Moderation

[zartan]

A few days ago I read through some of the archives of Political Action from a year or more ago and was surprised by the difference in tone we used to have on here - and the difference in the quality of discussion. Clearly, the moderation on Political Action has gone to hell. I have allowed myself to become frustrated by what I see as the willful ignorance of several relatively frequent posters. This has gone way too far and it has now stopped. Going forward there will be no personal attacks. What is a personal attack? Saying an opinion is 'ignorant,' and providing evidence for why you think this, is not a personal attack. Calling a person a moron is a personal attack. I have certainly been guilty of this in spades recently, but like George Bush and his conversion to Christianity, I have been reborn as a kinder, gentler moderator.

Sorry to most of those who I have offended - particularly Nietzsche, whose insights I appreciate and I fear may have been discouraged by the wild west nature of "fuck off you idiot" posting on here.

Please PM me with questions.

Thanks, and sorry for the obnxiousness lately. Its over. I'm so sure, I will buy a drink at Cubik for the first person to point out any personal attacks made by me in the future.

[BizarroCub]

*ponders what he can do to piss Eric off to get that free drink*

[evey]

But seriously, it's not our fault Dubya is a moron.

[evey]

Oops. Sorry.

[zartan]

ahh good point Evey - you can feel free to personally attack politicians and other public figures, just not other buzzboarders. Yes, Bush is an evil cretin. Kerry is an obnoxious flip-flopper. But Brian is not an idiot.

[Wedge]

What about the enormous ammount of trolling that goes on in here, ala All republicans are nazi's! blahblahblah, most of the time if I'm railing on someone it's because they are a dumbass troll.

[zartan]

trolling is fine as long as its not a personal attack. go ahead and call all democrats commies back. but calling grizz a commie will get you edited.

[zartan]

calling a troll a dumbass will too. saying their opinion is wrong will not.

[Wedge]

You want PA to become more serious and the quality of discussion to increase but you will continue to allow blatant trolling?


.....

ok.

[zartan]

because honestly wedge its impossible for me to differentiate between blatant trolling and peoples' true opinions. and you don't want me trying to do it on either side. you know what I mean? the issue is that your blatant troll is my good insight, and vice versa. so i'm not going to try to figure out when someone is exagerating their opinion for effect.

[zartan]

i consider 2 people on here blatant trolls, and here's how i dealt with it: the ignore feature. try it.

[empath]

you're the worst moderator ever.

[zartan]

thank you for your opinion

[evey]

But herein lies the problem. What if said person really IS a blatant troll? Then what? :shrug:

[velvetgoldmire]

DEATH BY SLITTING

[Wedge]

Then maybe there should be a conservative moderator also. . . If this is in response to me, gimme a break, I'm hardly busting Eric's balls. It's really just something I have failed to understand about PA. Every once in awile someone says thing's around here need to become more serious etc. This will never happen when you allow random retard #1 to start threads about how Nazi like conservatives are or how all liberals are truly evil or what have you. On any truly serious politics board this type of shit is squashed immediately.


Alright, in my first moderation mistake, I edited your post when I meant to reply. Sorry! Did not mean to do that; I was trying to hit "reply" but hit "edit" instead. Oops! I owe you a vodka tonic.

[blewmymindblank]

I'll agree with that last statement wedge, unfortunatly this is a EDM board that is here mainly to promote buzzlife parties. I'm sure (stabbing in the dark here) that before all the events went down in '02, there was no political forum on this site.

[zartan]

Political action was started by the DC Nightlife Coalition to discuss local political issues directly related to EDM. Since then, it has grown into a larger political discussion.

Wedge, you should understand that some people truly feel the GOP is the party of Nazis, just like some people feel like liberals are morally bankrupt communists who would have gladly handed Europe to Hitler to avoid confrontation. On a board like this, the best approach is to identify people who consistently take positions that seem to you ridiculous, and ignore them via the ignore command. This is something I have just recently realized, and I strongly recommend it to you. Having a conservative moderator would not help; we would just argue about who is trolling, and I don't feel comfortable about deleting things that people may actually believe, no matter how retarded they may seem to me (or you).

