Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[BIONIC]

In response to B-Chud’s “apology”

Thank you.

People are only human. Thank you for saying something. Just remember, it's alright to step away for a bit. Lord knows I've had to on some threads. (and even on this one with some replies I wanted to lob at people)

Thanks B-Dubs



I wish you luck.

Indeed, as much as I think an earlier response (and one that should be shared with the entire site) would have been a good idea, we are all human and don't always make smart decisions and in a timely manner.

Hopefully this will prove to be a event to reflect on and inform a change in behaviour

Honestly, I've held off on hitting 'Post Reply' on this for a while as I genuinely haven't the foggiest whether the mod team will come swooping in and issue a warning or a ban. For clarification I'm replying to you with the below but it's also aimed at the broader moderation team.

I'm sure your apology is appreciated by the other user but that doesn't address the main issue it seems people have with your outburst. It's good and right to realise and apologise for your mistake but the issue remains that you've received preferential treatment far beyond what any 'normal' member could expect with no reason provided as to why this treatment is applicable to you but not other people on this site.

Mental health is a serious problem and I genuinely have a great deal of sympathy for anyone who suffers with it but I don't believe other people here would get to seemingly wield it as a 'Get out of Jail Free' card for their behaviour. Hell, I remember a member with a terminal disease getting a permanent ban earlier this year when the mod team were aware of the situation until people strongly fought their corner even.

This incident boils down to:

Person abuses fellow member
Person amends/deletes post with no apparent recourse from moderation team
Post flagged up to moderation team who seemingly ignore it completely
Person goes back to posting as normal for well over a week
Person apologises a week and a half later for their behaviour, still with no apparent consequence
During this period no punishment or warnings seemingly issued to this person by the mod team

Look at this from the perspective of everyone here who's not a mod. There's been nothing said that addresses the preferential treatment afforded to the GM, let's face it people get issued penalties for posts that are as comparatively banal as 'drive-by posting'. I obviously don't speak for everyone here but it seems clear that the main issue wasn't that you hadn't apologised but rather that you'd gotten with behaviour that would see pretty much any other member receive a ban of some length and that the mod team at large feel this it wasn't an issue even worth acknowledging when raised by countless members.

Again, recognising and apologising for behaviour is always good but your post doesn't address the issue I think most people have with how this has been handled and the inference seems to be that people should take a 'He's apologised, let's all go back to normal' view. I don't even think it's necessarily that people are expecting to see you receive a ban for your post but that moderation is applied equally across everyone on here regardless of their position.