NationStates Jolt Archive

The thread "are there any pro-Israel mods" was locked by Tactical Grace for reasons that to me, aren't quite clear. Heres the post made by TG.

"I will lock this now, as it appears that the logic of those accusing certain Moderators of anti-semitism would lead to the conclusion that the detractors are themselves deeply prejudiced against Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, or even dark-skinned people in general. And I really do not see how that kind of logic can lead to a reasonable debate.
The moral the story is, don't play the race card if it can be played back. "

I didn't accuse any mod of anti-Semitism, and if you lock any thread that gets one dumb post, not many threads will stay open. Routinely a thread gets somebody saying "kill them all" or "he's an idiot". Thats not going to lead to logical debate. General is for ALL topics, unless they break the rules of the game. To my knowledge, there was no flaming, flamebaiting, hijacking or anything else. So why was it locked?

My justification is as follows...

There are a number of posts in that thread, made by more than one poster, suggesting that criticism of Israel equates to anti-semitism. In the context of that thread, the charge was implicitly levelled at myself and another Moderator. As I pointed out in an earlier post, that logic would inevitably lead to the conclusion that criticism of any country's policy (the primary activity in the General Forum) would open the critic to accusations of racism.

That in itself is a pretty hostile attitude to take. You criticise country x, I say you are anti-race-y. Way to have a sensible debate.

Now perhaps this would be an interesting subject to debate, were it to be debated in purely general terms without naming players' names in an accusatory fashion. Except, the entirety of the debate that would be possible, I have already summed up in the paragraph above. And the fact that the first few posts in the thread serve to accuse the Moderation team in general, and myself in particular, of anti-semitism, well, that does not win much favour with me, when it comes to any decision regarding whether it should stay open.

The thread has been locked, and will stay locked, because taken as a whole, it makes quite an offensive accusation, one of racial/religious prejudice, against named members of the Moderation team. I am not inclined to let that pass without serious comment.

Tactical Grace
Game Moderator

The thing is, if a moderator, who is supposed to be neutral in all aspects of the game, and any issues thereof, says that he/she is pro-Israel or anti-Israel, then any other person can use that against the mod for being prejudice. If someone declared their support for Israel, then someone will most likely say "Oh, so you hate the Palestinians? You want them to die?!?!" and if you say you're anti-Israel, people will accuse them of promoting anti-semitism. It's probably not something that the moderators should have to answer. I can understand your interest in knowing what their opinions are, but unfortunately, these days, people will do anything to make a mod look bad.


EDIT: Tactical beat me to it by a few seconds :p

There are a number of posts in that thread, made by more than one poster, suggesting that criticism of Israel equates to anti-semitism. That in itself is a pretty hostile attitude to take. You criticise country x, I say you are anti-race-y. Way to have a sensible debate.

And the fact that the first few posts in the thread serve to accuse the Moderation team in general, and myself in particular, of anti-semitism.
But have you seen some of the threads on General?
Steph and Melkor posted on it, they didn't seem to have any problems with it.
I NEVER mentioned Anti-semitism. I'm very careful about that. I said anti-Israel. Hostile attitude it may be, whichever post it may be, but debates are like that, each person fights for the side he/she believes in. Again, I mentioned anti-Israel, not anti-Semitism, I can't be held responsible for anyone that posts on my threads.

The thing is, if a moderator, who is supposed to be neutral in all aspects of the game, and any issues thereof, says that he/she is pro-Israel or anti-Israel, then any other person can use that against the mod for being prejudice. I can understand your interest in knowing what their opinions are, but unfortunately, these days, people will do anything to make a mod look bad.
I can swear that I have no interest in making the mods look bad. But mods debate in the Bush-Kerry threads, and some, as seen already debate in the Israel-Palestine thread, a mod has opinions, they're people and they're entitled to opinions. The fact that I may not agree with said opinions or someone else may not, people always find something to complain about anyway.

The thing is, if a moderator, who is supposed to be neutral in all aspects of the game, and any issues thereof, says that he/she is pro-Israel or anti-Israel, then any other person can use that against the mod for being prejudice. >snip<

Opinions on international politics != aspects of game

Just to clarify, we are required to be unbiased when it comes to moderating the game/forums. We are still allowed to have opinions on subjects and enter debates, as this has nothing to do with the way the forums/game is/are moderated.