The coronavirus was my idea.

[Gunny]

The key to make all this not matter is to boil it all down to power and leverage. Don't push your luck where you don't have the leverage to back it up. Jim sold his anonymity to have a bit of power over a message board. The mods give up free labor to secure a bit of authority in a venue with perhaps a dozen users. One bit of leverage that you can have is not care if any of them live or die, then none of it matters. It also makes what any of them say not matter. Your power is accessed by not caring. Your payoff is seeing how a small random group of people react to what you might say. It's a low-cost way for you to see how a group of people might react in a higher-cost situation. BE STRATEGIC.

I'm anything but a "normie". I suggest that you think of ways to use people for your benefit.

Are you trying to prove yourself worthy of being labeled batshit crazy as they are?

Since you commented without knowing, I don't know one staff member that enjoys being put in a position of having to draw a line and moderate. Nobody wins anything. The board usually loses. I'll break it down even further and let you choose:

Situation: Member X acts like a douche, disregards the rules, insults everyone, brings nothing of value to any discussion and publicly defies the board's authority/rules, generally daring anyone in a responsible position to act.

Options

a. Do nothing. Regular member are turned off by the behavior and stop posting in any thread the aforementioned nimrod(s) is bleeding stupid all over. Net gain/loss for board: Loss of traffic/participation

b. Practically beg said, aforementioned nimrod(s) time and again to stick within the rules, somewhere within the realm of the topic and be civil. Net gain/loss for board: See a.

c. Step in and stop the unacceptable behavior. Net gain/loss for board: Loss of crybaby's participation and traffic.

Gain for staff member: wasted time and attention babysitting alleged adults who can't find their big boy panties. Wasted time and attention cleaning up the crap aforementioned baby has drooled on the board.

Not to mention dealing with the criticism from the one or two that feel they must and are in some position to criticize. You know damned good and well the behvior of either person in question at this point in time would have had them perma-banned LONG ago on most any other political message board.

So tell me again what's in it for us? I'm not feeling the giddiness over having to tell other adults to act like adults

[tailfins]

Are you trying to prove yourself worthy of being labeled batshit crazy as they are?

Since you commented without knowing, I don't know one staff member that enjoys being put in a position of having to draw a line and moderate. Nobody wins anything. The board usually loses. I'll break it down even further and let you choose:

Situation: Member X acts like a douche, disregards the rules, insults everyone, brings nothing of value to any discussion and publicly defies the board's authority/rules, generally daring anyone in a responsible position to act.

Options

a. Do nothing. Regular member are turned off by the behavior and stop posting in any thread the aforementioned nimrod(s) is bleeding stupid all over. Net gain/loss for board: Loss of traffic/participation

b. Practically beg said, aforementioned nimrod(s) time and again to stick within the rules, somewhere within the realm of the topic and be civil. Net gain/loss for board: See a.

c. Step in and stop the unacceptable behavior. Net gain/loss for board: Loss of crybaby's participation and traffic.

Gain for staff member: wasted time and attention babysitting alleged adults who can't find their big boy panties. Wasted time and attention cleaning up the crap aforementioned baby has drooled on the board.

Not to mention dealing with the criticism from the one or two that feel they must and are in some position to criticize. You know damned good and well the behvior of either person in question at this point in time would have had them perma-banned LONG ago on most any other political message board.

So tell me again what's in it for us? I'm not feeling the giddiness over having to tell other adults to act like adults

Some measure of what you describe breaks up the monotony. The root of such off-the-wall behavior is being overly-invested. A measure of stoicism diminishes their motivation to freak out. Sometimes it pays to speak the same language as the crazy.

[Gunny]

Some measure of what you describe breaks up the monotony. The root of such off-the-wall behavior is being overly-invested. A measure of stoicism diminishes their motivation to freak out. Sometimes it pays to speak the same language as the crazy.

Your response tells the entire story of everything that is wrong with this country/society: nobody's had the balls to draw the line somewhere between lunacy and insanity.

I've run a couple of boards and been on the staff of a couple others and not once in that 20 years has your idea worked. You just get run over by the chaos and the chaotic, and they bring their fruitloop friends.

[tailfins]

Your response tells the entire story of everything that is wrong with this country/society: nobody's had the balls to draw the line somewhere between lunacy and insanity.

I've run a couple of boards and been on the staff of a couple others and not once in that 20 years has your idea worked. You just get run over by the chaos and the chaotic, and they bring their fruitloop friends.

Fruitloops would freak out less if they were less invested.

[SassyLady]

Fruitloops would freak out less if they were less invested.

The trouble with moderators allowing fruit loppers to proliferate is that the rest of us become apathetic and leave and the fruit loopers destroy the board.