The rise in abuse of power, overstepping of bounds, and unbalanced perspectives on BL

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swilow said:
If folks sincerely think staff are abusing "power, tell us where and we can try to improve. If we don't know or aren't told, how can we change? So far the accusations have been vague and broad, I think a certain specificity is the only thing that will enable us to explain and/or modify our conduct.

I'm gonna say that we aren't perfect but we are doing our best. There is always room for improvement though.

But the silence from B_P is telling. Its clear this is a chuck a bomb and run away thread. For that reason, I'd be for killing this topic.
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This post seems to imply there has been no attempt to try to communicate with mods regarding areas of concern. I must be mistaken but there have been attempts to do so, albeit from people that are clearly just ignored,disregarded or seen to be of no worth at all. In fact it was toothpaste dog who mentioned the newly smodded staff were aware of concerns of there being bans etc allegedly due to being right wing.

Unfortunately it seems this was oertaining to bans for trolling by someone that is a well known troll that just happens to be right wing. Havent seen much activity from td since then so all must be hunky dory.





I dont think that anyone has been cast out because they have a different viewpoint to the seemingly vocal left wing orientated staff, who tend to look like they overwhelm anyone else and some posts do border on abusive.

It doesnt bother me personally as all except for one thing. Anyone who speaks their mind on a subject just gets hounded by the same group over and over yet the same group denies bullying. That kind of behaviour is what was going on in tl so bl closed it-
except the roles are reversed.


People like jah were caught up in that and I cant blame him for being angry. The guy is a good guy, a troll he is not and yes theres definitely a grudge on both sides. He has been infracted for some questionable things, just imagine if you guys were wrong? I doubt he was an alt parodying someone else and doubt you could prove me wrong.

The slr ban, really? How many of mine in that thread referenced people like you?


I guess you can call him racist or whatever for using the n and f words.

He isnt, just pissed that once again there were inactive mods. Others have posted f word and was let go by mods who posted directly beneath.

Its not like asking a direct question gets a response either !

He would have been a good mod as he would have put tl first or at least shown up. It wasnt his fault tl closed and he got confused about it. It wsnt hus fault he thought you closed it Ali as you are the one who put up the announcement. Is it any wonder you were blamed solely?


Its pretty clear there is no place on bl for the remnant ex loungers. Some of them are just going to plague you from their shit hole and keep stirring shit and maybe you deserve it .


Beepers did try to work with you lot during that time. It would be nice if you would do the same back, how much of his and other peoples time would have been wasted by now keeping the light on for a forum you clearly have no interest in?

Sucks to be beeps right now, look how far loyalty got him


*shrug*
 
JessFR said:
I can't help feel like this thread is what it would look like if someone fucked up and accidentally moved a private thread from the super secret mod only subforum into CE&P.
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Mod threads are (unsurprisingly) a lot of "shit I'm high" for a large part.

It does put to rest the idea we are some goose stepping robots though. Quite the opposite point to what the op is likely to have intended.
 
zephyr said:
[Jah] would have been a good mod as he would have put tl first or at least shown up.
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picking fights with management and generally being hostile towards them, as well as continued flagrant demonstrations that one is unwilling to adhere to the community's rules and guidelines are very poor ways to demonstrate one's ability and compatibility to be part of said management team. you dont have to like or get along with everybody on the management team to be a good fit as a mod, but you do have to demonstrate that you can be professional when it comes to the work no matter what your personal feelings or grudges, as well as demonstrate willingness to actually do the job. i keep trying to explain this to him because i also think he could potentially be a good mod, but since he wont listen to advice, make changes, or take responsibility there's little that anyone else can do; its all on him and what he wants, and his actions make his priorities and goals clear enough.

zephyr said:
Anyone who speaks their mind on a subject just gets hounded by the same group over and over yet the same group denies bullying.
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not sure what you're talking about here. there's only one group of bullies that i know of, the same ones that have been targeting you along with a lot of others for years, and they're not part o the staff as you well know.
 
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I really don't see an abuse of power persay. Personal bias and lack of sight for gray areas? Absolutely but it's limited.

Honestly the changes occurring over the years IMO are do in part to Blue light becoming a partner with MAPS. In a sense a more socially acceptable mantra of behaviour and posting was necessary.
 
^ indeed. there was nothing arbitrary about it.

alasdair
 
Wow there is some mud slinging here, where none needs to be imo. OP is mad bc the site ran off his tribe of shit posters with an arbitrily over bearing set of guidelines(when considering the lounge of the old) It happened by design bc understandably leadership thought a 4chan esk forum full of trolls defeated the purpose of HR, others felt more HR happened bc of the tight knit community. I?m here to tell you BP that social justice folks are ruining forums all across the internet, this isn?t unique to here. And maybe the BLUA elites are right in the lounge being a bad look for bl, and maybe you are right in a having a tight knit community helping with HR. Life is about comprimise, but sometimes folks either don?t want to or see things a different way.
Jess this is all about the lounge, and BP is the final hold out from moving on.

