I'll try to add more of these as I get a chance, but I'll keep an eye on the older ones as well, so if you have a question or comment for something in a previous blog, go ahead and post it there. If you like, send me a PM and tell me that you left a comment. I'll do my best to answer any and all serious questions. I have to apologize that I won't always answer general comments of agreement, but I want you all to know that those are appreciated! But if you ask a question and you don't see an answer within a day or so, send me a message and make sure I've seen it.

Misunderstanding #2: I got moderated for just expressing my opinion! or But it wasn't flaming, I just told the truth!

First of all, most of the people who write a blog saying that they got moderated for just expressing their opinion are either sorely mistaken or (probably more likely) deliberately obfuscating. The problem is that the post/review/blog in question has been deleted, so their friends can only take their word that this is an unfair moderation.

The next time you see that, ask your friend to post a copy of the review or post (censored as appropriate) in their blog, or to send it to you. Then, if your friend is honest and shows you the unedited original post, you may see why the post was moderated and/or deleted.

The important thing to remember is that what you say is almost less important than how you say it. For example, the following review of the latest episode of Wealthy Teen Angst would be acceptable.

This episode was another in a downward trend for this series. The pacing has really degraded to the point where I had a hard time staying awake and paying attention. Also, none of the endless conversations between Chad and Kelly served to advance the plot at all. We already knew that their relationship was over, and this just seemed like it was beating a dead horse. And speaking of horses, how could Tanya have been competing in that riding competition? It was established last season that she was allergic to horse hair! And the ending really bothered me too. From what we can tell, Biff never had the car out of his sight for even a moment, so how could Brad have possibly managed to cut the brake line? I'm afraid that the writing just seemed sloppy here, and I don't think I can keep watching this series if they keep making such obvious mistakes.

On the other hand, this review of the same episode would NOT be acceptable and would almost certainly be moderated:

This show suxxxx!!! what kind of idiots watch this crap???!! Kelly is so dumb, I wish they would throw her off a cliff! The writers should be shot! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail! epic fail!

These two reviewers may have had exactly the same complaints, but the way they wrote their reviews makes all the difference. The first review says "I don't like this episode for the following reasons..." the second one just rants about the episode being stupid without explaining why, and proceeds to threaten the cast and crew (even in jest, this is not acceptable) and to insult the viewers (who are also the other users of the site). And, of course, using repeated words to pad your review to the minimum character count is going to get your review deleted no matter what.

So whether you are writing a review, a post in one of the forums, a PM, or a comment to a news story, just be polite and as articulate as possible and you should have no problem. This is probably a no-brainer to most of the people reading this, but you'd be amazed how often I see this sort of behavior on the site (and then have these same folks yell about power-hungry mods when I delete their post or review). The above is actually pretty mild compared to some of what I see on a daily basis.

Here are a few other examples:

Acceptable: Sorry, but I cannot agree with your point. If you recall back in season two they specifically say that....

• What are you, an idiot?
• :rolleyes:
• A real fan would know that in season two...
• I am so sick of all these noobs creating new threads to ask the same questions...
• That idea is so stupid! [NOTE: Saying that the idea is stupid is no different from saying that the person is stupid and is still considered flaming.]

All of these responses basically mean the same thing (namely: "I disagree") but are stated such that it becomes flaming, trolling, off-topic, or even disruptive posting (responding to any post with just an emoticon is considered "disruptive posting" because you are not adding to the discussion, and because too many people who do this are just trying to spam the boards and raise their post count). Again, just be polite and talk to people as you would if you were face-to-face and you should be fine. Note: if you are frequently punched in the face and/or threatened with bodily harm in your day-to-day life, then please ignore the advice about talking to people online as you would if you were face-to-face. Apparently you have some work to do in that area as well.

So, basically, it doesn't matter if you were telling the absolute truth when you said that a particular actor, writer, producer, or site member was a slime-sucking, inbred, toffee-nosed, lily-livered, vacuous, obtuse, boring, unimaginative, malodorous, pervert who couldn't put a coherent sentence together to save his life. It is far better to say "I do not care for that writer's work", "his latest films have left me flat", or simply to avoid saying anything at all.

It's also important to realize the difference between discussion of the person and discussion of their work. Saying that you don't like Buffy the Vampire Slayer is, of course, insane (j/k) but acceptable. Saying you don't like Joss Whedon (creator of the series) may be more borderline.There is a big difference between "I don't like Joss Whedon's work" and "I don't like Joss." This, of course, depends on whether you personally know Joss Whedon. Even then, though, it's more polite to say that Joss owes you money, never chips in for beer, and keeps forgetting to use a coaster on the table your Great Aunt left you in her will. There is less chance that it will be considered flaming, and besides... it makes a better story.

Hurdy gur,

-Marc

I've noticed lately a sharp increase in the number of moderations that we have to hand out to people who honestly seem to misunderstand the situation. There are a few resources that every user should check out, and I'll list some of them at the end of this blog post, but I thought I'd try to help by taking the time every once in a while to highlight one specific problem or situation.

Now, remember that I cannot discuss anyone's moderation history directly, so I'll talk about this in only the most general terms and any examples are fictitious.

Misunderstanding #1: Some troll is invading our board and reporting everybody!

This is almost never the case. There is no way for a user to know who reported them, and neither mods nor staff will tell you who reported your post. Therefore, anyone saying that they know for sure who is reporting everyone in a particular forum is just wrong.

