls here, but if U can see me over here [waves], and look me in the I, then you’d get it. U’d understand—U & I would understand {U & I}. Look carefully.).

We could moderate together as a community. As a U-knit. As a {U & I knit} of sense, sensibility, and sensuousness (and perhaps with a whole host of hissing apple-polished S’s: sincerity, seriousness, solipsistic, and so on…).

That is why I like the discussions currently going on about the new mod system.

Lurid, I already PMed you about not desiring to engage in further conflict in general & how this might best be initiated between U & I in particular by not having one and other try to {ASS} + {U & ME}--what the Other I--may or may not understand. So in this spirit I answer your little set of assumptions.

I started that thread so I could help the community in some way because I care about this place and see you as people & not as mere Word.doc.. And I was and still am v. not so rich, & soon to be eating from the food bank. So I couldn't give money but only time. (which, on the West paradigm are equivalent: "time is money" & i live in golden age times.). But never mind about my problems, because I was talking about how I wanted to help with this places. I wanted to give to the community that I take from. I wanted to relate to the community of people I relate to from a position that seeks to aid and assist them.

And then I wanted assistance from this community & no-one gave a shit. Not One. Not One Other not I gave a shit. Apathy is a poison like arsenic, eh?

So, I said Swing my Apocalypse, and then I held on tight for the ride. And then it happened.

And here we are, and here I am. No not there, but over here.

I’m over here.

beh.

ONLY NICE THINGS

23:37 / 25.09.03

And now we believe that you could help the board best by going away, having a little think and acting your age.

It costs nothing, and we would all think you were contributing like gangbusters by managing not to troll. It would be a great way to give something back.

Cheerio.

Tryphena Absent

08:37 / 26.09.03

Ashamed and troubled let them be,
Troubled and shamed forever,
Ever confounded, and so then die
With shame and evil weather.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

10:23 / 26.09.03

My God. I remember the days when I was posting as 'Poetic Justice', following 'Sir William Gull' around the board, trying to respond to every nasty thing he said in rhyme.

What the hell was that about?

10:34 / 26.09.03

Can't remember, but a lot of Sir William Gull was me...

Tryphena Absent

10:42 / 26.09.03

*snigger*

We're The Great Old Ones Now

10:47 / 26.09.03

Did we just get caught sounding like Major Bufton de Tufton and Brigadier Boosey Hawks-Frobisher?

Damn.

12:13 / 26.09.03

You people are beautiful, even you

Huas (sic) & I'm over here.

Not there.

[waves]

I'm over here.

12:26 / 26.09.03

It was all so innocent in those days. You try to tell that to today's young people, and they just laugh at you. They've ruined the word 'gay' too. And 'buttmonkey'.

The Return Of Rothkoid

13:06 / 26.09.03

I'd like to think that 'drome would probably cite some of the posts in this thread as the reason why he's hung up the mod's hat.

08:43 / 27.09.03

And I'd like to think that you'd like to think, but then I'd merely be reporting my feeling and not facts.

Or so I've been told...

The Return Of Rothkoid

13:33 / 27.09.03

Would it make it better if I change that to read "I know that it's fuckheaded posts like some of the ones in this thread that make individuals want to leave this place. Based on personal and anecdotal experience."?

13:58 / 27.09.03

Right - first things first - Melissa & Ev, I'm sure you think you've done the board a tremendous favour by forcing us to think about the moderation stuff again. I personally don't agree - in that all you've done is acted up until we've been forced to make new rules, and in the process we've lost (I think) three long term moderators who have been trying hard to do a good job for a great period of time, and whom this community owes a tremendous debt of thanks. Any positive things that come out of this situation will be because of the creative group of people who rather than acting like you did actually engaged in positive conversation and tried to accomplish something.

Videodrome - I'm sorry to see you leave your moderator position - you've been doing a great job and (trust me) I know exactly how tiring and troubling the whole enterprise can be. Thanks again for all your contribution and I hope you'll continue to be on the board. In other news, Rothkoid has also come to me and asked to be removed as a moderator - and this will happen forthwith. If he (or Ganesh or videodrome) changes their position on the matter, they will be - of course - welcomed back. Thanks again to all of you and I hope you'll stay as a part of the community.

14:50 / 27.09.03

PS. In response to these requests and the moderators who have decided to retire, I've made a number of you moderators across the site as per your requests.

The Return Of Rothkoid

00:07 / 28.09.03

Thanks, Tom.

I was asked to post why I'm handing in my moderator hat when I first brought it up, and so here goes: nothing hugely portentious or grandiose - I've been doing the job for years, and I've just found that for the last couple of months, maybe even longer than that, the place has been rubbing me up the wrong way. I've changed in regards to my outlook to particular things - a good thing, for those who remember how I was when I was living in the UK - and so I think this place has become, without denigrating anyone's contibutions here, a bit less essential to me. And it was affecting my attitude to moderation, particularly when it came to involve the xth iteration of certain problems, or wilful fuckwittery on the part of some posters.

I doubt I'll disappear entirely. I'd like to stay part of the community because so many people that I do respect are here - but continually turning up and seeing that many of them are/have been pulling back from posting or whatnot merely strengthened my resolve to scale back my involvement here. Who knows? Maybe the coming northern autumn and winter will change things; it always seems to. I'm sure I'll be around. But for now, I need to concentrate on some other stuff - the Vogel! - and not on the gnashing of teeth. Hopefully I will reach a point of enjoyment again and be as active as I used to - or the lack of modding will ensure that I can get back to what I originally enjoyed about this place.