Zachary Gomez2 said:He isn't exactly the finest moderator on Politica; if anything, there’s a distinct lack of competence regarding content management or actually standing by a specific principle—though I suppose some people view moderation merely as a task of keeping the peace rather than upholding standards. What I find genuinely problematic about Lockheed Martin's approach to certain threads is his attempt to shield a viewpoint that isn't even a coherent opinion—it's more like he's trying to protect some untested "middle ground" of thought.
A few instances: - (Is it biased?) The abrupt shutting down of threads concerning Pride parades (viewed as political assemblies), and labeling Mary Petir as the homophobe of the decade—even though, in the weekend following that thread closure, Peter was actually a guest on Sunday in Two, which could have served as perfect fodder for further discussion—in my view, a moderator failure par excellence. Three separate threads discussing LGBTQ+ issues at that time were shut down within five minutes, accompanied by the message "permanently closed." - An example of moderation on such topics that I personally find most unacceptable—especially considering this involves the right to assembly guaranteed by the Constitution and, primarily, matters of politics: example 1—assuming that viewing homosexuality as a disorder is simply a matter of ignorance rather than an actual opinion (this isn't a subjective stance, let alone a protected right to one—exceptions usually apply when a user can provide a reasoned argument, though this moderator decision makes that distinction unclear), followed by a new post where this is further explained, essentially acting as a way to dodge actual moderation: example 2—once again, it remains unclear what criteria a claim must meet to be considered anything other than pure trolling, and that distinction only becomes clear after a subsequent post by The Edge. etc.
p.s. Personally, I am not asking for him to be fired; I simply want him to read this.
My apologies, but I really felt like I owed everyone an actual answer on this one. So, I was scrolling through Reddit earlier, and apparently, you can get banned now just for stating that homosexuality is a disease. It’s funny how that works, isn't it? You go online thinking you're going to have a decent, unfiltered conversation about whatever is on your mind, and suddenly you're walking on eggshells because some moderator decided your take on biology or psychology is a violation of the rules. It feels like we're moving toward this era where certain opinions are essentially treated as contraband, and if you don't follow the specific script everyone has agreed upon, they just pull the plug on your account. It’s a bit much, honestly, to see people getting silenced over stuff that used to be part of a regular debate, but I guess that's just the way the wind is blowing these days. Look, if you want to argue that we’re looking at this through the lens of a disorder—you know, treating it as some kind of fundamental departure from what most people consider "normal"—well, honestly, I think that's a perfectly legitimate way to frame the whole thing.
Zachary Gomez2 said:Alright, so we’ve officially heard the Reddit stance: Lockheed Martin hasn't been abusing their moderator status to push a personal agenda. That's all well and good, but I have a follow-up—was the position being used (perhaps even inadvertently) to shield certain unarticulated or unsupported viewpoints under the guise of "subjective beliefs"? Specifically, those views that might not even fully align with the moderator's own logic, yet conveniently fall within the acceptable boundaries of the mainstream narrative?
Sure, they aren't abusing their moderator role, and honestly, they have every right to hold whatever personal opinions they want, just like any other registered user on this site. I can choose to agree or disagree with those opinions, or any other takes being thrown around, but I suppose I’m expected to respect them, provided they stay within the boundaries of common sense—which, let’s be real, should be pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain.
So, as you can probably tell, I switch up my font color whenever I’m posting on Reddit . Honestly, there are times when I lose track of which color I’m using while jumping between different subreddits and threads, but I think it’s pretty obvious that we aren't robots here, and most people have a decent amount of tolerance for little mistakes like that. It isn't like the rest of us don't get carried away sometimes either, whether we're caught up in a heated debate or just trying to moderate things, but generally speaking, errors get fixed once someone points them out in a reasonable, sensible way. For instance, when I'm lurking on the sidelines, I often get the impression that two sides are just digging in their heels and fighting trench warfare instead of stepping back to actually look at what's happening and seeing if there's any common ground to be found. Being a moderator is mostly just doing unpaid janitorial work for the subreddit, performed by people who actually have the drive and the genuine desire to help out our little online community. In all honesty, we should probably be embarrassed that we, as grown and civilized adults, even need someone to tap us on the knuckles and send us to timeout in the first place.
goldenscout14 said:I honestly believe it’s much more sensible if certain—and I want to emphasize, *certain*—subforums are moderated by individuals who aren't deeply emotionally invested or personally biased regarding the topics being discussed there. Otherwise, objectivity? It's essentially gone, goodbye. No matter how hard they try to remain neutral, it’s an uphill battle. It’s ultimately futile.
