What do you expect/want from the staff of the forum?

[En_Route]

Where's this offing place? 

It's just past officiousness on the way to the off-licence.

Being stereotypically Irish, this is not especially helpful as everywhere is on the way to the off- licence.

[The Magic Pudding]

Being stereotypically Irish, this is not especially helpful as everywhere is on the way to the off- licence.

Yes and with this realisation your route takes you closer to enlightenment, or liver disease.  Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Asmodean]

Yes and with this realisation your route takes you closer to enlightenment, or liver disease.

One would think it was either one or the other, but from what I hear, one can acquire both.

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[technolud]

Yo!  The staff of the forum.  Remember the staff of the forum question?  Sometimes I feel like I'm hanging out with a bunch of Atheist A-D-D folks.

I think it would be nice if the forum staff started off each thread with a nice haiku:

To be a leader,
One must first dream then act out,
fulfillment is yours.

-Mrs. C Troop 280, St. Petersburg, Florida

[Sweetdeath]

You guys all have such different personalities and views. Despite the fact are mostly all atheist here, we all seem to get along, even with different perspectives.

As far as modding, you guys are all extremely fair. You interact and even start fun threads!
You get into heated debates too.

This place keeps me ALIVE.
I LIKE THAT Keep up the good work, Tank and Co.

[Ali]

Yo!  The staff of the forum.  Remember the staff of the forum question?  Sometimes I feel like I'm hanging out with a bunch of Atheist A-D-D folks.

I think you make a good...Oh wait, what's that over there?  Cheese toast?!?  I looooove cheese toast.  I also like cheese grits.  

[Asmodean]

His Grayness doesn't hate it - it's better than rabbit food, but is not something He prefers.

That said, I don't remember ever announcing that on HAF. Please refrain from re-distributing personal information obtained elsewhere.

[Ali]

That's weird!  My post disappeared.  I said "Sorry, deleted." 

[Tank]

That's weird!  My post disappeared.  I said "Sorry, deleted."  

Yes. I deleted it.

[Ali]

LOL!  I thought I was losing my mind.  Leave this one.  I want Asmo to know that I acknowledge what he said, apologized, and acted on it.   

[TheWalkingContradiction]

I have really thought about this, and I guess I just need some help in understanding what to do and not to do on this board.  Mind you, I read the rules thoroughly before I joined, and I have just reread them before posting.  I am afraid, though, that I am still unprepared for this board.

I take responsiblity for this, and I in no way blame the moderators or the written rules for anything I have said or done.  It has a lot to do with my personality and the reasons I use TheWalkingContradiction as my screen name.  I know the positive and negative things people in real life say about me.  As a compliment, people usually tell me I think in paragraphs instead of sentences and am the most well organized person they know.  They also praise my sincerity.  However, as a criticism, people tell me I am often too serious (despite my sense of humor and willingness to be the teacher who is class clown).  They also say I take too much to heart and get worked up too easily.

I was on an atheist board a while back--actually, more than one--and I guess I made a generic assumption about this board.  There, non-atheists were very aggressive in mocking atheists, and they were mocked in turn.  In many respects, being an atheist on that board was like being an aggressive Christian when I was younger; I had merely 'changed sides'.  I approached everything defensively and, when I had to, aggressively.  I have done the same here, and it has not been appreciated by the moderators at all.  The rules state that I should be civil to all and not feed the trolls, as did similar rules on my former board.  Yet, the rules there were only enforced arbitrarily, and I eventually left because I got tired of being picked apart by Christians.

I was also on a Chrisian board once, but that is a story for another time.  I was actually banned there--although I gained a friend, a conservative gay Christian, who felt I had been treated unfairly.  We have actually become good friends off the Internet, and even we laugh at how unlikely our friendship is.

That is an example of an instance where I can be the person I wish to be.  At most other times, I fall short.

Now here I am on The Happy Atheist.  I fear not only the Christians here, but also that I will continue to overstep and make more enemies than friends.  As a way to compensate for the red moderator voices directed at me, I have been hyper-posting on every conceivable topic and trying too hard, as if that will somehow ingratiate me to the folks here.  (I doubt it will.)

I won't lie and say that I agree with the way the moderators have assessed the situation, but I do know that moderation is necessary on a board like this--and that even if I don't agree it is in my best interests and those of others for me to get off my high horse and do what they say.  The comments about the moderators from longterm users on this thread have been overwhelmingly positive, so obviously something works here.

One of the moderators, McQ, wrote to me (publically) that, as a new member (parapharsing from memory here) I do not understand all of the nuances in communication on the board, the diverse personalities present here, and the reasons for specific types of moderation here.  As much as my ego would like to disagree, I know this is true.  

Maybe, then, I am asking for something more in the rules of or the board that will give me a working theory of all this.  (Let me admit here that I tend to overthink, overcompensate, and overdo.  That is the way my brain works.)

I am not looking for symapthy or gushy posts urging me to stay, as I am not looking to leave.  Instead, I am asking for some guidance that goes beyond McQ's post, something I find hard to ask for.  Such guidance, I believe, will also benefit others.

[Sweetdeath]

Aw, TWC ;-; don't go. At least lurk a bit. We're all nice people here.

[TheWalkingContradiction]

Aw, TWC ;-; don't go. At least lurk a bit. We're all nice people here.

I'm not going!  As I wrote in my previous post, I am not looking for sympathy or gushy "don't go" posts.  I deeply appreciate your words, but because I want to stay I have to be honest and say I need guidance. 

[Sweetdeath]

Aw, TWC ;-; don't go. At least lurk a bit. We're all nice people here.

I'm not going!  As I wrote in my previous post, I am not looking for sympathy or gushy "don't go" posts.  I deeply appreciate your words, but because I want to stay I have to be honest and say I need guidance. 

Well, if you want to pay me for guidance that's fine. LOL
but seriously, glad you're sticking around. we're all chummy here, ya.

[Crow]

TWC just be yourself there is no need to try and fit in by jumping through hoops, you just will if you want it. The mods are most likely cautious because you are a new member and got into a heated exchange rather quickly so their alarms went off. Just try and remember that its hard to gauge a persons true intent via the written word so always leave some room for misunderstanding intentions.