re: moderating, it needs to be said that we are not omnipresent nor omniscient. Simply put, if people do not report posts, then there are going to be plenty of things that slip through the cracks. We do our best to handle situations as we come across them, but concerned users also have a responsibility to help out by reporting posts.
First, there is the obvious problem that there is no guarantee a mod will even read the offending post. Secondly, the mods are all human too. One mod may read a post and not see what is wrong with it while another may read it and see something that needs action. Reporting posts is the best way to point *both* mods to the post in question so that the situation can be seen from multiple viewpoints.
I can't speak for the rest of the mods, but I'd much rather be getting reported posts that don't actually require action than not getting reported posts that do.
As an aside, I took a look at the TTC thread and I do want to say I don't see anything particularly hypocritical in ShaniFaye's statements (and even if I did, I think Dilbert hit the nail on the head: no one is perfect). There are multiple issues with the thread, not the lease of which is a very weak opening post. On the other side of things, it is true that once "TTC" was deciphered, that probably should have been the end of that discussion. Then again, flipping sides once more, had the opening post been more substantial, I suspect it would have been much easier for people to find something else to discuss in the thread. Let this be a lesson on the importance of reading the
guide to creating new threads. It's not there simply because we want to create rules,
it's there to help you all get the best results from the discussions you want to start.
Bringing this back to reporting posts, there's no reason to limit the feature's usage only to specific posts which violate specific rules. If you think a thread is getting unreasonably derailed (as opposed to simply following a natural flow of discussion), click the report post link for the opening post and explain the problem as you see it.