That said, if something is totally ridiculous, PM me and the moderators will consider it.

Finally I don't think Empath was directing that to you, he was messing with me.

[zartan]

Sorry Wedge did not mean to edit you there. Hit the "Edit" button instead of "Quote"

[zartan]

you may call me a retard one time for that

[i licked JOEYd]

Eric is a retard. :D

[Buddafly]

he said retard, not bitch :thumbsup:

[i licked JOEYd]

that would be funny if they input into the VB swear filter the word "retard" in place of bitch, shit, fuck, etc.

[Methodus]

Naw... I think it should be replace Kerry with Douchebag. That would be funnier. And there's a subaru board I was on that on April Fools, they changed every iteration of WRX to n00b, and a bunch of other words around, just for the day. I definately took a lot of people by surprise.

[zartan]

hey only if we get to replace Bush with "Retard in Chief"

[PosesQueen]

Then maybe they'll get kicked off, and maybe they won't. Not everyone who does something wrong gets caught you know.

[buzzboy]

But herein lies the problem. What if said person really IS a blatant troll? Then what? :shrug:
exp[lain to me in simple terms that I can understand too, what a troll is.

[Zodiac*Blue]

exp[lain to me in simple terms that I can understand too, what a troll is.

Troll (1616)
[Norwegian troll and Danish trold, from Old Norse troll: a giant, demon].
A dwarf or giant inhabiting caves or hills. Ugly, powerful and generally dangerous humanlike creatures, but stupid and naive.


Some trolls were believed to be giants, and the biggest of them all was Dovregubben (their king in the mountain Dovre). They were shaggy and rough-haired, with trees and moss-like growth on their heads and noses, their noses were long and they would stir with it when cooking broth or porridge. Some even had two or three heads, some only had one eye in the middle of their foreheads. Their features differed from humans with four fingers and four toes and a tail ressembling that of a cow. The trolls lived to be hundreds of years old, but would die and turn into stone if the sun caught them. They might have looked frightening, but were actually often good natured and terribly naive, so sly peasants would successfully trick them. Their supernatural powers consisted among others of transforming themselves, for instance into beautiful young ladies. Many hunters and farmers were such lured into the mountains and captured, but the trolls could never hide their tails, if you only could get to see them from behind you would know if the captivating creature was a troll or just a beautiful shepardess.

The author Henrik Ibsen made them famous in his play Peer Gynt. Ibsen asked the composer Edvard Grieg to write the incidental music for this drama, and the music he wrote became one of the major works of the 1870s. In Grieg's own lifetime the "Peer Gynt" music scored a resounding international success thanks, not least, to the two orchestral suites which made the music accessible in the concert hall. The "Dovregubbens hall" (The hall of the king of the trolls) is one of the most known and famous part of this concert today.

Harold Bloom writes in The Western Canon(1):

"Ibsen's dramatic psychology centers upon the figure of the troll, suddenly popular again in children's dolls. The wild-haired little imps that I pass in the storefronts have, however, a rather more benign aura than Ibsen's trolls, who are authentic demons."
And H. Bloom says further on that in most humans there is a troll, and that Ibsen's play masterly shows this.

There are actually other Trolls in Norway today, known to be unusually sporty and dynamic - Ladies and Gentlemen: the Vålerenga Trolls who play American football!

[buzzboy]

:wtf:

[zartan]

whoa this took a turn for the freaky.

[dagriffi]

just because dubya hasnt mastered the english language as well as most people whos second language is english doesnt mean you should make fun of him..

[Rob Raver]

just because dubya hasnt mastered the english language as well as most people whos second language is english doesnt mean you should make fun of him..

Yeah, those below the average IQ need representation too. See, democracy works.

[buzzboy]

i was once a troll.

[elad]

troll deez...

[buzzboy]

retard.

[buzzboy]

troll deez...
needed a break from GTA:SA eh? me too. i just started flying it is sooo fantabulous. :raveon:

[elad]

no no no. not retards, deez.



im still way behind (17% completed). i suck.

