ehb102
Well-known member
I think that is a cultural difference, Moderations are a normal part of a forum to me. The culture of the largest forum board I frequent is that you don't launch into other members, if something that someone else writes bothers you, you use the "report to moderator" button and let them decide whether or not your objection is upheld. Replying directly to other posters is what usually starts fights and bitter arguments, which simply aren't good for a community. Certainly nothing will get you a temporary gagging order quicker than telling other people what to do. That's the mod's job. Mods uses public warnings, remove offensive or inflammatory posts and lock threads if they are getting out of hand. The result is that people who complain over nothing have no impact, people who have a genuine point are taken seriously and what is and isn't acceptable remains consistent.
Having seen the aggressive responses to some moderations here I'm disinclined to speak directly about things to which I object to some posters. I don't know these people personally but they have my real name and I'm fairly easy to find through mutual shooting friends on Facebook. Someone took offence to something I said on another shooting forum (their issue, my relentless logic wasn't what they wanted to hear when they were upset), followed me around the forum for a bit and was a little annoying. But then he recognised me in person and it was extremely uncomfortable. Luckily for me it was in a formal situation so the most I got was surprising rudeness, but I really don't want to have to be in more of those situations. As it happens this particular man simmered down and voluntarily apologised later, but I've known enough men who get very angry and very aggressive when they think they have been wronged in any way by a woman to be cautious. By "wronged" I mean corrected, criticised, informed or argued with, or even simply requested to refrain from doing something. That's proper misogyny, and whilst I hope people here aren't like that I am not entirely confident that not all of them wouldn't be. Statistically, some of them must be. However, if people use the report to moderator button then it shouldn't ever happen.
So yes, I'll use the report to moderator button if I want to. I feel free to use it for rape jokes, misogyny and objectification of women, racism, religious prejudice, homophobia, anything illegal and anything else that has no place in existence let alone in a community forum where real names are used. The polite thing to do with a TOS violation is let the mods handle it.
Here's a polite objection for you, I would like to politely object to you as a moderator suggesting that there is something wrong in using the report to moderator button, especially in view of what I've posted above. I find your suggestion that my wish to avoid having aggressive responses targeted at me for objecting to things that are against the Terms of Service unfair and disdainful.
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