Quote : Nicholas King
placidmarlin3 said:And besides, who's to say that certain moderator hasn't had her own mental breakdown because she was being played for a fool?☕
We've heard from several people that Toco's contributions to that specific sub-forum were quite decent, if not excellent, and it's certainly not a case of him being just some low-level spammer or a typical troll.
Furthermore, don't worry, Steven Ruiz could have handled this without making a public scene very, very easily—just like she's done every single time before—though I highly doubt the admins would have taken her word for it blindly either.😍
I think you're fully aware of that yourself; it just seems like for some reason, it's more fun to defend a pathetic moderator than to admit she screwed up and suggest she offer at least a basic apology.
At the same time, it's fascinating to watch how strictly everyone enforces the rules when an image is just a few millimeters over the limit, yet when there's an obvious violation of the actual guidelines, everyone suddenly becomes an expert philosopher and pretends nothing happened.
You guys are pathetic. Just scrap this whole circus of so-called "rules" and let everyone act however they want.
It isn't just me. If you dig through the photography forum, you'll see exactly how often her posts show up.
This violates the rules. I’m going to have to issue a warning and lock this thread. 🙂"If someone doesn't start getting on your nerves after a while, you really have to hand it to them. Unfortunately, you can't just hit "ignore" on certain people.
Quote : Nicholas King
placidmarlin3 said:And besides, who's to say that certain moderator hasn't had her own mental breakdown because she was being played for a fool?☕
We've heard from several people that Toco's contributions to that specific sub-forum were quite decent, if not excellent, and it's certainly not a case of him being just some low-level spammer or a typical troll.
Furthermore, don't worry, Steven Ruiz could have handled this without making a public scene very, very easily—just like she's done every single time before—though I highly doubt the admins would have taken her word for it blindly either.😍
I think you're fully aware of that yourself; it just seems like for some reason, it's more fun to defend a pathetic moderator than to admit she screwed up and suggest she offer at least a basic apology.
At the same time, it's fascinating to watch how strictly everyone enforces the rules when an image is just a few millimeters over the limit, yet when there's an obvious violation of the actual guidelines, everyone suddenly becomes an expert philosopher and pretends nothing happened.
You guys are pathetic. Just scrap this whole circus of so-called "rules" and let everyone act however they want.
I actually know most of the people over on the photography sub-forum personally; we hang out quite a bit outside of these online threads. So, if anyone is looking to form an opinion about me, feel free to ask them directly. And despite how hard Steven Ruiz is working to twist the narrative and paint me as some kind of difficult forum regular...
Trolls, spammers, and that whole crowd.I’ve been an active member of this forum since 2003. Up until very recently—specifically regarding the situation involving Steven Ruiz's posts and my subsequent permanent ban—I had never once been banned. That alone should debunk the narrative Steven Ruiz is trying to push about me being some sort of troll or spammer.
If I occasionally let a sharper word slip, there’s a reason for it. Besides, does anyone actually refrain from doing so? Who here is truly without sin? Be the first to throw a stone. ☕
Quote : Nicholas King
placidmarlin3 said:And besides, who's to say that certain moderator hasn't had her own mental breakdown because she was being played for a fool?☕
We've heard from several people that Toco's contributions to that specific sub-forum were quite decent, if not excellent, and it's certainly not a case of him being just some low-level spammer or a typical troll.
Furthermore, don't worry, Steven Ruiz could have handled this without making a public scene very, very easily—just like she's done every single time before—though I highly doubt the admins would have taken her word for it blindly either.😍
I think you're fully aware of that yourself; it just seems like for some reason, it's more fun to defend a pathetic moderator than to admit she screwed up and suggest she offer at least a basic apology.
At the same time, it's fascinating to watch how strictly everyone enforces the rules when an image is just a few millimeters over the limit, yet when there's an obvious violation of the actual guidelines, everyone suddenly becomes an expert philosopher and pretends nothing happened.
You guys are pathetic. Just scrap this whole circus of so-called "rules" and let everyone act however they want.
It’s true what they say: birds of a feather flock together. ☕
Aaron Garcia36 said:It’s not about being embarrassed; I know she was the last one to touch that post because we had to add some info, and otherwise, outsiders wouldn't realize who is responsible for enforcing our guidelines.
Look, regarding this "blindly following the rules" thing... here is how I see it: I want to participate in a discussion or an online community. I check the threads, I read the rules, and if they suit me, I join in; if not, I move on. I don't consider myself special, nor am I above the rules. I would certainly face consequences if I uploaded five photos when only allowed one, because as a long-time member (just like Megan White4), I know exactly what the boundaries are. There is simply no reason to break them.
