LogFAQs > #971987086

Entity13 posted...

I mean, if we're going to be any level of fair or accurate, the vast majority of people complaining about Ail in particular either hated her from the get-go or blamed Ail and her social circle for their moderation history, rather than accepting responsibility for their own words and actions that got them modded.

Yeah, but the problem was never necessarily even whether or not her actual moderation history was fair, but that the mere existence of her mod power itself was causing a significant backlash. The fear of her abusing her power was a much larger factor than any proof that she ever did. But that in itself fueled negativity and assumptions... which in turn made the reaction to her worse. So giving her mod power effectively made the site as a whole worse, and to a greater degree than her ability to moderate could possibly make it better. Which essentially means she was an objectively bad mod - even if it wasn't necessarily because of her actions as mod.

Basically, you should never give someone who hates more than half the posters power over them. Even if they never use it, you can't trust them to ever use it responsibly.

It's the same reason why I've said in the past that I'd make a terrible mod here. Because I wouldn't even remotely hide my biases. And I'd nuke the ever-living shit out of most of you on a whim. I'd be the most biased mod this site has ever seen. But at least I admit it (and don't apply to be a moderator when they have calls for it).



Entity13 posted...

but she was a scapegoat for a bunch of little boys who had nothing better to do than throw feces at a woman for believing she was a witch.

Ehh. I'd say the problem was far less that she was a witch and far more that she was a bitch.

The witch thing was just a convenient way to needle her once people realized it bothered her. Same with people going after her for being an older woman posting on a site with mostly younger boys/men (though that particular thought stings a bit these days). She was the perfect storm of being an incredibly abrasive and divisive personality who was simultaneously one of the easiest people to troll who've ever posted on the site. She was going to be a magnet for abuse no matter what she believed.

It also wasn't helped by the fact that she was an intense personality who tended to think with her emotions more than her head and wasn't always all that careful with how she phrased things or interacted with people. It often lead to her making enemies of people who otherwise wouldn't have cared about her at all (or who might otherwise have been on her side). Sure, she was able to dial herself down at times (especially when she wanted something and was being a bit manipulative), but usually she'd put her foot in her mouth eventually.

You could argue the chicken/egg scenario of whether or not she was abrasive because she was always getting attacked or if she was always getting attacked because she was abrasive, but either way the end result is still going to be the same.

There's also the argument that she was more socially awkward than malevolent, but once she'd developed a negative reputation people were always going to view her actions in the most negative possible light, but again, the outcome is still going to be the same either way. And at a certain point, someone needs to be introspective enough to take a step back and realize that they're part of the problem.



Entity13 posted...

and it boggles the mind why she was given power in this site

It wasn't much of a mystery even at the time. She was really good at sucking up to existing mods and admins who she hung around with on some of the private boards. Which were places where she could present herself in a much calmer, responsible light. She wanted the power, and was clever enough to work to get it.

So long as none of those mods or admins ever came to PotD (which none of them really did), they'd never really see anything different.

It's almost enough to make me suggest that part of the modding process should be to go to a given applicant's "home board" and ask the people who know them best if they'd trust them with mod powers. If a ton of people are screaming no or begging you not to do it, maybe it's time to start asking why. But that has flaws of its own, and would actually require work from notoriously work-adverse admins, so it's probably not a great idea either.



Entity13 posted...

Then the site started to die. There was peace, and lots of people realized it was timed to move on. Be gremlins elsewhere, or become something other than gremlins. And yet, it's ironic that her apparent death was the lethal nail to the message boards. There were more losses and milestones since, but hers was the one that kicked it all off.

I'd kind of disagree with this. It's kind of fun in a mythologizing sort of way, but it's not really true in any meaningful way.

First off, I'd say the board was fine for years after she left. The social dynamic certainly changed (understandably so), but it settled into a new normal and was relatively positive for years afterward. It wasn't until much later that the real rot started to set in, and it had nothing to do with her at all.

I'd argue the board/site started dying because spin-offs pulled people away, and then the very nature of the Internet and social media in general shifted due to factors that had nothing to do with the site itself. Larger social trends had more to do with it than the actions of any single person.

I suppose there's an argument to be made that it was her divisive presence that led to the first spin-off boards in the first place, which in turn inspired the later ones by example, so you could say she still had an indirect influence on one of the factors that eventually started killing the site. But even the spin-offs were probably a minor factor, since for every old user who left a new one came in. It wasn't until that influx of new blood stopped that the losses became significant. Sure, people might nostalgically say "Man, whatever happened to so-and-so" or "Man, all you new people kind of suck, I miss all the old guys", but it wasn't really until the site as a whole became pass that it really became a major issue.

As fun as it is to talk about Ail like she's the Devil of a long-forgotten Age, it's not really true.



Entity13 posted...

I've been telling a few people here that once this site has been interred into oblivion--and possibly even then frequented by PO for some unknown reason--those of us wanting to stay in touch with one another will have Discord, Reddit, some online games, or other essential contact info.

I've mentioned in the past that I post on Reddit all the time now. Only one (former) PotDer knows what my user-name there is, but I'm probably posting there more now than I do here. If this site dies tomorrow it'll be more of a whimper than a bang from my perspective.

Sure, it takes time - but this won't be the first or the last site I've spent tons of time on that I eventually watched die. I've been on the Web since there's BEEN a Web. I know first-hand that nothing lasts forever.