Thread moving by Mods

[photohikedive]

I will close my comments here with this, Thank you all for keeping this civil. I know some people have had strong views on these subjects and I respect the level of maturity shown in these posts.

Unfortunately it seems that the people who I most wanted to view this, the SB staff, see it differently than I do. While I do not consider the local forums to be exclusionary, I do feel they were the most appropriate section for the posts I made. Most importantly, my main reason for posting here was to have the moderators consider including the authors of threads in decisions to move the threads.

When I post in a sub forum, it is so the people I know reading that sub forum will see what I post. I do not read the humor forum. Neither do I read the whine and cheese forum. My day lately has been much too full to aimlessly browse SB, checking the new posts link every hour or less. So, when I post, I keep that in mind. I focus my writing to the people I want to read it.

Comments keep coming up that outsiders will read the posts and become confused. I think these claims do not give the potential new reader much credit. I think someone reading that would likely find us for what we are, a fun group, who enjoys diving, especially with new people. If you were to read the other posts that fill that thread, it is often invitations to new people to join us in both converstation, and diving.

I would be interested to talk to anyone who read our light hearted jabs and felt that we were an exclusive group, unapproachable, and closed off.

 

[ckharlan66]

Thank you also for being civil. As I said before feel free to have a good time with your friends in the local forums this was a special situation due to the subject matter.

The local forums, and really all of Scubaboard, is about a place to meet and chat with friends.

Happy Diving.

Chad

 

[mike_s]

well said Photohikedive

 

[H2Andy]

wow... awesome civil discussion on all parts

 

[OneBrightGator]

Now, I love my mom, and find that terribly offensive, does this mean you should remove it, or not be allowed to post in public forums, where anyone could open your profile?

Don't worry, PHD, I love your mom too

First off, I wasn't "offended", after reading the first thread that inspired all this I wrote the rest of your posts off, I wrote my post from the viewpoint of someone who takes this online stuff way too seriously... we don't have anyone like that around here, do we???

If a mod asked me to change my profile, I would, no biggie, I mean, really, who cares?

 

[The Chairman]

First off... thanks for bringing up your concerns. Site support is the best place for these types of discussions.

Unfortunately, I have been in the Springs or in the pool almost ALL DAY (three different classes and a hurt Achilles tendon) and am just now eating dinner and reading the Board.

Let's face it. No one likes "Their Stuff" to be modified or moved. You put it RIGHT where you wanted it to be. You also chose just the right words to convey just the right feelings. To have someone come after you and second guess your decisions can be upsetting to say the least.

In a perfect world, nothing would ever have to be moved and everyone would understand everyone else. Welcome to the Internet.

So, apparently there was a complaint and a moderator acted on that complaint. Some one thought the posts inappropriate (it wasn't Walter either) and asked that it be either moved or removed.

Now, some think it smacks of "over-moderation" or "censorship" or something far more malevolent. From my stand point, the moderator did their VOLUNTEER job to the best of their ability. Could they have done it any better? Not by my account. Could they have done it differently? Of course. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Unfortunately, the cat doesn't like any of them. So it is with any moderator's decision. Some will applaud it and be amazed at how fair the mod is and others will assign far more nefarious intents to the same decision.

Guess what? I can relate, mostly because I have had a few of my posts/threads moved or deleted as well. Yeah... me: the owner of this board has been moderated. Big whoop-ti-do! No, I didn't always understand why, but I accepted that I was possibly way too close to the situation and acquiesced to their impartiality. In short? If they thought this was best for the board, then I was OK with their decision. As ohotohikedive pointed out, there is no need for us to lose our civility over this. There is certainly no need to assign any motives to our mods other than trying to do the best job they can to keep the board as friendly and as inviting as they can. No, they won't always act in the same way that you would. Heck, they don't do things the way that I would, and I am GREATFUL for that. I tend to leave carnage in my wake!

The most ironic thing about this thread? The underlying PASSION and how some perceive it. More than once, posters have indicated that they KNOW they will be attacked for some position BUT... they are going to say it anyway! I guess someone forgot to let the pit bulls out today. You see, so many of us truly and deeply believe what we say here that others think we are simply ready to attack any infidel who disagrees. It should never be that way. Disparaging remarks are clearly not tolerated here and if you EVER feel that someone has crossed the ling, USE THE REPORT THIS POST feature! We have adopted a "Workplace Friendly" ethic here on ScubaBoard with a huge emphasis on the "Friendly"!!!

PS... I am going to bed and will be out at Alexander Springs tomorrow at 7:00 am for a class!

 

[radinator]

This is where I am confused. How is it board spam, when it is posted in a forum mean to be read by the people who are included in the joke? Posting it in forums that are aimed at a larger audience I would agree could fall into that catagory. Some might claim that the people from NW FL come off as a small group of buddies, but that is only because we are fortunate that the few of us that post on here, are able to meet fairly regularly to dive, and actively encourage anyone to join. The seemingly close knit group of buddies stretch from northern AL to beyond westernmost FL, and east beyond Tallahassee. Actually, pretty much what is spelled out to encompass the Northern Florida sub-forum.

My complaint was that the posts were moved outside of this forum, to one that was more widespread. Both the humor forum, and the whine and cheese forum.

Here is how it is board spam.

1. I can't turn off 'your' forum. When I select 'new posts', I see them all. Including the fake 'news' reports. These forums aren't separate rooms, they are all linked together.

2. Since I do travel to Florida I want to see things about diving in Florida. Scubaboard is my main source of local diving info when I'm traveling to another location. Then, I'm looking for real info.

Perhaps you should do what some local SoCal people do, they have their own separate local forum (not associated with scubaboard) for their 'semi-private' jokes and communication. I am also members of those boards - where local people all know each other. Of course the problems is there are sometimes duplicated posts if you read both forums.

