Disclosure of Private Messages

Cool! and thanks lazurus for clarifying... is there a list all of the mods, anywhere, and which ones are at the higher end of the totem pole? Just asking....no need to reply.....

Sincerely,
Wet
Originally Posted by WetVelvetSAT

from what I understand, all the mods are on the "same level" but they do have different functions, and what forum they are the "main moderator" in, as far as who approves the reviews, who answers the questions for the staff, ect. They all do the same "function" in the forums, some mods moderate only in one forum, other mods are moderators over two or more forums, although one of the mods can explain it better than me. The owners, St Christopher, The Original Becky and Tbone are the top of the "totem pole" as far as this site is concerned. The list of mods are at the top of each forum.

LazarusLong is in no way a moderator in any shape, form or fashion, but many times you will see him answer questions, give his opinion and what not, as if it were like he is a mod. The big difference between a real mod and LazarusLong is the fact that while when a real mod disagrees with you on a subject, he will agree to disagree, LazarusLong, OTOH, if you disagree with what he says, he will say you are wrong since you do not agree with him or have his opinion, try to belittle you and call you names.

littledog is correct. i am not a mod nor have I ever applied to be one here or on another site. He just gets his panties in a wad when someone like me posts helpful information because he'd rather throw stones at others rather than provide useful and helpful replies.

BACK to the subject of this thread.

Yes WetVelvet, you can see a list of all Forum Leaders by going to the main page, scrolling to the bottom and lok for the link that says "View Forum leaders".

It should take you to this page:
http://www.eccie.net/showgroups.php

On that page you can scroll up and down and see who the Admins are and also it provides a list of Moderators. Even though littledoggie pretends to know something when he does, it is much more complex when it comes to access granting to the various forums. Site owners can see anything and can in fact log in as any user IF they so choose to do so. That function should be reserved for cases where someone has asked them to solve an issue and sometimes the only way to experience the problem is to log on as that user.

Each level of vbulletin access provides a more detailed screen and depending on how many user groups have been defined, access to those specific user groups can be granted or taken away.

https://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/forums_moderators

A quick Google search on vbulletion shows numerous help manuals and other things you can use to educate yourself about vbulletin.

I haven't needed to spend a lot of time looking at the various access levels in many years because honestly I just don't give a shit if St Chris or Tbone or becky were to log in as my handle. It IS their board after all and they can do what they want.

Moderators simply enforce the rules laid out by the owners I have just listed and if anyone feels a staff member is editing or even looking at their PM box, they need to send an email to the owners of the site.

now littledoggie can go try to piss up a rope and go write another " extremely over-inflated" review of how a drunk stripper was manhandled in a club.

All mods are the same, except we have specific geographical areas we observe and/or chat. We all have the same tools and responsibilities. The one exception is Bushaholic who only works in the Dallas Strib Club forum by choice. As we are all volinteers, some tend to concentrate on some areas they have more interest in but we are not assigned or limited to specific tasks in our assigned areas.

Many people use PMs for the specific reason of keeping it private. And given the rules of the board, they have an implicit right to expect that to be honored. If the PM contains questionable materials, it can be reported to management.

If you feel you cannot honor the privicy of others, dont use or read PMs. Or, just leave the board. Originally Posted by Bubba3452

A very helpful and insightful response regarding privicy(sic), though the advice given is not quite on a par with "Never say anything that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the New York Times." The "never" part should include obnoxious PMs, but... it doesn't, so I won't worry about it.

Notdeadyet, I appoligise if I came across a bit harsh. It was not my intent.

Notdeadyet, I appoligise if I came across a bit harsh. It was not my intent. Originally Posted by Bubba3452

Apology accepted...and appreciated.

LazarusLong is in no way a moderator in any shape, form or fashion, but many times you will see him answer questions, give his opinion and what not, as if it were like he is a mod. Originally Posted by bigdog0311

Well hellooooooo pot! Or is it kettle? I dunno..
Just from the first few pages of your posts..

http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1515023&postcount=2
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1524209&postcount=3
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1522969&postcount=5
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1476475&postcount=2
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1501144&postcount=6
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1502644&postcount=3
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1494596&postcount=2

Just sayin'.

As much as it pains me, Bigdog was actually being helpfull in most of those posts. If more folks would post relivant, useful information without ripping the person a new one, it would help everyone, especialy the mods. Its when they are asses about it that they step over the line.

Dammit Bubba!

However, there are plenty of non-helpful posts from lots of folks out there. Including some of the posters on this thread.

