Thread: Section News

Unfortunately, I'm not bringing anyone good news today. (Well, I'm sure someone somewhere will be happy, but I'm not.)

While I love this section and all its members, crazy theories, and discussions, I regret to tell you all that I have resigned as its moderator.

The moderation of this site no longer agrees with my own values, and so I am no longer fit to serve here in good conscience.

Here, for your consideration, I am posting the rules that the moderating team has decreed for themselves. I feel that they should not be hidden. I also feel comfortable posting them as I believe that they are, in some ways, no longer applicable.

Moderator Behavior:

• Moderator discussions and disagreements are to be kept private from the ordinary members.
• Moderators are not to insult/critique/criticize each other in front of regular members. This is not limited to the forum, but any public conversation.
• Neutrality and team spirit are to be feigned in public if not sincerely felt.
• Do not lift other moderators' bans without first consulting them.
• Do not critique other moderators' bans in front of members, even the members in question. Refer them to the moderator who gave the ban or agree to pass the message on instead.
• For convenience, try to give a ban reason as much as possible.
• Don't show favoritism, or at least not to the point where you allow one member to get away with something and ban another member for the same thing.
• Respect each other. All moderators are equal, and it is possible to object and be civil about it. Consider everyone's suggestions fairly.
• Don't let things get too personal, and be reasonable and level-headed about things.

General Moderator rules.

1. All bans must have a valid explanation. Any moderator has the right to overturn a ban if no reason for the ban has been given.

2. If a moderator disagrees with a ban issued by another mod, they should PM the issuing moderator. If an agreement cannot be reached, it should be put to vote, with the majority decision being used, after a one week time period.

3. If a moderator has a problem with a decision of another, it should be resolved by PM or in the mod forum.
If an agreement cannot be reached, it should be put up for vote (spanning one week), with the majority decision being used.

4. Moderators should not moderate another moderator's sub-forum, except when the section's mod has asked them to do so, does not mind, or if it is absolutely necessary (see: exceptions to rule 4). If a moderator feels that there is an issue that has been overlooked in another section, s/he should contact the relevant mod in a respectful manner, detailing his/her concerns.
If a moderator feels that s/he must carry out a mod action in another section, s/he should send a PM to all of the section's moderators, clearly explaining what s/he has done and why.
Any moderator has the right to overturn any decision made by another moderator, within his/her own section, providing that the moderator who made the decision is not also that section's moderator (in such cases, moderators should discuss the decision either over PM or in the moderator’s forum).

Exceptions to rule 4:
Notable exceptions where a mod may and should ban a member in a section not of their own, include:
-- a member who is trolling (i.e. openly and deliberately abusing/accusing another member);
-- a member who threatens or has the intent to threaten the personal privacy/anonymity/safety of another member;
-- a member who openly and deliberately attacks/accuses the site, its staff and/or its members;
-- a member who threatens the security of the site, staff and member accounts;
-- a member advertising/offering products (legal and illegal);
-- a member actively advertising/offering/posting links to warez;
-- a member who is actively creating a disturbance;
-- a member using an alternate account (including ban dodgers).

5. ALL moderator discussions/arguments/conversations must remain private and may not be talked about outside of the mod forum unless PMs or other private message tools (e.g. AIM, email, etc...) are used.

6. All rule changes must be drafted and submitted for approval. For the changes to be allowed, they must receive a majority approval, after a one week time period.

7. Moderator’s may not be de-modded unless a majority vote is made to remove them, or as an admin decision.

8. A member may not be given modship unless a majority decision is made, or as an admin decision.

9. A moderator who wishes to contest a decision by Moderator Vote must notify the maker(s) of that decision 1 day prior to making the thread. The thread can be created 24 hours from sending the message, or upon confirmation that the Letter of Intent was received by the maker(s) of said decision.

I am certain that some of you have noticed the conflicts occurring elsewhere on the site. If you believe that any moderators have been acting inappropriately, and if you would like to do something about it, please report your concerns privately to either Kane or a moderator that you feel you can trust to pass the message along. If you choose to do so, please remain respectful.

