META: A message from former moderator profitgoblue

Submitted by profitgoblue on

I just wanted to take a quick moment to let you all know that I've stepped down as a moderator on this here Board.  LSA is stepping in to pick up my slack and probably perform a much better service than I have of late. 

I've been a moderator over 2 years now (!) but during past few months my outside life started to cut more and more into my personal time.  Two little children, a wife, and my career now leave a lot less time for my extracurricular activities.  A while back I stopped working nights - thank goodness BiSB and now JGB were there to pick up my slack - and I now find it increasingly more difficult to read through all of the threads created each day.  I realized that was not fair to Brian and you all, especially after seeing what a great job JGB is doing and realizing that a full-time moderator needs to be available much more than I have been.

In addition, when BiSB rage-quit I realized that he was feeling all those same things I am without having thought about it.  The Board is a great place but it just doesn't have the same feel as it used to.  I can't place my fingers on it and I don't want to go negative, but it just doesn't feel the same.  I'm hoping that by becoming a "normal" poster again and not moderating anymore will un-jade me.  You all might or might not realize this, but being a moderator is pretty damn hard, and not-so-rewarding, work.  I always took great pride in knowing that Brian and Seth appreciate our hard work at keeping the Board classy and respectable (e.g. not MLive-ish) but the wear-and-tear of the daily job is pretty tough.  At least it was for me.  I'll still be around to help provide damage control in case anything blows up and the Board goes crazy if they need me (kind of like BiSB is doing now).

All that said, its been a pretty entertaining run.  A special thank you to:  (a) FormerlyAnonymous and Brian for thinking enough of me to recommend and accept me, respectively, as someone who was worthy of my former role, (b) BiSB and JGB for being good friends and colleagues, and (c) most all of you for being respectful, patient, and understanding.  With that, time for profitgoblue to make like a fetus and head out!  You stay classy, internets.

chatster

March 5th, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^

With respect to Moderator Emeritus status: Good Idea for all MGoBlog Moderators who, for various reasons, may be forced to abdicate; but shouldn’t they have to wait until white smoke is seen billowing out of the Crisler Center after the College of MGoBloggers meets to officially designate a new Moderator? 

MikeCohodes

March 5th, 2013 at 12:33 PM ^

and thanks for all the fish! You were a great mod IMO, but I understand why you're moving on. I added you on Twitter, feel free to do the same back for me if you so desire.

hart20

March 5th, 2013 at 12:35 PM ^

Decreased your appreciation for the board, I think it's an actual degradation in the quality of the community. Many posters are great, certainly, but the board has changed for the worse, sometime in the past 6 months. Like you, I can't seem to put my finger on it, yet am still able to sense its presence. I've said this before but I'm holding out hope for summer, when the better posters stay active and the worse ones go and hibernate

ijohnb

March 5th, 2013 at 12:43 PM ^

has to do with the perceived (and very real) deficiencies that the BIG has in football right now.  While the Board and the Blog is still very entertaining, I think there is a feeling that it lacks any real relevance due to the overriding irrelevance of Big Ten football.  I think that basketball is actually resulting is some good discussions about a team that is genuinely relevant right now and not just locally relevant to die hards.

justingoblue

March 5th, 2013 at 12:53 PM ^

and/or the OSU game lasted one half, I think the perception of the site would be vastly different. Even if there has been an influx of poor quality posters (I don't think there have been, on the whole, but a lot of people do) it's a lot easier to hear "w0000 denerd-dog 4 heisman best playa in MEECHINGAN history!!!" without getting turned off from the discussion than to hear some of the negative stuff posted after the biggest games last season, along with a bad attitude because those games were genuinely dong punches.

BiSB

March 5th, 2013 at 1:45 PM ^

Based on my experience, you're both right. The general tone of the board probably hasn't changed much relative to the success of various Michigan teams; obviously Michigan fans were less happy this football season than last year, but both were happier than 2010. The majority of the posters around here remain quality folks.

