Hey phartom, it's called 'humor'. Huge cheeses! c'mon dude, we have a responsibility to flame idiots - gotta keep the white noise to an acceptable level. Unless of course you are thinking of partaking of the fine meats and cheeses yourself, and bending over to let ernie the proctologist take a long position up your *ss
Well, gee, I guess I should chime in here, shouldn't I? Sorry if you don't like my style, but having been a moderator here since shortly after the site was started, I have tried a number of different methods of moderating, ranging from keeping threads on an extremely short leash to where I am now, which is giving people a little more latitude. Also keep in mind that with a board that has grown to over 15000 members, the number of posts and threads has grown exponentially, and I don't have the time to pore over EVERY single post for problems (since, you see, I DO actually have a life). That's why thankfully Baron instituted the "Kill" feature for posts, where fellow members can help keep the boards clean by helping alert us moderators to questionable posts, and then we can review them. If you see something that is questionable, just use the feature and I promise I will review it promptly. Our jobs as moderators aren't necessarily to be seeker drones who constantly police every word typed here. We were selected by Baron because we were trustworthy of being judicious about how intrusive we are. Ultimately, as the board has grown I have let more power rest with you, the general members, and have found that the majority of you want the boards to remain productive and not degenerate into a Yahoo board or the like, and as a result have had great success with allowing you to police yourselves through the use of the Kill feature and PM's to me and other moderators. FYI, there is not one day that goes by that I don't receive several "Kill" messages and go through to review and/or delete posts, so yes, I am here on the boards every day. Oh, and by the way, I personally take it as a sign I'm doing the right thing when you say I'm "invisible", because that's how I think moderators should be, quietly doing their job in the background and not calling any attention to themselves (at least as it pertains to the actual act of moderating). It's funny, because back when I deleted anything even remotely questionable, I got accused of being a Nazi, overbearing, oppressive, yadda, yadda. Now, when I'm more liberal I get accused of being incompetent. Oh, well. You are correct, however, that I do not actively participate often in actual posting here, although last week I got into a lengthy back and forth on a thread about gold, if you care to look. I choose not to particpate as a poster most of the time because I found a long time ago that it actually interfered with my style of trading.
I agree. I think zboy is a good example of what a moderator should be. At least a couple of the moderators remind me of line employees who've been promoted to middle management: they have new authority, but their behavior is the same as it was when they were "one of the boys". The last thing I expect from a moderator is an attack on a member. Members do it, of course, but members aren't moderators. Zboy provides plenty of latitude, but he does his job. Were that all moderators were like him. --Db