Moderators critique on aisle 10!

Geeze oh Pete!!!  Duh??  Did not joking about JAIME'S red ink being bigger than mine not give anyone a freaking clue that I was JOKING???
 
I've read, and yikes!  Should go crawl back under my rock I guess!  But, I'm not gonna say a word.
 
Where the heck did the thread that pissed everyone off GO?

[linkhttp://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=310797&mpage=1&key]http://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=310797&mpage=1&key[/link]=
 
This one you mean? The CM one...

Yes, thank you!  []

I've been watching it since yesterday afternoon, too. I haven't said anything yet cause I wanted to see it develop a bit more. All in all, everyone is staying civil, which suprises me.
 
I think that the members have brought up points which probably need to be addressed, though. So, how would we like to address this?

Not sure...they don't want threats to close a thread...but they do want reminders about the thread staying civil. I've done both...and one often leads to another because quite simply...most times "be civil" reminders are ignored. The issue with Glenda....Angelique had it right...if you are new to moderating you will make mistakes...and rubbing noses in mistakes is counter productive. Time and private discourse is what's needed.
 
Personally I think these are the same few people who always complain about moderation. The freedom of speech thing doesn't "always" apply here,...since this is a privately owned forum. I see no reason for more than a "thanks for your input". From what I see in my inbox...people do not like nasty long drawn out threads...which is the result when you stick to "behave yourselves" with nothing to back it up (that and a lot of red ink work)...which is in essence what they want.

That's what I think, too.
 
I moderate more on horse, cause I started there first. I'll usually post something generic like, "this is just a gentle reminder to keep it nice" in a post that is declining. Then, if they don't listen, I'll pm/email the offender(s). I think our presence needs to be felt, but we need to not be on them like elephants, either.

Boy, some of those guys are brutal!  And Angelique defending me?  Wow, knock me over with a feather!
 
Yep, I probably have been a bit heavy handed.  And I'm doing my best to lighten up on that.  Often I WILL post gentle reminders, but sometimes these folks are like hounds on a scent....they hear NOTHING.  Pat Evans got just flat UGLY with me in PM when I pm'd her....and even worse when I shut things down.  And then I get emails out the ying yang to DO something and if more reminders don't help, then I'll shut it down for a bit.  I'd actually never seen that done until Gina did it and I like that idea....giving a thread a time out so to speak.
 
Funny, tho, I'm basically doing nothing more than I've always done with the reminders that things are getting OT or ugly....but now that I CAN close threads, folks object?
 
I shut down perfecting the walk and reopened it....and eventually JAIME came in wanting to know what the heck the topic was, and that thread went on forever.....
 
Sometimes you just can't win........
 
I have PLENTY that I'd like to say in that thread, but I'm not saying nuthing!
 
I agree with Gina....perhaps a thanks for sharing your concerns is enough.