Best posts made by Cyali

I feel like everyone needs to step back from the situation a bit to look at this with a cooler head.

It's completely unfair to attack all community mods because you disagree with the actions of a single one. Your mention that you felt personally attacked because a community moderator removed one of your posts, yet you lob tons of personal attacks at all of the other moderators because of it. It's completely hypocritical, and personally I am offended by being called out for being part of a group when I had zero to do with the situation.

If you had a problem with the actions of a single moderator, the adult thing to do would have been to 1) address it via PM with them, or 2) get a CM like Sean involved. Or even a third option, ask another moderator to step in - someone who isn't part of the situation and can look at it objectively. Instead, you posted not one, but two rant threads on two separate communities, and many of your comments on both were made to insult all moderators as a group.

Or, if you did still feel the need to create a post about it, it could have been done professionally without spewing personal attacks at an entire group when 99% of them had nothing to do with the situation.

I will not comment on the actions that prompted this reaction, as that is in the realm of the CMs to handle; my issue here is wholly with your response to this situation. It is not OK to lob personal attacks at others when you feel personally attacked by a single person.

@scottalanmiller said in Moderators Denying Ability to Explain:

@Cyali said in Moderators Denying Ability to Explain:

Or, if you did still feel the need to create a post about it, it could have been done professionally without spewing personal attacks at an entire group when 99% of them had nothing to do with the situation.

This is where I take issue... the core issue that I have with the comm mods applies to everyone. That there was a bullying group today doing something further and that no one else stepped in to assist the innocent.... sorry, but that reflects on the whole as well. You act and represent as a corpus. As community members, we are not even told always who has done what. What you accept the role of moderator you accept being part of the actions of the whole. You are not acting as an individual in all cases. If you feel that the actions of your associates make you feel ashamed, you should question why you choose the association rather than being upset with someone that was attacked by your associates. You are tied to them. I'm not saying that that is in any way the same as you taking the action yourself. But you still have a tied responsibility as your association is purely voluntary and is to act as a group.

Yes, we represent a group, but that does NOT justify the personal attacks you've put out. You don't respond to a personal attack (perceived or otherwise) from one person by attacking multiple others. It's childish and unprofessional.

The proper way to handle this would have been to simply get a CM involved, then step away from the situation (as you've mentioned that it upset you).

@scottalanmiller said in Moderators Denying Ability to Explain:

@Cyali said in Moderators Denying Ability to Explain:

And additionally, blaming the additional 72 mods for not stopping the actions of 3 isn't really fair. Yes, many of us are looking at the situation now...but as it happened very few were immediately aware of it. It's a very large site, and there is a lot to look through. Beyond that, most of us are at work and have work duties to take care of as well.

That might be okay if we were talking about two or three people. But three mods (now it feels like five) going after me and no one in the giant pool of people doing something about it? That's a LOT of people to all have "other things to do" while every available mod is perfectly available to bully people.

Remember, as a mod you voluntarily take on responsibility as a group. These mods are your representatives of the group you choose to be in. I'm sorry if they reflect poorly on you, but you always have the right to disassociate with them.

If you are including me in that group, I 100% am not trying to go after you, and I sincerely apologize if I am coming off that way. But in all honesty, I fully believe that the way you handled this was very unprofessional.

I take issue with being insulted and blamed when I was not even aware of the entire situation until after the fact, as do (I'm sure) the other 99% of mods who were not involved.

I 100% agree with you that you, or any poster on any professional community, shouldn't have to get the big boys involved. And yes, people should step in when they see bullying. I definitely try to deescalate situations when I come across them, and had I been aware of the situation as it was happening I would have said something, as would many of the other mods.

But people are not perfect. And as I mentioned, that also assumes that every mod in the entire group is immediately aware of the situation, which most were not.

How about both parties take a bit of a break? Neither side is going to solve anything by continuing to call each other out.