Reply #185: An important correction:

[ThomCat]

During that purge: It wasn't so much a group of people ganging up on a moderator.

It was moderators thread-stalking a group of people and deleting every post they wrote, often even innocuous ones. If an entire group of people all find that every post gets deleted within moments of being written, there is no possible way that moderators are not stalking them waiting for their next post to be written.

If simply putting the number "7" in a post is enough to get the post deleted, and get someone tombstoned, that isn't moderators doing their best to moderate a forum. That is moderators acting out on petty, whinny little ego trips, refusing to show even the slightest amount of maturity or restraint. Seriously folks, the number 7 was enough to get tombstoned, but only if you were a member of that group that was getting stalked by the moderators.

Yes, moderators on petty, whinny ego trips.

And let's not forget that moderators were using friend status on Facebook to find out what people were saying over there, by being friends of friends to see conversations, and then using that find out who else was talking to those people the moderators didn't like at the moment. They were using Facebook to be prepared to know who else to thread-stalk, and to know what people were talking about, and were going to post about, so they were prepared to delete everything the moment a post appeared. It was only by figuring that out and deleting Friend status with moderators, and blocking them on Facebook, that some of the obvious abusive behavior from Moderators stopped.

You may recall that this was AFTER everyone was assured one one of your threads that discussions on other sites were not being monitored or used against them here on DU.

When the purge was going on, many of us got the feeling that the moderators as a group had made a decision that what would be best for DU, what would help all of DU settle down, would be to purge our community and let DU recover as a Straight forum. I haven't seen anything to refute that since then. Not even in this thread.

The oft-repeated idea that moderators are wonderful, fantastic people who only do the absolute best job is a load of shit given what happened during the purge. While I'm sure one or two were. I'm sure one or two moderators were trying to keep the peace and advocate for understanding us, I think they failed because the overall group gave in to group-think and took the short-cuts. They gave in to Us vs Them, and using the heavy club against us as supposed common enemy as a cheap way to restore order. And because of that, they were breaking rules with impunity to get the people you set the example for wanting to target.

Yes, you very clearly DID want people targeted, for weeks it went on. Any mention of any of this behavior got deleted instantly, and any letter to you got ignored.

So let's dispense with the B.S. about moderators being wonderful people who did their absolute best in a bad situation. Moderators as a group were a big part of the problem, and moderators made every part of this situation worse. And you watched and let it all happen.

I'm happy that you want to improve all of that, and somehow make sure it doesn't happen again. Good. But I don't see any proposals, any ideas, any indications that you're honestly willing to reform the way things are moderated. I don't see anything to indicate that you're willing to hold moderators responsible, and create even the most basic level of transparency.

Priyanka asked some good questions. I've posted repeatedly that a big part of the problem is that the moderators don't think homophobia is a problem until it becomes so damned blatant that even the most tone-deaf straight moderators agree that it's homophobic. But, by then it's far too late, and by then there is already a history of ignoring our complaints and dismissing us. So what are you going to do to make sure the moderators start noticing bias and prejudice and start taking it seriously?

And what are you going to do to resolve problems when the moderators are part of the problem? Writing to you doesn't work. You ignore letters and Always give moderators the benefit of the doubt concerning us and our issues.