Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 16:57:54 GMT
Is this where we find out what actually happened? Sure. I’m at lunch now. Give me a few minutes until I get back to a keyboard.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 17:33:53 GMT
So, to set the stage: It's not a state secret that a few of us are not big fans of Ragu and his moderating style. Aside from the occasional rape joke, he's humorless. He goes around deleting innocuous posts that just happen to rub him the wrong way. He suspends and bans people, but only certain people. And, frankly, he lets @typefitter get away with bullshit that nobody else would ever be able to get away with. But, mostly, he's humorless. So we like to fuck with him. Anyway, about a week before I was banned, there was a Politics Thread lock. I don't even remember what brought it about. I know that I wasn't part of whatever the dust-up was, though. A couple of us would make little jokes from time to time about how subversive and dangerous politics was. So on some slow afternoon, me, YankeeFan , and TyWebb started some threads with titles like, "So how cute are puppies?!," the implication being that we could only talk about really "safe" topics. Moddy and Ragu would go around locking or deleting them, which is always funny. (I'm not in the running for the SJ.com Maturity Award here. I know that.) So, unrelated and about the same time, someone posts something with @typefitter's real name, but a different guy. And I post, "Is that (@typefitter) of (@typefitter's former employer)?!" At the time, @typefitter and I seemed to be getting along swimmingly for a few months, and I thought we had buried the hatchet. I wasn't trying to out him or anything. I thought of it more like an inside joke. So Moddy fucking loses his shit. He PMs TyWebb and I, cc'ing Ragu, that he was suspending us for two weeks. I kept trying to explain to Moddy that I meant no harm - that @typefitter and I got along now, and he could PM him if he wanted to and ask. He wasn't buying it, but, regadless, TyWebb and I talked him down. Well, everything seems to be calmed down. Moddy understood that we meant no harm, though he still didn't necessarily like it. Well, in comes Hurricane Ragu. Calls me a "fucking loser." Calls me a "stalker." Says that the moderators receive "more complaints" about me "than any other posters." Also says that all the moderators want to ban me, constantly, but he keeps them from doing it. I kept challenging him about it: What complaints? From who? He won't address the questions. Just keeps insulting me. At some point, he told me that if I took one more shot at him, he would ban me. (He's said this before.) Regardless, I finally PM Moddy and say, "Hey, can you step in here?" And Moddy goes back to the PM thread and says something along the lines of, "OK, OK. I think we all got our chance to vent. Lets' move on." Anyway, about a week passes. I think I made a couple of passing remarks to the "complaints" that people were allegedly logging against me. Then I start this innocuous Chase Utley HOF thread. Things are going fine. Good discussion. Then Ragu weighs in about how Lou Whittaker was lazy but Bobby Grich was scrappy and made the most of his talent. Well, a couple of us basically called him on spouting a racist cliche. He also continued with his, "I know a HOFer when I see one" bullshit, which always drives me up a wall. JC took some shot at him, and I posted a meme of a ban hammer and wrote, "Be careful, JC !" It was immediately deleted. I then posted, "LOL. Guess there were some complaints about my last post." Next time I refreshed, I was banned. A few days later, Ragu started some thread about IHOP, and a bunch of guys kept posting Ragu references to some of his financial windmills - Bitcoin, Bernanke, etc. Just, again, fucking around because he takes himself so seriously. He kept deleting them as fast as they would go up. It was actually pretty funny to watch in real time. He finally locked his own thread. At that point, three or four other guys were like, "Fuck that guy. I'm done here for now." And that's the story. I wasn't being a "psycho," as @typefitter explains it in his infinite wisdom, and I'm not a "psycho." I'm a smart ass who has some issues with authority.
|
|
|
Post by sharky, Hunter’s text buddy on Jun 20, 2018 17:42:58 GMT
I just don't get why the board needs so much moderation in general, especially on the politics thread. The site is most fun when things get a little edgy and people get agitated.
