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Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

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    Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    There's a certain forum moderator here - any time you see a post from her, you can guarantee it's not a helpful post; all she contributes is warnings for any pedantic reason. I've just contributed valuable input & received a deleted post & a warning. There was nothing wrong with what the person had posted whatsoever!

    I thought the forum would want to encourage helpful people !
    If it's been helpful please mark as helpful

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    Forum Moderator alansidman's Avatar
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    Re: Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    Did you miss the part of the moderator's post that said:

    (Note: this change is not optional. No help to be offered until this moderation request has been fulfilled.)
    Once the OP has complied, then your post will be opened. Moderators use their best judgement in these cases. We have rules that we expect our forum users to comply with. If you don't like our rules and do not wish to abide by them, you of course, having free will, can take your business elsewhere. If however, you wish to be part of this community, which we hope you will, then please abide by our rules.
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    Re: Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    Dal123 if you have a problem with any of my mods, please bring those concerns to me in PM, and I will evaluate the concern and handle it as it warrants.

    Ali (yes we all know to whom you are referring) is adhering to our forum rules - something it appears, you neglected to do? Any time a moderation has been given to a member on a thread, no further help may be given to that member (as is pointed out in the post) until that moderation has been complied with.

    You did not indicate a thread link, so I cannot go and see, and I am not going searching for it, but I can almost guarantee that your post was what we call "soft deleted". Which means that once the OP has corrected the moderation, your post will be restored.

    I hope this clears up this matter, but if not, please feel free to PM me so we can discuss it further.
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    Forum Moderator AliGW's Avatar
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    Re: Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    The thread in question is here: https://www.excelforum.com/excel-gen...-training.html

    The post in question was soft deleted until the OP had given the thread a suitable title, after which it was reinstated.

    As a member since 2009, you really should know that you are not to post to a thread where a moderation request is outstanding.

    My moderation is no more pedantic than any other moderator's, and if you look around the forum. you will see many other moderators using the very same messages I use when moderating: that's because they are canned messages upon which we have all agreed.

    If you were able to see all the warnings issued to members here, you would also see that warnings are issued consistently by all moderators.

    We recently simplified the forum rules (back in September). They are here: https://www.excelforum.com/forum-rul...rum-rules.html See rule #6: I carried out actions B and C and sent you a warning message explaining why I had done so.

    In addition to this, if you look around the forum you will see examples of me helping members with their issues every day. Many of them are kind enough to reward me with reputation points for doing so, which is why my forum reputation level is as it is, so please do NOT accuse me of not wanting to help.
    Last edited by AliGW; 05-02-2019 at 01:01 AM.
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    Re: Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    Quote Originally Posted by alansidman View Post
    Did you miss the part of the moderator's post that said:
    Once the OP has complied, then your post will be opened. Moderators use their best judgement in these cases. We have rules that we expect our forum users to comply with.
    Seems a bit oppressive really doesn't it? I mean to refuse help to someone because of an unclear title; bearing in mind people are usually under pressure with their livelihoods & to actually go out of one's way in trying to stop others helping them in their time of need due to poor grammar/ a descriptive title is pretty wretched!
    Now you're going to retaliate that these are the rules of the forum - yes they are. But this is a bit gestapo like - don't you think? Are the rules realistic with the constant warnings we see all the time! I mean we're talking about a title on a forum here which wasn't all that undescriptive in the first place if I recall correctly.

    Quote Originally Posted by alansidman View Post
    Ali (yes we all know to whom you are referring)
    So you've noticed the troll-like behavior too then.

    I think moderator's get lost in forums. Memorize each & every word in the rules & expect each & every user to do the same. I think the vast majority of people have things going on in their lives & will have more important things to do with their time than reading through each & every rule in a forum. Bear in mind most users will be members of more than one forum.

    It seems to me that around 70% of thread starters generally are short term user's & don't hang around for too long as most people will be working on a complex Excel project short-term at work; will hit the forums hard until this problem is fixed then disappear! Say around 0 - 50 posts then users disappear.

    At the time of posting the 10 thread owners:

    Calculate Invoice Ageing settlement on FIFO basis (Hanky) - 7 posts;
    Collating Information to Map Users to Training Courses (Charlotte1989) - 3 posts;
    invoices receiving balance amount on post dated chq issue (majidsiqque) - 297 posts;
    one formula need to categorized all the items (majidsiqque) - 297 posts;
    Getting placings from list that contains duplicate values (C Needham) - 2 posts;
    Chore Rotation (nolomcdc) - 13 posts;
    "Share Workbook" button greyed out, can't locate protected sheet (Cecilia) - 1 post;
    Trying to measure compliance on expiry dates for training (Johnny247) - 46 posts;
    How do I copy Conditional Formatting Heat Map color to Adjacent Text Cells? (ImpetuousRacer) - 33 posts;
    index match with OR function (sreejeshc) - 25 posts.

