When Moderating becomes Censorship...

Spiderman, you are right about the defensiveness - it's a natural reaction, I think.

However, I have had an opportunity to get to know many of the moderators here, and the vast majority of them are very good people. I'm hoping this inherent quality of knowing right from wrong will prevail instead of a "battening down the hatches" type of mentality.

I've never visited any other site that came even close to IL in terms of camaraderie and interesting threads/conversations. I'd hate to be elbowed out by a curtailing of the free flow of information in the name of moderation.

 

Agreed. Like I said, I fully expect the initial reaction to be defensive, but I'm hoping they will eventually overcome that instinct and take a big-picture look at things.

Yes, I do believe that they are very good people, and really hoping for the fresh breath of air. Is this thread being looked at by Mods? Maybe someone should PM the IL Mod team so they can look at the discussion first.

:iagree

Exactly the reason, I said "I love you all" to IL-ites a day ago.

IL is great today, and we just want to make sure it goes to the next level of greatness :thumbsup

 

Another moderator got on this now deleted thread and stated that they will visit the thread to see 'who' posts there. As a bonus, this mod added a comically dishonest disclaimer to the effect that they want to use the feedback to rework their moderating style. If one is serious about accepting the user feedback to improve their work methods, they should worry about the 'what' (they are saying) part instead of the 'who' (is saying it) part, don't you all think?

 

I have voted!!

:yes::exactly:..................Malavika, I agree that moderating is turning to censorship and some moderators are acting funny and as they please with no sensible reason. I want to make it clear that NOT ALL, ONLY SOME of the moderators are like this.


My experience: Please read my usercp. In this thread suffering from hectic schedules ........after I finished speaking to the OP, I was curious to know more about mstrue's sketches and just asked her a simple question as to whether the avataar sketches were made by her and who was in those sketches, was it mstrue herself or not. OK, all this because the post immediately before mine was mstrue's and I liked the avataar sketch very much. It reminded me of my friend who is an artist.
I did not think I was diverting the thread in anyway with that simple question and that too after addressing the OP's issue at hand.
But, NO! The moderator did not like me showing curiosity at the beautiful sketches and she deletes that part of the post. Thankfully, mstrue got my question before the moderator could erase it. I asked the moderator the reason why she deleted that part and to this day there is no response.

So, in a way sometimes this moderating is becoming too much. Yeah, and as Malavika said we can then call that censorship.

 

Gooseberry, I agree with you. In my opinion, "diverting the thread" has become a sort of catch-all excuse for moderating all kinds of harmless, good-natured banter and interesting asides. I wonder what the real agenda is behind such excisions.

If a thread degenerates into a one-on-one flame war, or the OP complains that the "diversion" is causing him or her great distress, then maybe it becomes a necessary course of action. Otherwise, is it too much to expect members to just ignore the "irrelevant" bits and move on to what interests them?

Having to stick to the topic at hand religiously and with strictly no deviations has the potential to squeeze the very life out of these forums. I feel a little strangled myself when I try to phrase my posts within such stricture - although I'm sure many members would breathe a sigh of relief if I was forced to make my posts more concise!

 

I am with you there, Ansuya! I agree with you, Gooseberry!

 

When someone stays with the original topic but uses objectionable language, they wait 3 hours before editing it. Look at this: http://www.indusladies.com/forums/married-life/94728-life-is-a-curse-me-6.html#post1197114. The poster had a suggestion for OP to lay a trap for a man who wronged her. Then there was graphic description of what she should do to cause him physical harm using the high heels she was advised to wear for the occasion. My reply post (about waiting to see how soon moderators would edit the post) was promptly deleted.

Are you accusing yourself of being long-winded?