But the fact is you can't get around people having political leanings. It is not actually often that a person lands in the middle and is really politically impartial. That is why we tried to have a range of mods specifically picking a person from the right, the left and someone who most everyone felt would work the best as a middle mod. Hopefully the mods picked are good at modding aside from what their political leaning is. So people can feel that if they're not being treated fair by a mod who opposes their politics they can go to a mod who aligns differently. If we have an election for a 4th mod, it would for a period add an extra leaning either right or left to the board mods. Ozmo, although he was selected as the best choice for middle, still leans left--IMO. If another lefty were voted in, that would really lean the board left for a while?
No, it would lean the moderator panel left. Not the board.
The way the board leans is dependant upon the participants, and how well they articulate their positions, not the mods.
My favor will lean toward, as it has since the board was created, a balance of mods.
As it stands you DO have a good balance:
Berserker: active, passionate, always teetering on the edge of meltdown
OsmO: semi-active, calm, hardly ever perturbed.
DL: the strong silent type, ...so silent, ya wonder if he's in the room
If we add mods, it should be to pick a righty and a lefty for balance. But what do we have here right now; about a dozen regulars or less that post often. 2 more mods at this time would leave almost half the board regulars mods. One more mod disrupts the intended balance. The board is all of 3 months old and it, until the uprising of 3 whole people, was going great as was noted by many people over the last month... should we be so anxious to change the power structure and rules of a forum that has worked on a brand new board? Is there really valid concern for dissent right now? Is it so bad that the only rules are no racism/no porn as per Ron and (min modding agreement between mods/mod when only absolutely necessary). If there were a 4th mod vote who has to campaign it should be in my opinion a person who campaigns for a middle mod to keep some intention of balance. Someone like Ozmo or Hedgehog(who often sides left and the next day right)... Unfortunately there's not many Ozmos or Hedges running about the board. I want to see the board grow to the point where its obvious we need to add more mods just like it happens on other boards. The workload gets to big for mods and the people and mods go, oh man, we need help. Then there wouldn't be any issues with adding 2 more mods, everyone wants it.
I agree with most everything you said, ...except the part highlighted in green.
What type of unfair treatment are we talking about?
Deleting a post because you don't like the political argument made therein? Obviously that's BS. Although it was prevalent on the General board, there haven't been those kinds of abuses on this board. I just think that as long as people keep their arguments to the issues, without the childish insults and namecalling, there would be no problems. The job of the moderator isn't to take sides with someone just because s/he got their feelings hurt and can't support their statements articulately, ...it's to enforce the rules that Ron laid out for the forum. period. His/her politics should have nothing to do with it.
As it stands... mods were picked who happened to have different political leanings, ...but I think more important than their politics, is their ability to be fair and impartial, and to command respect and co-operation based upon who they are, how they treat the participants in the forum. I think that above all else, the ability to leave the personal bias at the door, is their greatest qualitification, ...not how much bias they can bring with them. And that is what we have in our current mods. I don't think there's a need for any mew mods at this time, but if it came down to the addition of new mods, ...I would like to think we're smart enough that the criteria used to decide it wasn't based on political beliefs.
{giggle} As an aside, I never thought I'd see so many rightwingers advocating for quota based affirmative action.
I do have an agenda here... It's to keep the board a place where everyone is comfortable left to right posting. That is my central agenda and I firmly believe that the best way to do this is by having minimal interference from the mods. If a problem occurs on the board and there is a general issue such as there was with calling someone out, you will note that a clarification, not a rule, but a clarification was listed in the rules thread. The clarification shot for freedom rather than denial because this is at the heart of my minimal interference agenda. But the clarification fixes the problem by asking that the callout be for the purpose of political debate and not for insult only and we all know insult only really only has one place and that's in a pm, not the board. Insult only would have already been moved as it does not belong in political so it would have landed in the V board anyway... So that is my agenda for those who want to know... Keep the freedom we sought and that means for me fending off any fool who wants to get at making this a board full of merged threads and to many rules, if the rules are opened up for debate, that's exactly what will happen over the weeks, we'll recreate our own oppression. Enjoy this place for what it is, one of the most free forums on the board, hell on the net for that matter. The general theme has been, talk politics and talk it as much as you like and it's been a damn thrill to see people like Bruce and 240 be able to take advantage of it!
This post went to addressing a little of everything, sorry Jag... This is Berserker just being honest about what is bouncing around in my head right now... no offense to anyone intended.
No offense taken.
