"But why, Anax?" you ask. "Surely our mods are congratulated and appreciated after every corrective action they make, showered with pleasant affection by the formerly iniquitous, and sworn upon by users' promises that they will never commit such vile actions ever again, so long as just and fair ban gods rule over them!"
Ahh, au contrair, my dear fellow friend. That is but a falsity, unfortunately. And even were it true, it would not prove adequate recompense for the great justice these noble Deities of the Desktop administrate upon TL.
....Mm-kay. Enough of the silly-speak. I can't keep that up, lol. X-D Straight talk now.
This past month, I made
Yeah.
So I start commenting here and there, and for the most part, it's kinda like shooting fish in a barrel compared to talking with the libs on TL (which is more akin to navigating Amnesia; always have to peek around the corners with a lantern for Souma and farv, lol). Sure, you've got a sane poster here and there, but the amount of vehement rhetoric and propaganda that gets espoused never ceases to amaze me. I understand the importance of posting comments that actually have substance to them. But needless to say, I'm much more free with my verbiage on HP than TL, because I know I can get away with it there.
Then I see this get posted:
I realize that HP is a private website and can moderate itself however it darn well pleases, but dang, how do you let junk like that get through? Even if you agree with it politically? It's got 8 @#$%-ing favorites too! Heck, this person is even one of the moderators!! If that had been a comment on TL, even KwarK would land a 2-day on the character. At least.
It doesn't really matter what subject is being discussed (though politics is usually the best place to find the worst of it); you'll find mindless, caps-raped, rhetoric-filled, logically-undermined responses all the time. The saddest thing about it is it goes almost entirely unmoderated. Rarely have I seen a comment flat-out deleted for its content. Part of the problem could be because of the nature of the topics on HP and the sheer deluge of comments that get submitted. But unlike TL, looking like a small Texas community where the locals nod to the current sheriff on duty (read: mod ) before casually, yet politely, discussing who got thrown in jail the night before or who won GSL, it's like full-on Detroit there, with bandits and perpetrators running around with the same (if not more) power as the average, peaceful citizen.
"But, Anax!" you say. "You're a
Lol. Check out Townhall, on the other side of the political spectrum. It's even worse there. I readily admit that. Granted, it's usually dependent upon which columnist you're reading. For example, the conversations following an article by Thomas Sowell, John Stossel, or Victor Davis Hanson are usually far, far different from those you'll read after one by Ann Coulter, Maggie Gallagher, or Katie Pavlich. But their comment system is so confuddling. It's barely possible to read extended replies.
Plus, there aren't even any mods at all on TH! And Lordy, does it show. You'll see advertisement posts repeated more often than liberal trolls or conservatives who can't turn off their caps lock. It's just a full-blown heyday over there, and there's practically nothing stopping them from keeping comments crazy.
Bottom line is, the "mods" on other sites are usually not that great, particularly where they are needed most. Team Liquid, in my opinion, has provided a golden standard for moderation that is unequivocally exceptional on "teh Interwebz." They keep the discussions level-headed and the trash outside. One would be terribly, terribly hard-pressed to find a better team than the Ban Gods of TL.
So thank you. Here's to another awesome year.
Question of the Blog: Who's your favorite mod/admin, and why?