Moderators/Members are Oversensitive?
 

Being part of AnimeSuki for well over a year now, I have taken great joy in participating in this lively community. However, over this time I have had one concern about the forum in general, and that is the very oversensitive nature of both the moderators and its member (I feel the moderators amplify the effect though).

Now what I mean by being "oversensitive" is that people get tired of seeing heated discussions too easily. A good example of this is here, if you scroll down, where you can see some posts deleted. Now I thought it was a reasonable discussion to have in the open and I thought it was pretty civil (However I am assuming those posts did not contain offensive material, so if I am wrong please correct me).

The usual response of people is that the said posters take their arguments to PM, but I really do think that these discussions in the open provide interesting discussions for the forum.

I guess my request/feedback/complaint or whatever anyone wants to call it is that I feel that the moderators should loosen their grip just slightly on the myriad of threads in this forum, and that the members do not get so worked up over seeing two people arguing over a point.

Thank you for reading, and sorry if this issue was brought up before in some other way (I have no idea what name such a thread would be under if I used the search function).

The posts that got deleted in the specific example had passed the threshold of being topic-relevant and didn't contain much besides the users ruffling each others fur, in which case it is already an issue between the specific users and nothing to do with the intended topic of the thread, thus off-topic, one likely to invite a snowball effect at that, thus treated accordingly. If people wish to hold a public bickering contest in the open, i am sure there are some other less moderated forums out there to serve as grounds for such. That doesn't mean we should revise our policy on such matters though ;)

I haven't seen much comments deleted without a reasonable cause.

One of the posters in that example conversation is Kaioshin, one of the only three people who I have on my ignore list from long ago as a reminder to myself of how much a of a half-troll they are. The chances of that being a innocent civil conversation are pretty slim from my point of view.

It is the duty of moderators to prune conversations into shape, especially if posters are flaming themselves in a inappropriate section.

:bow::bow:

I agree 100% without any reservation. Is that Ojisan with misty eyes! Nope. That is just the eye drop overflowing.

Seriously Cats, fantastic post! :D

Hey Reckoner! Any heated discussion recently in the Clannad forum? :D

Not at all :uhoh:. Are you big brother?

Anyhow, I think I jumped the gun a little bit yesterday, but if I do see a real example in the future I will try to bring it up in this thread again. I am not in the mood to search the past threads for hours and get examples of something that might not be the case.

Sorry for raising a silly issue.

The problem with discussion in a forum like this, that is mainly about a hobby, is that more than half of the times the discussion are centered about the most subjective opinions, likings and dislikings . Generally speaking, arguing about whose liking is better than the other doesn't lead to good results.

Seriously, I ended up on this forum because the moderation policy exists, is pretty clearly enforced, and the moderators are remarkably civil (unless your own behavior has stepped on their last nerve).

I spent a few years on two other forums that I won't name and finally formally left both because some of the moderators were ....... well, immature dilweed is a possible description. And the ones who weren't seemed actually scared to put a leash on their fellow mods. But mostly they enjoyed watching the very rule violations they were supposed to tamp down (if they weren't actually instigating them).
Both forums had a serious case of "small thugs in their small sandbox"... and I wasn't even a target (other than occasional derision when I suggested they do their job).

Most people are very forceful with their opinions because they believe they are right. But the truth is, and opinion is an opinion, and it should only be stated as such, there's no need to put down other members, or be rude to other people because of opposing opinions.

The thing is, if you want your opinion to be respected, you should respect the opinions of others.

:heh:

It was very well stated. I even started picturing the forums as a bonsai tree. :p

QFT! >_<

It has always been a mistery to me why so many people refuse to see things from the POV of others. :uhoh:

Amen to this! :)

Of course, "respect" doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to provide some reasoning for their opinion if queried. Opinions are kind of worthless without that. :)

That is no longer a opinion, it is a argument. A opinion can be made with little to no support for it other then a educated guess.

i'm with you Reckoner... i think it's a great idea..

Oh, of course. I'm sorry if it seems like I wasn't condoning that before, I believe that is true.


Actually, it still is an opinion, putting the reason behind it, only stregthens your previous opinion. And even your linking to the definition of that proves me even more correct, seeing as the first thing it says is:

"An opinion is a belief that may or may not be backed up with evidence"

It wouldn't really be an opinion if you had no evidence, it would be a foolish belief.

Opinion or belief is the same thing¹; people believing what they want to believe, finding what they wished to find.

"Finding what they wished to find"

That part I do not understand much.

Also, that may very well be the case. But I never said that it had to be proven. I only said that without evidence, or some kind of reasoning it isn't much of an opinion. Like I said, an opinion is an opinion, and should only be stated as such.

Long story short.

Opinions. State them, state the reason why you believe that, and leave it at that. Superflluous arguement isn't necessary.

My problem with this is that, in some cases, an explanation only leads to a sort of "group test" were an answer can sometimes be judged and attacked for not following the "standars" of those that asked in the first place.

In many cases, my reply to the question above has been: Because I don't feel like it!

I also agree when it comes to give an explanation about how one decides to watch/ or not watch certain shows (if only to make oneself more clear); What I don't like, is when others feel like I owe them an explanation. Depending on the person, and the way they formulate their question, I may or may not feel like giving them a clear anwser about how I reached my decision.

You can ask, you can disagree and you can even ignore the comment at hand; What you can't do, IMHO, is to demand an explanation that may or may not suit your way of thinking.

You can also report to the mods if the opinion in question is just insults and crap, btw. :p

The moderation staff do not have the power of omniscience. My guess is that at best they could deem one posters side "too emotionally involved (biased)" or establish a posting standard (eg. the spoiler policy). Unless by "crap" you were pointing exlusively at spam anything that can not be generalised and put on a list will likely not be enforced to avoid their own bias getting in the way of the moderation process.

To paraphrase House Representative Barney Frank: "Give me the names of those sensitive moderators, and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them..."