I'll let
@bmugford speak for himself..
But oh boy.
If "liking" a post suggests that someone agrees with
every single word...
Well, there were "likes" on some of the posts mentioned above that got users in trouble/restricted for bad behavior, surely it's unprofessional to endorse those posts with likes, too?
If posting something unprofessional gets someone in trouble, then why wouldn't "liking" something unprofessional be a reason to hold the liker accountable too? Is that the road we want to go down,
Like-Policing?
You're holding Brad accountable for something he didn't even say. He liked a post with 409 words, and you cherry picked 33 of them. Feels like you're really starting to grasp at straws with this one.
For example: There are
likes and
agrees on the original post in this thread, that doesn't mean all of those users are saying you "suck", but if you don't call them out for endorsing that language the same way you called out Brad for saying it - and for liking my post - feels like a double standard to me, right?
Another example. There were a lot of people cheerleading targeted harassment, slander, and bullying here a week ago, do we want to look at everyone who "liked" the content that got a user restricted? Why wouldn't we, if we're trying to avoid double standards?
Obviously, this is devil's advocate, because I
don't think Brad should be held accountable for my words, nor do I think the people who liked the original post should be held accountable for Brad's words.
"You agreed with a post that contains this opinion" like come on.
I respect that you're getting a lot of criticism lately, some of it is justified (I'm sure you'd agree) and a lot of it is just dogpiling and not warranted at all. A lot of the criticism you get isn't fair or constructive. I don't differentiate between the mod accounts, and I'm sure most users don't, so it's probably tough to come into work and have to take accountability for someone else's decisions on a daily basis. I have a lot of empathy for that.
As users, we are responsible for our own words - as mods, you're responsible for the words and actions of every other mod
and your own. That's tough, I recognize this. You have to defend positions and actions that you didn't even take, and that you may or may not agree with.
Overall, I think the mods here do a great job so I'm not a part of that dogpile at all. I've had respectful interactions with the moderation team, and I've had interactions where you're 100% off-base. That's to be expected, you can get 999 decisions spot-on behind the scenes, but the 1 misstep turns into a 20 page thread. I don't envy your position here, and I appreciate the work the mods do overall...
But please talk to Brad about his own opinions and the things HE says (he doesn't keep them a secret), don't cherry-pick my words to use against him.