Sniper

[Sniper]

Briefly, first the positives....

As an active mod in a few of the mid traffic forums on 2+2, following the Mike Haven style of modding, my forums have been kept quiet and trouble free. I have the respect of the posters in my forums, and the support of the mods who's forums I actively participate in. Traffic has been slowly increasing, and I am making efforts to see that trend continues.

As Berge pointed out, my posts in Legislation are some of the most well traffic'd threads on 2+2. Dynasty has even been pressuring me to write an article for the mag on that stuff. My post count thread and analysis provides insight into whats going on traffic wise around the forums. And, I've recently started a project in TLDR to draw in some more thoughtful TV related content.

Some Mods are also aware that I (along with a small group of mods and posters) am actively involved in working on the test environment, in preparation for the UBB7 upgrade. I have also been working directly with Chuck, in resolving an issue with 800,000 posts that were not archived properly during the last archiving pass (this issue looks to now be resolved, with only a minor issue remaining).

And now the important stuff... In reviewing the recent threads, it is clear that I have some issues to deal with.

Some of my action have clearly been wrong and you guys rightly point them out...

1. In the case of Degen, I have been defending him too strongly and for too long. He is a problem and I have not given consideration to the thoughts of other mods. While my original intentions were sincere in defending a quality poster, his long term negative history clearly outweighs any benefits he provides to my forums. I told Mat a couple of days ago, that I was willing to ban Degen if that was the decision he or PA arrived at. It is now clear that my position should be, and now is, that PA should ban Degen. I assume that PA will take some action when he returns from playing poker.

2. Last years ElDiablo banning, I overreacted and should have handled in a different way. El Diablo deserved much more respect than I have shown him. I don't really know what to do to mend my relationship with him, but I believe him to be an important part of 2+2, and I will be focusing more attention on how I treat him.

3. Last years Iron banning, I really can't explain my actions at all. At the time it seemed the right thing, but reviewing my posts in that thread, it is clear that I was simply being an idiot. I also owe Ryan an opology for how I dealt with him in this and a couple of other situations.

More concerning to me is the way that I have dealt with these issues and others.

While Felicia says "he seems to sometimes make little comments to get the mods worked up here, but heck, a LOT of mods do that. I do that sometimes, especially if I think I can get Mat or Dynasty worked up. If I started voting that all mods who make snide comments in the mod forum should be de-modded, almost all of us would be gone, including me. There are very few Kumbaya mods like Andy Fox and Jim Kuhn."

That is still no excuse for me being a part of it. Having gone thru and reviewed my entire posting history in the Mod forum, I must admit that I said to myself "wtf was I thinking" a bit too many times. Looking back now with 20/20 vision I can honestly say that I royally screwed up some of my relationships with other mods. I hope that some of that damage can ultimately be worked out, but also realize that it is on my shoulders to do it. While the OOT mods and others may have different moderating styles, that is no reason for me to try to change what works for them.

Finally, I apologize for taking so long to respond to the issues raised. But, I honestly felt that I needed to do a lot of reflecting on the comments that have been made. The only way for me to do that was to make a concerted effort to feel the anger you guys were diplaying.

When this started, I told Mat that I didn't mind the criticism. Having reflected, I can now say that the criticism does hurt and I have given all of it deep consideration. I expect that this will be reflected in my future actions, and hope that some fences can indeed be mended.

I apologize to all Mods and especially to Mat for this problem, and hope that we can all find a way to work together to the further betterment of 2+2.

Lastly, I appreciate the support from those who showed it either publically or privately, but it was important for me to also reflect on the issues raised and think thru my mistakes. Hopefully, this will make me a better mod.