The difference I noticed is an increase in the number and dickishness of the small minority of posters who deny us all the good things. As a normal poster, you can ignore flamebaiting trolls and folks who want to turn everything that happens on the board into some soap opera drama BS. As a mod, not only can you not ignore it, but you actively have to search for it. And deal with it. And deal with the inevitable "Y U CENSOR ME???" drama that follows. In a world where 95% of people are enjoyable, mods spend their time with the 5% who suck at life.

Tater

March 5th, 2013 at 2:00 PM ^

I think that the board has taken a "harder edge" since the Nebraska loss and the realization that the football season was probably "fuct," but I also think that being a mod has to suck sometimes.  It's like being a cop; too many of your interactions are with people who are doing something stupid or had something stupid done to them and are pissed off.  

Part of me would love to see the old posbang/negbang system back, but I have seen a lot of negged comments that have made me wonder WTF the person did to get negged.  It seems that a lot of people are negging civilized posts that happen to disagree with them on issues that aren't even all that important.

Even with its flaws and its outliers, though, this board is still far superior to any sports board I have seen.  Overall, the mods have done a great job of keeping "lowest common denominator" posts and subjects off of the board.  

Thanks to the artist formerly known as profitgoblue for all of the work he put in to keep mgoblog at the top.

MGoShoe

March 5th, 2013 at 12:36 PM ^

...PGB. Welcome CooperLily21.

This post and BiSB's before it have confirmed for me that what I suspected based on my time moderating football game liveblogs is accurate. The mod job is soul crushing.

Maize.Blue Wagner

March 5th, 2013 at 12:53 PM ^

Thanks for your service to the board! I certainly appreciate all you and the other moderators do to retain the dignity of this website. 



I'm generally opposed to term-limits, but perhaps moderators should serve in 1-year terms to prevent burnout. They could serve as many terms as they wanted, but never two consecutively. 

StephenRKass

March 5th, 2013 at 12:57 PM ^

Thank you very much for your service, PGB. I have thanked mods before, because I think it is kind of a thankless job, but a very important one as the board is now structured. Ironically, there were several mean-spirited, snarky, sarcastic posters who ripped me for praising mods. It goes with the territory, but that's the kind of thing that makes being a mod numbing, between the stupidity and the claims of censorship and the group think and the occasional nastiness. I have seen a number of formerly active posters go into hibernation because of the tenor of the board to descend to pettiness and snarkiness. At times, I have to back away for a while myself. You have to have a thick skin. Thanks again, PGB, for being reasonable and wise in helping to administrate the board.

However, I think the possibility of true and unlimited negbangs may not be the panacea everyone so eagerly anticipates. I have been around long enough to remember true neg bangs and pos bangs. Sometimes, the group think here would allow a sometimes reasonable but unpopular position to be negbanged ridiculously. Let's face it, if you see scant positive votes, and negative votes going to 50 and beyond, it is tempting just to pile on.

The one thing with neg bangs that I'll never understand was why someone would continue to post and post and post in a thread where they were going down. I can vaguely remember a few who had maybe 10 posts in in a thread, and people going through the thread to neg bang each and every post. You could end up down a thousand very quickly. In that regard, any sane poster knew they better go lick their wounds and quit posting for a week or two, because anything they put up was going to be neg banged.

Enjoy your wife and children, your new identity, and your new-found freedom from slavery to the board. It is a liberating thing not to feel obligated to read every stinking post in every thread.

brooklynblue

March 5th, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^

I agree about the return of unlimited pos/neg bangs. I think the better solution would be if every poster had a limited allocation of up/down votes per day. Hopefully it would make people think a little more about what they choose to vote on rather than negging everything they disagree with or upvoting mildly funny jokes that don't really add much.