Well hellooooooo pot! Or is it kettle? I dunno..
Just from the first few pages of your posts..

http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1515023&postcount=2
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1524209&postcount=3
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1522969&postcount=5
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1476475&postcount=2
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1501144&postcount=6
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1502644&postcount=3
http://eccie.net/showpost.php?p=1494596&postcount=2

Just sayin'. Originally Posted by Infamous BJ

Thanks IBJ, of the the 2100+ post I have made, you count up 7 (granted, there may be a few more) that I tried to help others out, BTW, the posts I make trying to help others is a sentence or two.
I would not do the mod thing if they paid me, and since the mods do not get paid, I REALLY do not want it! I want to have fun instead of having to deal with the drama of this board. Sorry for trying to help others out every so often.

Something to point out.

LazarusLong is in no way a moderator in any shape, form or fashion, but many times you will see him answer questions, give his opinion and what not, as if it were like he is a mod. Originally Posted by bigdog0311

Sadly, my posting helpful information via replies is not acting like a mod except to people such as yourself who seem to only have experience on message boards like ASPD and now ECCIE and none in the real world.

Having been around hobby boards for quite some time and non hobby boards even longer, I fully understand that the actual staff who volunteer their time have more than enough to do other than try and read every thread or post answers to questions that senior members like myself with a touch of ADD reply to when the answer is obvious.

This thread is a perfect example.

As a senior member, I've provided a pretty good answer to the issue of whether a MOD can access private messages and also provided a link to where anyone reading this thread can easily find ALL the forum leaders (a different question from the OP topic but it still needed to be answered).

Providing helpful answers to questions that MOST online vbulleting message boards rely on senior and more knowledgeable members to answer (those who don't "embellish" their posts that is) then littledoggie really needs to go look at other message boards and see how senior members help newbies.

If some members feel that it is acting like a moderator when a senior poster provides helpful information to others, especially newbies, they may need to re-think just how message boards truly function in the real world.

I'll just have to point out that the person claiming I am 'acting like a mod" is so wrong about what roles senior members of ANY message board provide and how most boards actually encourage that sort of help to newbies so the staff can simply do the moderator jobs they are volunteering for such as on this board where the STAFF handles things like approve reviews, edit posts where too much information id divulged etc.

It's one of the reasons vbulletin has a built in method of assigning different titles to people depending on post counts but on boards like this one, as noted above and in other threads, it is not the quantity bt rather the quality (and especially ACCURACY) of the posts that matter most.

Saying hello to every newbie in the WW may boost your post count but answering questions in a timely manner tends to be much more valuable when the person is sitting at the keyboard waiting for someone to answer and help them out with something.

Many people use PMs for the specific reason of keeping it private. And given the rules of the board, they have an implicit right to expect that to be honored. If the PM contains questionable materials, it can be reported to management.

If you feel you cannot honor the privicy of others, dont use or read PMs. Or, just leave the board. Originally Posted by Bubba3452

Not that I have a dog in this fight, but if the expectation of privacy is the basis for the rule, doesn't the exception of allowing a paraphrasing have the exact same problem. Paraphrasing, if done well, is just as illuminating as a quote. Suppose Provider A PMs me that Provider B " is a bitch". I post that apparently A doesn't like B because she referred to her in a PM using a vulgarity that rhymed with "witch". How is that any different than just posting the damned PM?

now littledoggie can go try to piss up a rope and go write another " extremely over-inflated" review of how a drunk stripper was manhandled in a club. Originally Posted by LazurusLong

oh hell no

Well hellooooooo pot! Or is it kettle? I dunno..
Just from the first few pages of your posts..

<<snipped out 7 post links>>

Just sayin'. Originally Posted by Infamous BJ

As much as it pains me, Bigdog was actually being helpfull in most of those posts. If more folks would post relivant, useful information without ripping the person a new one, it would help everyone, especialy the mods. Its when they are asses about it that they step over the line. Originally Posted by Bubba3452

Thanks IBJ, of the the 2100+ post I have made, you count up 7 (granted, there may be a few more) that I tried to help others out, BTW, the posts I make trying to help others is a sentence or two.
... I want to have fun instead of having to deal with the drama of this board. Sorry for trying to help others out every so often. Originally Posted by bigdog0311

bubba nailed it on the head - in those cases, bigdog was succintly and nicely telling the other poster very useful advice.

i do the same w/ posts on 30+ day old threads and [in the ML and sometimes in ISO] suggesting people copy/paste other ads to here so they'll live longer.

i agree w/ BD in the bolded sentence: it's better to have fun and not need it than to need fun and not have it [paraphrasing the fabulous furry freak brothers].


now, if BD were lambasting the poster or was being rude or nasty, that'd be another question.


now, LAGNAF!!!