<edited> I agree with guido. MAPS required the site to be more mainstream
 
^ that comment is based on complete ignorance of the facts. maps didn't require anything of us when we agreed to host their forums.

Droppersneck said:
...with an arbitrily over bearing set of guidelines(when considering the lounge of the old) It happened by design...
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i do not think that word means what you think it means...

alasdair
 
Bluelight mods, smods, admins, etc are not a monolith. We are different people with different personalities, different backgrounds, and different political opinions. Some have been staff for years and years...others, like me, not very long. Some have very successful and fulfilling lives. Some struggle to make it through the day. We weren't shipped in from the mod factory, we are just Bluelighters who agreed to take on more responsibility because we love the site and want to see it do well.

I'm just a s&g mod, so there's hardly anything required of me, and thats probably a good thing because my life is somewhat of a wreck. But there are those who take on MUCH more than I do and they do it on top of full time jobs and families and relationships and drama and addictions and everything else every other Bluelighter is dealing with. It doesn't come with a check or notoriety. And the more you have to do, the more likely you are to be hated and disrespected on a daily basis for one reason or another.

It's actually pretty funny that the mod section of the forums has this mysterious reputation where we meet in secret and diabolically plan what we should do next to hurt the site...the site we volunteered to help maintain. We haphazardly make decisions...infract people for no reason...don't give a fuck about anything because we are mods. Mods drunk on the power we wield over you worthless SOBs.

In reality, there is literally no action of any consequence...made by any of us...that is not either openly debated/discussed or at the very least recorded and documented. The vast majority of this is boring, routine, and not controversial in the least. Anything that is controversial is discussed at length and there is an incredible amount of caution taken to make sure we are keeping each other in check and not overreacting or under reacting to any given situation.

The more light hearted part of the forums is exactly the same as the community type threads everywhere else. It's us talking about mundane shit. Talking about being high or not being high. About some kind of shit going on in our lives. I talked to CH earlier about housebreaking pets and those huge collars they have to wear after they get spayed so they don't lick their stitches. There's a lot of talk about pets. There's a music thread that I've not even gotten around to posting in. Just really normal shit like that.

Seriously, just think about how ridiculous it is to accuse us of being secretive and not caring what everyone thinks. If that were true, someone could have just made this thread disappear. Obliterated with no evidence of it ever existing. But then again, why would we care if you knew we deleted it if we didn't care what you think? Why have so many mods responded to this thread? Why do we feel the need to make you understand if we don't give a shit about you? Why did I just type like ten pages of shit most of you have already stopped reading?

Is it too much to ask of anyone to pretty please do not post racist, sexist, or homophobic shit? It's just not a very nice thing to do. It is inconsiderate and disruptive. Bluelight is for ALL types of people. People come here lots of times in distress, depressed, irrational, feeling hurt. We do not want them to come here and see some kind of vile or hateful shit and think they are not welcome. I swear, that is my primary concern. And I think most of us feel that way. It has little or nothing to do with personally disagreeing with it politically, or being liberal, or anything like that.
 
zephyr said:
This post seems to imply there has been no attempt to try to communicate with mods regarding areas of concern. I must be mistaken but there have been attempts to do so, albeit from people that are clearly just ignored,disregarded or seen to be of no worth at all. In fact it was toothpaste dog who mentioned the newly smodded staff were aware of concerns of there being bans etc allegedly due to being right wing.

Unfortunately it seems this was oertaining to bans for trolling by someone that is a well known troll that just happens to be right wing. Havent seen much activity from td since then so all must be hunky dory.





I dont think that anyone has been cast out because they have a different viewpoint to the seemingly vocal left wing orientated staff, who tend to look like they overwhelm anyone else and some posts do border on abusive.

It doesnt bother me personally as all except for one thing. Anyone who speaks their mind on a subject just gets hounded by the same group over and over yet the same group denies bullying. That kind of behaviour is what was going on in tl so bl closed it-
except the roles are reversed.


People like jah were caught up in that and I cant blame him for being angry. The guy is a good guy, a troll he is not and yes theres definitely a grudge on both sides. He has been infracted for some questionable things, just imagine if you guys were wrong? I doubt he was an alt parodying someone else and doubt you could prove me wrong.

The slr ban, really? How many of mine in that thread referenced people like you?


I guess you can call him racist or whatever for using the n and f words.

He isnt, just pissed that once again there were inactive mods. Others have posted f word and was let go by mods who posted directly beneath.

Its not like asking a direct question gets a response either !

He would have been a good mod as he would have put tl first or at least shown up. It wasnt his fault tl closed and he got confused about it. It wsnt hus fault he thought you closed it Ali as you are the one who put up the announcement. Is it any wonder you were blamed solely?


