META: A surrender in the battle for nice things

Submitted by BiSB on

As I posted in the "Y IZ U SO FASCIST I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA" thread, I have reached my braeking point, and have informed Brian that I will no longer be able to serve as a mod. And by that I mean, "I am able, but can't deal with humanity anymore."

I was planning to take a step back when my wife gives birth to our first in a few weeks, but I couldn't last that long. Most of you seem like great people who come here for the conversation and the community, and I have no beef with majority of you. But I couldn't deal one more day with the complaining, the immaturity, and the inability to just be reasonable. People's continued insistance on acting like children has sapped a lot of the enjoyment from this board for me. 

None of us mods enjoy being a babysitter. Nothing makes me happier than a bunch of insightful, rational discussions. But those are becoming rarer by the day; instead, the board has taken on a certain Drew Sharp-esque quality. And maybe part of it is my fault. I've been a rather involved figure around here, and lord knows I've got some rants under my belt.  But for whatever reason, things have taken an MLive turn, and I can't take it anymore.

I'm not asking any of you to change your internet ways, because it's no longer my problem. But I would say that you can only pee in the pool for so long before you're just peeing in an in-ground urinal. And this is a pretty nice place we have here, so please think twice before you drop trou.

I wish Brian, Ace, Heiko, Seth, and everyone else here nothing but the best, and I apologize to the remaining mods for leaving you in the lurch. I would also like to thank the majority of you who allowed me to survive three years in South Bend without losing my mind, and for the many conversations, jokes, and cats. I would also like to thank the cats, but I don't speak their language. 

/cool story bro

/TL;DR

trueblueintexas

November 11th, 2012 at 4:22 PM ^

Good call BiSB. I still read the blog, but have not posted as much since my first was born a year ago. The time commitment truly does change. I couldn't even imagine what it must be like when you actually have to care about what gets posted.

BTW - have always loved your avatar.

ppToilet

November 11th, 2012 at 4:18 PM ^

and thanks for all the fish!

In all seriousness, congrats to you and Mrs. BiSB on the baby! And thanks for scooping poop for so long - it's a crap job, we all know.

Captain

November 11th, 2012 at 4:22 PM ^

I have ALL THE SOLUTION: return to the simple up and down vote, bring back the negbangs. The kind that actually influence the meaningless number underneath a user's name.

When we had these things, believe it or not, it improved the community's collective moderation powers and was surprisingly effective. Now that 20% of any thread is sitting at the -1 threshold, and none of it has any impact on your High Score Bro, the moderators have to pick up the slack once shouldered by the community.

bronxblue

November 11th, 2012 at 4:21 PM ^

Sad to see you go.  I agree that the board has turned a little in the past couple of weeks, but I still think the nadir was during the latter part of the RR era when people just lost their minds every day.

This place can have civil discussions, and most people do.  The couple of nimrods who learned about this site from someone at work and thought their MLive personalities would play well here are idiots, and I'll throw my entire tough-guy Internet reputation behind that.  We have enough sports radio stations for people to be goobers at, but MGoBlog is supposed to be a cut above.

Again, sad to see BiSB leave as a mod.  Hopefully you'll keep posting.

 

BTW:  Congrats on the soon-to-be new Wolverine.

MGoClimb

November 11th, 2012 at 4:22 PM ^

Congratulations to you and your family!

Thank you for all you have done for this place.  I hope you don't disappear from here forever.  The board is better when you're around.

turd ferguson

November 11th, 2012 at 4:26 PM ^

Crap, you might be my favorite poster here.

Your frustration is understandable, though I think this is what happens when a blog breaks through as clearly the go-to place for Michigan sports.  You no longer just get people with a certain sense of humor, style, brain, etc. -- you get a much larger and more representative portion of the internet-active Michigan fan base.  As much as everyone dumps on MLive, I hope that site thrives, if only to provide two very different Michigan sites for attracting different types of Michigan fans.

Good luck with the family, and I hope that you continue to post in your new role as a non-mod normie.

Don

November 11th, 2012 at 4:29 PM ^

You will participate in nothing for the rest of your life that will have as much fundamental human importance.

As for the issues on the site, I think it's far, far, far from being MLive. However, it is closer to that hellhole than it used to be, and I think the decline stems from two factors:

1). MGoBlog is an amazing internet success, and therefore falls prey to the fact that the internet is flypaper for morons. You can't avoid it entirely if you have message boards.

2). The change several months ago to a system wherein idiot comments are not truly dealt with via community policing. On occasion it could be cruel, but in general the idiots received quick punishment via negbanging. One problem with MGoBlog that has never been dealt with is gratuitious negging, wherein some routinely neg other commenters, regardless of what the nature of the comment is. IMHO There should be an individual cost to negging, and should include the temporary loss of posting privileges if it's abused beyond a certain stage. Points themselves should not be important except as a measure of the ability to post and comment.

Profwoot

November 11th, 2012 at 4:34 PM ^

I agree that a system whereby stupid posts (not just comments) could be democratically deleted would be great. It would keep embarassing or brainless stuff off the site without the need for constant policing by mods. Perhaps if a post gets -50 net points it's automatically deleted, and if a poster gets a sufficient number of net downvotes that poster gets banned.

The only problem with this is that the idiots could still post late at night when there aren't enough users around, but perhaps that wouldn't be a big deal.

