Deputy Rafe Hollister

Since this was reported, I'll respond to it. This is a news topic. As long as it is discussed as news, it stays in the Cafe. When the posts become political and subjective, it is moved to the Political Forum. For now, this stays as news. I'm sure it won't last long, though.

This has gone on long enough. No one is changing anyone's mind. Thread closed.

I set it invisible since it quoted a post we had to remove for rule violations.

Goodness. Let me bullet point this. Generally speaking, don't use a person's full name or first name when referring to a member. There we go.,

This is one of Weird Situations. In this sort of instance, best to just use the current screen name. Like I said, we all have to be a little flexible.

Though we have envisioned a situation where some people might not want to use a poster's current screen name. That's why we say maybe a former screen name is OK. Depends on the situation. Say for example a person's current screen name is "Hillary is Great." We can envision how some may not want to refer to someone with that name and use a former screen name. Let's be flexible here.

If the real name is the screen name, that's fine. Best to just use the current or former screen name. Example would be if a former name was "WhatTheHeck" but the current screen name is "I'mAllGood" then it would be fine to use either one. You've got it. Not a contradiction. See above.

Let me jump in here. It is against the rules. It's not an option. It's a a Do Not Do.

The lot fell to me to write and post this so here goes. Lately there have been several posts were someone would refer to another poster by their first name. The rule has been to not use real names because we want posters to have some anonymity. We've always enforced this rule regarding full names, but only every once in a while when it was just a first name. After a lot of thinking and talking, we've decided that even first names shouldn't be used. If you want to refer to someone, use their current pcom name, or even a former pcom name. Just don't use their real name. Using the pcom name prote

You are right. We try to keep news events discussed as news but we all know it will turn political. When it does turn to just politics, we will move it to the Political Forum after a brief period. Local stuff is news because it just is. Thank you for a good explanation!

Please keep political comments out of the Cafe.

I guess we have a wide divergence of opinion. Can't please everyone. Thread closed.

Thank you for your perspective. Seems like most people are pretty happy with the way this thread was handled. Please PM any of the mods if you want to go into more details or specifics.

I refreshed the screen and typed.

Fair enough. We do look at every report. Maybe we can do a better job answering the reports. Sometimes we don't take action because we don't feel there is a rule violation or a problem. We don't always agree as a mod team either.

I'm trying to be fair with this so I ask that everyone be fair with us on this too. We don't discuss moderation on the open board because it is never good. People always cry or smile with glee depending on who is on the receiving end. Since hindsight is always 20/20 and we will never discuss what goes on behind the scenes, we just don't discuss moderation on the open board. We decided to make an exception with THIS THREAD ONLY. While we are not wanting to get into personalities, let's second guess this one. Tell us where we should have taken action and what should we have done differently.

I asked about this thread. This is asking for feedback. So we've done exactly what you said we should do. Right?

I am going to just ask everyone what they think of our moderation IN THIS THREAD ONLY. We believe we've been very fair and done a good job with this thread. Please give us feedback about how we handled this one. Let's not drag other threads into this one.

Look. Wevdo the best we can. We are all volunteers. You have no idea what goes on behind the scenes to handle things and be fair. I'm sorry we can't seem to ever please you.

Others have liked the way we moderated this thread. We can't please everyone no matter what we do.

Yes bullets are still used. Mayberries are given but the member can't see them. The mods have a Mayberry List.

I'm such a spaz. Now I see what you are saying. I thought you were talking about editing done in this thread. My bad. Can't speak for what was done in the other threads. Sometimes we move something because we can tell where it is going. Often it is just esier to move the whole thing than to split off the single posts.

We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol on the board. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we have to ramp up the moderation. We can't please everybody, either. I looked and couldn't find any of your posts that were edited in any way. The other mods haven't noted any changes. There is an auto-notation feature so we know when there is a change of any kind. If you

Getting too heated. Already been passing out bullets. Off to Paulding Place.