Good morning everyone... hope you all have a nice day in what ever you doing...
The weather here is bright, but cold...
Enjoy

well this is more of a good evening lol
Miserable weather in the Midlands too, and bloody cold!
I hope you had a good day though... mine was spent scraping poo from the floor, not the most exciting activity.
Plus, Mr. Darcy was being an ass and I had to put him in the cage. If I sit and stay still, he is ok-ish with me. If I move around, he goes mad and tries (with success) to bite me.
Now he is looking at me accusingly from the cage... luckily I got a really big one, still feel bad at keeping him there while all the others are having fun around.
He is a problem I need to solve ASAP. I was thinking to make a thread about him, see if you clever people have good advice for me. Last time I posted about him was in the "other" forum and basically the replies were "he is hormonal"... well, ok, how that helps me? lol

Lets hear his story please....
(I'm not going to the other forum again: TC?)

Me neither. I go to check what my favourite people there are up to, but don't post anymore.
I am very sad I lost some of them though, really nice people.

I am preparing the Mr. Darcy thread, I am trying to make it short and to the point.

I still check TC everyday and post there when I have something to share, but I just copy the post and move it here too, to keep updated here on my birds and their nonsense. But honestly, I do like TalkCockatiels still (I know some of you don't!) but I still would like to become a moderator one day. But I would be a easy one, make sure things don't get too carried away, and just be nice to each other. Maybe I could even use a Vladinator stick for the blockheads who don't listen!

You should put a cockatiel behind the wheel of that car! Sort of like Toonces the driving cat on Saturday Night Live back in the olden days.

Back when I was a moderator 'over there', I suggested that the other mods try using humor to defuse awkward situations, and showed them the Vladinator stick as an example. They didn't like the idea and thought it was stupid. Most of those people aren't moderators any more so it might be different if the idea was suggested again, but I'm not confident that anyone except maybe ollieandme would like it.

Everyone who wants to is quite welcome to hang out over there, and those who don't want to are welcome to tell their old friends they can talk to you on LFB if they want to lol.

Stephanie, if you want to be a moderator that's great, but make sure you've considered all the implications before you go through with it. If there are policies or actions by the other moderators that you don't agree with, it puts you in an awkward position. On the one hand everyone knows you're a moderator so you're publicly associated with the bad policy and you're technically in charge of helping enforce it. It's not good for the forum if there's a public argument between the moderators about it, and private arguments between the moderators aren't great either. You'll need good diplomatic/political skills if you want to publicly distance yourself from the bad stuff without offending the other mods.

I never wanted to be a moderator, but one day they simply told me that I was one. It had already been publicly announced before I even knew about it, and I didn't want to embarrass the staff by making them do a public retraction, so I went along with it. Everything was fine at first, this was back when the moderators didn't do anything to people unless someone was causing major problems. But a few weeks later several new moderators were added, and there was a sudden outbreak of negative behind the scenes gossip about the other members that was unstoppable and never-ending. There's a private subforum for moderators called the staff lounge where all this was happening. The moderating team got along with each other fairly well but the negativity toward the members started spilling out in public in a major way. I spent months struggling to solve the problem with reasoning and diplomacy but it was impossible. Eventually the others got tired of hearing me talk about it so I gave up and resigned as a mod. I didn't like the prevailing management style and didn't want to be associated with it. And as you all know, I eventually stopped posting over there so I wouldn't be associated with it even indirectly.

I don't know what the atmosphere in the staff lounge is like now. The public negativity is less than it used to be, but they still antagonize people over petty little rules and Baruch's thread demonstrates that they don't necessarily want to do anything about hurtful posts. When I quit the staff lounge was a friendly enough place in terms of getting along with each other, but sometime after I left they must have lost the ability to get along and compromise on issues. I don't know the details and don't want to, but it's obvious that some of the former staff are now enemies with some of the current staff and/or each other. In the beginning everyone was an equal because we were all mods and there wasn't an admin who was active on the board. But now there is an active admin who has the power to do what she wants whether the rest of the staff likes it or not.

