Moderators, we all need clarification from you.

[Mike Barrett]

I simply do not understand the rules here anymore.  This is in regards to Talkback Tammy, I don't remember her username on here but if you were partaking in the thread you know what I am discussing. The thread is FINALLY locked, and I am not here to drag out that specific topic. 

HOWEVER, what are the exact rules here? You let a poster continually lie about their color of skin (which is offensive and wrong), make rude and insulting comments to other posters, were clearly not typing coherently or with any effort to the discussion,, yet it took 146 messages and a few days for you to shut down the completely out of control thread. 

In the meantime, you were CONSTANTLY deleting posts of posters criticizing you for not taking action, including 2 of mine. Are we not allowed to criticize you guys anymore, when asking for regulation? If telling you to put down your popcorn and get control of this thread deserves a deleted post, don't even get me STARTED about all the other comments and attacks in that thread from OP and other posts in said thread. 

So, as a longtime lurker and member of BWW, I am simply asking the moderators what your expectations are of this board. There is no consistent regularity in your practices. You allow threads to go on and on like the one I have discussed, yet ANY criticism of the moderators is immediately deleted. Are we not allowed to say we want something to be done? Thats censorship, and its simply wrong. 

I am sure you moderators are fine people in real life, but with regards to moderating these boards I have no understanding of your intentions or direction. So please, clarify what you are expecting from all of us posters. There is absolutely no consistency on this board anymore and I no longer even understand what I can post without fear that you may delete, because God forbid I speak up. 

So please, just clarify this for us all. I wouldn't even be surprised if you deleted this based on your recent actions, but as a very sincere poster on this forum and a long time member (not nearly as long as others, however) I simply don't want to lose this board and I frankly feel like its lost. I look forward to a response from you, mods. 

[Matt Rogers]

I could not agree more with this post. The deletions by the mods on the thread in question yesterday bordered on pathological.

[Scarywarhol]

<3

[Kad]

It was pretty clear from get-go that the OP of that thread was a troubled person and it only became more and more apparent as the thread went on. She attacked others via DM, and in turn was attacked and goaded into sharing a lot of truly bizarre personal information. Allowing it to go on for so long was just shocking- and risky. 

And yet using published and on-the-record info that presents Broadway celebrities unfavorably will get a post deleted in minutes. 

[BalconyClub]

So now WE are the Talkback Tammys asking the hows and the whys.

[Susanswerphone]

As a lurker/poster who purposely stayed out of this particular "conversation", but read every word, I think it's a safe, fair assessment to say that the moderators were way out of their depth here. I'm not excusing or defending anyone's action or lack thereof. They simply didn't have the experience in psychiatric assessment and intervention to properly monitor and manage a troubled angry individual and those who engaged with her in a sometimes hostile, provocative manner. It's not at all what they envisioned when signing on as a moderator. Changes need to be made, I think everyone would agree. Just cut them some slack for the moment. JMHO.

[Moderator]

Good morning all. Our desire is always to delete as little as possible. But when posts violate our guidelines, they are taken down. While we understand that everyone's definition of what is a personal attack, off-topic, etc. varies, we always attempt to give posters the benefit of the doubt until we are shown a reason that we shouldn't.  

While our original intention was only to send PMs when messages were deleted for a reason that might not be obvious or the "violation" appeared to be made in good faith, our technical team is working on an update to our system where every message that gets deleted will generate a PM explaining the reason for the removal. 

Also, please keep in mind that none of us (moderators and posters alike) are qualified to evaluate another person's mental health based on their message board postings, so trying to diagnose someone via their online persona can't factor into our decision-making process, and I am sure you can imagine would lead to even more confusion and anger. That is why we rely specifically on our stated rules against personal attacks, profanity, etc. to determine what is removed and what is not. 

