LLeopold wrote:
I've been talking with a couple of members privately about some of the perceived over-moderation in other areas of the forum and, yes, even some of my own posts were edited or deleted; and that's not unique to this forum, but I've had it happen in other forums I frequent.
My advice to them was something I started doing a few years ago when it came to expressing my opinion:
What I learned to do was to surround the opinion with something like:
[IMO]
...
[/IMO]
or, if I'm feeling a bit more assertive:
[IMNSHO]
...
[IMNSHO]
or, text followed by... (IMO, YMMV)
These qualifiers sometimes saves the post as it clearly states that I am not speaking as an authority (or simply being a smart @$$ on the topic, which I should expect would be edited or deleted - this last one sometimes comes as a shock to my fellow mods :) ).
That can sometimes make the difference...
I understand what you are getting at with the "IMO" issue. But frankly I think those are so overused and ubiquitous as to be virtually invisible and nearly useless. I also think most people realize what they are reading is opinion in most cases.
In the same spirit I generally type out: "With all due respect" especially and generally only if I am addressing a particular poster.
I do wish that there was a "SAFE" space on this site where the subject of Moderation of some of the forums could be discussed with the confidence that the moderator was mature enough and self confident enough to hear criticism of some of his/her colleagues' moderation policies and possibly his/her moderation policy without resorting to closing the thread. Personally I think this would be an enlightening and growth experience for the moderators as well as the users. And would hopefully lead to a more consistent moderation of all of the forums. Let me be very clear here... I am speaking of criticism/praise of the POLICY, NOT the Moderator as a person.