Why should 99% of users follow the rules while he gets a free pass? If you are a user who follows the regulations, why shouldn't Megan White4 be held to the same standard? Is he somehow better than you? Above you?
Everyone deserves equal treatment, and I believe the rest of the community would want to be treated that way too.
Of course, we moderators aren't perfect (speaking strictly about myself here). I've made mistakes, misjudged situations, or handled things through private messages instead of public posts. BUT, that only happens when a user is being reasonable and the situation can be resolved normally. When I receive a message similar to his, my experience tells me that those confrontations can spiral indefinitely.
There is absolutely no need to communicate like that with anyone. Situations can always be settled civilly without someone stooping to the level that Megan White4 has chosen to take.
In what way am I failing to follow the rules? In the very post that started this whole mess, I specifically asked for an exception, rather than insisting that "rules must be followed" leading to the immediate removal of a photo. After all, exceptions are what define the rules.
Aaron Garcia36 said:It’s not about being embarrassed; I know she was the last one to touch that post because we had to add some info, and otherwise, outsiders wouldn't realize who is responsible for enforcing our guidelines.
Look, regarding this "blindly following the rules" thing... here is how I see it: I want to participate in a discussion or an online community. I check the threads, I read the rules, and if they suit me, I join in; if not, I move on. I don't consider myself special, nor am I above the rules. I would certainly face consequences if I uploaded five photos when only allowed one, because as a long-time member (just like Megan White4), I know exactly what the boundaries are. There is simply no reason to break them.
Why should 99% of users follow the rules while he gets a free pass? If you are a user who follows the regulations, why shouldn't Megan White4 be held to the same standard? Is he somehow better than you? Above you?
Everyone deserves equal treatment, and I believe the rest of the community would want to be treated that way too.
Of course, we moderators aren't perfect (speaking strictly about myself here). I've made mistakes, misjudged situations, or handled things through private messages instead of public posts. BUT, that only happens when a user is being reasonable and the situation can be resolved normally. When I receive a message similar to his, my experience tells me that those confrontations can spiral indefinitely.
There is absolutely no need to communicate like that with anyone. Situations can always be settled civilly without someone stooping to the level that Megan White4 has chosen to take.
All users are equal, but some users are more equal than others—Quote : Orwell: Animal Farm.
Aaron Garcia36 said:It’s not about being embarrassed; I know she was the last one to touch that post because we had to add some info, and otherwise, outsiders wouldn't realize who is responsible for enforcing our guidelines.
Look, regarding this "blindly following the rules" thing... here is how I see it: I want to participate in a discussion or an online community. I check the threads, I read the rules, and if they suit me, I join in; if not, I move on. I don't consider myself special, nor am I above the rules. I would certainly face consequences if I uploaded five photos when only allowed one, because as a long-time member (just like Megan White4), I know exactly what the boundaries are. There is simply no reason to break them.
Why should 99% of users follow the rules while he gets a free pass? If you are a user who follows the regulations, why shouldn't Megan White4 be held to the same standard? Is he somehow better than you? Above you?
Everyone deserves equal treatment, and I believe the rest of the community would want to be treated that way too.
Of course, we moderators aren't perfect (speaking strictly about myself here). I've made mistakes, misjudged situations, or handled things through private messages instead of public posts. BUT, that only happens when a user is being reasonable and the situation can be resolved normally. When I receive a message similar to his, my experience tells me that those confrontations can spiral indefinitely.
There is absolutely no need to communicate like that with anyone. Situations can always be settled civilly without someone stooping to the level that Megan White4 has chosen to take.
Exactly. Your logic is elementary; you seem to believe that in every situation, the consequence is at fault rather than the cause. 😂
Nicholas King said:Look, let's set the nuances aside for a second—that whole logic of "he sent insults, so I have a right to be rude too" just isn't my cup of tea.
We could sit here counting angels on the head of a pin until tomorrow, but the reality remains: Steven Ruiz missed a colossal opportunity to effectively bury "the other side"—sometimes, I suppose, a simple, plain admission of a mistake is actually the deadliest weapon you can wield. If you do that, the opponent is left standing alone on the "battlefield," looking pretty damn pathetic.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_wrongs_make_a_rightAaron Garcia36 said:Secondly, I am the one who established the rule for the diaspora community (not a colleague), and Steven Ruiz simply agreed to it when he accepted his moderator role. I don't see any reason for Steven Ruiz to be crucified for a decision that was entirely mine.
You can't really compare two PDFs that have such vastly different image policies; calling them "opposites" is a massive stretch.
