A Moderator's Lot

[Moss Trooper]

Recently recieved via email from Mr. Dan Wilson.. Because I locked a thread that was starting to get a bit out of hand.

 

"Hi, its Dan from geocaching here. I just wondered why you closed that post,

i had an interesting point to make. Why is it ok for someone to post about

things for sale which is quite obviously an advert, and not allowed to post

about caches? no offence but you sound like a hypocrite, unless ofcorse you

agree with my point. There is ofcourse as you will know a section in another

forum that people can advertise goods in.

 

Also i would like to know why you are always so sarcastic towards people in

the forums and dig at everything. I posted a new topic about it but then

took it back because i thought you would just reply with the same pointless

critisim. In my view you abuse you title as moderator. Making fun of people

and using your 'power' to make the forum a place where people dont like to

go is not what your there for. please start acting with the responsibility

you are supposed to have. you must have been given this title for a reason

and im sure you are a really good bloke face to face, its just i havnt seen

any good sides to the way you act towards other people yet.

 

this was then followed by...

 

Hi again, if you fancy doing something good with your abilities as moderator

can i suggest you delete the whiteleaf cache topic as it is just stupid now,

how something so inocent could turn into that i have no idea. Its just

proved to me that some people using this site are crazy! anyway, that would

be great if you could do that. Cheers, Dan.

 

I'm a hypocrite.. An here is me thinking I was just two faced..

 

I'm sarcastic to everyone.. only once a day

 

And it seems that he has to tell me how to do the Job. well if he want's the Job.. he can have it.. along with all the uncalled for emails because some people don't like the wayI abuse my position of moderator

 

Don't worry folks.. I aint gona open up a vote thing.. been here far to long for that.. and I still got me tin hat an flack jacket...

 

All comments gracefully recieved.. as long as they conform to my preconseptions..

 

Moss de Boss... Sort

[+Rocky Balboa]

I am really glad you responded to my email. Im sorry if i have taken your comments the wrong way, but i dont know you and they sound like digs and sarcasm. I didnt feel it was fair because you dont know me either and there is no point in criticising people just for the sake of it. I hope everyone can just get along instead of having to put up with people slating their ideas etc.

 

Dan Wilson (Team Dan and Pid)

[dawnrazor]

Wish I hadnt read that now, whatever the rights and wrongs of advertising stuff here whether it stuff for sale or a recent cache placed there's one thing I do know:

 

Posting the contents of someones privately sent email message onto a public forum is well beyond the pale.

 

Eddie

[dawnrazor]

Incidentally I moderate 4 forums in other places with lets say, a less adult-behaving population then we have here - so I DO understand what sort of flak and abuse such a role attracts and what a thankless task it can be at times.

[+Chris n Maria]

I don't see anything wrong with a bit of self promotion which is not for commercial gain. I kinda think that if you are not interested in a forum - don't reply to it and it will soon disapear out of site.

 

Just a request to all users really - before you flame someone leave it 12 hours, take a deep breath and read what they have actually typed out loud in three different silly voices. If you still feel like flaming after that you probebly have a point to make...if not, let it lie.

 

Chris

"We're not lost - we just don't know where we are"

London & UK Geocaching Resources: http://www.sheps.clara.net

[+The Northumbrian]

Well I agree with Moss Posting it on the forum , I think Dan was weel oot of order with a mail like that. I have seen a lot of moss's replies on this forum , but never any that are sarcastic in a way that offends, its only ever jovial sarcasm,

and those little bits of fun Brighten up the forum. Well done Moss trooper.

Nige

[+Rocky Balboa]

it offended me otherwise i wouldnt have mailed it...

 

Dan Wilson (Team Dan and Pid)

[dawnrazor]

Im sure Dan would have happily posted his thoughts on the forum if he had wanted them airing there !! (history is on my side here ).

[Runemaster]

I have tried to resist but I'm afraid I can't...

 

I must say that if you feel aggrieved at any thing Moss says in jest you are waaaay too touchy, I have known Moss for over a year now and I haven’t met a better ambassador for the hobby yet! After all his article in Computer Active got loads and loads of new cachers on the scene. well done the lad!

 

Dan and Pid, while I commend your efforts and enthusiasm I must say I have noticed you do seem to post rather a lot, and you do seem to ask some strange questions... i.e. "Are Dan & Pid just losers" or "where is everyone from" are two that just seem to spring to mind. Oh and profanities too, but hey... we all lose it sometimes, even me

 

I say that Moss keep up the good work and Dan... Wait till you got a real corker of a forum thread before setting one off

 

As regards posting mails up on the thread, personally I don't think I would have but then again I wasn't the one he was having a pop at, maybe things might have been different if it had have been

[JasonW]

I know that none of the moderators here act as the "Thought Police" (I know I didn't when I was moderating) - look at all the topics that remain open even when they get off-topic replies. If they did there would be one of two basic end-results :

 

• 1. The forums die on their feet (that version cleaned up)

2. The forums degenerate into a slanging match, every topic gets locked and 1. follows

 

So the moderators always find themselves in a dilemma - lock it or not - and objectively looking back through the UK forum - there are 20 locked topics (out of 405) and most of those topics (probably 13-15 of them - all about the man who's name I dare not type for fear of an automatic topic lock) were locked by Jeremy Irish.

