Banned a trustee?

DR928;11146 wrote: Hi Austin,

So it was you and Brad that stripped Malcolm of his Moderator status here on the 928OC Forums?

From the outside looking in that was what started all of this, at least from Malcolm's side.

It would nice to hear the explanation for what caused this action against Malcolm, if that is OK to ask.

Absolutely, Dave. These some like fair questions and I hope that I will provide reasonable answers.

No, to your first question. I don't believe Brad and I have the authority to name or displace a moderator. I believe only an administrator can perform that function. The administrator did so, as they cited to the moderators, because Malcolm lost their trust when it was found that he had manipulated the text of another post not belonging to him. I felt this was sufficient justification as being a moderator is only a privilege to begin with. A privilege granted by the administrator based on a relationship of trust and a perceived good judgment on caring for the forums.

It should be noted that Malcolm was not banned, at that time. There was no proof of malicious intent by Malcolm, only suspicion. It was later on that Malcolm wished to discontinue his participation; a choice all on his own that he made publicly and privately. I informed Malcolm, at that time, that I hated to see him leave. He was a great asset to these forums and I wish that he would reconsider his decision as I feel it was one made purely out of frustration.

KilnRed;11147 wrote: ...It should be noted that Malcolm was not banned, at that time. There was no proof of malicious intent by Malcolm, only suspicion. It was later on that Malcolm wished to discontinue his participation; a choice all on his own that he made publicly and privately. I informed Malcolm, at that time, that I hated to see him leave. He was a great asset to these forums and I wish that he would reconsider his decision as I feel it was one made purely out of frustration.

Austin, we're in agreement to an extent. I, too:

• hated to see Malcolm leave
• believe he was a great asset to these forums
• wished he would have reconsidered leaving
• felt he made his decision out of frustration

Where we differ is your decision to not leave it at that, to actively go beyond and ban him. What was the point? He was already gone! THAT'S why the decision seems to me to be a parting shot, an attempt to have the last word. This is the basis of why I think you should reverse your decision without him having to ask. Thanks for your consideration.

BTW - I feel the same about Sean's banning as well.

KilnRed;11147 wrote: ...... I don't believe Brad and I have the authority to name or displace a moderator. I believe only an administrator can perform that function. The administrator did so, as they cited to the moderators, because Malcolm lost their trust when it was found that he had manipulated the text of another post not belonging to him. I felt this was sufficient justification as being a moderator is only a privilege to begin with. A privilege granted by the administrator based on a relationship of trust and a perceived good judgment on caring for the forums........

Hi Austin, just to clarify & to understand who actually initiated or authorized this action, can you please tell us specifically who this "administrator" is that is the only one who could make these decisions?

Thanks,

Mel

Jarrod, Malcolm has viewed this thread and I presume he would have posted on the topic if he had permission. Since we can agree that Malcolm may have made this decision out of frustration, can we not also agree that Malcolm not return to these forums with the same "frustrated" attitude? A break may not be a bad thing for Malcolm and I am glad that we can agree that Malcolm has traditionally been a positive force here. When, and if, Malcolm expresses he is ready to make a peaceful return to these forums, he will be allowed. All it takes is reaching out. Banning him was no attempt at "having the last word." You are mistaken. There was no negative exchange between myself and Malcolm, either publicly or privately. Had there been, I would've advised Brad to handle the matter as there would be an obvious conflict of interest as I am a moderator.

MGW-Fla;11150 wrote: Hi Austin, just to clarify & to understand who actually initiated or authorized this action, can you please tell us specifically who this "administrator" is that is the only one who could make these decisions?

Thanks,

Mel

Stan Shaw.

KilnRed;11147 wrote: Absolutely, Dave. These some like fair questions and I hope that I will provide reasonable answers.

No, to your first question. I don't believe Brad and I have the authority to name or displace a moderator. I believe only an administrator can perform that function. The administrator did so...

Hi Austin,

Thanks for getting back to me!

Just for clarification, who is the Administrator that took this action? EDIT: Never mind, I see you answered while I was typing, thanks!

KilnRed;11147 wrote: ..., as they cited to the moderators, because Malcolm lost their trust when it was found that he had manipulated the text of another post not belonging to him. I felt this was sufficient justification as being a moderator is only a privilege to begin with. A privilege granted by the administrator based on a relationship of trust and a perceived good judgment on caring for the forums.

It should be noted that Malcolm was not banned, at that time. There was no proof of malicious intent by Malcolm, only suspicion.

You are aware it is very easy for a novice or newbie Mod to accidentally "Edit" someone else's post, right? As a more experienced Moderator I would hope you can see how that could happen accidentally...if not I can clearly explain it for everyone, as I am very familiar with how this can happen accidentally...seen it many times myself, done it myself a few times.

It is also very obvious when a Mod edits someone else's Post as there is a clear record of ALL Edits available to anyone with Admin or Mod privileges...so there is no way anyone could edit a post on purpose and then hide the fact they did this, right?

So how could any Admin or Mod ever think another Mod would edit another's post for any hidden or malicious purpose..since it can't be hidden at all?

FWIW, as a Rookie Mod I made the same mistake Malcolm did 6 times in my first week as a Mod. When you have all the extra "Edit" buttons on everyone's Post it is easy to Click "Edit" instead of "Quote". So you click what you think is "Quote" when it was actually "Edit" you type what you thought was your post with someone else's quote (in this case Stan's Post/quote") ... hit the button and BOOM....you just accidentally Edited someone else's post and didn't know it if you weren't paying close attention.

Again, IMHO It is and WAS a simple mistake...but someone some where made a rushed judgement and started making accusations of "malicious intent" and "mischief" and quickly stripped Malcolm of Mod privileges within minutes ....EVEN after Malcolm posted in the now deleted thread that he had made an honest mistake when it was pointed out on the thread and he realized what he had done.

I am curious, as a fellow Mod of his, did you contact Malcolm and ask him what happened? If so, what was his version of what happened?

So to condense this timeline...

Malcolm makes simple honest mistake (yes, just my opinion from what I saw) and in less than 30 minutes he is stripped of Moderator privileges and accused of "Malicious Intent" and "mischief" and a warning goes out for everyone to check and see if he has edited their posts in other threads.....then the thread is deleted minutes later for some odd reason,.....then another Mod makes an Off Topic Post in an unrelated Thread (James thread here forums.928oc.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=10918&postcount=22 ) hours later saying that the "Sterling" thread (where all this Malcolm "Edit" stuff went down) was deleted for an altogether different reason,.....which I found very odd,..... and now here we are discussing and wondering why Malcolm wanted his posts taken down on this Forum.

Of course that is just how I saw it happen from my limited perspective, I am open to hearing if you saw it differently, as I am sure other members are too.