The topic at hand is "publishing the President's info," not "images in the diaspora group." I stand firmly by my specific rule regarding images in the diaspora section, and so far, nobody there has complained. Why? Because there's no need to—uploading photos there is quite rare. On one hand, you can easily count how many forum members actually post photos regularly; it's limited to two specific threads, and everyone stays happy (at least, that's what I've been told).
To use a comparison, it would be like setting a speed limit of 31 miles mph on a racetrack and 62 miles mph in a residential neighborhood just because nobody drives a race car in a suburb. ☕
Douglas Cook9 said:Honestly, you all really stepped in it together this time.
Look, we all know people say some pretty wild stuff during a heated argument just to get a reaction, but once the momentum starts, there’s no stopping it.
If high-ranking politicians can smirk and say, "Maybe it isn't fair, but it's legal," then we shouldn't be shocked when moderators cling to the letter of the law—even when those rules are ridiculous or things they basically made up themselves. This whole mess started over one single image (the fifth one in a row), and let's be real, it feels incredibly unfair to play stickler for the rules when that rule wouldn't even have been broken if things were handled differently on another sub-forum.
Speaking of photography, it’s pretty pathetic that in a place where visuals are everything—and honestly should be hosted in its own dedicated photo section—this specific shot was completely nuked.
It also felt totally shady how they aggressively enforced the rule against a fifth image, especially since the same moderator defending it would go write on a different part of the site that multiple images are perfectly fine. It's the same story with the resolution limits; they used to claim nothing could be larger than 640x480, only for us to find out certain sections allow 800x600, and even then, getting that rule updated in the photo guidelines was an uphill battle.
And honestly, leaking private messages is just tacky. It's bad taste, plain and simple, especially when that content was meant for one person only.
Since everyone involved has gone overboard here, the best move would be to bury the hatchet, make up after the PM drama 😁 and just lift the ban.
Why? Because Megan White4 actually wrote quality stuff that added real value to the site.
@Steven Ruiz, you’d really show what you're made of if you just stepped up in this thread, said "lift the ban," and settled this once and for all.
That’s exactly what I’ve been saying all along.
For those who aren't particularly tech-savvy, two posts containing four images each actually consume more
bandwidth than a single post with eight images. This is simply because the browser has to load a separate "header" for every individual post. Furthermore, if the images are hosted on an external server, it doesn't matter whether there are four, five, or twenty in a post; they pull
bandwidth from the host server, not from this forum.
Douglas Cook9 said:Honestly, you all really stepped in it together this time.
Look, we all know people say some pretty wild stuff during a heated argument just to get a reaction, but once the momentum starts, there’s no stopping it.
If high-ranking politicians can smirk and say, "Maybe it isn't fair, but it's legal," then we shouldn't be shocked when moderators cling to the letter of the law—even when those rules are ridiculous or things they basically made up themselves. This whole mess started over one single image (the fifth one in a row), and let's be real, it feels incredibly unfair to play stickler for the rules when that rule wouldn't even have been broken if things were handled differently on another sub-forum.
Speaking of photography, it’s pretty pathetic that in a place where visuals are everything—and honestly should be hosted in its own dedicated photo section—this specific shot was completely nuked.
It also felt totally shady how they aggressively enforced the rule against a fifth image, especially since the same moderator defending it would go write on a different part of the site that multiple images are perfectly fine. It's the same story with the resolution limits; they used to claim nothing could be larger than 640x480, only for us to find out certain sections allow 800x600, and even then, getting that rule updated in the photo guidelines was an uphill battle.
And honestly, leaking private messages is just tacky. It's bad taste, plain and simple, especially when that content was meant for one person only.
Since everyone involved has gone overboard here, the best move would be to bury the hatchet, make up after the PM drama 😁 and just lift the ban.
Why? Because Megan White4 actually wrote quality stuff that added real value to the site.
@Steven Ruiz, you’d really show what you're made of if you just stepped up in this thread, said "lift the ban," and settled this once and for all.
Some people simply lack the ability to make exceptions, even when the context of a post clearly justifies it. Exceptions are what give rules their meaning. If I recall correctly, Steven Ruiz mentioned she couldn't make an exception because she’d be flooded with messages asking why she allowed five images for me but not for others. It shouldn't be that difficult to just say, "I made an exception due to the specific context," which would be a perfectly reasonable explanation to anyone acting normally. She also could have easily converted the last photo into a link instead of deleting it entirely. But apparently, she isn't aware that you do that by simply swapping the IMG tag for a URL tag. ☕
