Calgarypuck Moderator Team

[FireGilbert]

I have said before I was not a fan of how GIF-gate was handled. The overreaction to PG rated images has taken some of the fun out of winning PGTs.

That said, other than this and a few other minor things, the moderation is very good and hasn't stopped me from wanting to be part of the forum.

[afc wimbledon]

I've never had any problems with any of the moderators on the site, I've had an occasional slap of the wrist and with the exception of the first few months here when I was getting to know the site I've always known I was putting myself at risk of an infraction.
The site is moderated very effectively with a predictable and generally light hand, if you cant work out why you are getting an infraction here of all places you should probably be worrying about a whole lot more in your life than Calgarypuck.

[icarus]

The Mods here are the best. I totally take them for granted but I know there is a lot of hard work involved and a lot of judgement calls. But I've been coming here for nearly 18 years and I've never had an issue with the moderating. I'm sure I would have stopped coming here a long time ago if I felt the moderating was too lax or too authoritarian. Like a great defensive defenceman, they do such an effective job that I hardly notice their presence. I could not be happier with how this site is moderated and I am very grateful to them for creating a space I can happily browse to no end.

[N-E-B]

I've never had an issue with the mods here before. They did ban my old account in 2008 but I was new to the forum and looking back my posts were horrible. I was also only 14 so they were rather immature at times. I said something ridiculous about the Bertuzzi/Moore incident that I thought was funny at the time but it wasn't and that was the end of me. I still liked the site so I took a few years off from posting, learned the rules, and started posting again a few years later when I was a bit older and felt I could contribute a bit better (still working on that though haha).

On the GIF issue, I do think the people who didn't like that GIF were being a bit too sensitive but that's not the hill I'm going to die on. The mods made a request, might as well respect it even if I disagree with it. I did love StrykerSteve's response, I thought that was hilarious.

Some people say this site has been going downhill but I don't really agree with that. I still love coming here and reading everyones opinions. Sure there's posters that I rarely agree with, but that's life. The mods do a good job at getting rid of the trolls.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

I'm lucky to work at a place where things are pretty relaxed. So having calgarypuck, facebook or whatever up wouldn't surprise anyone.

But that GIF would.

And you don't have any attractive female friends who post selfies on Facebook? That GIF meets Facebook community standards - anyone using Facebook at work could come across something similar. If your work is allowing websites where content is user-generated, surely there's an understanding that you may occasionally come across content that's distasteful (even legitimately distasteful, not just offensive to puritans).

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

When the issue first emerged last year it was not just StrykerSteve's GIF. There were a number of them and instead of contacting all posters individually, we simply started NSFW tagging them ourselves with messages that this was how we were now proceeding.

No, I agree that there was a larger problem, and I'm generally on board with what you are trying to do. But how you are doing it is not optimal.

Also, it appears that you have a bee up your bonnet over Steve's image in particular. And absent any suggestion or warning ahead of your going in, just editing every post with it would come off as arbitrary and capricious. And that appears to be how the community took it. In that lens, NSFW tagging Steve's self-deprecating gif of himself - and every single quote of it - just looks petty.

I don't believe that is how you meant it, but it is rather clear reading the various posts about it that it is how the community received it. Also, it quite certainly wasted a lot more of your time than a mass PM to the top "offenders" would have been.

[Goodlad]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

Honest question, but where do people work that that gif would get them in trouble? If people are getting in trouble it's probably for spending half their work day on CP, not because of an attractive woman jumping through a doorway.

I work for a school district. I check CP on my breaks in an office that frequently has students coming in and out.

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by Goodlad

I work for a school district. I check CP on my breaks in an office that frequently has students coming in and out.

Well then stay off the gov computer for personal use

Jk

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by AC

After the creeps came out for StrykerSteve's wife, they had to react.

Did they? From what StrykerSteve says, he and his wife weren't offended by the posts.

There's a difference between addressing people getting upset, and people feeling they need to pre-emptively take action on behalf of other people who may be offended. We seem to be shifting from on online culture where the former is the norm to the latter. From that hurt me, to I need to demonstrate I'm the kind of person who recognizes that someone else could possibly get upset by that.

Having said that, the moderation on this forum is fine. I've never been sanctioned, and I'm an opinionated blowhard. It seems pretty clear that the mods draw the line at personal attacks. Don't want to get banned? Play the ball and not the man.

Originally Posted by AC

Also, I miss MrMastodonFarm.

He's the poster child for taking things to a personal level. The guy couldn't resist turning every disagreement into a personal vendetta. He's also proof that the mods do play favourites, as a new poster would have been permabanned after a couple months of his act, rather than given 12 or 15 temporary bans before permaban.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

Or we could strive to be an inclusive site that people can enjoy everywhere without fear that a gif of a provactively dressed woman suddenly appearing in a thread about hockey
What is the big fn deal about putting the gif behind nsfw tags?

