Abuse of power...?

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TheToad263

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TheToad263
So I am writing this not knowing if speaking my mind will eventually get me banned from this site, but I was told by an admin that this was the place to expose my grievance with a certain admin and the way he/her treated me.

I am going to provide a link to the thread in question so you can see for yourself:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=159485

Now the problem I have with this response and subsequent closing of the thread is that first of all, the comment seemed very sarcastic and somewhat pointed. I felt more or less insulted. Now all I did was ask if people thought that eventually down the road PD would include new dealership and or UCD cars in the game. I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT EXPECT AN ANSWER FROM A PD EMPLOYEE TELLING ME EXACTLY WHAT THEY HAVE PLANNED FOR DLC FOR THIS GAME. I simply wanted to see what people thought about it. What is so wrong with that? The thread is closed now and thats not really what bothers me, what bothers me is how the admin talked down to me as if I were some lesser species that doesn't "get it." All I really want is acknowledgement from an admin that what happened was wrong and that what was said to me was indeed disrespectful. I got a warning for saying that some admins are tools, which I apologized for because other than this one admin they have all been very nice and informative, so it was wrong to blanket all of the admins of this site when it was really only one that I felt that way about.

Anyways, i really dont even know if anyone is going to end up reading this but if you are I would be curious as to what you think about the situation (no not the Jersy Shore guy) lol.
 
I have to say that his comment was a bit harsh. There have been a few similar threads and maybe yours was closed for being the straw that broke the camels back. Have you contacted the admin himself (through PM's etc)?
 
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I disagree. His comment was to-the-point, but it's cut out a lot of speculation about a topic that's been discussed to death. And he's not wrong.
 
I understand that this issue is one that you have an involvement in, but to be honest this could (and should) have been raised in the almost identical thread we already have in this sub-forum and it which you have already posted.

It doesn't need a separate thread of its own. I can either lock this one and you can re-post in the other or I can merge the two together.

Let me know which option you want (and to be honest one of those two will be happening).


Regard

Scaff
 
Okay, let's straighten a few things out here:

First of all, accusing a moderator of abusing their power is never a wise thing to do. Least of all when all they did was close your thread. Likewise, demanding a public apology from that moderator is similarly foolish. Reviewing the thread, I see nothing wrong with what the moderator in question did. In his position, I would have done exactly the same thing. I don't know what your intentions with creating this thread were (we generally prefer you contact a moderator privately if you have questions of concerns), but we frequently get people who feel they have been victims of the moderators try and create a thread to get forum support and have the decision reversed (this never works). Consequently, we tend not to be happy with these threads when they pop up, demanding apologies.

The main reason why your thread was closed is simple: a quick check of the active thread topics shows there are existing discussions on DLC being included in the game. Your thread was a duplicate. We only ask that you use the search function a little. Just because a discussion has fallen off the first page of active topics or because you cannot find it by browsing the subforums, it does not give you a licence to create a duplicate topic.
 
Threads which are seen as either duplicates or reposts are normally shut down pretty abruptly by the mods, as soon as they see one, usually with a fairly blunt response!!

So, in that sense it's pretty consistent to most other similiar situations.

For the record, I sometimes read things that the mods write and think it's a bit blunt and harsh, but the mod who closed down your thread dealt with a query I had a few days ago, he was really quite helpful and polite, as well as being understanding enough to listen to my concerns and reasons for raising the issue. I don't think he's generally as bad as what your making him out to be.

Just keep looking at mods responses to issues and actions on the site and you'll soon see there's a pattern in things they approve or dissapprove of, like interludes said, reposting existing threads with new threads and public airing your personal greivances are two of the 'not to do things'.
 
Hm.

The problem with communicating in this format is that you can't interpret "tone of voice" as to how the message is delivered.

I personally didn't interpret the closing message as rude or offensive, but I can understand how it could have been interpreted as such.

Could the closing reply have been phrased a bit more diplomatically? Possibly.

Did the mod in question have the the time or inclination to phrase the closing reply more diplomatically? Unsure, so the conjecture would be moot.

I wouldn't sweat it too much.
 
Hm.

The problem with communicating in this format is that you can't interpret "tone of voice" as to how the message is delivered.

I personally didn't interpret the closing message as rude or offensive, but I can understand how it could have been interpreted as such.

Could the closing reply have been phrased a bit more diplomatically? Possibly.

Did the mod in question have the the time or inclination to phrase the closing reply more diplomatically? Unsure, so the conjecture would be moot.

I wouldn't sweat it too much.

This is a good point.

Interpretation of tone is the easiest route to an argument on the internet. However I do think perhaps sometimes a more diplomatic closing statement could be appropriate.

For example, a thread I posted in Q&A was closed earlier, because one of the two questions I asked was answered elsewhere. I made no issue of it because as it happened, both questions happened to have been answered before it was closed. However, the mods final statement made no mention of the other question, that wasn't answered elsewhere, and he also cut off a brewing discussion on the back of it.

Again, no big deal, I got what I wanted, but blunt closing posts are rarely best.
 
First of all, accusing a moderator of abusing their power is never a wise thing to do.

I'd disagree. Sometimes these things do need to be questioned. Not in this case in particular, but you seem to think Moderators are infallible and should never be questioned, when Famine encourages (in rational way) and I've done it myself when I felt something was out of line.

Honestly, your attitude has put you down as my least favorite moderator at the moment, between the over done attempts at wit to just being a bit too serious at times. But that is just my opinion.
 
I'm not saying that you shouldn't approach us at all. In fact, the moderators encourage it. If you have any questions about something we say or do, we are more than happy to talk with you about it. There is, however, a way of doing it appropriately. Creating a thread entited "Abuse of power" and demanding that a moderator or adminsitrator apologise to you for their actions is not the way to go about it. In fact, I'd probably say that if I were asked to give an example of how not to do it, this would be it. What on earth are we supposed to think when people accuse us of abusing our power, or referring to us as Nazis, or trying to gather the support of other forum members to try and get a (well-deserved) warning or infraction issued? It's all a question of how you approach us. I'm all for people questioning how we do things, but there's a difference between "Sorry, but I'm a little confused as to why you questioned my thread; could you please tell me why?" and "You closed my thread! You abused your power! You're a Nazi! I demand that you publicly apologise to me! War!"
 
Waited and got no answer, so this gets a lock.

If the OP wants it merged then please PM me, but we don't need to almost identical discussions going on.


Scaff
 
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