There was a good side to being a moderator. The sticky library was basically my idea, and I was able to make other positive contributions. I was kind of sad to give up that aspect of it, but the negatives outweighed the positives and it was a relief to get out of there.

Thank you for this "behind the scenes" post, Tielfan. Very interesting. I would love to hear some gossip but of course you won't indulge me

I have been moderator in a forum completely unrelated for less than two months, 11 years ago. (omg yes I am that old) I care too much for my liver to let it explode on issues that I found petty in the most part. Since then I swore to myself NEVER AGAIN. The issues were always related to "normal" people, how to "handle" them when there was not the slightest necessity, rivalries with similar forums, and moderators can gang up on a member without even showing it clearly. I hated the unfairness and the petty jealousies. It was a different time, maybe things have changed now, who knows.

But I have to say that the experience has made me very sensitive to how moderators act together; in the same thread, for example. Sometimes it's obvious what's happening.

When I first signed up on TC was long ago and I was unaware of what was going on. Then regular posters started to disappear and I got curious, following some past threads etc. Very sad. Some of them were such an asset, who knows what happened to them.
Then lately you and BJKnight, that was a bit of a shock, in a way, to see my feelings confirmed by people with more experience in that environment.

It's not that I don't like TC. It's a bit like with a beautiful car, you see it and think wow! there's potential here! Then you get to drive it, and it's all over the place. And you crash
Maybe one day it will change, but for that to happen the whole engine has to be made by someone different.

I feel for people like Ollieandme, she is such a sweet girl, follows up on every single thing she is working on, keeps you updated, keeps her cool. But to be perfectly honest I can't see her lasting long, unless I completely misjudged her character.

Maybe one day the place will have new admins, knowledgeable people with a fair soul.

Yes, I've been very indiscreet, haven't I? But I haven't mentioned the name of the forum or the names of any people other than ollieandme. She has NOT caused any problems that I know of and none of this is aimed at her. I don't think I'm revealing any big secrets either, there were a lot of problems that occurred right out in the open and anybody who's spent much time over there during the last two years has seen a lot of it for themselves.

The staff members who were harshest while I was a mod are all ex-staff now, but it looks to me like the remaining staff members became harsher after I left. Maybe the infighting that apparently occurred after I resigned had a hardening effect on them.

I was the peace and freedom hippie/libertarian, aiming for the minimum amount of rules needed to keep the peace and moderator action only when someone was upsetting others. The current admin was the second most reasonable then, which is why I voted for her to become admin. We used to exchange PMs trying to figure out how to get the others to mellow out. She seems like much more of a hard liner now, with her eyes on the rules not the purpose of the rules. Another long-time moderator who's still there stayed completely out of the negative talk and controversy and was always very nice on the rare occasions when she posted in the staff lounge. But now she makes negative comments in public when people complain, and it freaks me out when I see it because it's such a change.

There's a regular member who was blatantly campaigning for a staff job a few weeks ago. She seems to be very gung-ho about the sacredness of rules and enforcement, and I don't think it will be good for the forum if she ever gets her wish. The general situation over there has improved over the days when we frequently had a group of moderators ganging up on a member, but it's still enough of a quagmire that I personally don't even want to be active there any more.

you haven't been indiscreet enough for my tastes

But having been an avid post reader for the last year I have a very clear image so names are not necessary, really.

I agree. I find it interesting to know that that was happening. I never knew it worked so well with just moderators only. I thought there was always an admin. Very interesting. I think when I signed on, it was right in the beginning-middle part of the disagreements. Some words were said rather harshly towards members calmly stating their beliefs with backed up facts and vice versa. One thing I did notice was over on TalkParrots (which is sometimes where I browse over) it seems a lot more smooth over there. Makes me wonder where it went so rocky on some other forums. Oh well. It's a mystery.

The reason I said I might be interested is also, to be one of the peace keepers, but still do something if needed. Not a slacker, but just laid back and relaxed, and have time to keep everyone as calm as possible without provoking anything that shouldn't be dug up. Honestly, I follow the rules, but it's my choice. I don't care if others don't follow every nitty gritty thing, but like you said Carolyn, if it starts to negatively affect others, then that's not okay.


Since I started to go off topic, good morning Jan.