It's OK.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 17:47:43 GMT
I just don't get why the board needs so much moderation in general, especially on the politics thread. The site is most fun when things get a little edgy and people get agitated. It's OK. I don't get it, either. I guess because Moddy and Ragu just don't feel like dealing with it? They supposedly receive all of these complaints about people when that shit starts, though I don't know who in the world is sending complaints ratting on people. It's a state secret. I think Ragu is just both humorless and power-drunk. (I mean, seriously, you consistently write 1,500-word screeds about the Federal Reserve and don't expect anyone to joke about that?) He wants the board to be what he wants it to be, and they defer essentially every decision to him. It's just a personality thing, I guess. He likes to be a hardass. He's a fucking stroke, honestly. If 10-20 posters think you're a shitty moderator, and one single poster hangs from your ball sack (really it's the other way around), maybe the 10-20 are onto something.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 17:48:44 GMT
He's also had it in for me ever since I went at him hard on some Jack Morris-Mark Buehrle comparison thread.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 17:54:59 GMT
One last thing: I think part of the problem is that we don't really think of the moderators as authority figures of any sort. They are peers in a business most of us used to be in, as well. Most of them were just run-of-the-mill posters at one point. I'm sure there are a lot of message boards out there where it is understandably taboo to question the moderating or the moderators. But here, it's this bunch of guys who have been posting there for 15-20 years. You also don't see moderators in other message boards mixing it up and being opinionated like Ragu is. So, it's like, are you a poster or are you a moderator?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 18:19:08 GMT
One last thing: I think part of the problem is that we don't really think of the moderators as authority figures of any sort. They are peers in a business most of us used to be in, as well. Most of them were just run-of-the-mill posters at one point. I'm sure there are a lot of message boards out there where it is understandably taboo to question the moderating or the moderators. But here, it's this bunch of guys who have been posting there for 15-20 years. You also don't see moderators in other message boards mixing it up and being opinionated like Ragu is. So, it's like, are you a poster or are you a moderator? In most of those cases you mentioned, we weren't really "questioning the moderators" anyway. We were just poking fun, like pretty much everyone does to each other from time to time. For people who I'm assuming have worked in a newsroom or two, they have surprisingly thin skin about something completely meaningless.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 18:21:35 GMT
One last thing: I think part of the problem is that we don't really think of the moderators as authority figures of any sort. They are peers in a business most of us used to be in, as well. Most of them were just run-of-the-mill posters at one point. I'm sure there are a lot of message boards out there where it is understandably taboo to question the moderating or the moderators. But here, it's this bunch of guys who have been posting there for 15-20 years. You also don't see moderators in other message boards mixing it up and being opinionated like Ragu is. So, it's like, are you a poster or are you a moderator? In most of those cases you mentioned, we weren't really "questioning the moderators" anyway. We were just poking fun, like pretty much everyone does to each other from time to time. For people who I'm assuming have worked in a newsroom or two, they have surprisingly thin skin about something completely meaningless. Ragu and Typefitter, in particular, seem to think they are entitled to this level of deference about certain topics that you aren't just going to receive - not unanimously, at least - among a group of strong personalities.
|
|
|
Post by doctorquant on Jun 20, 2018 18:26:02 GMT
Their (and Moddy's) sensitivity is just the most absolutely ridiculous thing.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 18:27:43 GMT
TF is like Trump, for me, though. Completely banal. Not a lot of there there. But endlessly fascinating, nonetheless.
|
|
|
Post by fly on Jun 20, 2018 18:28:17 GMT
So, to set the stage: It's not a state secret that a few of us are not big fans of Ragu and his moderating style. Aside from the occasional rape joke, he's humorless. He goes around deleting innocuous posts that just happen to rub him the wrong way. He suspends and bans people, but only certain people. And, frankly, he lets @typefitter get away with bullshit that nobody else would ever be able to get away with. But, mostly, he's humorless. So we like to fuck with him. Anyway, about a week before I was banned, there was a Politics Thread lock. I don't even remember what brought it about. I know that I wasn't part of whatever the dust-up was, though. A couple of us would make little jokes from time to time about how subversive and dangerous politics was. So on some slow afternoon, me, YankeeFan , and TyWebb started some threads with titles like, "So how cute are puppies?!," the implication being that we could only talk about really "safe" topics. Moddy and Ragu would go around locking or deleting them, which is always funny. (I'm not in the running for the SJ.com Maturity Award here. I know that.) So, unrelated and about the same