[buzzboy]

wo , see yesterday in a half blind haze. :burnout: i completed the unlocking of the whole map upon which i did a very happy dance. then i unlocked the flight school. whick by the way is next to impossible and the whole time if you get tired of it and leave this fucking government agagent keeps calling you telling you how "your brother in jail is gonna get massive cock up his ass in prision if you dont get your ass back to the pilots school." it s fuct. but fun. and exciting. i <3 my PS2.

[elad]

one time i jumped the airport fence, stole a crappy cesna-lookin plane, anden 2 minutes later accidentally pressed triangle, so yea that was a short plane ride.

[buzzboy]

:afterbuzz: lol

[buzzboy]

some of the missions along the way really suck ass.

[buzzboy]

asscock even.

[Methodus]

I've unlocked flight school, but not the whole map, how do you do that? My guess was just completing a certain amount of missions, which I guess I haven't done yet. Tips?

[buzzboy]

yeah just do all the missions in Los santos and make sure you do all the woozie and pleasure domes missions in san fierro.

[buzzboy]

oh and all the cj's garage missions too, but if you are at flight school then just drive around you prolly got the whole map open but just havent explored it yet so it still is shaded blue.

[Bavarias_Finest]

I along with the rest of the board would appreciate it if the moderators started acting like moderators and quit editing content in people's posts which is not profane or offensive and changing people's avatars .... its juvenile and immature

[elad]

wah wah wah! :crying:

[BizarroCub]

I along with the rest of the board would appreciate it if the moderators started acting like moderators and quit editing content in people's posts which is not profane or offensive and changing people's avatars .... its juvenile and immature

Or perhaps...it could be April 1st...

APRIL FOOLS Day on The Buzz Board
As many of you know, this Friday is April Fools Day. Throughout my childhood this was one of my favorite non-present holidays. Perhaps that shows that I am truly evil or maybe that I simply have a good sense of humor. This year, I have decided to award the dedicated BuzzBoard moderators using this holiday.

This Friday from 12:01am – 11:59pm the moderators will be allowed to edit posts, sig files, titles and avatars in any way they wish. Post counts, personal info, user names and reputation will NOT be edited. Moderators will NOT have access to your private info, including private messages. And they can only edit threads, posts and people that choose to post on April 1st.

There will only be 1 rule – moderators can only edit board members that are either strangers or friends. This WILL NOT turn in to a personal attack free-for-all. In fact, if that happens, I am more than ready to fire the offending mod.

Questions? Ask them here and I will answer.

Advice? Save your avatars and signature files. It’s your job to change them back on April 2nd. And don’t worry, this is going to be fun.

Complaints on April 1st? Email them directly to me. Amanda@buzzlife.com

[DeAtHmOnGeR bEaR]

I along with the rest of the board would appreciate it if the moderators started acting like moderators and quit editing content in people's posts which is not profane or offensive and changing people's avatars .... its juvenile and immature
It's April Fools Day.

There was post made by Amanda Huie explaining it.

Live a little.

[Methodus]

Editting avatars is fine... but editting content in the PA forum shouldn't be done, since most are _ATTEMPTING_ to have a serious discussion ;-)

[DeAtHmOnGeR bEaR]

I wasn't aware that there was editing going on in the PA forums - I was just changing avatars :D

[Bavarias_Finest]

WOW!!!

Im such a loser ..... im sorry guys ......im so uptight

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS .....!!!

[DeAtHmOnGeR bEaR]

I would give you a care bear avatar again, but the time has past...:delirious:

[Bavarias_Finest]

I would give you a care bear avatar again, but the time has past...:delirious:

o just do it ....