 

Another thing to consider - if the moderators did go on a power trip and start locking all the topics, what would be the result ? Well there'd be a topic posted for every reply (so lots more for them to lock) and they'd soon get sick if it - after all they get a mail message per post in these forums.

 

Bottom line of it is though, if you don't like the way the fora are moderated (which in my opinion is sometimes excessively lightly) then complain to the king of the hill - Jeremy Irish (contact@geocaching.com), you will get a response - it might take him a little while as he's a busy guy, but based on my experience you will get one - this whole site is his 'baby' and he's seen fit to delegate the moderation of the UK forum to Richard & Beth, Monz & Moss Trooper - right not I see no reason to change that (and not because I've known Moss Trooper & Monz for over a year either, and there's no Northern Geocaching Mafia either - or Richard & Beth wouldn't be moderators (that last bit was sarcasm - in case anyone failed to recognise it as such)) but because the UK forum works pretty well as it's moderated now.

 

Sarcasm rarely works well in the printed word, but when Moss is at the keyboard one usually expects sarcasm to be the result If you'd taken the time to read back through the forum - lurking I think it's usually called - as is good nettiquette on any discussion system, then you'd have known that Moss is (in)famous locally as a cynical ol' so-n-so.

 

As far as the advertising goes, I know that not many people outside the US even bother to look in there - why ? because it's so US-biased - given that the goods for sale were travelbugs and other geocaching.com merchandise, aimed at UK cachers who don't want the aggro of getting them from the US (it's harder than it looks currently as it's not just a straightforward web-sale at the moment outside the US) then that to me is OK - as is advertising a GPSr for sale if it's for sale by someone in the UK for someone in the UK. Obviously if someone advertised a car on here, or something else entirely unrelated to geocaching then that should be trashed at the earliest opportunity - and I'm sure it would be.

 

As far as making people aware of a cache that's in place goes - that strikes me as superfluous now - maybe not when there were 10 caches in the the whole country (only 12 months ago) - the mainstay of Geocaching UK was talking about what plans we each had for planting caches - so we didn't tread on each others plans (if we could get out because of Foot & Mouth of course)

 

All that said ("phew" I hear you say) I don't think it was right for Moss to quote your email here verbatim, but I can see how he would get hacked off (cleaned up version again there) especially calling him a hypocrite - knowing the man that he is, that is one thing I've never even thought about him - cynical nutter maybe, but never Janus-faced.

 

Of course if you get no joy from Jeremy and the forum is not to your liking then there's no obligation to come here at all - I'm not obligated to come here and neither are any of us (with the possible exception of Jeremy Irish).

 

Right! Now can we get back to the proper point of all this ? Hiding little plastic boxes of stuff out there, posting the co-ordinates on here and going out and finding them.

 

Thanks for reading, you've been a lovely audience, I'd just like to thank my ....... NO CARRIER

 

[+Richard & Beth]

I've just got back after being out for the day and read through this afternoons discussions.

 

First off I'll second what Monz has said, and won't waste time by writing much the same again.

 

With regards to the initial cause of the row, I have to agree that posting here purely to advertise a new cache is not on, mainly from the point of view that if everyone did it we'd be getting 20-30 posts a week of cache adverts.

 

I know that it is annoying when you plant a cache and people don't rush out and find it, but then with the small number of geocachers in the UK there will be weekends when not many people are out geocaching in your area and nobody finds your cache, but if it's on the lists here rest assured that the people do come eventually!

 

Richard

[+Rocky Balboa]

ok everyone, after reading all you posts about moss trooper etc i can pretty much see that thats the way he/you is/are, when moss made remarks on my posts i did take them seriously. Now i have all the opinions of you lot telling me its a laugh i will believe that and apologise for taking things to seriously, so sorry for the email moss, ill take the sarcasm aslong as you can take it back I still cant believe a simple post about one of my caches sparked such a huge debate though, but if posting an advert of that sort is high treason i wont do it again, i hope you can all forgive me for wasting a minute of your time by making you view my cache page. well thats it really, just hope no one holds any grudges and that we can all get back to hunting little boxes like JasonW said! thanx for taking the time to listen Dan

 

Dan Wilson (Team Dan and Pid)

[Ben Pid]

OK I really can't be bothered to read through all these posts but whats the point in you all being LOSERS! just find caches talk about that and SHUT UP, it meant to be fun.....

 

Pid

 

WESTSIDE RESPEK! Lets get the party started! xxxx

[Chudley Cannons]

I think most people who read this forum have already worked out who the LOSERS are on here.

 

Take a bow - www.engenderhealth.org/wh/inf/dpid.html

[+Richard & Beth]

I think it's time to draw a line under this discussion as this thread is degenerating into insults again.

 

As Jason has said above, lets get back to searching for those elusive little plastic boxes. Having spent half the afternoon wandering around in a hedge I have another one of them to log, and a little bear on a trip to the north pole to move on.

 

Richard