However, we always welcome feedback via the reporting options at the bottom of each post, via PMs sent to this account, or emails to [e-mail]. All of those communication options are immediately sent to our entire moderating team, and if something falls into a gray area, we discuss it internally, because we all (moderators and posters) have different levels of what we believe to be acceptable and appropriate. 

So, if you have a genuine concern about something said in a thread, those are the best options to flag it for us or to provide feedback, because they all go straight to the moderator team's inboxes, as opposed to leaving a message in-thread for us to find the next time that we come through to check in on recent posts. 

I hope this helps clarify things and encourages you to communicate with us directly when you have concerns. No matter what side of this discussion we are on, we're all here because we love theatre and love discussing theatre. While obviously no one is perfect, we genuinely try to keep the board a place to have those discussions.

We hope that everyone has a great rest of your Fridays and a wonderful weekend.

Moderator Team
[e-mail]

[Mike Barrett]

Moderator said: "Good morning all. Our desire is always to delete as little as possible. But when posts violate our guidelines, they are taken down. While we understand that everyone's definition of what is a personal attack, off-topic, etc. varies, we always attempt to give posters the benefit of the doubt until we are shown a reason that we shouldn't.

While our original intention was only to send PMs when messages were deleted for a reason that might notbe obvious or the "violation" appeared to bemade in good faith, our technical team is working on an update to our system where every message that gets deleted will generate a PM explaining the reason for the removal.

Also, please keep in mind that none of us (moderators and posters alike) are qualified to evaluate another person's mental health based on their message board postings, so trying to diagnose someone via their online persona can't factor into our decision-making process, and I am sure you can imagine would lead to even more confusion and anger. That is why we rely specifically on our stated rules against personal attacks, profanity, etc. to determine what is removed and what is not.

However, we always welcome feedback via the reporting options at the bottom of each post, viaPMs sent to this account, or emails to [e-mail]. Allof those communication options are immediately sent to our entire moderating team, and if something falls into a gray area, we discuss it internally, because we all (moderators and posters) have different levels of what we believe to beacceptable and appropriate.

So, if you have a genuine concern about something said in a thread, those are the best options to flag it for us or to provide feedback, because they all go straight to the moderator team's inboxes, as opposed to leaving a message in-thread for us to find the next time that we come through to check in on recent posts.

I hope this helps clarify things and encourages you to communicate with us directly when you have concerns. No matter what side of this discussion we are on, we're all here because we love theatreand love discussing theatre. While obviously no one isperfect, we genuinely try to keep the board a place to have those discussions.

We hope that everyone has a great rest of your Fridays and a wonderful weekend.

Moderator Team
[e-mail]"

Thank you very much for your well worded and thoughtful response. I thought bringing this to the forums attention was necessary after yesterday, so I hope you understand my intent with this thread. 

I also fully understand none of you are trained to deal with mental health issues on this board, I fully understand at points you were put into difficult positions. I think my main gripe is if the OP was sending personal attacks via PM's, that clearly breaks the forums policy, as you just stated. Enganing in arguments the entire thread, flat out lying about their identity to strengthen their arguments, and again, attacking other posters I'm PMs all to me sound like violations. Other posters engaged in similar discourse, so again, I understand it became difficult at that point.

Also, when your deleting posts like mine and others, asking why you are not doing anything and acting on nothing, I think an explanation is needed for why those specifically were removed prior to you closing the thread, in my opinion, too late. I am glad you are working on a feature to explain why every post is deleted, because seeing the OP attack others and have my post deleted asking why nothing is being done is just, nonsensical? I think shutting down the thread earlier would've been a smarter play here. Especially since the OP gave you many reasons to no longer give them the benefit of the doubt. 

I am also not attacking that OP specfically, but that thread is a good example of the inconsistencies in policies here and how they are practiced. 

Obviously this is all after the fact so this is more meant for reflection and learning on all accounts, Moderators and Posters and myself. Thank you for hearing me out and I am happy to continue to discussion here or via PM if you feel necessary.