[rainbowdawn1]

ok i will be honest i didn't read all of the replies here but i have something on a website i made which no one pays attention to that may help you here....basically i made this website for community political action and handed it in for a class at the Graduate Faculty of Politica and Social Science in nyc and the teacher thought it was a wonderfully innovative idea...

how it works is a graded moderation policy..if ppl are being overly aggresive in their viewpoints they are sent to the "chill out room" where they can learn to use psychologically-proven techniques for better communication. this is it:

the rogerian method: http://plurpolitics.net/nuke/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=17

Carl Rogers was a famous psychologist who invented a method called Client-Centered Therapy. His work was chosen as the basis for an interface to help facilitate open, warm empathy in an online classroom environment at The Open University in the UK. (Zimmer & Alexander, 1996) I don't have the interface but I will explain the method here so you can apply it when you find yourself in a conflict situation where communication is about to break down

1. To dissolve perceived oppresion
"Tell me what you want to do here, so that I can see your point of view.".

2. To differ without dismissing
"What I think you mean in essense is...My own view differs in this way..."

3. To assert without oppressing
"Here's my own experience and what I want to do"

4. To dissolve perceived dismissal
"I'd welcome knowing what you think I mean, to be sure my feelings are accepted"

Zimmer, B. & Alexander, G. (1996) The Rogerian Interface: For open, warm, empathy in computer-mediated collaberative learning. Innovations in Education and Training International, 33(1), 13-21.

and the rosenberg nonviolent communication model: http://plurpolitics.net/nuke/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=12

When you want to express honesty and receive information empathically, try to say things with these four components, or interpret what is said in terms of them:

NVC Model

a. The concrete actions we are observing that are affecting our well-being.

b. How we are feeling in relation to what we are observing.

c. The needs, values, desires, etc. that are creating our feelings.

d. The concrete actions we request in order to enrich our lives.

This would take form like "When a, I feel b, because I am needing c, therefore I now would like d."

Of course in real conversation you don't always have to say things in this format, but it helps for learning.

For a very simple example, instead of saying, "Clean up that pigsty you slob" you would say, "When I see your dirty clothes and trash piled up on the floor, I feel disgusted, because I am needing a more sanitary environment, so I would like you to please pick things up."

Here is another example: "Violence is evil." You'd say: "I am fearful of the use of violence to resolve conflicts; I value the resolution of human conflicts through other means." This way you are accepting resposibility for your feelings rather than blaming things on someone else.

Similarly, in a converstaion about the Iraq war, if someone says as they sometimes do "Kill them all" You might respond: "Are you feeling afraid of terrorists and need more consideration for your safety?" or "When you say that I feel shocked because I value the lives of the innocent humans over there and need them to be protected." Either choice keeps you out of the negative cycle that would occur if you attack the person who said that.

All of this information is taken from the following book:
Rosenberg, Marshall B. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Compassion. Encitas California: PuddleDancer Press, 1999.
You can also find out more information at http://www.cnvc.org/

hope that helps!
soullove, dawn

[Phoenix]

ok i will be honest i didn't read all of the replies here but i have something on a website i made which no one pays attention to that may help you here

To sum it up: listen without prejudice, don't be too stubborn to admit when someone has a good point, incorporate ideas you agree with into your own (even if you don't agree with the bulk of what is being said by a person)*, share your viewpoints in a non-belligerent manner focusing on disseminating your perspective as one of many instead of bullying under the assumption that you're right and everyone else is wrong and stupid to not agree with you.





*I believe this is the most difficult. It requires you to be open to the ideas of people you may not like or usually agree with.

[Bavarias_Finest]

To sum it up: listen without prejudice, don't be too stubborn to admit when someone has a good point, incorporate ideas you agree with into your own (even if you don't agree with the bulk of what is being said by a person)*, share your viewpoints in a non-belligerent manner focusing on disseminating your perspective as one of many instead of bullying under the assumption that you're right and everyone else is wrong and stupid to not agree with you.





*I believe this is the most difficult. It requires you to be open to the ideas of people you may not like or usually agree with.

I couldnt agree more ... :thumbsup:

[Cutter]

Is this dead?

[Zodiac*Blue]

Is this dead?

Not anymore :neener:

But I doubt we can get free drinks off him now... seeing that "Cubik" clause.