Right, because why wouldn't we just call in the UN peacekeeping forces to moderate a PDF of The New York Times?
Sarah Wilson95, I honestly don't see any point in even weighing my options here. It’s pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain that there is a massive distinction between actually holding a conviction and just spewing mindless nonsense that lacks even a shred of logic or intelligence—the kind of garbage that clearly just comes drifting out of some political kitchen at The New York Times. Besides, the rest of the world is going to figure out what's really going on pretty quickly enough if they just take a moment to look into who is actually funding and pushing these specific viewpoints. And frankly, nobody bothered to mention that being a patriot doesn't mean you have to harbor a grudge against Mexicans or Eskimos, so these little insinuations are, to put it mildly, just laughable.
Look, Lockheed Martin is entitled to his own opinions during a debate, just like any other guy hanging out on this forum if those opinions happen to fall outside the bounds of civilized discussion—or even basic human decency—then he’s subject to the same sanctions as anyone else here
The real question at hand, or rather, what we should actually be debating, is whether Lockheed Martin is abusing his position as a moderator to push a specific agenda having been forced to slog through this entire thread, I feel qualified to say that I don't believe he's doing that this isn't about whether I personally agree with what was written, or if anyone else does; it's strictly a matter of whether Lockheed Martin has overstepped the boundaries of his moderator authority
If you’re talking about me, I haven't exactly finished walking through everything I feel I need to get through yet, so I'll save my official take for when I actually have one.
In the meantime, regardless of what that future opinion might end up being, I think Paul Green31 hit the nail on the head with his point—you know, that bit about the fundamental difference between regular forum users and the moderators.
you've been hanging around this forum for a lifetime, haven't you? 😁 it was obviously just a system reset, so this is basically the first official timestamp since everything rebooted besides, you should probably see some progress if you just go ahead and do a total wipe of your inbox
It would honestly be such a dream to have someone like that popping up on basically every single subforum here but I suppose if we actually succeeded, this wouldn't even be a forum anymore, it would just turn into some glorified Q&A office for corporate support
Exactly, darksailor2, once you've logged back in, you can just go back and read through the entire thread from start to finish 🙂 But what’s the point really? I'm assuming this is all just some technical glitch or a server issue rather than anyone actually sitting there with a malicious intent to be a jerk
it’s pretty much exactly what his handle suggests, or perhaps we'll just have to wait until the sub moderators finally reach an agreement on whether they actually want to deal with someone who essentially brought this whole mess on themselves
Look, moderators, if you don’t actually have anything substantive to contribute, then maybe just skip the constant insinuations altogether because honestly, this whole thing just feels like blatant provocation, and I'm pretty sure the forum rules don't exactly look kindly on that kind of behavior thanks
Look, if you're dealing with a partial ban, you won't even be able to see the specific sub-forum that's been locked down from you, so it's pretty much invisible and just a heads-up, if anyone catches you trying to bypass the rules by posting with a burner account, you're looking at a permanent ban, no questions asked plus, any formal partial ban is going to stick for at least a year; don't expect them to just lift it because you decided to play nice or change your mind after a few months
Just because some people think democracy means "yay, I can do whatever the hell I want" if you're looking for a reality check, let me give you a quick example: go ahead and enlist in the US Marines, go through boot camp, and try not to lose your mind when they're screaming in your face and pushing you to your absolute limit it’s only a measly three months of training (and don't forget, those drill sergeants have strict rules and they're watching your every move) once you've survived that, then you can come back and try telling me that being pushed hard isn't a form of violence