Dear Seun

First ever letter I'm writing to you. Not my plan. I prefer to keep out of all the mod politics and try to have a stimulating conversation whenever I can.

I posted a thread on the Religion Section (I'm a regular there). Here's the thread: https://www.nairaland.com/1564633/lets-talk-gay-rights. Granted a thread with a title like "Let's Talk About Gay Rights" can have wide ramifications. It can pursue legal discussions, philosophical/religious discussions, social discussions.and what have you. But the opening post makes the difference.

The opening post of a thread marks out the boundaries or limits of any discussions pursued in it. This thread had an opening post and its opening post was very clearly religious in bearing. It referenced a discussion of religious views among Christians and a representative of gay rights. It asked a question with a strong moral bearing and the posts that followed were essentially religio-philosophical in nature as many of my discussions in the Religion section are wont to be. Here is the opening post:

Ihedinobi: Yesterday, Piers Morgan on CNN aired an earlier discussion he had with two Christians and a third guy that I think was gay and spoke for gay Christians. Piers asked one of the discussants in that recording whether he thought he as a straight man should have more rights than a homosexual man. This discussant whose name I forget now did not try to answer it directly, but Piers wasn't too pleased with that and demanded a direct answer. He then gave a direct answer: No. But he followed his answer with a question of his own. He asked Piers if he thought that two gay brothers should have the right to marry. Piers responded that he was being silly.

I personally thought that Piers was being either funny or dense when he gave that response. I mean, what makes one case silly and not the other, right?

Among the monikers that responded are

stricktlymi

Logicboy03

JoshTheFirst

Okeyxyz

Thehomer.

These are religion section regulars. These discussants whose posts make up the bulk of the thread are given to religio-philosophical discussions. Their language is the philosophy of religion. It is not difficult to see that they would respond to the subject with religio-philosophical reasoning. My point is that the thread is very obviously religious in nature with this type of discussants responding to its OP.

I spent some time away from the thread and returned this evening to rejoin the discussion and discovered while I was answering the comments there that it has been moved to the General Section. I was stunned and promptly understood why discussions appeared to have ground to a halt. Apparently, the discussants did not care for derailment and wanted to keep the discussion strictly religio-philosophical. This is evidenced by what one of them said and I quote:

stricktlymi: I wonder why this thread is in the General section...



#Unfollows!

https://www.nairaland.com/1564633/lets-talk-gay-rights/2#20392372

Section regulars are like beer buddies. We hang out together in our sections to discuss stuff we care about in our own unique language. The instant you move such discussions to strange territory we lose interest. That is what happened here. Now, a promising discussion has been halted because a mod failed to assess the nature of the discussion properly.

I understand the current difficulty that you have with the moderation of the Religion Section. Two mods resigned and the third one deactivated his account. I realize that that is a major inconvenience for you. And I realize too that Mynd 44 is graciously helping out while you try to find another set of mods to take care of that section. I also know, unless something changed recently, that Mynd 44 already moderates two sections for you and is probably unable to give full attention to the Religion Section. However, I do not think that his behavior in this matter is above harassment.

He moved this thread that I am complaining about to the General Section. And I complained. I was very surprised and more than a little annoyed. I have been on Nairaland since August 2011, have been a regular poster since around June or so 2012. In all that time, I have hardly fallen afoul of forum rules. I have been banned only twice to my knowledge for bad behavior. The other times that I have experienced a ban, it was a spam bot. At least, they are the times that I know of. Forum politics does not interest me much so I tend to consider myself somewhat invisible.

This was why I was so surprised. I expressed my surprise amd annoyance to Mynd and asked for my thread to be moved back. The following are the posts we made to each other.

Ihedinobi: I am utterly and completely perplexed I just discovered that my thread on gay rights is in the General Section. Please what is that about? Why was the thread moved there? What does the content of a thread with a religious bias have to do with the General Section? Please, mod, return the thread to the Religion section. Seriously, how do you do that without even warning the OP of the thread?

Mynd, please return https://www.nairaland.com/1564633/lets-talk-gay-rights/2#20399077 to the Religion Section. The people who were interested in that discourse have left and they were the ones targeted. Good God!

https://www.nairaland.com/1447917/religion-complaints-thread-sticky/84#20399227

Mynd_44: The discussions there are not based on only religious views. Sure once a while someone might chip in a religious point but it is also ethnic, political, health and cultural which makes the General section perfect for it

https://www.nairaland.com/1447917/religion-complaints-thread-sticky/84#20399337

Please note the bolded in Mynd's response here.

