Moderators need to be held accountable for their actions

[Flashmind]

Maybe it is one of those *drunk with power* scenarios or they simply are not mature enough to handle certain situations. However, when you LOCK topics before allowing users to help you are making a situation worst. Especially when I keep reading this is a place where users help users. Moderators and yes I choosing you specifically farcaster act like this, it makes me second guess my hosting choice of Blue Host. When I cancel my blue host account I will choose this reason why.

It may sound like a hate speech, and I am sure this topic will be locked. But I am not the only one who has felt this way. I will be moving my clients and my hosting away from Bluehost. Seeing as how Bluehost Links this forum directly from their support page, you are held responsible to maintaining the same support structure as they are. This isn't user help user forum. Its simply moderators who are bored and instead of helping others they point out the flaws.

[Bob Barr]

Do you have a couple of examples of threads that shouldn't have been locked?

[redsox9]

The moderators of this forum are not "drunk with power," to use your words. We are BH account owners like you who are here to monitor forum activity. I don't know what examples you have of our abuse of authority, but I can assure you that we do not arbitrarily lock topics. Often times, it is because the contents do not meet the criteria spelled out in the following thread:

Read Before Posting

I don't believe that any of the moderators here have any reason to second-guess the efforts they have made here at this forum to keep the dialogue civil and on-topic.

Update: I went back and looked at the thread you posted in early April that farcaster locked. I'm not sure that I see where he went wrong. The thread you referenced in your initial post had no bearing on the problem you were experiencing. In addition, the question you asked was not one that could be answered by fellow users and he directed you to the BH support team for a resolution. How is this an example of being "drunk with power?" In addition, I see nothing in your post history that points to an abuse of power by the moderators. So I seriously have to question your motivation for initiating this thread.

[farcaster]

resox9 - thanks for the reply. I just returned from some errands and saw this.

Second, I will not respond to the original poster here. What I will do is supply the link to the thread that was locked and let others make their own call.

The thread that was locked --> http://www.bluehostforum.com/showthr...to-new-session

Now - I have better things to do...

[felgall]

I can't see how it would have been possible to improve on Barry's answer in that thread.

Also locking it made sense since the answer was to contact BlueHost and no purpose would have been served by allowing further posts.

It isn't called "drunk with power", it is called "commonsense".

[djmatt]

Just to add a non-moderator vote of confidence in the moderators, They provide a lot of knowledge, and work for, what I assume is no pay. If they made a judgement that I would disagree with, I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

[nitrocrzy]

I think I have had beefs with most of the moderators still left here

I can definitely see where Flashmind is coming from. He even specifically pointed to the thread indicating he'd taken time to look up his problem which is usually the first thing admin nazi's like to point to when looking for information. Wouldn't it have been better to let others also have a chance to respond before closing the thread? I've had issues where the chat is not an option before and some feedback is preferrable to none.

[bjrichus]

I am glad this thread is still open to comment

The original post by flashmind, has a question in it? I wonder if his issue has been resolved? Was it to do with the power issues at BH or something else?

As far as farcaster's reply is concerned, as just another user of this forum, I have a couple of feelings about it:

1. It seems to me to be OK, if a little bit formulaic in that the reply has elements of a 'typical' "this is a user-to-user forum..." kind of answer. My experience moderating in several other places is that a LOT of people don't like that kind of treatment and want much more personal attention. They will complain no matter what you post, telling them how to proceed (I am as guilty as the next of that myself too). I'm sure farcaster doesn't need me to tell him that!

2. It can seem a little bit harsh to close a thread when there are unanswered points to it, but I can also see the reason why that is done so much here... NONE of us are representing BH here and NONE of us have any power to do much, except pass on the benefit of experience. Stopping pointless chatter and pointing people at BH support is probably the better way of handling things, mostly in my view, because many of the users here just do not read the forum rules and guide posts. This is just typical and normal for forums.

If anyone thinks the mods responses here are a little bit strong, I am on another board (for Nikon camera users) and the nickname for the mod on there is "The Terminator"... Can you guess why? The mods here are pussycats in comparison.

[redsox9]

Being a forum mod sometimes feels like being a baseball umpire. When you make an easy call, no one really gives it a second thought, but when you make a questionable one... look out!

It can seem a little bit harsh to close a thread when there are unanswered points to it, but I can also see the reason why that is done so much here... NONE of us are representing BH here and NONE of us have any power to do much, except pass on the benefit of experience. Stopping pointless chatter and pointing people at BH support is probably the better way of handling things, mostly in my view, because many of the users here just do not read the forum rules and guide posts. This is just typical and normal for forums.

I think you make our argument well, bjrichus.

According to the front page of this forum, there are over 15,000 threads here. Not counting the numerous spam threads that we've deleted over the years, I would be willing to bet that we've closed no more than one percent of those threads. We encourage healthy discussion on matters that align with the spirit of the forum - that is, users helping other users - and closing threads on a regular basis would certainly run counter that agenda.

[farcaster]

The original post by flashmind, has a question in it? I wonder if his issue has been resolved?

I also wonder if the issue was fixed. Since this is a login to a web site and is dealing with sessions, then BH would have the resources to examine their site and find something. Too many people never come back with a cure to a problem, to assist other users when they login looking for a solution.

Was it to do with the power issues at BH or something else?

I really, really, really doubt it was a related to the power problem. Let's look at the time lines here.

The power problem that BH went through due to the transformer was on Sep 16th, 2010. I was the mod online at the time and worked with the threads and posts during the 3-1/2 hour period of downtime. The next day a BH Administrator of the systems at BH made the final post with some good information on what happened.

Then the post in question about the session problem was made on Apr 5th, 2011 - Seven months later. According to that post, the problem had been ongoing for a couple of months.

Then on May 19th, 2011 - a month and a half later, this thread was started.

So to kind of answer your questions bjrichus, who knows?

Yes, the answer was a bit of "formulaic", but I suggested contacting BH for the reasons above. cPanel is just a web site that BH runs.

Thanks - Barry