Profwoot

November 11th, 2012 at 4:29 PM ^

It's probably worth emphasizing that although we all love freedom of speech, an individual website that allows complete freedom to its denizens stops being a place for reasonable people to hang out as soon as it gains a modicum of popularity. The internet breeds assholes. It's not "censorship" to keep such trash from overrunning one's community. Mods are the janitors of the internet. There are plenty of internet sites that don't have janitors, so it's not like there's nowhere to throw your shit just because you can't do it here.

meals69

November 11th, 2012 at 4:30 PM ^

Can I have a million points too!? Hate to see ya go BiSB, you've been one of my favorite mods BC you're so involved in all the discussions. Hope you reconsider after so much deserved down time. And congrats in advance!!!

ia4goblue

November 11th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^

I dont get how whining and being critical about the coaches gets you banned, but calling people asshats is somehow okay? If someone is offbase on their opinion, the board will let them know.

mgowill

November 11th, 2012 at 4:58 PM ^

Thank you BiSB for your contribution to this blog. I have a greater appreciation for the time the mgoblog employees/contributors and the mods spend here now.  I was inspired at one point to provide a weekly contribution to this blog, but have found time to be too short as of late.  High quality, well informed, and humorous posters make this blog one of the best out there.  You are one of those that make this a better place.

I wish you the best with your new baby and leave you with this final thought -

Feat of Clay

November 11th, 2012 at 5:00 PM ^

Babies are SRS BSNS so that more than justifies a change in duties.  

I appreciare the explanation and am sorry you reached the breaking point.  The problem  is that the people who are going to care about this thread are not the ones who are causing the problems.  The jerks are not going to read it, or they are going to interpret it as a huffy flounce, or they are simply going to be pleased that there is one less jackbooted thug mod around here. 

But hey, I am not one of them.

archangel2k12

November 11th, 2012 at 5:08 PM ^

Thank you for all of your work around here.  I tended to agree with you about 99.4% of the time.  Hope to see you on the board still from time to time.  You are appreciated...by me at least.

Congrats also!

Doc Brown

November 11th, 2012 at 5:19 PM ^

I know I might have been an a hole in the past, but I want to thank you for your service towards making this a great blog. don't let the morons ruin it for you. good luck with your future kid.

MGoblu8

November 11th, 2012 at 5:19 PM ^

Congrats and good luck on the little one. Honestly, I don't think the board is getting worse, I think it just goes through phases. I remember a couple years ago, I told a friend not to waste his time going on MGoBlog, because it had turned into a bunch of whining bitches. Eventually, I came back, the board seemed better and all was good. If you can't mod, so be it. But trust me, you will spend some late nights checking MGoBlog once the little one gets here. The wife and I are expecting one this month (#2) so I look forward to the late night reading.

Glen Masons Hot Wife

November 11th, 2012 at 5:28 PM ^

Maybe you're just following guidelines or some sort of protocol for this site, but I do think the Moderators go too far.

I think Brady Hoke has done a lot of great things for this program.  I have been pleasantly surprised with him...

But should it make him immuned from criticism?  Absolutely not.

I know that everybody makes mistakes, there is no perfect coach.  I just disagree with censorship of unpopular opinion.

Definite groupthink issues on this board

BiSB

November 11th, 2012 at 7:03 PM ^

between voicing an unpopular opinion and being a troll. The problem is that most trolls don't know the difference.

People are free to post unpopular stuff. Section 1, who I disagree with almost every time he posts, and who is about as contrarian as anyone, remains free to post despite being negged at every turn. What people CAN'T do is post threads designed to start fights. For example, starting a thread to bitch about a decision from the offseason that came to fruition 15 days ago, and throwing in a RichRod reference for good measure, is a recipe for disaster.  

I do find it hilarious that after a full year of "WHY DOES BRIAN HATE HOKE SO MUCH HE'S BEING UNREASONABLE," we've moved swiftly into "WHY DOES BRIAN LOVE HOKE SO MUCH HE'S BEING UNREASONABLE"

Butterfield

November 11th, 2012 at 8:46 PM ^

I like you and agree with your assessment of the difference between trolling and being critical. That said, you lost me when you implied that Section1 doesn't intend to start a fight with every single post he makes. He is the leader of the troll navy.

Danwillhor

November 11th, 2012 at 8:57 PM ^

But Brian did that! Don't forget. The last 2 coaching searches had brian view Hoke as truly a "worst case scenario OMG the world has ended" hire. He gets hired and he is openly not happy. Admittedly, he (IIRC) likes the press conference. It took winning the Sugar Bowl (and what came before in hires, recruiting, wins, etc) to get where Brian and most are now. Where most are now is "Hoke is the Pope. He makes no mistakes." and that is insane. I LOVE Hoke and even in losses like Nebraska do not have much to question. I didn't debate if Gardner should have played, etc. I trust that the staff knows more than me about young men, players, 99.99% of us never know, meet or see in our lives. Yet, to see someone get "negged" (voting is the dumbest thing ever, I'll keep repeating until banned or it is removed) or attacked for questioning the staff is wrong. Disagree? Fine. Great. Politely state your case in disagreement or ignore it and it will die on its own. Point being that the slow decline (IMO and many others who at least lurked since this site opened) of this blog/site is due to the culture the above mentioned behavior has created here. It's become a shitty frat house with untouchable members and pledges who feel the need to post giant pre-apologies before their actual post and point in hopes they don't get attacked by the frat herd. It's insane to me.