In my humble opinion, the deal is that everything and anything could be construed as an off topic, suggestive, offensive or racist gif. Technically, all gifs are superfluous to Flames hockey discussion.

Putting everything behind nsfw takes away from the PGT experience, for me anyway. It's fun scrolling through and LOLing at creative gifs people find. I will still go on living, but I frankly think its silly that grown ass adults need to be protected by mods while they are wasting their company's time at work.

If you are on facebook at work openly, you can't control what a friend of a friend "likes" and happens to show up in your feed. Do you kindly ask all your friends to refrain from liking anything that may be perceived as uncomfortable by a potential coworker, should they accidentally be looking at your screen while you are dilly dallying on FB?

If it were up to me, which it obviously is not, a PGT should be a free for all for gifs, vids, etc, so long as they don't cross the lines into racism, porn, extreme violence, etc etc.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

Or we could strive to be an inclusive site that people can enjoy everywhere without fear that a gif of a provactively dressed woman suddenly appearing in a thread about hockey

The woman in the GIF was no more provocatively dressed than the ice crew who work the Flames games. It seems the standards of inclusivity (or to be more accurate, exclusivity) are higher on this forum than they are at actual Flames games. Which is kinda weird.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

Or we could strive to be an inclusive site that people can enjoy everywhere without fear that a gif of a provactively dressed woman suddenly appearing in a thread about hockey
What is the big fn deal about putting the gif behind nsfw tags?

I, personally, simply do understand how that particular picture could in any way, shape or form be considered "provocative". Unless yoga pants/whatever they are called now qualify as such, in which case we are all in trouble from posting almost anything moving forward.

Unless every woman dressed in any way is now considered as such. In which case that would eliminate posting pictures about a plethora of athletes who wear skin tight suits.

I think that's where the disconnect for most comes in to the conversation.

I can see no way that could offend anybody...its someone bursting through a door and giving a fist pump. Period. Then Steve does it himself...and yadda yadda.

This place used to be a whole lot more "fun" to actually engage in conversation and yes was too lax on some things. It didn't bother me any but certainly i can understand where some others were coming from. The pendulum has swung WAY to far the other way however, and I believe it has really hurt the site in ways not considered.

Just my opinion.

[Goodlad]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

In my humble opinion, the deal is that everything and anything could be construed as an off topic, suggestive, offensive or racist gif. Technically, all gifs are superfluous to Flames hockey discussion.

Putting everything behind nsfw takes away from the PGT experience, for me anyway. It's fun scrolling through and LOLing at creative gifs people find. I will still go on living, but I frankly think its silly that grown ass adults need to be protected by mods while they are wasting their company's time at work.

If you are on facebook at work openly, you can't control what a friend of a friend "likes" and happens to show up in your feed. Do you kindly ask all your friends to refrain from liking anything that may be perceived as uncomfortable by a potential coworker, should they accidentally be looking at your screen while you are dilly dallying on FB?

If it were up to me, which it obviously is not, a PGT should be a free for all for gifs, vids, etc, so long as they don't cross the lines into racism, porn, extreme violence, etc etc.

What you're describing is pretty close to what the PGT's were just a few years ago. At that time I knew not to even open the threads while I was at work, which meant not being able to discuss the game on this forum until nearly 24 hrs after it was over. Annoying, but necessary. I much prefer the way they are moderated now, although I didn't find either of SS's posts a problem.
For the record I've never filed a complaint with the mods. I adapted to the situation even though it was inconvenient for me.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

In my humble opinion, the deal is that everything and anything could be construed as an off topic, suggestive, offensive or racist gif. Technically, all gifs are superfluous to Flames hockey discussion.

Ah yes, the ol' slippery slope. First they'll make us tag posts with juggling boobies, and before long we'll not be able to post anything at all.

I just don't get it. The original controversy was that multiple posters had expressed their feelings toward a GIF, the mod team did the absolute best, most logical and basic solution - put a NSFW tag on it so those that want to see it can, and those that don't won't. It was the perfect solution. Everyone should have been happy. The moderators only mistake was underestimating how immature a big portion of this forum are that this somehow became a big deal.

[DMac]

Haven't logged in/posted for a while, but lurk daily. I personally have been very disappointed by how this has all played out and I am sad to say the two things I will miss most from my week-to-week CP experience are:
1. SS's ritual celebration GIF; and
2. GirlySports ritual celebration GIFs,
because they were part of a wide and varied tradition and fabric that make CP great.

