I just got back from my 16 day ban. I missed the ban thread and wanted to paste my comment to see if anyone cared to respond. Dom has a hard on for me and a few other users because we keep busting his balls for censorship and we like railing against jewish supremacists.
But to my point: Dom isn't that bad. Hes not insane (probably) nor a jidf (probably). And he's actually gone enough so we actually get some free speech discussion. I imagine it's because he has a life and is not a tranny online only redditor.
But his issue is that he's trying to curate this board into his own idea of what we should be instead of what the userbase actually is. We are a bunch of gamers, christians, right wingers, autists and historians, and we all argue about these things, which includes a lot of hot button politics. But thats this community, not some reddit tier safe space. The whole internet is becoming a safe space, we dont need another. I myself migrated here from conpro and kia2 on reddit after the banning of t_d and its way better here having real discussions.
He is trying to direct this community towards what he thinks we should be. The community is the community. A mod coming along and telling us we need to be something else is not his place. He needs to keep illegal shit off the board and beyond that stfu about the direction it is going.
My issue is this: kia2 is a hotbed of based discussion and if he keeps stomping the community's free speech people will just abandon this place completely and he can hang out with Imp1, gizortnik, and himself. I dont want to see that happen to this place.
My advice to Dom: clean up pedo shit/illegal shit/porn spam and leave the discussion to the users. You are a moderator, not a King. We are a text board community, not your acolytes.
-Happy
Well thought out post, thank you.
I believe we are actually in your "a" and your "b". Dom has disengaged a lot because he is losing the ideological battle here as more users demand less censorship. This in turn discourages him from being here and modding us so hard. We are sort of in scenario "a". He is also a lot less strict with rule 16 minus a few bouts of frenzied activity when he bans a bunch of people.
I am hoping to retain Dom as he clearly cares about this place but only if he realizes that he is damaging it by trying to force us into his box. Dom, if you love Kia2, you'll let it be free.
I disagree with you when you say these threads accelerate option c. We have to address this issue because we are slowly losing users the more he censors. The issue is we are losing active engaged users because there is no point in staying here if you can only talk like you're on reddit.
Noted, thank you for the clarification.
The impression I had from these threads was little-to-no-improvement over the past few months.
Granted, I don't follow this aspect as closely, nor do I watch the mod-log.
Could be.
Giving it a bit more thought, there are two sub-outcomes of "a".
-One is Dom gets tired and leaves,
-The second is Dom becomes a mostly inactive mod but is still the only mod and with the overarching issue(s) unresolved
A related side note, as a mod I know there are times I've become less engaged, though not as a result of the community members semi-frequently criticizing me (or my fellow mods).
Rather, as a result of either being busier with other aspects of life and/or being tired of politics for a while.
I think we're more in agreement here than you may have originally interpreted.
Yes, the issue has to be addressed rather than ignored.
Which is what the threads attempt to accomplish.
The problem becomes if the threads don't lead to a resolution for an extended period of time, people will leave during that time.
The manner in which the threads accelerate this (at least until a resolution is reached), is that by highlighting the issues without having them fixed, then people check out more quickly.
Hence why I suggested one possible alternative strategy.
There are probably other approaches that can be taken as well.
I agree with both your comments, really. Ultimately, these threads serve to ascertain the general will of the userbase here. Dom may be a tyrant and disregard us but it is nice to see people addressing the censorship/rule 16 banning.
I would not really enjoy being a mod because you have to spend so much time on here and people always bitch so much.
We had the same thing happen on OmegaCanada as well.
There were several threads of this nature made by various members, expressing displeasure with the mod (Ham).
It played out differently there though, rather than become disengaged, our mod Ham became even more ban heavy, which prompted our departure.
The community here have the right idea, multiple mods covering many time zones would be ideal.
It would also minimize the workload on any individual mod, for the sake of keeping an eye out for the pedo troll.
Another benefit is it creates room for the natural flow of people, i.e., some mods becoming less engaging then re-engaging, such that the coverage continues.
A potential drawback is if the mods diverge strongly on 'how things ought to be' then new issues could arise, and the more mods you have the more likely this is.
As for people complaining, being a mod for a while thickens your skin to this, and you learn what's a waste of time and what isn't with regards to modding.
I think specific to KIA2, a more difficult challenge for any new mod could turn out to be balancing the community's desires and Dom's desires.
Ah, I see. I wasn't familiar with the case on omega Canada.
Ultimately, if Dom wants to go hardcore on us, which he unilaterally can, there's nothing we can do. In that case, I will migrate elsewhere, as will most users, and he will lose his kingdom anyway.
The most important thing is the community thrives. Mods trying to run things per their own ideas will always divide userbases and ultimately fail.