FAQ: Moderation and Escalations

All,

I consider myself very lucky to have this forum, the great people in it, and what as turned out to be an exponential growth curve.  I enjoy meeting you guys at Dragon Con, but I really really appreciate having people who love Dragon Con to converse with the rest of the year.  Your membership and contributions mean a lot, even if you are not one who logs on every day, or even every month. 

I want you all to know that to make this forum run, there are a lot of elements going on. 

Basheesh takes care of tons of technical stuff in the background - this forum would flat out be stalled in a ocean of spam and porn if it was not for him, and thanks to the quality of his work, you don't even know the work he puts in.  He is a great unsung hero, and non of you know just how much he puts in.  (Hell, I can barely understand it myself!) 

TheDrunkenJedi puts more into this forum that anyone else to date.  Even more than me, which I have to tell you all, is an amazing feat, since I pretty much think about Dragon Con several times a day all year long.  I rely on Jedi to manage and moderate the forum which is also an very difficult task. 

Keep in mind that as diverse are the people who go to DragonCon, so are the people who attend this forum.  And if we want a place that is as open and broad as DragonCon, moderating the forum in a way that makes everyone happy is beyond difficult, it is impossible.  This is one of many reasons why I appreciate Jedi.  While I am always trying to figure out how to 'make this a happy place', Jedi allows me to do that by handling all of the hard jobs.  I have never known him to do something he did not think was right and fair, and while he is very direct, he is also approachable if you come direct and without emotion.  Just ask why he did something, he's fair and will take the time to give you a thoughtful response. 

If you ever feel that something has been done or said that is unfair, or that you cannot discuss with other members of the board, including Jedi, please contact me and I am happy to discuss further.  I am always happy to listen, but I also need all of you to understand and appreciate that the work of a moderator is not easy, nor do you get a lot of gratitude for the work put it. 

Thanks,

 - Trathor -

I don't even know what's going on...don't really care. My wife just passed her board-eligible exam, and now due to decreased stress there is a possibility I'll get to go do a few days at Dragoncon 2014, so I'm all about positivity at the moment!

But to add to the discussion, if there's something I need to do to physically remove the drama, I can do that if required. No really I can. I have what you might call "superadmin" status. I can easily go delete entire users or post histories so that those bytes are no longer on disk. That history will literally disappear. Other things I can do:

• Turn all negative words into smiley faces
• Change avatars into Ewoks
• Translate your posts into "pirate speak"
• Redirect you to a Rickroll on every other click.
• Forget to pay the server bill (oops!)

Now with great power comes great responsibility, and you'll notice no Ewok avatars (but I have them at the ready!!) Don't. Make. Me. Do it. After Ewoks come Gungans. It's just not a good road to go down. Hope to see you all (for a few days) in a couple of weeks!!