I will also encourage you to highlight any examples of particularly exemplary moderation that you are aware of (and no, I do not mean myself, it is moot at this point - please send any comments about me, be they positive or negative, to me or someone you trust to pass them on instead of Kane). It would not do to focus only on the negative and ignore the benefit of illustrating what you consider desirable.

From this point on, I will be outlining in more detail the events that have led me to my decision. If you do not wish to be involved with or aware of the politics of the site, then please skip the next section of my post. I do not wish to rain on anyone's parade, and I sincerely hope that this section in particular will not be affected by this in any way. I would like it to remain the (sometimes) insane yet fantastic place I have always known it as.

I cannot include all of the details in this story, as I don't know them all. I would like everyone who reads to keep that in mind, and remember that, although I have tried to be fair, I am speaking with my own bias.

==============================

Several months ago, martyr had his moderator status stripped by Jyuu. I don't remember the original cause clearly enough to elaborate here, but in the end this sparked the creation of the moderator rules, which until that point didn't exist. Mart's position was returned to him, and we all agreed to abide by the above rules to avoid future conflict.

Recently in Chit Chat, martyr was engaged in a discussion with another poster, which soon turned to blows (of a sort). Martyr felt, in the end, that the poster had been trolling, and gave him a seven day ban.

While Volvogga posted in support of this ban, CPR disagreed, and chose to do so publicly. At this point, martyr also lashed out in public, and a thread was created in the private moderator section of the site, wherein CPR insisted that martyr should have contacted her about the ban (which he had not), and martyr insisted that he had acted in accordance with the exceptions to the rules about acting in another moderator's section and that CPR, by publicly protesting, was breaking the moderator rules.

Jyuu stepped in and locked the thread.

Later on, martyr's moderator status was revoked. No thread was created, no polls were conducted, no one was consulted at all. Jyuu had sent PMs from posters who had been previously banned by martyr to Kane and made the decision on his own. Jyuu did so believing that the rest of the moderation team was too biased to vote fairly on martyr's status on this site.

Volvogga, at this point, chose to resign from the site. He has stated that he had been intending to do so regardless, and that this was the appropriate time.

Shortly thereafter, I also announced my resignation. CPR had contacted me via AIM to ask me to reconsider as I was typing my post, and had told me that she did not believe we should have the moderator rules at all.

Privately, Jyuu offered to consider reinstating martyr if he could prove to once again be an exemplary member. After initially accepting, martyr rescinded his agreement, believing it would invalidate the actions taken by Volvogga and myself.

During this period, several threads where made concerning (or, in one case, tangentially related to at best) these topics in the Chit Chat section that were either locked or deleted.

This morning, or possibly yesterday, StealDragon was appointed as a moderator. No one was consulted.

Today, martyr was provided with the password to StealDragon's account, which had not been changed since the information had been stolen (apparently some time ago). He removed every ban that he, CPR, and Jyuu had ever made, and created a farewell thread in the moderator's section. He also changed Steal's password and e-mail so that he could not access his account. The account was eventually returned, and martyr was banned by StealDragon.


My resignation is not a result of my friendship with martyr, or of a particular objection to any one outcome. It is a result of the way in which some members of the moderating staff have flouted our own rules.

I believe that a moderator deserves a chance to defend their actions, and that their peers deserve a chance to judge them fairly. I believe that a moderator should be given the opportunity to leave with dignity and with notice.

I believe that the rules we created exist to serve a purpose, and that every single person who chose to ignore them, be it by arguing in public or by making decisions without consultation or forewarning, has acted in a manner that is wholly despicable.

I do not believe that I have the power to change this environment by remaining in it, or to sleep soundly at night if I condone it through inaction, and so I have chosen to remove myself from my post. My resignation is, I believe, the only way I can fully show my objection and disappointment.

==============================

If you read all of that, I hope you can understand why I have chosen to resign. It has no relation to anything that any of you have ever done, and I regret that I've so failed in my duties to you. Again, I have enjoyed my time with all of you, and have taken great pride in my section. I believe that it has become exemplary in its own way, and in particular our ability to stay on topic whereas some of the other boards on this site rage out of control. You have all made me proud.