For the record - I wasn't offended by any of it. I was just annoyed at the signal-to-noise ratio getting worse by fake 'news' posing as the real thing. The first one and I dismissed it. There started to be more and I was rolling my eyes. Had they been labeled as satire or something, it would not have even been noticed on my radar, so to speak.

And scubaboard usually has a great signal-to-noise ratio.

 

[radinator]

Let's use your analogy:

IPicture all of ScubaBoard as a group of people at a party. A public conversation would be one posted in a thread aimed at the whole of ScubaBoard, such as Whine and Cheese, or Humor. This could be likened to speaking to the whole croud via a toast. Maybe you don't want anyone but a certain person or two (PM's are limited to five people at a time). Then you take that person off to a room and shut the door, this would be equivilant to a PM. A post made in a sub-forum or even a sub sub forum sould be like if a group of people at that party, broke off, and started having a conversation together.

Here is where the trouble seems to be. That group is overheard by someone walking by. In order to be offended enough to warrant complaining to a security officer at the party, it is apparant that they would have to nose into the conversation to hear enough that they would have grounds to complain.

The threads we're discussing are like someone shouting out at the party

"The punch is poisoned!"
"Hey, there's a dead guy on the patio!"

Now if someone is walking around in a clown suit doing this (the equivalent of posting in the Humor section) it's not a big deal and not taken seriously.

However, without that context, you are shouting "Fire!" in the theater, so to speak.
Hard to ignore.

By the way, I also appreciate that you are willing to discuss this. I certainly changed the 'drunk frat boy' opinion I initially had...
I found the range of opinions in this discussion/ thread very interesting.

 

[SeaYoda]

I know I'm late to the party, but some of the thread moving was my fault. The Mods should not be blamed for two of the posts moved. I requested the moves because I had noticed some things about the threads that didn't seem right.

1. Some of the threads were moved and some were left where they were posted. I had a hard time figuring that out and following where they were posted.

2. There were the same type of threads posted in several different forums. It seemed like whoever moved the ones that were first moved did so to organize them better. The ones left unmoved seemed out of place.

3. The threads that were moved, before I knew what was happening, were placed in the humor forum. That seemed ok considering their content. The move to the humor forum would also help those who did not "get" the jokes. I was not happy that several had been offended by the jokes. Even though I think they should know better, they don't. Rather than try to make someone see something they can't, I would rather take the high road and "suffer" my thread to be moved for the sake of peace. These were just jokes, shouldn't they mean as little to me as I want them to mean to the complainers?

4. There were a lot of those threads - maybe they could have been combined and they would have gone "unnoticed". Because there were many, animosity seemed to be increasing. I, again, don't believe it's my place to aggravate others over jokes. Give me a serious subject and I'll fight until I have no more breath.

Because I thought things were not working well, I asked a moderator to consider putting the remaining posts with the others in the humor forum so that they would all be together, in one of the appropriate places they would fit (that had already been chosen by whoever moved the first posts), and would help ease the anger from some members. Please don't blame the Mods for a conspiracy against us panhandlers, it doesn't exist. I apologize for any trouble I have caused by my request.

Now to my thoughts on thread moving in general:

1. Communication would go a long way in getting things in the right forum and ease hard feelings. I wish when threads were moved that the mover could let the movee know why it was moved. I wish the movee could try to understand why the thread might be moved and argue in a civil manner until there is no hope of changing the mover's mind. At that point let it go. I wish the mover would allow the movee to argue their point and try to understand why the movee posted where they did. I hear how busy the Mods are so this may only be a dream - dreams can be good things can't they?

2. I believe the Mods and owner of the board can move things no matter what I think
(BTW the TOS is not the only reason to move things either). I think they try to do their best to do things right. They get it right most of the time, they do make mistakes from time to time. Sometimes there is no right answer to our "needs" or "wants". I think we should give them the most benefit of the doubt that we can.

3. This board is heavily moderated, I know this and I have the choice to be part of the community or not. I'm grateful that I can complain in public and private about my dislikes with what goes on here. I'm happy with the balance that is here, and the few "injustices" that I endure are far outweighed by the benefits I gain. In the end, this is just cyberstuff - I could live without it if I hated it.

 

[paulwall]

Thank you Walter. While I very much enjoy playing the idiotic fool (some would argue that I am not playing), there are times that subjects become serious. This seems to me to be one that while it isn't work fighting about, it is worth arguing for.

This is why I agreed with El that it belonged in a forum that might provoke change, and not just come off as a gripe. In this, I am interested to hear what people have to say, that do not see it the way I do. It also is why I have focused on the people who had views differing that mine, or thought they did. While I appreciate hearing from the people who agree with me, only commenting on thier views wouldn't be very productive in this case.

PHD, we've never met, have we? I dive with Mat, Bill, mike_s, and others in the panhandle/redneck riviera and read your posts with glee. They were very well-written and thoughtful (i.e. a lot of thought went into their structure, not their moral), if a little dark, sometimes. You had a couple of copycats that fell far short of your skillz(sic). This may have been the beginning of the end.

Mostly, they remind me of "The Onion". Perhaps you should look into publishing an online satirical diving newspaper along the lines of the "Bubba's School of Diving", which I believe has been TM'd by one of the Conchs. Perhaps start it as a sub-forum of the DD sub-forum (Like the antithesis of the DIR subforum in the DD forum, what's up with that? Shouldn't that sub-forum be moved under the DIR forum?, but I digress).

I don't understand why they were moved, as they were topical to the regional thread. Sometimes, these decisions are made single-handedly. Sometimes when faced with these decisions, a second (or third) MOD opinion should be sought.

And now, since I have posted to this thread, it shall die. (I have that effect on threads).