Moderator hhmoore: biased, intimidating, and goading

That was a "private message" not a public post. It's a legitimate question based on how much is too much when evidence has been shown, lies have been proven and now it's beating a dead horse.

Why give somebody a forum, the bandwidth and make your moderators have to take their time to deal with after the issue has been resolved and now it's just somebody take pots shots from the keyboard every day. I have asked respectfully and even complemented moderators in dealing with Cuoco after he has attacked moderators and anybody else in thread and shown how irrational he is.

I don't understand the high and mighty hammer and sword approach here when somebody asks a legitimate question about a policy/policies. It should not be an environment where people can't ask that type of question or they are going to be belittled and threatened with infractions and suspensions. I thought this and other forums were on fauna where people could ask questions without apprehension of not being able to participate in the site. Is this a place where people can ask questions about policies without a hammer being slammed on them?

I was forced to take my time to go through Cuoco's junk and point-by-point prove he was lying repeatedly. Along the way, I had some questions for fauna. My questions were not answered directly. You posted a form letter of previous responses to things throughout the years. You wanted me to take my time to read all that, but nobody read and answered my questions. 95% of that form letter post did not answer my questions.

...so I tried with a private message, not a public post, to see if a moderator could answer that legitimate question. Now, based on your post and private msg., I'm to believe that fauna members can't question or debate policies even though there exists forums here just for that purpose. No, I do not understand. I'm asking respectfully a legitimate question and I do appreciate your time and/or any moderator's time in answering it. Thank you.

Originally Posted by xenesthis13

Harold,

My opinion is that websites should not allow people just to post whatever they want because we have an X generation that thinks just because something is said on the internet that it must be true.

I bet Obama, Bush, Clinton agree with you 100% because those 3 have rightfully and wrongfully gotten hammered. Most people can figure out who's b.s. ing and who's not (except for politics) The others probably don't care. Todd people can run their site how they see fit. You or I don't have to agree with it, we can always leave.

I read all the stuff from that guy and I knew it was crap and I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Originally Posted by xenesthis13

That was a "private message" not a public post. It's a legitimate question based on how much is too much when evidence has been shown, lies have been proven and now it's beating a dead horse.

Why give somebody a forum, the bandwidth and make your moderators have to take their time to deal with after the issue has been resolved and now it's just somebody take pots shots from the keyboard every day. I have asked respectfully and even complemented moderators in dealing with Cuoco after he has attacked moderators and anybody else in thread and shown how irrational he is.

I don't understand the high and mighty hammer and sword approach here when somebody asks a legitimate question about a policy/policies. It should not be an environment where people can't ask that type of question or they are going to be belittled and threatened with infractions and suspensions. I thought this and other forums were on fauna where people could ask questions without apprehension of not being able to participate in the site. Is this a place where people can ask questions about policies without a hammer being slammed on them?

I was forced to take my time to go through Cuoco's junk and point-by-point prove he was lying repeatedly. Along the way, I had some questions for fauna. My questions were not answered directly. You posted a form letter of previous responses to things throughout the years. You wanted me to take my time to read all that, but nobody read and answered my questions. 95% of that form letter post did not answer my questions.

...so I tried with a private message, not a public post, to see if a moderator could answer that legitimate question. Now, based on your post and private msg., I'm to believe that fauna members can't question or debate policies even though there exists forums here just for that purpose. No, I do not understand. I'm asking respectfully a legitimate question and I do appreciate your time and/or any moderator's time in answering it. Thank you.

No. You are whining to us about someone "picking" on you and YOU want us to silence him. That is what this is all about. We have tried to explain to you why we do not engage in that sort of nonsense, but you appear to be unable to comprehend this position. The answers ARE in our replies.

So I told you that if you report a post ONE MORE TIME in a similar vein, apparently ignoring what we have already told you, to just come whining to is about your adversary then you will be removed from this site (on a temporary basis) until you can find some way to come to grips with how this site operates.

In short, stop wasting our damned time with your complaining. I am comfortable with the rules I have set out for my moderators to use as guidelines. I am comfortable with how my moderators do their job here using those guidelines. Anyone who is NOT comfortable with the above mentioned management effort of this site by myself and the moderators simply needs to come to grips with the fact that perhaps this site is just not made with them in mind.

I offer members here a LOT of freedom. But it comes at a cost to all that avail themselves of that freedom. That cost is that other members are allowed as much freedom as YOU are, even if YOU don't like THEIR freedom to say something that you don't particularly like.

Originally Posted by xenesthis13

Why give somebody a forum, the bandwidth and make your moderators have to take their time to deal with after the issue has been resolved and now it's just somebody take pots shots from the keyboard every day. I have asked respectfully and even complemented moderators in dealing with Cuoco after he has attacked moderators and anybody else in thread and shown how irrational he is.

Simply because that's how this site works. Posts aren't removed for anything other than very specific rule violations, and people aren't banned simply because another member thinks they should be.

Regarding the text in bold: Do you really not see how that's also applicable to you? How many juvenile reporting of posts and repetitions of the same questions should the moderation staff have to deal with? Your concerns have been addressed and your questions answered. Repeating them ad nauseum isn't likely to yield an answer more to your liking...but good luck with that approach.

Your stance is a very self-centered one. If someone has proven himself to be a buyer that people should avoid, aside from making you feel better, how would removing his posts serve the community? Do you really not see the merit in allowing someone the freedom to publicly hang himself? Seeing how someone conducts himself in one business transaction can help others decide if they would want to deal with him.

