[Xerihae]

Just so no rumours start flying around, I'd just like to make a few things clear as it's obvious that most of the antagonism between Cratylus and the mod team was via me.

First off, if you want to "blame" someone for banning Crat then you can blame the entire moderating team. Whilst the final decision was Lashers, it was discussed between the moderators first and we're all 100% behind him. I will mention the fact that when the discussion came up I abstained from giving an opinion because at the time I was feeling rather annoyed by Crat and I didn't want my emotions clouding my decision. Looking back now after a day or so away from the forum I fully agree with the action taken, and I shall explain why.

Crat was/is a competent debater. I'm sure he could (and with certain of his posts did) bring useful information and an opposing viewpoint to a discussion. However, all the skill and flowery language in the world can't hide that a number of his posts were basically trolling. They were posted to get a reaction from someone because he disagreed (justifiably or not depending on your own viewpoint) with someone he was debating with. You can argue he's not the only poster on TMS who utilises such tactics, but to my mind he was the most obvious in doing it.

I think anyone who read his posts knows he disagrees with the way moderating is done on here, but where Crat fell down was in not realising that just because he disagreed does not mean he was automatically right. I recall a post where he hoped I didn't think my own judgement was without flaw, and I couldn't help but remember the old saying "People in glass houses...". Crat thinks we should do things one way. We disagree. It should, and in a perfect world would, have ended there. Crat would have accepted that this was the way the site admin wanted things done and that was that.

Instead, Crat decided to challenge pretty much every moderation decision. There's little doubt in my mind that he realised we weren't going to change everything to suit what he views as the way to moderate, but he continued to argue anyway despite it being made clear that we disagreed with him. My only major gripe with Crat is that he thought he was right, and was determined to prove to us he was when the entire issue of what is acceptable moderation is up to the site admins to decide and not a clear-cut, this-way-is-the-way-to-do-it-and-if-you-don't-you're-wrong, issue.

As for his opinions on post deletions and whether they were warranted or not, that's exactly what they were: His opinions. When it comes to moderation you will never get 100% of people to support every decision. Some will be happy with it, some won't, and this can and will change from decision to decision. As moderators all we can do is use our own judgement and opinion as to what action is warranted and go with it. We do discuss things between us when we can, but sometimes quick action is needed to head off people responding to flame bait. No-one is infallible, and we're certainly not above making mistakes, but that sort of thing you just have to accept. To err is human, etc.

The one thing I really would like to say is that despite some reservations some of you may have, I fully support the moderating team we now have in place on TMS. I know some of you disagree with some of the moderators positions when it comes to normal, MUD-related topics and that's fine. There's disagreement between us moderators too. Just don't let their opinions on other topics influence your opinion of them as a moderator, because I can honestly say that if I thought there was any hint of a conflict of interest going on I wouldn't be here. We're working to make TMS a relevant place for discussion again, something I haven't really seen happen here for years. Yes we'll make mistakes, but in the long term I think what we're doing will speak for itself. I've already seen some names browsing here that I haven't seen for a good few years, and to me that's a positive sign.