Angelo Credo;293236 said:
Vampi, I'm perfectly within my rights to call you out for being a petty, arrogant, passive aggressive annoyance, this isn't a democracy, this isn't free land where you can do or say whatever the hell you please, this is a dictatorship and you're here under our rules and since you're showing an absolute disrespect for not only the rules, but the members of staff who enforce them, you can kindly get the hell out and stay out.
I'm honestly bored of your attitude and people in this forum that share your attitude, so hell, what can I say, been nice knowing you.
...Or not.
And honestly, don't come running back with PMs to other members of staff about my conduct, I'm just a hardass, and unfortunately you got on my bad side, this ban isn't one that's getting reversed.
This is going to be a long post, and it may seem inappropriate given that you are its sole focus, but it really isn't that different from the post of yours I am replying to, except that I won't ban you. I would not be surprised if you came back with a TL;DR, but I ask that if you decide to read it, you read it all the way through. (If you really have any time, just read the part below the --------------)
Honestly, I am surprised. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt with the previous incident, you know, maybe you had a bad day or whatever, but this is inexcusable and is obviously indicative of some consistent deficiency in your ability to competently moderate a forum.
(As an aside: A permaban for Vampi's conduct in this thread isn't being a hardass or having a zero tolerance policy. It's more like a sniper taking out a jaywalker who was actually trying to turn around. It's more like WTF. There have been people with far worse conduct who actually got the three explicit warnings they were supposed to before being banned temporarily, and then permanently. You seem to have an itchy trigger finger for that permaban button then, and as the "moderator" of a system, I can understand that you embody the structural need for coherence at the sake of completeness (i.e. the need to separate between insiders and outsiders, good and bad, etc., and excise the elements offensive to the system's current ideological foundations). But that's why we have humans doing the job instead of robots.)
For one thing, you take everything personally. I can understand that a mod is under a lot of pressure to respond to user complaints, but they are under no obligation to act on them, especially not so rashly and vindictively as you are (apparently) wont to. For instance, all of the adjectives you used to describe Vampi could and would be more suitable in a description of your behavior as a mod. Except passive aggressive, since you appear actively aggressive when you wield your banhammer.
I'm not even sure that you know what moderation means, since your own behavior when wielding the hammer (from my experience) is diametrically opposed to it. "To reduce the excessiveness of; make less violent, severe, intense, or rigorous." On the contrary, your bans seem to end with the flourish of a last jab, snide and inflammatory to the very end; No user would dream of posting in such a way simply out of common courtesy. And this even despite the fact that Vampi apologized and expressed a desire to move on from the topic of discussion.
You say that this is not a democracy, but a dictatorship, but that contradicts the very purpose of a moderator, doesn't it? Aren't moderators here to ensure that everyone has a fair chance at speaking their opinion, by censuring those people who infringe on this right to free expression? Granted, the freedom of expression is conditional on a forum, but if you accept that the role of a mod is what I mentioned above, then shouldn't you censure yourself for violating the very principles you are meant to protect?
Contrariwise, assuming this is a dictatorship, wouldn't that make you something like a police squad or merely a stormtrooper? Whose orders are you acting on? By your analogy, only Steve could be the dictator and I think labeling him as such would be tantamount to defamation of character. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that you are the despot whose personal rules, of attitude, of obeisance, of "not getting on your bad side" (how anyone can be responsible for your disposition at any given time of day is beyond me) you are invariably invested in defending. You, apparently, believe you are above reproach, which is definitely not healthy or helpful to the forum. Who watches the watchmen, indeed. In the future, I would stay away from the dictatorship comparison, because it opens up a huge can of worms.
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I guess what I'm trying to get it is that I think you are a horrible moderator, probably the worst I have ever seen. I know that's not a nice thing to hear (and that alone will probably secure my permaban), but I feel it has to be said. Just to be clear, I can't say you are a bad person (although I can't help but infer a bit from your mod behavior) or a bad user, since you only ever come to my attention in these situations. But, for the reasons mentioned above (takes things personally, can't separate professional and personal spheres, behavior in contradiction to the purpose and definition of moderation, and a petty vindictiveness unbecoming of a senior user), I feel that you are a solitary blight on the reputation of an otherwise good forum.
I don't know who conferred the power of a mod upon you, but I do sincerely wish that they would have pondered longer about your readiness for such responsibility. I know it isn't easy, but again, that's not a good excuse. You can always recuse yourself, which is a noble and honest thing to do. Perhaps I can't place the blame all on you, but then again, all the other mods and admins here seem far more reasonable in their conduct. I can only hope that, either you abuse your power only in this relatively insignificant arena, or that you are never given a corresponding level of responsibility and concomitant power in any arena that has real consequences for real people.
I could go on with more analogies (especially dictatorship ones), but that would be superfluous and unnecessarily inflammatory. In any case, I apologize to everyone for bringing up this old hatchet, but I had to pay my respects before it was buried for good (I had exams then I was traveling for the past few days, so I missed the bulk of the action). Credo, I would ask you not to take this personally, but I think that such a request might be made in vain, and we all know that I am not one to use more words than I simply ask that you don't ignore it outright as the rantings of one of "them," however the Other is characterized in your worldview.
To all of you other users, I say this: We who are (probably) going to be banned, salute you.
I agree. 