time, someone posts something with @typefitter's real name, but a different guy. And I post, "Is that (@typefitter) of (@typefitter's former employer)?!" At the time, @typefitter and I seemed to be getting along swimmingly for a few months, and I thought we had buried the hatchet. I wasn't trying to out him or anything. I thought of it more like an inside joke. So Moddy fucking loses his shit. He PMs TyWebb and I, cc'ing Ragu, that he was suspending us for two weeks. I kept trying to explain to Moddy that I meant no harm - that @typefitter and I got along now, and he could PM him if he wanted to and ask. He wasn't buying it, but, regadless, TyWebb and I talked him down. Well, everything seems to be calmed down. Moddy understood that we meant no harm, though he still didn't necessarily like it. Well, in comes Hurricane Ragu. Calls me a "fucking loser." Calls me a "stalker." Says that the moderators receive "more complaints" about me "than any other posters." Also says that all the moderators want to ban me, constantly, but he keeps them from doing it. I kept challenging him about it: What complaints? From who? He won't address the questions. Just keeps insulting me. At some point, he told me that if I took one more shot at him, he would ban me. (He's said this before.) Regardless, I finally PM Moddy and say, "Hey, can you step in here?" And Moddy goes back to the PM thread and says something along the lines of, "OK, OK. I think we all got our chance to vent. Lets' move on." Anyway, about a week passes. I think I made a couple of passing remarks to the "complaints" that people were allegedly logging against me. Then I start this innocuous Chase Utley HOF thread. Things are going fine. Good discussion. Then Ragu weighs in about how Lou Whittaker was lazy but Bobby Grich was scrappy and made the most of his talent. Well, a couple of us basically called him on spouting a racist cliche. He also continued with his, "I know a HOFer when I see one" bullshit, which always drives me up a wall. JC took some shot at him, and I posted a meme of a ban hammer and wrote, "Be careful, JC !" It was immediately deleted. I then posted, "LOL. Guess there were some complaints about my last post." Next time I refreshed, I was banned. A few days later, Ragu started some thread about IHOP, and a bunch of guys kept posting Ragu references to some of his financial windmills - Bitcoin, Bernanke, etc. Just, again, fucking around because he takes himself so seriously. He kept deleting them as fast as they would go up. It was actually pretty funny to watch in real time. He finally locked his own thread. At that point, three or four other guys were like, "Fuck that guy. I'm done here for now." And that's the story. I wasn't being a "psycho," as @typefitter explains it in his infinite wisdom, and I'm not a "psycho." I'm a smart ass who has some issues with authority. Oh, no.....
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 18:32:27 GMT
Moddy might be the nicest person I’ve ever come across.
I could watch people make fun of Ragu all day long.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 18:34:40 GMT
Moddy might be the nicest person I’ve ever come across. I could watch people make fun of Ragu all day long. Moddy seems like a really nice guy, indeed. Like I said, I think he just doesn't feel like dealing with the shit that comes with moderating sometimes - hearing people bitch and whatnot. Ragu is a self-important douche bag.
|
|
|
Post by sharky, Hunter’s text buddy on Jun 20, 2018 19:14:07 GMT
I've really, really grown contempt for type, and the fact that he's a protected class on the board has really soured me. I can't stand guys like that--entitled, no time for differing opinions, willfully ignorant on certain topics, self-important, thin-skinned, and downright mean when challenged. Quite the combo.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 19:21:15 GMT
I've really, really grown contempt for type, and the fact that he's a protected class on the board has really soured me. I can't stand guys like that--entitled, no time for differing opinions, willfully ignorant on certain topics, self-important, thin-skinned, and downright mean when challenged. Quite the combo. I've tried like six separate times to like him, to give him a chance. Not that it matters any more, but I'm done with it, particularly after some of the things he was saying about me there last week, when, like I said, I thought we had buried the hatchet. He's absolutely a protected class there, by Ragu, in particular. He's a bully and always has been, first of all, and gets away with things nobody else there would ever get away with. For instance, he's absolutely the biggest name-caller on the board. As you said, he's willfully uninformed, and tries to use the force of his personality to make up for it. That works with some people, who have drawn their own line in the sand. But it gets tiring for those wanting some substantive give-and-take. Any time that anyone brings up his personal life, he acts completely indignant about it, even though it's all information he's volunteered. Meanwhile, he has spent 10-plus years on the board making fun of people's careers as his go-to comeback, when cornered. He's just not a good guy, I guess. But a lot of that is on the moderators. He doesn't get in trouble for anything, and he doesn't realize it's because he's protected. He thinks it's because he's always right. I think the board is a safe space for him. He used to pull this shit publicly, and he would get absolutely roasted for it by various bloggers and other media watchdog sites. He can go to SJ.com and be as mean as he wants to be without consequence.
|
|