Its pretty clear there is no place on bl for the remnant ex loungers. Some of them are just going to plague you from their shit hole and keep stirring shit and maybe you deserve it .


Beepers did try to work with you lot during that time. It would be nice if you would do the same back, how much of his and other peoples time would have been wasted by now keeping the light on for a forum you clearly have no interest in?

Sucks to be beeps right now, look how far loyalty got him


*shrug*
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I said what? Because I truly have no idea what you’re referring to. If you’re gonna attribute something to me please explain.

My lack of activity on the public forums has a lot to do with one thing and one thing only: graduate school. I’ve only had enough time to deal with administrative stuff this semester, and even then...

I am looking forward to this summer and being able to devote myself more to SL again. I’ve been looking forward to working more with our new staff there.

But I digress... what was it you are saying I was saying?
 
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alasdairm said:
^ indeed.

it's hard for me to see how "a mockery of any pretense of a united leadership" is anything other than a negative judgement.

alasdair
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This strikes me as that kind of situation where someone makes a joke about the president bring assassinated, then some federal agents show up and ask "so you think the president being assassinated is funny do you...?" "explain to me what's funny about you talking about the president being assassinated".

It's ironic, I had no negative judgement at the time, but rest assured you've corrected that.
 
tathra said:
picking fights with management and generally being hostile towards them, as well as continued flagrant demonstrations that one is unwilling to adhere to the community's rules and guidelines are very poor ways to demonstrate one's ability and compatibility to be part of said management team. you dont have to like or get along with everybody on the management team to be a good fit as a mod, but you do have to demonstrate that you can be professional when it comes to the work no matter what your personal feelings or grudges, as well as demonstrate willingness to actually do the job. i keep trying to explain this to him because i also think he could potentially be a good mod, but since he wont listen to advice, make changes, or take responsibility there's little that anyone else can do; its all on him and what he wants, and his actions make his priorities and goals clear enough.



not sure what you're talking about here. there's only one group of bullies that i know of, the same ones that have been targeting you along with a lot of others for years, and they're not part o the staff as you well know.



not the whole site, just one single forum, because things had been so bad for so long (several years) with absolutely no signs of it doing anything except getting worse that the owners were finally forced to step in. and even then, all that was done was bringing it under the same rules as the whole rest of the board had always followed (the bluelight user agreement) instead of continuing to let everyone get carte blanche to violate the rules and guidelines, as had been the case for years.
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You can utfse as well as I can bro. Im not particularly interested in how you spend your time though.
 
http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/829860-ANTIFA-attacks-peaceful-right-wing-protestors-in-Berkeley-CA?p=14184885&viewfull=1#post14184885


Wow lol td you really havent been around much in cep have you? Omg lol.


Anyhoo, I digress. This is where you seemed to indicate there was some slight concern over bias in cep.


I reiterate, I really dont care- you clearly are on top of things and totally interested in the well being and growth if the community.






Lmfao.

tooth said:
Would you please just report posts you feel like have victimized you? If you feel like anyone's actions have left you discriminated against who is on staff, please send either CFC or myself a pm to let us know so we can deal with it.

Either of those options would be way better than just complain about it here. I'll make a sticky to let you know of some new policies we may be rolling out in CE&P in terms of dealing with actual discrimination so many of our forum's membership have been complaining about. Time to take the bulls by the horns, so to speak (the bulls being discrimination, both actual and perceived - to tame one form seriously we have to take both as such).

Anyways, our CE&P moderators do a hell of a job working to keep this forum running as smoothly as possible, and it's one of the hardest BL forums to moderator for sure. Anything you can do to help them make this forum a better place, the better. Any help you can give CE&P staff, it is very much appreciated in any case.
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tathy said:
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16-01-2018 08:12 Report Post
Quote Originally Posted by JahSEEuS View Post
That's great. Keep it with SMods and Admins -- you know, the ones that don't issue infractions unless it is completely necessary.
I agree with this. If something is serious enough to require a permanent black mark on the account it should require hire than a mere moderator to issue it.

Perhaps the system could be changed to something like "if the user can go 2 years without an infraction then infractions over 2 years old change to expiring", then they're permanent if the user cant reform but otherwise have a 3 year lifespan, something like that.

