Inspired mightily by NeonK's criticism thread, I will make one of my own as the sneaky, all but silent mod comparatively.
It's funny to me the wording of "some", "all", or "other" in reference to mod actions. Think of it as a labor union. Motions must be seconded and are sometimes treated with long debate over what is fair to the members. Once it's done, that's it unless something new comes to light. There are no "other" mods, just us five, and we are good at communicating and compromise.
Total commie here. Do you like that as much as the Tolkien reference by AT? Tell me about it. I need some overtime.
Gah!
-R
My take is it has to be both. Some history. I have worked (yes I was a paid technical admin haha if you can believe it) & volunteered for a couple of the larger vbulletin sites around. Upwards of a quarter million members. It had to go through several mod/admin changes. It had to fundamentally adjust due to size and the type of membership. When it was around this size, the community style worked well. In fact, it works really well. Regardless of our "types" we could make group decisions with raised hands etc.
That said the owner still had the iron fist. He had to make money so certain items he had to keep complete control on, but we were left to our own design. There always needs to be someone with the sites "other" interests in his pocket.
As it grew, this stopped working. The range of people allowed to vote became to vast. We ended up sub dividing the mods into tasks. The admins overseeing the mods. 2 of the admins (myself and the owner) then oversaw the admins themselves. This offered checks and balances. Keeping the intention of the board at the forefront.
That said we tried to accommodate and delegate. Certain areas were in fact moderated differently. People in that area were more liberal about swear words than another section, for example.
This site is small and everyone is here for the same reason to be here. I saw the range of arguments btw, and I disagreed with some of the mods and their opinions on things like private messaging ftr (amongst other things). But I also understand the whys of both arguments. It have spent many years on your side arguing the whys for and against. (and ironically, the PM argument is one of the most commonly fought ones)
Now to the specific question instead of me babbling. Any decision made on the backend, should ALWAYS be supported by everyone. Does that mean that everyone should agree. Hell No. But the entire team needs to stand together to support the rules they have voted on. Even if there is a veto power admin. Bulletin boards can get destroyed if the people running it are seen to have a crack in their ruleset.
There should never be an *I* made this rule. It should always be a *we* agree on this rule
All that said again, as this site grows you might want to consider an entire subforum dedicated to membership complaints
. Instead of these random popup threads. Gives the membership a safe place to bitch and hopefully a place for the mods to post decisions with the whys the decision was made. Call me an organization freak.
Anyways, enough babbling...
Ari