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

uminks

November 11th, 2012 at 10:13 PM ^

You were the best mod in the live blog. You kept all of us up to date on the play by play. Many of us have to work weekends and it is great following the action in the live blog. I thought you did the best updating us on all the plays of the game. Thanks!

 

M-Wolverine

November 11th, 2012 at 11:12 PM ^

Who posts once ever two months. You've said you'll still post, so that's good. Too many mods have quit and disappeared as a poster too (though not doing it as much when the kid comes is understandable).

Used to be the powers that be were the mods, with a couple of volunteer helpers. Now it seems like the mods do the board work and then inform them because what's going on at the site is so much bigger than it used to be. And it's their (kind hearted) goal to give everyone a say that's the problem. It's not a public place. It's a private site. Putting up with jackasses wastes everyone's time, annoys everyone, and wears out mods. People like that poster who come on twice in 9 weeks just to stir up trouble, Bolivia is a waste of time and just puts off the inevitable. Ban their ass. The site is big enough now that they're not going to bankrupt it over page hits. Not a long time, generally good contributor who has a bad post or night. But people who contribute nothing but one track venom.

Eventually Brian's going to have to weigh his sense of fair play for jackasses vs. mods and other good posters saying enough is enough. Which does he value more? Because in democracy we have to put up with morons saying what they want; but you don't have to put up with it in your own house.

TheLastHarbaugh

November 12th, 2012 at 5:32 AM ^

The banhammer definitely needs to be unleashed a little more often.

If MGoBoard were a job and getting banned was the equivalent of getting fired, I feel like you could miss an entire week of work, show up drunk 4 or 5 times, and assault a fellow co-worker before finally getting the axe. The kicker is, that's the leash for people with little or no caché with the company, just new hirees off the street.

TrppWlbrnID

November 12th, 2012 at 12:25 AM ^

The price of growth as the site expands.



Our public library used to have a room where adults could sit and read and talk and smoke while the kids sang and did kid stuff. I wish the Internet had such a place, although adult reading rooms on the Internet are a much different thing.

Summoner10

November 12th, 2012 at 4:06 AM ^

Making voting that powerful is something I disagree with for 2 reasons...

 

1.  It creates an environment where dissenting opinion on a certain issue is going to be discouraged.  If there is a raging topic of 10 guys just whining their butts off about say out of conference scheduling and you don't agree with their position, you're going to be far less willing to jump into that topic and contribute knowing that you will most likely be downvoted within minutes.

 

2. There are plenty of posters on this blog with ALOT of mgo points who are lazy and immature posters.  that means they will have just as much power to down vote and handicap others as the good posters with lots of points.

TheLastHarbaugh

November 12th, 2012 at 5:10 AM ^

This fallacious idea needs to die. 

I was around in the long long ago, when the voting system actually meant something. People with unpopular opinions might have seen a few downvotes thrown their way, but no one was ever negbombed or silenced for having an unpopular opinion, and they aren't now either.

The occasions when posters with a dissenting opinion get negbombed  are as follows:

*When they're being dicks about their unpopular opinion.

*When they whine about the "hive mind" being against them.

*When they whine about MGoPoints.

*When they exhibit a martyr complex with regard to their opinion ("I know I'm going to be negged for this, but it needs to be said..." "I'm going to educate all of you fools who just don't want to accept the TRUTH!" Dahblue is a prime example of a poster who continuously does this.).

So it basically comes down to "don't be a dick" or self important, and you'll do just fine. People are more than willing to upvote unpopular or dissenting opinions, especially when they are well thought out and/or have some sort of statistical backing.

The problem is when people with obvious/stupid/whiny/bitchy opinions think that they're being victimized by downvotes because their posts go against the hive mind, when in reality, they're being downvoted because they have obvious/stupid/whiny/bitchy opinions. 99% of negbombings based on the poster having an unpopular opinion fall into this category.

saveferris

November 12th, 2012 at 8:22 AM ^

I thought you did an excellent job policing the masses BiSB, but as the father of a 19 month old little girl, I can say without hesitation, you will NOT have time to deal with babysitting this place once your little bundle of joy arrives.  Congratulations to you and your wife and best of luck.

Darker Blue

November 12th, 2012 at 10:56 AM ^

Dude, if someone else posted something, about how they were leaving, nobody would give TWO fucks. But when a guy with a good track record here, does it, thats okay? Look I spend a lot of time on this board trolling the irrational assholes, and in this case BISB acted like an irrational asshole.

You don't wanna be a mod? Well don't be a mod. 

profitgoblue

November 12th, 2012 at 12:16 PM ^

Dude, your trolling "irrational assholes" is going to get you sent on an all-expenses paid trip to Bolivia.  Why don't you let us handle the "irrational assholes" and you go ahead and stop trolling.  We already have moderators on the board - we don't need your help.  (FWIW, this kind of crap is exactly what pissed BiSB (and me, to be honest) off enough to quit his role.)

profitgoblue

November 12th, 2012 at 12:24 PM ^

You're a good man, Charlie Brown.  If I'm being honest, I've had the same feelings you have had recently and considered the same action.  Just know that you'll be missed.  And don't be a stranger.

Oh, and if you're ever down my way, don't hesitate to shoot me a message.

Waters Demos

November 12th, 2012 at 7:13 PM ^

1) Downvoters probably had their stupid posts yanked at some time or other;

2) Way to instantly increase posting quality: require a umich name/password.  Sure, some fine posters will be lost (unless there is an appeals system), but the flip side is this (which includes shit posters like yours truly). 

3) Losing the walmart faction will hurt revenues (is there any other reason that M grads embrace the WWs?), but again - this.  Today's hoi polloi are less savage (!) but more entitled than in prior epochs.  Revenues and contemptible baseness run in the same direction.

Magnus

November 12th, 2012 at 7:14 PM ^

I used to read every post on the board, along with most/all of the comments.  I have nowhere near that commitment now.  I pick the topics that interest me and stick to those alone.  There's way too much nonsense on here with all the gifs and repetitive comments.

Good for you for walking away.

I have imagined what it would be like to walk away, but so far I haven't found a big enough reason.  It will happen sometime, though.

InterM

November 16th, 2012 at 2:16 PM ^

Congrats on the impending parenthood, BiSB.  But honestly, I'm glad you're no longer a mod -- now that fascism is dead and Hitler has been deposed (how did this thread go so long without this reference?), I'll be able to find out when Tool is coming to the Palace!

Ron Utah

November 16th, 2012 at 2:58 PM ^

I've been on a few internet posting sites, and the ones that are "wide open" where anyone can post anything are THE WORST.

Making an honest effort to limit what gets posted to either something informative, attempted humor, or attempted logic--none of which include douchebaggery--is what keeps this site a cut above the rest. We don't need more threads; we already have plenty.  We need good Mods to help keep this site good.

Thanks BiSB, for your service, and I hope that whoever takes your place continues to limit the board to relevant/hilarious content only.