Lots to catch up on.
1. I’ve had issues with restraint when it comes to responding to ballcoach’s posts, especially when his unsubstantiated claims detract from conversation focus.
2. Like @thepostman I’ve been a bit more irritable lately and have been staying off the forums as a whole to moderate/post when I’m of clear mind.
3. I do believe that it is not only plausible but rather likely that @ballcoach15 has had a somewhat negative effect on thread quality, current user participation, and new user participation.
4. I would propose a adaptation or addition to “Rule 3. Make an Effort to Contribute.” As @adam42381 has mentioned, stricter sourcing requirements for claims and linking articles should be the standard.
4.b This pretty clearly targets ball coach. I’ll openly admit that, but enforcement would elevate the quality of posts while setting an achievable bar. I cannot accept that Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V is too high a bar. The burden would be in place for all users even if its a bigger jump for one.
5. I like the idea of pauses. I would think graduated systems of suspension length would be appropriate for all rule enforcement. To keep suspensions above reproach I would recommend at least one admin and one other moderator(admin or otherwise).
6. When I became a moderator, I took any users previously on my foe list off. I did not and do not believe that moderators should block the posts of any users outside of the moderator responsibilities. This not only inhibits moderator ability to enforce posts but reduces our ability to understand the general pulse on the board.
7. I am okay however with users being able to block moderators as long as moderators can still functionally communicate directly within their duties as moderators.
8. To directly respond to ballcoachs post. There is quite literally a logical fallacy about this. The presumption that anything on the internet is fact based is inherently wrong as well.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance
9. The mods are human. We do our best to stay impartial and even. We don’t always succeed. That said, we do talk offline and discuss better ways to handle situations.
10. Y’all are a lot of fun and for the most part the mods don’t have to do all that much. Following the classic 80/20 rule, we spend 80% of the time talking about 20% of the posts. But for the majority of everyone here, y’all are great!