Mr Gearheart,
You've probably figured out that we are not going to "silence" John Cuoco (my apologies for combining your name/screenname - I have been working largely from my phone, and doublechecking things like that isn't as easy as on a PC). Your question about giving him the bandwidth to take potshots day after day is a stretch, though. You just posted your proof at 2356 (EST) last night - and, since there were no further posts until almost 12 hrs later, the next day hasn't really come yet. You need to give the readers some credit for their ability to interpret things...prior to posting your screen shots, you weren't doing much more than calling him names and alluding to facts that you hadn't shown....and haranguing the moderation team at frequent intervals.
Yes, you were respectful...but what you were asking was outside of the policies of this site. We simply do not remove BOI posts, barring specific rule violations. It doesn't matter how many times you ask, or how often you stroke us in the process - we are not going to act as judge or jury in this matter. He's posted his version, you've posted yours (thank you for finally clarifying the situation with the refund - I don't know if I missed the fact that he had disputed the charge with his credit card company directly, or it wasn't clear due to the frequent PayPal references); now it is up to the readers to sort things out for themselves.

The answers to your questions have been posted - they might not have been the answers you wanted, because there was no affirmation that we would be putting a stop to Mr Cuoco's posts; but the questions were answered.
The threat of a temporary ban came because you seemingly rejected those responses because they didn't meet your expectations, and yet again reported another post. We do appreciate the membership reporting posts, because there is only so much we can look at. We're bound to miss things, and those reports help us cover the territory. But, when your use of that feature is clearly self serving, you are wasting our time. I stated earlier in this thread that a reported post sends an email to every member of the moderation team. If the post is not about a rule violation, but because somebody wants us to silence another party that is making negative comments about them, it gets old fast. You failed to take the hint...heck, it wasn't even a hint - Rich flat out told you to knock it off, and mentioned that in cases like this the person abusing the report system (yes, abusing) would sometimes be removed. You again reported one of Mr Cuoco's posts, imploring us to intervene.

Trust me - when 4 members of the moderation team have participated in a thread, we don't usually need help spotting antagonism. Frankly, your incessant reports/comments were more antagonizing than Mr Cuoco's comments. I chose to address Mr Cuoco's comments in this thread - that's my call, and it seemed to resolve the matter. Yes, I could have given him an infraction, and nobody would have been the wiser; but I figured spelling it all out publicly would be more effective. Honestly, I had hoped that my comments about you reporting posts that reflected negatively on you would also slow - if not stop - that behavior.
Maybe you just have a misunderstanding about how/why things are done here. We've tried to explain it, and there isn't much more that we can do...you're just going to have to accept it. We get that you don't like it; but it is how things are on this site. There are times that it would make our job a lot easier to remove problematic posts - it would actually cut down on the domino effect of subsequent problem posts...but, then the foundation of the BOI would be unsettled. The BOI is what it is because we DON'T do those things. If somebody wants to show their ass, there it is for everybody to see.

Todd, as a neutral observer, let him keep going. I have watched both of his threads from the beginning and he is doing more damage to his own reputation here than he is doing to yours, IMO. I know it is uncomfortable being called out in public like that, but step back and let him keep digging his hole. You are doing more harm to your rep by trying to get him silenced. This forum is like the court of public opinion, and it works precisely because the mods and Rich don't censor or take sides as mods or site owners.

Your right. He is hanging himself. He just lied again about not having a facebook page. I got the copy of his facebook message and can post it if needed. I would ignore his antics, but unfortunately we live in a world where people are not going to read through pages and pages of junk to figure something out. We live in a world that thinks if it's on the net and somebody posted something it must be true. I do not believe in that and I don't believe Cuocos and the like should be give that forum to take pot shots to get their rocks off. That's just my opinion.

Todd, counter it with a buyer beware thread of your own. Wouldn't that be an easy way to counter his threads in a search? Silencing could backfire even if that was allowed on this site. Suddenly he becomes a victim of censorship if Rich were to silence him here.

I have used the BOI to research certain people that I thought about buying from and I can promise that human nature makes us want the gory details when we take an interest in something. People don't just search and scan titles. They read, and then get caught up in the drama of what they are reading. His thread about you is two pages long and already he has alienated a lot of folks. People don't have to read much further to develop an opinion.

Originally Posted by xenesthis13

Your right. He is hanging himself. He just lied again about not having a facebook page. I got the copy of his facebook message and can post it if needed. I would ignore his antics, but unfortunately we live in a world where people are not going to read through pages and pages of junk to figure something out. We live in a world that thinks if it's on the net and somebody posted something it must be true. I do not believe in that and I don't believe Cuocos and the like should be give that forum to take pot shots to get their rocks off. That's just my opinion.

Oh, I doubt it. Trust me, if someone is really interested in doing business with someone, and there is a thread directly about their business dealings, those readers will read every darn WORD in that thread. Or even in multiple threads. Heck, I know I would. Same thing applies to a product search. When I go on Google looking for reviews, for instance, I will READ every darn one so I can get as good of a picture as I can about what people think. There is no telling where that one little nugget of information will be at that will make all the difference to me. Quite honestly, to do otherwise in this day an age when information is so readily accessible would be supremely foolish.

So don't kid yourself please, nor try to make us believe something that is demonstratably false by the evidence of threads on the reptile BOI that have enormous numbers of posts made in them by people who have been following such threads from beginning to end. Yeah, sometimes the truth is buried by a lot of crap, but if you want the truth, you just have to grab a shovel and start digging.