For one thing, it is virtually never one person doing all the reporting. Often there are a series of reports from various people, or sometimes the moderators just happen to stumble across a board that has a lot of TOS violations. In either case, we'll probably search through the board and/or alert other mods and staff to do the same.

It is true that the mods cannot patrol every board on a regular basis, but we see almost every board eventually.

The most important thing to remember, though, is just the fact that we do not "rubber stamp" TOS moderations. Whether someone reports it, another mod tells us about it, or we find it for ourselves, we always take our time to be sure that there is really a violation of the Terms of Service before issuing an moderation.

If there is some doubt about a given situation, then the mods will discuss it amongst ourselves and if we cannot reach an agreement then we'll even bring the staff in to help. Some of these discussions have gone on for hundreds of posts, and we never take any of these decisions lightly.

The end result is that no matter who reports you, you will not get a moderation unless you have violated the Terms of Service. So getting mad about an imaginary troll or troublemaker who is causing problems for your forum will do absolutely no good. Concentrate, instead, on why you and your friends are getting moderations and try to avoid making such mistakes in the future.

If you believe that you have been moderated incorrectly, you can discuss your moderation in the Ask The Mods forum. Remember that the threads are closed once a question has been answered. If you feel that a question has not been answered sufficiently, you may PM a moderator directly. If you feel that the moderators have been unable to help you, you may contact a staff member directly or through the email address support@tv.com

Check back soon, and I'll try to cover another common misunderstanding.

Hurdy gur,

-Marc

I have grown accustomed to the fact that celebrities I know and love will simply not be around forever. In fact the more times I ride this planet around the sun, the faster I seem to lose my childhood idols. But the news today that George Carlin passed away last night due to heart failure (he would be the first to point out that all deaths are from "heart failure") has really hit me hard.

I grew up listening to comedians like Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, and The Smothers Brothers. When I was deemed old enough (or, more likely, when my friend Sam and I snuck into my dad's private stash of LPs) the comedy of George Carlin was an absolute revelation. Sometimes his stuff was funny just because it was so obscene. It's hysterical to hear someone say words that make you uncomfortable, especially when you're ten years old. But even then I could tell that there was an intelligence and a larger purpose behind those routines. For example, this (heavily edited) section from his "Seven Words" monologue:

And, of course, the word ****. ... I think the word **** is a very imprortant word. It is the beginning of life, yet it is a word we use to hurt one another quite often. People much wiser than I am said, "I'd rather have my son watch a film with two people making love than two people trying to kill one another." I, of course, can agree. It is a great sentence. I wish I knew who said it first. I agree with that but I like to take it a step further. I'd like to substitute the word "****" for the word "kill" in all of those movie cliches we grew up with. "Okay, Sherrif, we're gonna **** ya now. But we're gonna **** ya slow."

George made me really stop and think about language, logic, and culture, all while I'm giggling over the naughty word he just said. Plenty of other comedians tried to imitate Carlin's success by adding a four-letter word to every sentence they uttered, but other than the very best of this crowd, they all just fell flat. They didn't understand that saying a "bad word" will make someone giggle once. What made us play Carlin's albums so often that we wore out the vinyl, was the fact that he made us think. He was never satisfied to let sloppy language stand unchallenged. To this day I can't get on a plane ("**** you, I'm getting in the plane!"), talk about post traumatic stress disorder, or pass a highway sign for "Gas Food" without thinking of George Carlin.

If you have never heard or seen George Carlin's comedy, I strongly urge you to do so. And if you're offended by foul language... well, then maybe you should listen to it more than once. One of Carlin's messages was that words do not possess the ability to hurt us. It is only the way that they are used that can do that. So use your words well, and think about what you are actually saying. And if you find that you (and/or everyone around you) are saying something that is totally ridiculous if you actually think about what it means... well, just don't forget to laugh about it.

Farewell, George. You will be missed.

(You can find the actual podcast file here at grailwolf.com )

This episode we discuss the TV upfronts. All the shows we discuss can be found here at TV.com. I'll provide individual links as the list trims down and/or more info becomes available.
We also talk about Balticon and all the wonderful folks we hung out with there. We'll be highlighting one or more person in most episodes from here out, and though we mention Paul Fischer, Martha Holloway, and Mur Lafferty, our spotlight for this episode shines on Doug Rapson from the Geek Acres podcast.

Hope you enjoy the discussion!
Hurdy gur,
-Marc

PS: We also mention, briefly, the Serenity screenings being held as a part of the Can't Stop the Serenity event. Please visit their site and support this worthy event.

-------------

And almost immediately after, I finally posted the second part of the Iron Man geekout:

(and, of course, you can get the file at Grailwolf.com )

(As always, you can download or listen to the actual podcast at grailwolf.com)

Another uber-long geekout at Imagine That Studios with Tee Morris. This time we're discussing the first big movie of the summer... Iron Man. We start with my spoiler-free review, and then go into spoilers aplenty, so be warned. We go on to talk about the trailers we saw and the movies that will be coming this summer, but that will be the next episode of the GGL. For now, I hope you have as much fun listening to this as we had recording it.

Hurdy gur,

-Marc

(As always, you can get the podcast audio file at grailwolf.com .)

In this episode I discuss sick days, TV news, and an important birthday.

Too many shows mentioned for me to list them all, but we should be back to the usual shownotes next time.

Or... maybe the time after that.

Hurdy gur,
-Marc