I understand if the CP team want to set a new standard going forward and ask posters to not post certain types of GIFs/pictures from now on (or to post them behind NSFW tags). But at the very least posters with a history/legacy in the CP community for posting in a certain, predictable way in response to certain events, in a way that has been deemed implicitly acceptable in all past instances, should be grandfathered from such new standards (as should their associated GIFs/pictures). Grandfathering would have been a simple way of trying to meet all members' needs without damaging the tradition and fabric of this community.

The members of this community know and expect that SS and GirlySports will be posting their GIFs/pictures in the PGT when the Flames win-- as they have always done. I am, despite not posting regularly, well aware of this -- if I personally deem these GIFs/pictures NSFW, I very well know to not open the PGT thread when I am in the office (generally I am not in the office as the posts are made at 10pm, but hey). And if I really really really can't wait to get home to open the thread and want to talk about the game, I can start a thread and call it "PGT no GIFs/Pics please, because I am at work!"

My 2 pence.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

Ah yes, the ol' slippery slope. First they'll make us tag posts with juggling boobies, and before long we'll not be able to post anything at all.

I just don't get it. The original controversy was that multiple posters had expressed their feelings toward a GIF, the mod team did the absolute best, most logical and basic solution - put a NSFW tag on it so those that want to see it can, and those that don't won't. It was the perfect solution. Everyone should have been happy. The moderators only mistake was underestimating how immature a big portion of this forum are that this somehow became a big deal.

I'm not immature to disagree with how the mods handled the multiple requests.

If I were the mods, I would have said "Sorry, but we allow that type of content on our site. If you don't feel comfortable browsing at work lest your boss or coworker see you, perhaps you shouldn't be viewing content posted by internet strangers at while at work".

The mods are just adding more work for themselves instead of letting adults be adults and choose when and where they consume social media/forums.

[SportsJunky]

Aren't there kids on CP as well as adults?

[BlackRedGold25]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

Aren't there kids on CP as well as adults?

Just because some act like children does not, in fact, mean that they are actually under the age of 18 years old.

[-TC-]

I suppose this was inevitable, given the state of things right now. I'm not speaking of CP specifically, but what's happening on the internet and across the world. The ever increasing polarization of society and the acceptance and openness of intolerant and inappropriate behaviour.

And, of course, the emergence of the Social Justice Warrior movement...people who believe that we should all behave as they see fit and call out (behind the veil of an online profile) others behaviour that they find objectionable.

I see two issues here; 1. a minority of posters who feel that everyone needs to acquiesce to their particular sensitivities, and, 2. a moderation team that feels they need to listen and respond to that small subset of posters.

I haven't read every post or thread but I think I get the gist...

First, there was an objection to some of the gifs being posted on the forums by that small, vocal minority. Second, the mods responded by stating that said gifs needed to be behind NSFW tags. I think this is a perfectly appropriate response to the concerns being voiced, even if I don't agree philosophically with pandering to the said minority. Then, it started to go off the rails as these things always seem to do. People became more entrenched in their positions, feelings get hurt, people begin responding emotionally and we end up where we are. A polarized forum where posters are regularly attacked for having differing opinions and the good posters post less.

CP used to be a great community. We were united in our love and passion for the Calgary Flames. Posters did their thing, it was light hearted (for the most part) and fun. We celebrated our wins and we commiserated our losses. CP isn't that anymore. CP has become an angry divisive place, a place where those who hold true to the way it used to be are being shouted down or censored to the point where there is no joy in it for anyone.

The mods have a tough job, I know it because I've been a mod on a couple forums and I've had to deal with a lot of the same issues. It's hard to know where to draw a line, who to 'manage' more than others and how to keep personal opinions or feelings out of your decisions. A mod is judge, jury and executioner, the arbiter of all things. It's thankless and it's hard.

I don't blame the mods for what's happening here, but they do need to be held accountable for the decisions being made. They didn't cause the problems, but the way they chose to solve it hasn't (and won't) work. I know because I've already made this mistake. I don't have all the answers but I do know this will ultimately fail. Conflicts will continue, personal attacks will continue, good posters will post less and the forum will decline.

I'm aware I may be censured or banned for speaking out this way and I accept that.

Bingo - if you and the team want to have a private conversation about my past experiences, I'd be happy to do so. I really like CP and I want it to be a great forum. I say what I say because I want to help make it so.

[Torture]

I can't believe the outrage over this, always thought the hot female gifs were out of place and while funny, StrykerSteve's self/wife gifs were clearly baiting the mods. If you want to look at jiggling boobs there's lots of other sites on the internet for you.

CP is a private forum and the rules are up to Bingo and the mod team. There's no free speech here but they do an excellent job.