Mod Abuse of Power,what should you do if you sense that a mod is biased against you?

[Preety_India]

@diamondpenguin

Spirituality should not be branded and sold as a business. That's the deep problem actually. 

Spirituality should be left to great people like Ramana Maharshi who live peaceful lives in their Caves without abusing anyone in the world. 

When spirituality is obfuscated and spread between people vying for power and self righteousness and egoic business ventures, the net result is all talk, self righteousness, a bunch of spiritual Egos clamoring for titles, zero empathy and little substance. And obviously abuse not only of sacred spiritual principles but also corruption of spirituality and it's bastardization by selling it like a product. 

That's what I learned today 

 

 

 

[diamondpenguin]

3 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

@diamondpenguin

Spirituality should not be branded and sold as a business. That's the deep problem actually. 

Spirituality should be left to great people like Ramana Maharshi who live peaceful lives in their Caves without abusing anyone in the world. 

When spirituality is obfuscated and spread between people vying for power and self righteousness and egoic business ventures, the net result is all talk, self righteousness, a bunch of spiritual Egos clamoring for titles, zero empathy and little substance. And obviously abuse not only of sacred spiritual principles but also corruption of spirituality and it's bastardization by selling it like a product. 

That's what I learned today 

 

 

 

Your personal preferences ain't gods problem. 

[Preety_India]

1 minute ago, diamondpenguin said:

Your personal preferences ain't gods problem. 

These aren't personal preferences. These are pure perspectives getting muddied by the dirt of the world. 

 

[Michael569]

I don't want it to sound like mods are some sort of dam here but you guys would see many more trolls popping up here if all of us stopped banning them. Some of them are clever before we find them but I'd say around 20-30 trolls a week are banned and kicked out. They get their access blocked completely. 

But secondly, we rely on everyone else to help us by reporting trolls. Any user can report a suspicious account and we will investigate, Anytime someone reports, each case is considered individually and taken care of even if you don't get a response although we like to respond to people who report trolls where we can. A lot of people have a huge victim mindset and report other users for childish offences. 

There are loopholes and many bots have crawled around, some for weeks but generally, the team is working fairly well to catch the majority of offenders. 

In terms of users who were banned, there would have been a warning. Many of them. We work on 20 point system and a typical offence awards you 1-3 points so you would have to be ignorant for a very long time repeatedly. Anybody who gets banned through getting 10 warnings deserves to be kicked out 

 

[Preety_India]

6 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

A lot of people have a huge victim mindset and report other users for childish offences. 

Sorry I don't have a victim mindset. So I don't know if this was directed at me 

And I don't think that if someone was being deeply offensive it should be taken as a childish complaint. 

Offensive stuff needs to be taken care of. 

Insulting someone is offensive. And I understand that Leo might not have the policy for it, yet, Leo himself has said that personal attacks will be issued warning points.. 

So the question of childish offenses doesn't arise when it's a genuine offense. 

Also I'm curious, you talk about 20-30 accounts being banned per week. 

I'm curious how these accounts are being banned. Because I don't see them being banned on the forum. So are they banned secretly? 

I don't believe there are 30 trolls per week. That looks like a bit of an  exaggeration to me. 

 

[Danioover9000]

@Preety_India

4 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

Sorry I don't have a victim mindset. So I don't know if this was directed at me 

And I don't think that if someone was being deeply offensive it should be taken as a childish complaint. 

Offensive stuff needs to be taken care of. 

Insulting someone is offensive. And I understand that Leo might not have the policy for it, yet, Leo himself has said that personal attacks will be issued warning points.. 

So the question of childish offenses doesn't arise when it's a genuine offense. 

Also I'm curious, you talk about 20-30 accounts being banned per week. 

I'm curious how these accounts are being banned. Because I don't see them being banned on the forum. So are they banned secretly? 

I don't believe there are 30 trolls per week. That looks like a bit of an  exaggeration to me. 

 

   He's giving a rough estimate of trolls being banned per week. If we had concrete, scientific ways of detecting trolls, and very specific ways of dealing with trolls, we wouldn't be having this issue in the first place. The growth curb for Actualized.org evolution towards stage green is still gonna be slow and steady.

   Out of curiosity, what inspired you to start this thread?

[Michael569]

16 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

Sorry I don't have a victim mindset

I did not have you in mind Preety no need to take everything personally. I have seen people (not you) report ridiculous things

16 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

I'm curious how these accounts are being banned. Because I don't see them being banned on the forum. So are they banned secretly? 

They get banned from visiting the forum forever under this account. They can still create a new account of course and can still view content under anonymous. You will not see people who get banned in your notifications. 

[Preety_India]

Just now, Danioover9000 said:

@Preety_India

   He's giving a rough estimate of trolls being banned per week. If we had concrete, scientific ways of detecting trolls, and very specific ways of dealing with trolls, we wouldn't be having this issue in the first place. The growth curb for Actualized.org evolution towards stage green is still gonna be slow and steady.

   Out of curiosity, what inspired you to start this thread?

It's not just about trolls. Sometimes regular people can also commit offenses. They don't have to be trolls for that. Someone might end up saying something racist or someone might dox someone. You never know. 

My issue is that I do suspect that there are unfair warning points and bans. It cannot be all perfect, but what remedy is in place to make sure this is minimum? I actually don't see much on that front to be honest. 

What inspired me? I guess the electrobeam thing and I had reported something as well(long ago and it wasn't handled well) and some members complaining how they got several warning points. It created a picture where I began to feel like none of these people had any voice or outlet for their frustrations. 

Leo himself admitted that a few mods in the past had acted in wrong ways so there's that. 

I remember a mod asking himself to be by banned by Leo, I was surprised that he was even a mod. 

