Why So Butthurt?

Image © John Kelly Green

I've been absent on this blog largely due to some spectacular drama elsewhere on the interwebs.

I volunteer for a company and part of this volunteering consists of helping moderate their online forums.  For over a year now an individual poster has been endearing himself to everyone as a "victim" of alleged abuse at the hands of a particular moderator.....me.

My actions have been gone over by my fellow moderators, the forum admins, and even the owners of the company.  My actions have been logged & recorded for posterity.  The problem is that the assorted private messages, emails, and Facebook posts from my semi-pro "victim" have not.

On Valentines Day I was yet again accused of being a "heavy-handed" moderator "out to get" my victim, based on the following moderator post from the night before:

Before I have to start dealing with complaints I would like to remind everyone that this is a family-friendly forum. Refrain from sexual innuendo in your posts.

I would recommend editing any posts containing said innuendo ASAP.

It is important to note that while I did not mention any names or point out any individual posts, my "victim" changed his post less than 10' later.

Needless to say, there was a flurry of private messages and emails from butthurt folks siding with my "victim" and saying they are leaving the forum.  The problem is that while all my actions have been documented, they've been documented in a restricted-access area so only the moderators know what has been going on for the previous year.

The rest of the forum members get to enjoy my "victim's" machinations.  He ended up getting a three-day vacation from a combination of his actions over the last week.  These forums use an infraction point system and he racked up enough points for a temporary ban....points not issued by me.

Now he's posting long allegorical Facebook posts and sending emails threatening to "moderate" me.  I'm hoping that the forums will become a little more transparent on disciplinary actions taken so the community at large can see the whole picture and not just the "victims" side of things.

Also....."butthurt" is my word of the week.  My wife is already getting sick of me working it into conversation wherever humanely possible.