Deadspin Article on ESPN: Don't Bother. [Ed-S: Moderated]
[Ed-S:
On Thursday Deadpsin posted an article of the kind that makes people with functional consciouses hate Deadspin. The article delves into the embarassing personal mistakes of some people whose only interaction with the public is to try to inform about sports. What you feel about the targets of this investigation is irrelevant; the purpose of the article is to cash in on the pain they can cause in their subjects' lives. It should not be read by anyone.
I consider spreading the link to such an article a gross lapse in moral judgment. As such the original poster of this thread (whose initial comments here were delited) will spend the rest of the offseason in Bolivia, and I will do the same to anyone else who demonstrates the same lapse.]
Seth, honest question - are you aware that the details of the Phillips-Hundley affair were widely-reported back in 2009 when Phillips was fired? Your reaction would make a lot more sense to me if you believed that deadspin was revealing previously private information about a sexual affair, which isn't the case here. This is more a case of examining a story that was big years ago through a different lens, focusing on the espn reaction rather than Phillips' conduct.
Moderating shouldn't be about you. It should be about the site and a consistent application of the site rules. Aside from your moral objections to the OP posting the story, I'm not immediately aware of any actual MGoRule the OP has broken. I know mods have a tough job, and I appreciate that you do it. But I think you've been pretty heavyhanded on the OP for something that's pretty inocuous, in a way that I haven't seen happen around here just about ever.
Sure, the guy melted down after the fact, but that was largely a function of everyone piling on to get in on the Bolivian fun. But ultimately, I think you're being a little unreasonable and inconsistent with what's worthy of being posted and what isn't, especially if you're going to leave the thread open and keep defending your decision while the OP gets further shamed.
Just my $.02.
If the big issue is privacy for individual people shouldn't we have nuked every single topic/post about Manti Te'o and his fake GF? It's not related to on the field stuff, why does it need to discussed what he does in his free time?
holds greater moral ground than publically shaming pedophiles and pointing out that if you engage in such activity you might be so shamed? THAT'S the worst thing Western culture has ever produced? That's an.....interesting...take on things.
I wouldn't have posted the thread either, and the Deadspin article was old news of the most purient kind. But the OP is hardly deserving of the treatment he got. The moderator, on the other hand, was wildly out of line and remains so. This thread is a nasty example of the in-group/out-group dynamics that plague message boards everywhere. You'd hope - futilely - that the mgoboard, which is so good in so many respects, would be above that sort of infantile nonsense.
Not that anyone cares, given how few "points" I have, but this was such an outlandish example of "moderation" (irony quotes intended) that it moved me to unlurk.
I thinkg you're getting a bit too aggressive.
The OP was apologized to and restored. If "the Deadspin article was old news of the most purient kind" then it needed to be moderated.
I think the only in- or out-group dynamic going on here is hopefully those who've been around for awhile agree I've earned my reputation for taking criticism extraordinarily well. I see what you're saying, but I think you need to turn down the volume. We lost some of our best mods precisely because of people scolding/piling on despite best intentions.