CooperLily21

March 5th, 2013 at 3:04 PM ^

I still think the previous system was the best - before you downvoted you had to consider whether you wanted to lose a point as well in the process.  For really offensive comments downvoting was a no-brainer.  But for comments that you simply disagreed with you might not downvote it.  That's how it should work, IMO.  Dissenting opinions should be downvoted, only those comments that are inappropriate (offensive, threadjackers, etc.).

StephenRKass

March 5th, 2013 at 3:21 PM ^

I actually agree with you that the previous system was better than the current system. I just don't think it will solve all problems . . . some posters are still obnoxious (me included at times!) It would be interesting for someone who has been around a long time on the inside to assess whether the computer/virus/software meltdown leading to the loss of neg and pos bangs caused the change in the bad posts, or if it was only concurrent with the increase in bad posts.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

March 5th, 2013 at 1:01 PM ^

Thanks for all the hard work.  The ridiculous neg bombing wears on many of us with only 1/500th the commitment shown by you.

You simply need a symbol a la Prince to commemorate your former contributions.

LSAClassOf2000

March 5th, 2013 at 1:04 PM ^

I would also like to thank Profit for putting in the rather prolific hours of scouring the boards and trying to clean up the occasional mess left behind in a thread (or indeed, the thread itself).

It is very much appreciated and hopefully you continue to contribute as often as possible in your new role - your rest is well-earned, sir.

Mabel Pines

March 5th, 2013 at 1:12 PM ^

Ahhhh, hard work that goes unrecognized....as a stay at home Mom, I understand.  At least my kids (hopefully)  turn out to be fabulous adults, thus rewarding my efforts.  Being a Mod, no such reward.  Anonymous internet bloggers would drive me nuts also.

As always, Go Blue!

BiSB

March 5th, 2013 at 1:26 PM ^

I didn't rage-quit. I HOLY-SH*T-I-CAN'T-STAND-YOU-PEOPLE quit. Get it right.

Congrats on the move, and welcome to the club. We're having t-shirts made. They just say, "You Know Who Else Quit His Mod Duties? HITLER."

ijohnb

March 5th, 2013 at 7:47 PM ^

was not too bad.  When I heard that you rage-quit I was thinking something that you wanted to take back the minute after you posted it, that was actually pretty well thought out and it appears it was likely very cathartic.  Congrats on the new edition.  Welcome to parenthood.  It sucks, and it is the greatest thing ever (yes, these two can co-exist)

Don

March 5th, 2013 at 2:03 PM ^

nonsensical, juvenile negging that has become very common here, you need to impose costs. If negging is cost-free and largely unregulated/unpoliced, it will continue to grow. Re-instituting the neg-bang might be a partial and necessary part of the solution, but there are alternative measures that could be taken:

• Make the ability to neg a comment or post dependent on the negger having a minimum number of points. I'd suggest 500 or 1,000.

• Negging posts or comments should cost the negger a number of points per neg. Perhaps the cost-per-neg could be adjusted based on the number of points the negger has, or how long they've been a member, or some combination. I'd make the argument that it shouldn't cost MGoShoe or Magnus or Blazefire (for example) as many points to neg a comment as it does a noob who's been on the site two months. However it's done, this will over time reduce the mindless, "I disagree with you so I'm gonna neg you" negging because it will cost. If you make the cost of negging steep enough, it will impel most people to husband their negging resources more carefully.

And fergodsakes, get rid of the idiotic negging categories we have now for starters. Just make it up or down. I don't give a shit whether somebody thinks another comment is "underrated" whatever the hell that means.

InterM

March 5th, 2013 at 2:12 PM ^

but then you hurt my feelings by saying you "don't give a shit."

Seriously, though, I agree that the existing categories don't get the job done, and that, short of adding about 20 more categories, it's probably best just to junk them.  Also, I agree there should be a cost per neg.  As for varying the cost by poster -- good idea, and I'm sending Brian a detailed list of my suggestions!  Actually, I'm wondering if the cost should go up once you exceed a max-neg-per-day/month/year threshold -- the blog equivalent of anger management sessions.