D-Queued said:
Since this particular thread is really about my posts - what about a simple inmail from the mods or others?
'Hey Dave - really like your posts for the most part, or not, but could you try and avoid perpetuating the 'rider xyz rule'
Why is that so hard?
Is that a fair question for this thread?
That is a fair question Dave.
Maybe it could have been handled better, or more personal, in your case. But that "handled better" that people frequently ask for involves asking for a luxury that we haven't had for a while behind the scenes: enough time and hands to behave "ideal". All these "just one PM to me" add up rapidly on a site like this, especially when the Clinic is smelling blood or getting psyched up.
So what you have seen, and this is something we have flagged up frequently over the last weeks, is that few hands have been flat out on a whole hosts of fronts, and we have asked on more than one occasion for regulars to work with us. Some of you did, some of you did mostly. Not all of you did.
What you ended up was mods who were firefighting, and unfortunately, the quickest way if you have made the same point time and time again in PMs to individuals, is to draw a very sharp and public line in the sand.
When we do, some people assume it doesn't apply to them, or feel they can ignore it, and then get really "you could have given me a soft warning" or "why did you not nudge nudge" before. We have, publicly, openly, over and over. And with several people, privately too. When we get trapped in some Groundhog Day without getting much response from the key players, especially when we are chucking bucket loads of time at and effort at it to to it gentle, that's when you see the sharp lines appear. Which from that point on, apply to all. We will still apply some discretion, but public warnings are to be taken seriously. You might not have caused it, but ignoring it will make you part of the problem too, if people catch my drift.
It sounds like you were caught out at the more annoying side of the line, something that maybe never would have occurred if the few mods were not getting stretched thin and thus got stressed a bit. On the other hand, it would also not have occurred if people, including yourself, had taken the visual cues to drop some of the more disruptive type of posts in threads (I am not saying they were meant that way, just how they tend to pan out given our past experience), and the more gentle mod requests more to heart.
We will be getting new hands on deck soon, so hopefully we'll be able to get to a more "ideal" interaction with individual members soon, and we will have to rely less on the one glove suits all approach. It might well be that the tempers on all sides, and the stress at this end, will subdue a bit. I guess, with the upcoming race calendar, and the possible doping distractions/attractions/issues, we, as a posting community, will all have to give and take a bit, to avoid things getting ugly.
Some things won't go away. There will be times when we will be less lenient with members who ignore simple requests, or who decide that a certain day is a good moment to have a personal tantrum, or who feel that now is a good moment to take another member on with a frontal assault.
And we will expect members to show some respect to others here, and know when to fall in line a bit, for the good of the whole, rather than keep droning on about one personal hang-up.
Anyone with half a brain will realise what days are not good days to see what you can get away with. In the end, you are dealing with mods who will show predictable human reactions to keep having to come back to the same issues over and over, or be called into very petty arguments between adults who should know better and just let some things fly.
We will keep trying to figure out what issues are playing up,and how we can fix them as well as we can, so it makes most sense, or most people will have peace with it. Hopefully, with more hands on board soon, we can be more effective and constructive too.
In the end, none of the mods are here to spoil people's fun and enjoyment. That is not the same as letting everyone have it their way.
Your request for a less blunt and more personal approach has been heard. Ideally, I think most mods, if not all, would prefer that. I do however think you seriously underestimate the time sink that that is, and that is time that comes directly out of us mods having time with our families and dear ones. And trust me, that has suffered quite a bit over the last couple of months.
So, if everyone can relax a bit, and give all of us time and space to address the various (and at times conflicting) wishes that people have, in a more creative way, that would be good. In the end, hopefully, for everyone.
So no, we don't want you to stop discussing Lance, far from it. But we do want everyone to reflect in which thread it is added value, or the key point, and in which thread it might get in the way of a more focussed discussion.
And if you feel that you have an angle worthy of a thread in its own right, we won't stop you creating one. At worst, we might divert it, or merge it. In very rare cases we might close it. That rarely happens, and when it happens, on the whole, no-one is missing out on much.
I guess the key is self-reflection. Does my point have enough merit here? Is the discussion I am having with one or two others over 10+ posts derailing the entire thread? Etc.
If more people applied that consistently, and were less keen to confront the same few over the same few issues, I suspect the mods would be a lot less in people's faces than they have been.
A few posters still expect from mods to come in and clean up after they had their fun. Or are unwilling to give an inch when asked to tone it down a bit.
People who are so inflexible that they on the one hand expect that people give them all the room they want, but are unwilling to make any room for others to have a bit of fun or "different" debate space too will, probably, keep finding me in their way, at some point.
You get what you give here, on the whole.
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