Dear All:
In case you hadn't noticed my absence, I have been absent from moderating for a significant period of time. This was due to a sudden family emergency that required me to take on the role of home health aide. Our family was not prepared for this emergency either monetarily, logistically, or physically; so I've had to make many critical choices about how to prioritize my time. Unfortunately, this meant I had to prioritize health care, transportation, extra work hours, and minor construction ahead of you all.
Frankly, I figured you would all be fine for the most part. I've always said that you all make the forum what it is, not me. But, it doesn't change the fact that I have been delinquent in my duties to you all. And maybe I could have been forgiven myself after a few weeks of regular moderating and creating a good system for it, but after this period of time, it simply isn't fair to you for me to continue moderating.
I would have greatly preferred a transition phase, but it simply isn't something I can maintain due to my time constraints. Any plan I come up with is pretty regularly thrown to the wind, so I'll have to let the chips fall where they may. I'll try to check back more regularly than I have, but I genuinely can't make any strong commitments.
Thus, I'm looking for volunteers for moderation. Truly the forum only needs moderate moderation. Heavy daily commitments isn't necessarily required, as it can probably be mastered by a crew of a few taking different days.
Thank you for your time, and I apologize for the frustrations I have caused you. Please volunteer in the comment chain with your available commitment, and if there are people you would like to work with.
Honestly, this is one of the main places where I come to get my news, so I'd much rather the community stays alive. I would want it to grow, to be able to get more varied perspectives and prevent us from being so insular that we become a bubble that loses track of reality outside of our community, but as you said, any growth comes with the risk of bad actors.
Ever since you suggested becoming a mod 3-ish years ago, i personally supported you in the position. I tend to agree with the vast majority of your takes, which ironically probably made me seem less active than I was, since your posts already said what I would have wanted to say, making my input redundant beyond a simple upvote. I look forward to seeing what you can do.
I will say, we've always been so diverse, I think we have the 'varied perspectives' covered in spades. It's actually pretty amazing, when you think about, just how many different perspectives we have represented here, especially for such a relatively small community. We have fascists, Zionists, libertarians, Christians, atheists, people from various countries, and a bunch more. It's pretty incredibly all these factions can exist, and choose to exist here, when it was a definite possibility that most of a faction would have given up and fucked off.
Thanks, appreciate it. Although, again, never wanted the position. Just, like you, want to keep the community going.
Appreciate that, too, but it honestly shouldn't figure in to whether or not I - or anyone - should be mod. I don't care about a mod's politics; I care if they're sane, reasonable, and responsible enough to do the job fairly. If you're extremely ideologically driven in any direction, that actually has potential to make you a worse mod. For example, on the current Israel/Jews discussion, people fully on the "stormfag" side, or the "JIDF" side, would both make absolutely shitty mods, generally speaking, since most of them would effectively make one position illegal. They'd abuse their power to push their own agendas, and try to change the community.
One of the reasons I've always been so wary of expanding the mod base, too. We have so many diverse and contrary perspectives here, if the wrong people get in they'll abuse the power and destroy the balance and community. A bunch of people are already champing at the bit to destroy their opponents. Which is a shame, since we go back more than a decade as being a big free speech place.
Which, to shill myself, is why I think I'd be such a good fit. I don't fucking care. Again, with the Israel example; love 'em or hate 'em. I don't care. It's an opinion. You're welcome here. Don't spam, don't threaten violence or promote illegal shit, don't engage in obvious bad faith. Outside of that, it's generally all good. I would never use mod powers on someone for their opinion, even if I hated it.