There's a bit of history behind that, and it goes like this. One day Dan Cordell, who was in charge here, got fed up with this board and PM-ed me to make me a mod. He left some rules to follow, and jumped the ship, apparently to pursue his other life goals. The rules were basically one thread per apod and no religion/ufos. I actually tried to enforce them for quite some time, but the board didnt really needed that. Times and times random discussions popped up, so finally, to keep apod forum clean, they created the cafe. Soon after that, I found myself posting in cafe more and more, and in apod forum less and less. For some time I still moderated duplicate threads there, but more and more it was apparent that board did not need that kind of moderation, so eventually I stopped.
In about the same time, first spammers started to show up in big numbers, and moderation got new meaning - to fight spam. At that time it was virtually impossible to contact admins, so I had to share my password with some people to fight spam efficiently. Finally, new admin, Nereid, appeared out of nowhere, and created more moderator accounts.
Today, history repeats itself in the form of open space forum. Apparently, non-astronomy related threads were popping up in cafe way too often for mods to try and shut them up, so instead they decided to accept them in new dedicated forum. Good move, mods. But there was a lesson that you missed.
The thing is, this board needed moderators only to fight spam. Not to control the way people post. People will post what they want the way they want, and if you start to mess with the way they use the board, they will just leave, for Internet is really big place, and you can discuss why new visitors do not stay all you want
But mods, I owe you a thank-you, though. If it wasn't you, I wouldn't see so clearly that, unlike you, I no longer wish to tell people what I want or do not want them to post (here, or anywhere else). Please feel free to take my moderator mantle away (I couldnt find the way to remove myself from moderators group).I imagine that bystander will be quick to point out, that I exaggerate things to cover up my inexplicable desire to drop eff bombs around, but really, mods, inexplicable is your desire to remove innocent cat image from random post of mine. I see it 'coz I've been right there where you are, going nuts about duplicate threads, etc. And it's not like I used to curse in evry post before you finally took action.
Yeah, well, I would say more on subject, and in more colorful expressions, as you guess, but I'm not even sure this thread will survive the way it already is. Because, you know, mod actions ought to be discussed in private.
Any way, I think I just wanned other people to know why they suddenly no longer see me around, so there goes. One way or another, I think I will be gone; 1st, as I said, I moved from apod discussions to cafe forum(s) long time ago, but now they decided to enforce their vision of the way I should post upon me, and I don't really feel comfortable. They are pushing me away. And if they will not succeed in that, then 2 they will have to ban me.
List of people who cares below:
