Yes, but we're still allowed liberal usage of hot skewers, so cheer up. But in all seriousness, it's not about bowing to staff, or even being extra courteous. Frankly, I get annoyed when I know someone is trying to suck up to me or some other member of staff. The rules are easy, the environment is usually helpful and relaxed... We don't enforce the rules for the sake of the rules, we enforce them so that the environment doesn't go to crap and this place becomes just as bad as some sites out there. Think of moderators less of rulers or police, and more like super heroes from Silver Age comics. Dark0ne you cheeky one you, lol! :laugh: Great answer a couple of pages back. I like this ^^ Vagrant. It is also good to know and cleared up a question I had over a couple of potential bans. I hate to see folks doing the suck up thing, since the vibe around here doesn't reinforce the necessity for it anyway. For those of you that feel they may be harsh, trust me, count your lucky stars. Not so long ago I was a moderator of the poetry section of a large adult community. My section ran well, with very few problems during the 3-4 years I was coordinator. However, the section designated as the "Anything Goes" discussion forums was a friggin free-for-all. I honestly felt (and still do) that admin LOVED a good cat/dog/heathen/fool fight! I've seen folks call each other names in flaming fight thread arguments that would go on for up to a week. Admin would do very little, if anything to put that nonsense to a screeching halt. Someone said a bit of conflict or trolling is amusing, well....it can be, but in these cases I mention, it was downright ignorant and atrocious. The board had fakers, fake profiles complete with pics! Items or language supposedly not allowed would be allowed, if only for the duration of 8-12 hours so the riot could be well incited by the time they mosied over to remove it. If someone did get banned, within 5 minutes, no lie, they could have a new profile up and running, continuing their reign of terror. Many folks had multiple accounts so that their "evil alters" could insult people, while the nice alters could ride the fence and just stir the pot, or watch on in glee at all the crap they'd started. Banning was a joke. I once had a person plagiarize her poetry. With my ninja search skills and instructor's spidey sense, I found the exact works. The offender hadn't even bothered to copy and retype. The whole piece was copied and pasted onto the thread. They got tons of compliments and kudos, when all along this wasn't even the poster's work! I as moderator called her out, informed admin, waited for instruction, and it never came. Not even a note to let me know they would read and review. SO I had to then introduce blanket statements, rules and examples of plagiarism to warn anyone that those types of infractions were scandalous and would cause shunning of that person's work if they were not banned by admin. Poor communication by admin with moderators/leaders in the different sections. So being clever and resourceful we learned to work around that and still try to maintain a fairly healthy, cohesive group in those sections. We got a LOT of lemons, thus we made lemonade when we needed to. So here, while "I" may not agree with an action taken by a mod or admin, I remember that as a member I am not priivy to EVERYthing that goes on behind the scenes. That's where faith in this system, and those who maintain, it comes in. We must trust that they are acting for the greater good and have taken all aspects of the problem/situation into account as they make their rulings. In fact, it reinforces my feeling on that as I'm reading the mod and admin comments here in this thread. They are honest enough to say- hey we ARE taking care of this, might be different than you would, but we're doing our best, even though you might not like, agree, or know all the implications of the actions we take. Again I say trust, a little trolling often blooms into a full fledged flame war complete with a side order of cheap shot name calling (even down to the mamas, grandmamas, and babies being used as ammo!) personal button pushing and downright bullying. And the clique action was over the top. During my total time there, I saw many good members flip the bird to the offending members on their way out of what had become a messy, petty brawl spot. This eventually lead to the site having to downsize. I was long gone by that time. It was like the rise and fall of a great empire. Very sad, since many GOOD things were there in the form of information, thoughtful debate, and loyal friendships. I don't miss it, but I do miss my section. Once I took over, it grew exponentially and the participants turned out some really quality, publish worthy work, myself included. I don't know which was worse that site, or the one where I had all my posts removed because I'd written in color and that was considered to be drawing attention, disrupting the board, or some other illogical explanation. :confused: I left there with the quickness! I'm grateful that I'm free to be me here. When my text is too dark or light someone (usually a gracious fellow member), lets me know via PM or in the threaad, so then I can correct the color and keep it moving. I love my colored text :tongue: So two things I learned- 1. The admin-mod system here is well oiled. They work as a team under a leader who they respect, and he respects them back. 2. The community is safe, you'll rarely be bullied (not for long anyway) or have your work stolen, be called names or any of the other foolishness we had back at the other site. And of course the community is invited to get involved through the use of PMing and the REPORT button. Use 'em, they really work! :thumbsup: If we see questionable things/behaviors, a moderator or admin is never too far away and takes care of it as soon as they can. So action is decisive and quick. Again, this keeps conflict and drama to a minimum. There will ALWAYS be conflict on sites, especially ones of this size comprised of various ages, genders, cultures, ethnicities, et.al. It's all about how those things are handled, and even in this thread, you can see the majority of us feel things are being handled as saavy as possible in an environment such as this. Besides, a bit of cold water on a skewer wound, followed by antibiotic ointment will have you fixed up in no time ;) ANYway, just my 4 cents, cause Lord knows I talked way past two lol! :whistling: