Obnoxious Moderation

[Scribe]

I've attacked nobody. I have broken no rule. I have not engaged with Real Life Politics.

 

You've now deleted at least 4 posts, with zero explanation, guidance, or feedback.

 

This site has always been militant in its moderation, despite allowing Blow Fly to exist here over and over, and so at the VERY LEAST an update to the user for WHY you deleted their appropriate content should be the bare minimum of feedback.

[Brother Tyler]

From the =][= Rules of the Bolter & Chainsword =][=:

 

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No disrespectful behavior (trolling, flaming, derogatory terms)

• Trolling is being a jerk on the internet simply because you can. This is typically unleashing one or more cynical or sarcastic remarks on someone else, because it's the internet and, hey, you can (because they can't punch you in the face through the computer, even if you deserve it). Another form of trolling is posting material simply to provoke a negative response from others.
• Flaming is engaging in or deliberately provoking heated argument online, usually involving personal attacks.
• Derogatory terms are generally terms used to insult someone else, often on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, spiritual/religious beliefs, etc.

None of these types of behaviors are conducive to constructive discussion. There are going to be times when you disagree with someone and/or when you dislike someone or something, but you either need to express yourself constructively or you need to ignore/stay out of the discussion.

 

You don't have to actually respect everyone and everything, but you must treat them with respect here at the Bolter & Chainsword.

 

Just remember Wheaton's Law and live by it.

 

 

All of that builds on our mission statement which is posted both in those rules as well as at the top of the site as a constant reminder, but it appears that you need direct reminding:

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The Bolter & Chainsword exists to help the members of a global hobby community to better understand, engage in, and enjoy all aspects of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby through constructive discussion and the sharing of hobby-related content.

 

Note the part that I've highlighted.

 

In the case you describe...

• Members were attacking other members based on differences in viewpoint, behavior which violates the community rules. Instead of enacting direct disciplinary measures on the offending individuals, an in-thread nudge was provided letting members know that they needed to stop with the non-constructive behaviors. It was hoped that members would have the discipline to correct their behavior without the need for further intervention on the part of the staff.
• You posted shortly thereafter in an attempt to justify non-constructive behaviors based on one point of disagreement and missing both the larger scope of the discussion and the guidance to treat others with respect, and that post was immediately hidden [and no further disciplinary action enacted].
• You followed that up with multiple replies that were off-topic and deliberately confrontational, and those posts were removed [again, without further disciplinary action].

So the problem isn't obnoxious moderation. It's obnoxious behavior. On your part. Knock it off.

 

An explanation is in the works, but it is part of a broader article about discussion in general - not just this instance but discussion across the various features of the community and how to handle disagreements and various other aspects of participating constructively within a global community. Such articles take time, however, especially given the scope of discussion within this community. The article has actually been in progress for some time and is part of a series of blog posts, articles, and tutorials that are being prepared at this time (you may have seen the tutorial about blogs that was published recently) as we head into some changes (hopefully improvements) here. The content about constructively handling differences of opinion has been planned since the article's inception, an unfortunate necessity since this is a problem that is endemic across the Internet. Today's incident (counting all of the non-constructive posts by members that led to the in-thread nudge and then your nonsense) simply reinforced the need for that content. Aside from fighting fires, my priority effort for the day was actually one of the other tutorials about the site. Unfortunately, having to deal with poor behavior distracted me from much more productive efforts. I was preparing an excerpt of that article as an explanation directly to you, either via PM or as a response in the topic, but other Real Life^TM things prevented me from doing that before you decided to make it a public issue.