I understand that mod duty is hard. But I'm not going to buy the thought that it is free from error in judgement.

The only frustration is that not much recourse is available when you want help and you realise you didn't do anything wrong. 

 

[Preety_India]

3 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

I did not have you in mind Preety no need to take everything personally. I have seen people (not you) report ridiculous things

They get banned from visiting the forum forever under this account. They can still create a new account of course and can still view content under anonymous. You will not see people who get banned in your notifications. 

I admire your responsibility and that's a good thing to know. Hopefully I can approach you in the future whenever I'm plagued with insecurities about what to do in a situation 

Thanks for your response. 

 

[Michael569]

2 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

Hopefully I can approach you in the future whenever I'm plagued with insecurities about what to do in a situation 

ofcourse

I deleted my last comment as it was more heated than I intended it to be. There is always a remedy if you get mistreated and we can revoke penalty points that were given wrongly. Since none us are "professional mods" we are bound to make mistakes at some point

[Preety_India]

Just now, Michael569 said:

ofcourse

I deleted my last comment as it was more heated than I intended it to be. There is always a remedy if you get mistreated and we can revoke penalty points that were given wrongly. Since none us are "professional mods" we are bound to make mistakes at some point

Glad 

[Sempiternity]

To me this all sounds like the internet version of "I want to speak to the manager!". Sounds like some are way too emotionally invested in this forum, as though their identity is wrapped up in it, so they take it personally like it's an attack on them themselves. Maybe use this forum for what it was designed for, a tool to become self-actualized, so none of this will even be an issue. 

[Preety_India]

7 minutes ago, Sempiternity said:

To me this all sounds like the internet version of "I want to speak to the manager!". Sounds like some are way too emotionally invested in this forum, as though their identity is wrapped up in it, so they take it personally like it's an attack on them themselves. Maybe use this forum for what it was designed for, a tool to become self-actualized, so none of this will even be an issue. 

I'm pretty sure people have genuine insecurities and some people might just be acting entitled. 

Everything cannot be and should not be lumped in the same box. 

 

[Danioover9000]

@Sempiternity

Just now, Sempiternity said:

To me this all sounds like the internet version of "I want to speak to the manager!". Sounds like some are way too emotionally invested in this forum, as though their identity is wrapped up in it, so they take it personally like it's an attack on them themselves. Maybe use this forum for what it was designed for, a tool to become self-actualized, so none of this will even be an issue. 

   It does create more interesting possibilities for growth, because as you read through some threads about this topic, parts of your psyche will be revealed to you, not entirely, but enough to identify where to grow from, the triggering parts of you.

   This thread does remind me of another thread about threads being locked.

   

[Preety_India]

Okay I had enough of fruitful suggestions and participation in this thread. I learned so much I didn't know before.

So thanks to the mods who cared to share all the info. 

I might not reply much anymore since I guess I received some useful suggestions to my queries and there's not much left. 

Also I'm sure a lot of forum members must be resonating with the original post but unable to say much. 

Hopefully we all find a common ground on this matter and nobody feels unheard, unmet or isolated. 

Thanks. 

[Moon]

In regards to some of the posts here portraying mods as being so power hungry or acting all superior...Where? Who? Lmao.

Maybe this is an occurrence on other forums, but I doubt anyone here has some God complex (??). Sexy green name = God. 

I'm constantly learning from all users and never have I considered myself superior. We are literally ALL learning from each other in one way or another, whether that be explicitly or learning through others' shortcomings (including my own lol). 

Perhaps some of you are taking this mod status too seriously yourself, in regards to Idolizing mods too much, as some of you have mentioned- no one's perfect. Tbh even some of you Idolizing Leo can get silly at times ??

Mods are just regular users who had interest in helping out and are also deemed responsible enough. Not that deep. And I've made some small mod mistakes in the past, no big deal. 

Other than that I don't see the extra fuss here. I will say perhaps I need to look into these "trolling tactics" ??

(Tbf I remember one user that I was helping out who people were calling troll, who turned out to obviously not be a troll- so my judgement was alright there). 

 

 

 

[Preety_India]

@Michael569. I got some useful suggestions from you and the answers to my queries.

You may close this thread now. Thanks 

 

[cetus]

On 12/20/2020 at 4:29 AM, Preety_India said:

But then electroBeam was banned? 

He wasn't a troll and he was a daily contributor as well. Then? 

Thanks to a friend he could come back on the forum, otherwise? 

 

Since much of this topic discusses electroBeam's ban maybe I should clear this up once and for all.

But then electroBeam was banned? 

He wasn't a troll and he was a daily contributor as well. Then? 

I banned electroBeam b-c he was promoting crazy high dosing levels at the time. But it was never going to be a permanent ban. 

Leo's warning to electroBeam the week before I "banned" him: 

"I should kick you out of here just for demonstrating such reckless disregard for proper tripping protocol.

Syrian rue is never taken days before the trip. You take it with the DMT, in small amounts.

What you're doing is suicidal and endangers the whole community.

That being said I fully intended on retracting his ban even though he totally disregarded Leo's warning the week before.

 My pm to another mod on Sept 29th: "Yes he (electroBeam) has been a member here for a long time but the problem is he continues to mention recklessly high dosing. Leo gave him a verbal warning about this just a week or so ago. Every post he makes of late he's talking about crazy high doses at 20x and 40x normal. I'll let him think about it for a day or two then revoke his ban with a lesser warning just b-c he has been a long time member here".

Thanks to a friend he could come back on the forum, otherwise? 

It was nice for electroBeam that friends spoke up on his behalf. But regardless he would have been back the next day.

*Being  the mod who issued this infraction Leo spoke to me about using a ban as a temporary suspension so I won't be doing that again. A ban is a ban and not to be used otherwise.