If anyone has any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me. Even if you think I'm flaking out, I would like to hear it. I am not sure posting in this thread is wise if you wish to discuss the circumstances surrounding this, so do so at your own risk.

Whether Tet or Jyuu now takes the reins of this section over entirely, or whether a new moderator is chosen, I hope all of the discussion and the atmosphere of this section can continue unaffected.

<3 to all of you. It's been a blast, and I'm sorry to go.



P.S. I owe you all a FAQ thread, so please don't think I'm leaving the site altogether just yet.

Contact: AIM (kao396) | PM | E-mail (in profile) | MSN (by request) | IRC (#HolySentinels on Rizon, if I'm on)

..................go home.

I hope you read my warning in the other thread before you posted that. Because the consequences assume that you have.

Wow. You're real considerate, buddy. Kaom is perhaps one of the most diligent and responsible mods around and she is the only one who actually took the time to write out such an elaborate farewell. She's done so much for this shithole of a section, singlehandedly redeeming it in the eyes of everyone else and this is what you say to her when she leaves?
You deserve to die in a fire.

Originally Posted by kaom

I hope you read my warning in the other thread before you posted that. Because the consequences assume that you have.

Pwned.... I like how that went.

Hey Kaom, It's so sad to see you go. T-T But i completely understand and agree with your decision. I hope you still plan on visiting every once in a while, and even hope you plan to visit us on HS even more so. Speaking for myself, and I'm sure everyone else here in the Naruto section, We've appreciated every little thing you've done here. You've kept things cleaned and organized and have treated everyone extremely fair. Thank you for all your work, and hopefully one day you can put into consideration of returning as a mod here, or anywhere in fact. My only regret is that i kinda stopped reading naruto =x ...and so i kind of stopped coming to your subforum. That still does not take away my appreciation to all your work one bit. Thanks Kaom, take care and we'll all miss you.

respect goes to you, you handled this fairly and you stuck by what you wanted to do and thats shows courage and guts. never got a chance to meet you but right of the bat you seem like a cool person, hope you have a good life.

In lue of the negative posts in this thread, I felt I owed it to you to leave something here in respect of you to offset whatever harsh words you're going to receive in response to such a difficult decision.

Kaom, I neither knew you personally, or even well, but in my time here I have always held your words in reverence. They always carried an obvious level of experience, cleverness, empathy, and understanding. One might even go so far as to say out of all the mods here, you are the most likable and least threatening.

Being down here, away from all the issues of the upper caste, I can't say I understand what your going through; though I can relate to what it's like to have the ones you respect behaving in a way that you can't bring yourself to support any longer. If it's your decision to stand down in order to make a statement, or even to avoid being caught up in the same mindset of the politics, then by all means don't let anyone tell you it's not your own choice to do so.

I hope you find better days in the future; and never have to deal with this kind of controversy again. You have good friends and you have given this place a great deal of your time and effort. May you one day be rewarded for having the spirit to watch over so many for little.

Thank you for trying to give us a level of understanding into this convoluted drama. Good luck to you and don't feel bad for doing what you feel is right.

I thank you for your hard work. If you decide to stay at all as a regular rather than a mod then I think everyone respects that. Hope you will stay and once again thanks.

What a day huh?
Thank you kaom, really for all you've done and for giving your time to explain yourself and bid farewell, even not needing to. I knew something had going on since Kiel posted onto chitchat, and Vol. resigning.

About you failing us. Far from it, If is that what you have to do to protect your way of ninja! Just do it.. Sorry I had to bring some cheesy naruto line ^.^

Now I hope you don't disappear in the wind, even retiring from the mods, Naruto section on its all craziness, clone harems will be here going on, and your input is valuable, as they aways are the most sane of them all.

PS. the I owe you on the FAQ thread... urameshi you too!! go there help me FAQ things!

PS2. I'll not forget your ban lol~ That was my first ^,^ Love ya Kaom