A tentative question

[xilman]

Originally Posted by kriesel

Watching from the outside, I suspect being a moderator is a thankless job. (Do moderators take a vacation from it?) Differences of opinion are inevitable.

Very very occasionally we receive thanks.

AFAICT, being a mod is almost certainly a life sentence. I recall only one ever being relieved of the task, and that was at his explicit request.

Originally Posted by kriesel

Something that has concerned me for a while now is that there does not appear to be any recourse for an ordinary user mistreated by one or more moderators, or any visible effective restraint upon the excesses of a moderator.

There is a recourse --- make a private appeal to mods (in plural, note, and a PM can have up tpo 10 recipients) who appear not to be too deeply involved from an emotional viewpoint.

Perhaps it was before you became a subscriber, or perhaps it occurred when you were not paying close enough attention, but I know for a fact that a supermod was given a 1-week ban, and that sentence was visible to all. At a lower level of severity, actions of mods have been criticized in public. I know this for a fact, having been on both sides of such criticism.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by kriesel

On the other hand:
Where would we be if the following people had been driven away?

That list misses many other contributors from before you became a member here (msft, flash, bdot, judger, kracker, etc, (sorry for not mentioning all))

On the other hand:
Where would we be if the following people had not been driven away?
(insert long interminable list of cranks and idiots here)

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kriesel

<snip>
Something that has concerned me for a while now is that there does not appear to be any recourse for an ordinary user mistreated by one or more moderators, or any visible effective restraint upon the excesses of a moderator.
<snip>
What I've observed is ridicule, insults, even threats of violence by moderators go unaddressed, and even supported by other moderators piling on.
<snip>
Instead we have moderators piling on and supporting each other in their excesses.

You made a complete jackass of yourself with frivolous complaints to this effect back in April.

I advised you to refrain from that sort of thing.

Now, here you are, making an even bigger jackass of yourself by repeating the same frivolous complaints.

If you think that repeating the same nonsense over and over will result in others accepting it as true, or even acquiescing to it, think again.