Regarding Personal Attacks

[Lumine]

To make it beyond clear after deleting and infracting a particular post, calling another user the c-word absolutely goes against the ToS - profanity, personal attack and so on - and won't be tolerated on the board regardless of the intention.

I really hope it doesn't happen again.

[Lumine]

My reasoning is, essentially, that a very inappropriate post was made, it was reported by several users as such, and was accordingly deleted and infracted. This rather than let go simply because it was self-edited because that particular logic has become unsuitable after situations such as Matthew's. It is also consistent, I think, with having it made clear before that A. a more vigilant approach was in place and B. that stuff that went beyond the limit would be deleted and infracted on sight.

Even further, the post does come in a particularly sensitive area such as the Voting Booth, where such nonsense is not only against the ToS, but also disruptive to the game itself.

Whereas I'm perfectly content to merely edit (but now infract) a post with profanity within most the boards, it should be noted in this case that it is also a personal attack (with a term we can most agree is commonly frowned upon, to put it mildly), that it is ASV's responsibility to behave in the Voting Booth and not go against the ToS (and I believe he's fully aware of this), and that, speaking from a personal point of view, I am at this point very reluctant to edit/modify someone's else's vote even in this context because of the possible issues involved.

Sometimes moderating will conflict with aspects of the game (Matthew and the recall, ASV and his vote), but as Fhtagn noted, the ToS indeed comes before Atlasia. Not sure if that reasoning is satisfactory - or perhaps too long -, but it is my view of the matter.

[Lumine]

Bumping this to state it once again, please stop misusing the Voting Booth to post personal attacks or something of the kind.

I really don't like having to take action there, but I think made it fairly clear that it is clearly inappropriate, and what the result will be.

[Lumine]

Right.

I think the biggest frustration that I have with this type of situation is that people seem to rapidly jump from disagreeing with a judgement to personal attacks.

It is one thing to disagree with a decision and raise the issue for review (or even bring it up to Virginia, Muon or the Mod Team in general), because, obviously, I can make mistakes. It is another to immediately shout fraud, imply or state I delete posts at whim (which some particular users have done several times before) and generally make the situation worse for all. In this case, I do stand by my decision and would like to thank YE and Virginia for offering their input, I strongly trust their judgement.

Having said that, I confess I don’t enjoy having my integrity constantly put into question by some users again and again, particularly as some people seem to prefer (and this is a legitimate point of view) a hands off approach. Mistakes that could be made aside, it is a bit hard to do the job if people can’t or won’t trust the motivations of someone trying to do it.

And well, perhaps that does mean having to actually choose between playing or moderating, it’s certainly something I’ve been considering lately and should probably take action on.

PS: The unpleasant situation aside, I wholeheartedly endorse legislation to address voting booth shenanigans.

[Lumine]

What we need to do is get an amendment passed that allows someone to recast their ballot if it has been moderated and deleted. That way we can cope with the moderators enforcing the TOS without it impacting upon the democratic process.

Seriously, this.

And not just federally but also in all 3 regions.

Indeed, I think that would be a necessary solution.

The aggressive rhetoric aside, I do agree with Wulfric that editing ballots is not exactly workable as a solution and I've declined to do so thus far because it seemed obvious it would be both excessively controversial and a source for problems.

For the record, many people do prefer a hands-off approach, and a hands-off approach was what your predecessors did (and what you did initially).  Such an approach, especially in the voting booth, allows the winner to be well, the actual winner, rather than simply the candidate whose voters satisfied the latest changing standard of what qualifies as a "personal attack", which honestly seems to shift every few months on this site.

It's sad that we are in a point where one of the exceptions likely being established to the 'no double posting in the voting booth law' is deletion by a mod or admin, but the mod team has stooped so low that such legislation is a necessity.

Yes, a hands off approach was what took place before and the attitude I held as well. That changed out of the belief that - as I said before - allowing the board to go virtually un-moderated is not exactly a good idea because a lot of negative and unhealthy stuff (particulary things that blatantly go against the TOS) went unpunished in the past.