AIRING DIRTY LAUNDRY

Nothing steams my broccoli faster than someone publicly airing dirty laundry on their blog. I can honestly tell you that I do not believe I have ever done this on my page. Today, though... well, it's something else.

For the record, I'm about to do that, but this blog is contacts-only. I just want to breach this topic with you guys if and when I eventually piss you off as has happened before.

I hope you all know by now that I started and continue to moderate Y!360 Refugees. Well, recently this note was posted in the group. I ask you to open the link, read the note, and then about the last 15 comments made to the post.

See, some people made some comments to the tone of "Do we even care about Yahoo! anymore?", which he didn't like, and he deleted them. Now, the group is about Yahoo!, that's fine, but it is not about constant Yahoo! bashing. I want a more positivie aura in the group. Well, like I said, he didn't like detractors and he removed the comments.

I got a PM about it later that day. One of the posters was mad that the comments got deleted. I'm not sure if she thought I did it, but when I explained that three people besides Customer Service can delete your comment (you, the poster; him, the thread owner; and me, the admin) she understood what happened a little better.

I chastised him a bit on the blog:
(Quoted comments are in chronological order)

zebaron said

josephdunphy said

A point that I was hinting at, which some seem to have misinterpreted as a continuing Yahoo bashing, was that something fundamental seems to have changed, as time has passed.

It looks to me like the Gestapo got to this thread before I could read the comments. Deleting other people's comments because of a divergence of opinion is not acceptable.

At this point, he got all self-righteous and holier-than-thou, probably my number two most hated thing on Multiply:

josephdunphy said

Perhaps not, but deleting them because of trolling is another matter entirely. Some users were playing the game of hearing what they chose to hear, instead of what had actually been said. One can not dialogue with people who've assigned themselves the right to lie about what others have written. Oh, and speaking as a Jew, I'd have to say that I'm mildly annoyed by the casual reference to the Gestapo for reasons that are in no way related to Godwin's Law. Ahem. The offending parties in this case are exceedingly unlikely to actually be killed by my deletion of their messages, and if it should later be discovered that I happen to have them hanging from meathooks somewhere at this very moment or should be vivisecting them without anesthesia, well, that would be news to me, and probably news to them as well. Which, in case you've forgotten your history, is the sort of thing the Nazis used to do. Shall we take the rhetoric down a notch?

I've always held the opinion that unless the comment is outright obscene, could cause the potential of a flame war, or has something distracting like a huge, page-distorting graphic. If someone makes an idiot of themselves trying to tear in to me on my page, I leave it up. People who read it will make up their own minds. I'm not the thought police.

I've left biting comments on the page of someone I've had a long and bitter disagreement with. I didn't call them nasty words or insult them. I just pointed out their hypocracies in a somewhat fiery manner. After my first comment was deleted, I left another similiar comment and challenged the blogger: "Leave my comment up. Your readers will decide if I'm the idiot!" He did. They did. I got PMs on Multiply thanking me for saying what I did.

To which I replied:

zebaron said

I don't suspect you encountered trolling on this thread, unless we have two different definitions. Very rarely, almost never, does this group get trolls due to the fact that most content is not visible to non-members, and that most members are aware of the fact that I read every item posted and every comment in the group to ensure this doesn't go on. Are you aware that when you, the thread owner, deletes a comment, it shows "Comment Deleted," just like it does when I delete a comment? When thread owners wantonly delete comments, I get PMs and bad feelings directed my way because they think that I'm playing thought-police. Look, sir, I'm offended at your self-righteous proselytizing. You know as well as I do that I wasn't referring to the torture tactics of the Gestapo, just their habits of snuffing out opposing opinions. And if you'd like me to continue with your analogy... the Gestapo would destroy anyone or anything with an opposing opinion, much like you did here to the extent of your capabilities. We'll take the rhetoric down a notch. "It looks to me like the Stasi got to this thread before I could read the comments. Deleting other people's comments because of a divergence of opinion is not acceptable."

He then tried to make a dignified exit. Which was all fine and dandy.

Except...!

He wrote this charming little ditty, belittling the group. My favorite quote:

josephdunphy said

In fact, I would scarcely credit him with being a man at all. The moderator - who one should be able to count on to be supportive of those dealing with trolls on his group, and this is maybe the most classic forum of trolling to be found - went into absolute hysterics over the fact that I engaged in a reasonable act of moderation on a thread on which the system allowed me to moderate responses.

Well, after you've read the blog where it went down (we exchanged no other communication), read his blog and see if you get out of it what he did. Sure, I'm a little more in-your-face than most mods, but I don't think his holier-than-thou attitude took well to my questioning his deleting my comments.

I'm the moderater, hence, I moderate comments! I get all sorts of PMs when thread owners randomly delete comments like this because the posters think it is me doing it. I read every single post and comment in that group, and I moderate it as I see fit, which is only to the lightest neccessary degree.

I'm doing my best to let this one roll off. Obviously no one reads his blogs... plus he's too incompetant to block me (he shut off commenting instead.) So, I guess what I'm trying to convey is please think twice before you publicly blast someone. You might end up looking like this guy. Secondly, don't do what he did and post without naming names to try and appear the bigger man... then your friends (assuming you have any, unlike this fellow) wonder what the hell you are talking about.

Okay... now, the hard part: Honest opinions. Who was in the wrong? How could I have handled it better, or could I even have?

-Ze Baron