One of the problems with using only expiring infractions was there were quite a few that would rack
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Related reading.
 
alasdairm said:
^ that comment is based on complete ignorance of the facts. maps didn't require anything of us when we agreed to host their forums.



i do not think that word means what you think it means...

alasdair
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I could use an arbitrary methodology to achieve a goal, especially when acting arbitrarily helps achieve said goal. Look Alasdair beleive it or not I really like you and value you as a person, but sometimes two parties can both be a little wrong. It happens, and acting 100% pragmatic and sanctimonious is why we are here(not you personally but the admin as a whole) I mean zero disrespect and you have shown that you value an open forum with regard to this topic. Just tell BP things aren’t going to change and encourage the thing we discussed. I could just turn and run away, but decided to contribute to this forum and follow the rules. BP just needs to realize that things change and it’s adapt or get out the way.
 
zephyr said:
http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/829860-ANTIFA-attacks-peaceful-right-wing-protestors-in-Berkeley-CA?p=14184885&viewfull=1#post14184885


Wow lol td you really havent been around much in cep have you? Omg lol.


Anyhoo, I digress. This is where you seemed to indicate there was some slight concern over bias in cep.


I reiterate, I really dont care- you clearly are on top of things and totally interested in the well being and growth if the community.






Lmfao.
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You really are trying too hard zep.

Where is it that I indicate we are concerned about arbitrary bias among staff? Seems like I did exactly what I’d do when a user expresses their feelings of victimization - instead of complaining do something about it by letting us know!

Me telling a user to get in touch with smods if they are unhappy with rules getting enforced is quite a bit different than seeming to indicate a slight bias among staff. It actually just informing someone how to make a complaint if they feel mistreated by mods, standard protocol outlines in guidelines here.

That’s what you read into it, not what I wrote. Kinda reminds me of what is the problem with complaints I’ve seen so far here. They’re divorced from reality, at best taken out of context.

I don’t read the quote you have there as indicating concern over staff bias whatsoever - which has nothing to do with my actual feelings about that, I’m just pointing out what you are saying I said has nothing to do with what I actually said!

Again, a big part of the issue as it’s unfolded, people misrepresenting things that have happened to suit their own selfish purposes. I make mistakes, I accept them, try to learn and move on. It isn’t actually that hard to do - moving on doesn’t even require acceptance.

So far the only people who are seriously accusing people (and no zep, I’m sorry I have a hard time taking your feedback in this thread seriously after the rather difficult way you decided to leave staff) of bias are... people who are posting racist, sexist, xenophobia content in violation of forum policy and BLUA :|

You are just encouraging them zep, but then again it doesn’t come as the biggest shock given what I’ve seen of your behavior since leaving staff...

Anyways, these folks get an infraction for breaking the rules, so they scream wolf. They complain of bias and mistreatment. Did they forget we have a user agreement? Are they so spoiled IRL that they do not believe they can be held accountable by that user agreement.

Do you realize how far these users go to try and skirt the rules about racism, for instance? They know how our system works and do whatever they can to get around it. Now that we’ve updated the rules to prevent this from happening, they have no recourse but to argue the rules are biased. You used to mod TL, so I’d think you were already aware of this dynamic.

Please people. You join as website like this, activate your account, that means you agree with the user contract. If you don’t like it when that contract is enforced, a contract that they voluntarily agreed to, maybe they should find a community that doesn’t take bigotry as seriously as we do.

I can think of one place where bigotry and defamation is accepted and encouraged. It isn’t BL...

Really folks, some of you are really grasping at straws with this, but I understand you don’t want to let it go. After all, it’s a public opportunity to expose BL for the liberal anti-straight privileged white, illegal immigrant loving conspiracy it really is 8)

If you don’t see that as ridiculous, you probably shouldn’t be using the site...

Still waiting for the smoking gun, or anything that substantiates any of the complaints so far levied. You certainly haven’t provided it zep.

Then again, I’m not too concerned. I’m kinda have an idea where this is going, I’d just prefer it to get there sooner than later. .

Still really curious to see what BP’s follow up will be. I don’t have high expectations, but it would be nice if this we could get to the point with this.

All this is accomplishing as far as I can tell is further enraging passions (this is the issue BP has been involved with on staff recently) and giving some of our less stellar members a chance to vent whatever crap their heart desire.

I look forward to summerizing this once it’s finally piddled out...
 
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Where the hell is BP...lots of blanks being fired around here. We need the big dogs.
 
^hopefully soending his time doing something worthwhile.



ali said:
14-01-2018 07:37
the lounge closure was a decision made unilaterally with pretty much no discussion at the admin or smod level. the admins at the time (of whom i was one) admitted immediately that it was a mistake and the changes were rolled back immediately (literally within a day). why do people keep pointing to that as if it was the situation for an extended period?

alasdair
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For your ref toothpastedog, just in case you were still thinking the lounge closure was a "thing".

Oh it was.

:D






Its a pity jah all if a sudden started racking up permanent infractions just when his record cleared and was a favourite to be a mod. Really kinda gave just cause to turn him down didn't it?
 
the longer this thread goes on the more confused i am about what's going on.

still no evidence of anything has been provided, just more accusations and changes of topic that I can't tell what this is supposed to be about, except an excuse to hurl shit over perceived grievances with no factual basis provided to support them.
 
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