bobbranco said:

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Redstone said:

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So we have at least a couple first-hand accounts of TexAgs connection for retainer payment, which may or may not be solicitation ( I don't know), and who reported / knew what when issues.
Second, the well-articulated issues with moderation / transparency.

Brandon, again, I absolutely have respect for you, and admiration for the building of a great site, but these 2 situations here are not just serious but require a comprehensive reckoning.

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Please stop.

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He's right on point.

Brandon, if you need a long-time user in fantastic standing with the greater TexAgs community and especially with the OR community to step up and fill in the void left by this development, I'll gladly throw my hat in the ring.

At no point will I ever ask anyone for their passwords or any money, unless it's money for someone's password, and in that situation, I'll cut you in for 40% of the take.

I must admit, I did learn something bout the mod process. I thought they were interns/low level pay people vs. the "mobs" that post constantly. That explains the smartarse comments that were made to me. Hell, there are prob 100 long term posters that if they were Mods, I'd be permanently banned. Either get rid of these people as mods or make them known. Problem solved

The biggest problem with moderation is they continue to let Redstone post.

Your Friend said:

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There already exists a regular OR poster who is level headed, mature, wise and unemotional who would be the perfect candidate for the OR mod, imo

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I appreciate the second for my nomination but you're still a creepy son of a *****.

Just a call for transparency - specifically, a mod listing for every forum.
Again, it's not my sandbox and I don't want a perma, so I'll respect all rules.
Hopefully this sensible consensus becomes a reality.

I wish I could understand the reasons for having private moderators...can anyone think of a good explanation?

It sure seems like the internet agrees that public moderators is pretty standard practice.

wreckingcrew44 said:

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And I just paid him a small sum of money to retain him. I'm guessing that's gone.

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NickNaylor said:

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The biggest problem with moderation is they continue to let Redstone post.

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I can never figure this guy out. I realize he is a complete troll on the entertainment board, bordering on brilliant. But is he trolling the other boards as well? He pretends to be a somewhat connected political insider on the pol board sometimes. At least I think he's just pretending.

nactownag said:

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I wish I could understand the reasons for having private moderators...can anyone think of a good explanation?

It sure seems like the internet agrees that public moderators is pretty standard practice.

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probably to keep knuckleheads like me from crapping on what are very obviously volunteer positions. Thankless jobs at that. For the record, I'm not and have never been a mod. I believe Brandon told me at one point I would never be a mod and the site just may die a quick death if I ever became one. So there's that comfort to some of you.

bobbranco said:

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Tecolote said:

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bobbranco said:

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Redstone said:

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So we have at least a couple first-hand accounts of TexAgs connection for retainer payment, which may or may not be solicitation ( I don't know), and who reported / knew what when issues.
Second, the well-articulated issues with moderation / transparency.

Brandon, again, I absolutely have respect for you, and admiration for the building of a great site, but these 2 situations here are not just serious but require a comprehensive reckoning.

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Please stop.

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He's right on point.

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You should also stop.

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You first.

nactownag said:

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I wish I could understand the reasons for having private moderators...can anyone think of a good explanation?

It sure seems like the internet agrees that public moderators is pretty standard practice.

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I can't. There is a certain poster (name rhymes with Sharpie) that many people suspect to be a moderator, or to be close to one or several of the moderators bc if you engage in debate with her or ever call her out, your post is likely to vanish within minutes and you may very well have earned yourself a timeout. Meanwhile, a diff standard is applied to her. She claims not to be one, but that just doesn't seem possible to me, unless she is dating a mod or something.

Having an "m" or something by the names of moderators might help. Although there may be good reasons for not disclosing that I just haven't thought of yet.

third coast.. said:

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i have a long and well documented beef with her, but she is not a mod, and that came straight from brandons mouth. i do believe, however, that she has the ear of someone with moderation power. that is all i will say on that matter.

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This has to be it. Oh well, still a great site.

If you imagine every Texags forum being a prison, the idea of this community is basically that of a panopticon: The prisoner (or posters) aren't sure when or who is watching them so good behavior is encouraged at all times. Seems legit, right? You don't know when or where the mod will be on so you are incentived to be a decent community member or you risk a ban.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

This model completely doesn't work when you have no uniform rules and one mod goes easier in one forum and lets posters use ethnic/social slurs and sexist content freely while you have another mod in another forum who bans and deletes content at his/her discretion.

This site is a private business and the owners can make up what rules they want, but clearly something in the moderation is not working and has been a gripe in this community for years.

Boo Weekley said:

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gwellis said:

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drthoop said:

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Seems like people want someone to blame. Nobody forced me to give Damon money. Yep, I'm one of the people he got money from. I did it of my own free will. Didn't have a gun held to my head. Luckily it wasn't anywhere close to the amount a lot of folks are out. But I'm the one that is ultimately to blame for what I lost. Not even Damon. I could have said no.
Posting info to "warn people" would bring up the whole "slander can of worms".
Not Texags fault. Not anyone else who was taken's fault. And not really Damon's fault. It was my fault for being taken in.
That said, yes, Damon is a sorry excuse for a human, but he is what he is. I think society has forgotten how to think and when something goes wrong loves to play the victim and blame someone else.

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This post should end this thread in my opinion. Responsibility for one's own actions. Thank you for this post.

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Nah, pretty sure the fraud/scam artist is the one to blame. I hope he changes. Sometimes we have to acknowledge that we are pieces of crap in order to change.

Don't take any responsibility off him. That's just silly...and enabling.

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My intent was not to remove any blame from Damon, but to also not let so called victims shed their own blame for dealing with someone who obviously was not right. He was and is an internet persona that the majority of us never actually knew. I don't deal with complete strangers, without checking up on them or getting referrals from people I trust. That's just me. We have a society where we have to blame someone else when things go wrong and that leads to lack of responsibility for one's own actions. Technically we are all adults, but some have to learn hard lessons before they see that which is in front of them. Damon apparently has made some bad mistakes and now he is being forced to deal with them. I wish him the best and hope he gets the help he needs. Some got taken advantage of and I hope and pray they get some closure and are able to recover.

I don't see any instance where TexAgs owns any responsibility for Damon's actions and I think trying to blame them for any of this is ludicrous. I appreciate the opportunity for us to discuss this without interference save for the trolling.

There was a moderator ***** session on the outdoor board a month ago. Many posting on this thread were over there, but many more probably were not. It's kind of funny that the same things people were complaining about on the OB are being complained about here. https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/3007598/2

In that thread Brandon's response to why moderators aren't public is below. Many didnt agree, but he listed his reasoning.

WatchOle said:

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Three main reasons:

1. I want moderators to be able to participate on the forums as normal posters without the social burden of being a moderator.

2. I want moderators to moderate based on policy and not based community pressure.

3. I want moderators to be free on real world retribution by disgruntled community members.

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2 and 3 are a joke. No the mods just want to hide behind their username and just want to be the internet tough guy...