    Is it really the best use of a moderator's time to be constantly warning people (who will not be around for long) the unrealistic rules of a forum? Clogging up server space by constantly pasting the same old warnings over and over again?


    Quote Originally Posted by AliGW View Post
    My moderation is no more pedantic than any other moderator's, and if you look around the forum. you will see many other moderators using the very same messages I use when moderating: that's because they are canned messages upon which we have all agreed.
    Thank you for your input AliGW. Yes I see some users of the forum always contributing quality input, And I see some moderators 9 times out of 10 and not wanting to be rude here, but the fact of the matter is that whenever I see a post by you I click on it just for a test. 9/10 you're warning someone, not helping them. That is the fact of the matter. You've actually helped me in the past, my thanks for that, and it may seem I'm being out of order in raising this issue. But I think just because someone has helped someone in the past does not preclude the benefited party in speaking out about an injustice in which has occurred.

    Quote Originally Posted by AliGW View Post
    If you were able to see all the warnings issued to members here, you would also see that warnings are issued consistently by all moderators.
    Yes I see constant warnings about infractions; others more pedantic than others. Indicating to me this is a recurring problem caused by unrealistic forum rules! In my 10 years on the forum this is the first time I've ever seen someone go out of their way to deny others help!

    Thank you both for your thoughts and I hope I don't get banned for speaking out against something I believe to be wrong.
    Last edited by Dal123; 05-02-2019 at 04:35 AM.

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    Forum Moderator AliGW's Avatar
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    Re: Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    But I think just because someone has helped someone in the past does not preclude the benefited party in speaking out about an injustice in which has occurred.
    What injustice are you referring to? As far as I can see, there has been no injustice.

    In my 10 years on the forum this is the first time I've ever seen someone go out of their way to deny others help!
    Nobody is going out of their way to deny others help. In the case of brand new members, help is not denied even when they get something wrong - if you look carefully, I remedy the issue for new members myself for them (e.g. titles, code tags, cross-post links, etc.) and say that I have done this in the moderation message (towards the bottom). This is what all moderators have agreed to do, and I do it. You are not a new member, so unfortunately do not qualify for that special treatment.

    I have been a member here since 2013 and a moderator for around two years, I think. As far as I am aware, this is the first time you have complained and it's because you were told not to respond to a thread where a moderation request was outstanding. I am very sorry if this has annoyed you, but regardless of your length of time here, you are not above the rules. Yes, you offer some great help, for which we are very grateful, but that doesn't mean that you can choose to ignore basic forum etiquette.

    One of the reasons for simplifying the rules in September was the moderation team's recognition that what we had before was difficult to follow, overly verbose and not really easy for non-native speakers to understand. I think the new rules fit the bill much better, and yes, we do expect members to read them and abide by them and, if necessary, refresh their memory from time to time, which is why the link is very visible at the top of the forum page.

    You've had your toes trodden on and you don't like it - I get that, and I'm sorry, but it is what it is. Nobody is going to ban you for expressing an opinion, but you are pretty wide of the mark in your accusations, so I am afraid I cannot just sit by and allow you to knock me and the work I do here without defending myself.

    Seems a bit oppressive really doesn't it?
    The rules were discussed at length back in September - the consensus was to do what we are doing now.

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    Re: Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    Thank you for your response.

    Quote Originally Posted by AliGW View Post
    Nobody is going out of their way to deny others help.
    How can you say that when you posted the below :

    "(Note: this change is not optional. No help to be offered until this moderation request has been fulfilled.)" # 6

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    Forum Moderator AliGW's Avatar
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    Re: Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    That's not me personally - that's the canned message you are quoting from and the response that I am required to give (and that all moderators give as agreed by consensus back in September).

    There's a difference between being deliberately unhelpful and administering the rules as they stand.

    Now, if you don't mind, this conversation has run its course. I have a job to do here and I follow the procedures required of me to the letter. If you have any further issues with the rules as they stand, then you need to do as asked before and take it up with Ford, who is an administrator.

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    Re: Moderator Finding Any Pedantic Reason To Warn People & Not To Help!

    I am going to close this thread now. Ali can re-open it if she so wishes, but I think that this discussion has run it's course.

    You broke the rules, you were called out, you didn't like it, you've made your point.

    It's not the end of the world, we're all still friends and you're more than welcome to carry on posting. If you don't like Ali's behaviour on this subject, then take it up with our Admin, Ford, but I don't think he will disagree with the way Ali has handled this.

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