Continuing,

Ihedinobi:

Mynd_44:
The discussions there are not based on only religious views. Sure once a while someone might chip in a religious point but it is also ethnic, political, health and cultural which makes the General section perfect for it

Mynd, are you serious? Did you read the op? From the beginning of that thread, it was religious philosophy. It is a question of morality that is fully subsumed in religion and philosophy. What do you mean by "once in a while someone might chip in a religious point"? Please take a good look at it. The discussion has been strictly religious philosophy. We don't need to be quoting Scriptures there for it to be religion. Please, move it back.

https://www.nairaland.com/1447917/religion-complaints-thread-sticky/84#20399419

He did not reply the above post. Apparently, it was beneath his dignity to. So I made this next one as a final appeal:

Ihedinobi: Mynd, it isn't respectful to you for me to go to the General Section mods and ask them to move the thread back if we are not agreed on its religious status. So I am requesting that you acknowledge that status before I go to them. That thread was neither meant for nor fits into the General Section. You probably had too much work on your hands to adequately judge its character from the OP and consequent posts. If you want, I can provide samples of posts on it to assure you that it was a religious discussion.

https://www.nairaland.com/1447917/religion-complaints-thread-sticky/84#20399864

The following was his response:

Mynd_44:

Ihedinobi:
 Mynd, it isn't respectful to you for me to go to the General Section mods and ask them to move the thread back if we are not agreed on its religious status. So I am requesting that you acknowledge that status before I go to them. That thread was neither meant for nor fits into the General Section. You probably had too much work on your hands to adequately judge its character from the OP and consequent posts. If you want, I can provide samples of posts on it to assure you that it was a religious discussion.

Sorry bro, I can't.

https://www.nairaland.com/1447917/religion-complaints-thread-sticky/84#20399982

Now I had no idea what to make of that response. Apparently, I was not expected to make a case at all. I was supposed to roll over and let my discussion be killed. You will notice that not much has happened on that thread apart from my responses to the comments discussants made while I was away. It would appear that this was a calculated attempt to kill off a discussion. What I don't know is why.

I left complaining to Mynd and went straight to the General Section and asked the mods to please move back my thread. And, I was surprised, I'd become enough of an interest for Mynd to follow me there as well. Here are the posts as well:

Ihedinobi: Hi mods

This thread, https://www.nairaland.com/1564633/lets-talk-gay-rights, was moved to your section from the Religion Section erroneously. It was biased to religiona nd philosophy and many of the discussants on it who were specifically targetted for the discussion have left it now because it is here. I request that you move it back please so that we can pick up the discussion again and try to conclude it.

Thanks a bunch, guys 

https://www.nairaland.com/776835/feedback-comments-complaints/40#20400088

Mynd_44:

Ihedinob:
Hi mods

This thread, https://www.nairaland.com/1564633/lets-talk-gay-rights
, was moved to your section from the Religion Section erroneously. It was biased to religiona nd philosophy and many of the discussants on it who were specifically targetted for the discussion have left it now because it is here. I request that you move it back please so that we can pick up the discussion again and try to conclude it.

Thanks a bunch, guys 

Hello guys

Mynd_44:  The discussions there are not based on only religious views. Sure once a while someone might chip in a religious point but it is also ethnic, political, health and cultural which makes the General section perfect for it

**walks away with a milkshake**

https://www.nairaland.com/776835/feedback-comments-complaints/40#20400293

Now, I do try to be reasonable. I tried to make a case for why my thread belongs in the Religion Section and this mod turned up his nose at it. I may have been talking to the wind for.all he cared. When I asked that he acknowledge that it was religious, he gave an automatic response. I did what I could to engage him but engagement wasn't interesting to him. But he would scuttle any effort I made to resurrect a discussion that interests my friends and myself. Why? Is this some abuse of power? I have hardly ever involved myself in how mods did their duties except for when JeSoul, former Religion Section Mod was attacked by some of our number for how she did her duty, when MMW was sacked - I think you might remember that one - and when the last three mods were brought in. I generally avoid forum politics. Why am I being dragged into it now by Mynd? Is he doing a kind of census of Religion Section regulars, picking one after the other to harass?

I don't care about this sort of thing. I like to have a clean conversation, fight if I think I need to, suffer any punishments I merit and generally have a good time. I don't care for a power struggle with a mod, any mod.

I want my thread moved back to the religion section so that my friends and I can enjoy finishing our discussion. I want Mynd to get off my case and leave me alone. I respect his position as a mod but I do not care for anyone to do as they please with me.

I think it may be interesting to note that discussions of this type are held in the Religion Section without any difficulty. Recently, we have had discussions on euthanasia ( https://www.nairaland.com/1555102/euthanasia-discussions-quivah-interested-party ) for instance. In the farther past, we have had political discussions too. There is a football thread posted on January 1 by semid4lyfe on the front page of the section as at 11:59pm ( https://www.nairaland.com/1148032/nigeria-vs-catalonia-friendly-1 ). What is the problem with my thread? Is this a personal thing? Or does Mynd want to assert his authority by bullying regular posters - Logicboy has levelled complaints about him (https://www.nairaland.com/1565247/please-seun-give-religion-section#20391059) and on the Religion Complaint thread, I have noticed that he has issues with wiegraf and Pagan9JA, two other religion regulars.

I look forward to a healthy resolution of this matter by you, sir. I have benefited from the existence of this site. It would be a shame if poor moderating should deny future NLanders the cool benefits that I have enjoyed.

Yours
Ihedinobi

Some people too carry nairaland for head.
Op, my advice to you: get a life!!!

I endorse this appeal but I am not optimistic of a favourable outcome. Mods have considerable discretion and misapplication of powers is a common occurrence. Firstly, the owner may agree with the mods position, and even if he doesn't, the OATT only usually responds to egregious examples that threaten the forum - your current complaint isn't in that class though.

Maybe he'll surprise me and respond.

Which mod deactivated his/her account?

debosky: I endorse this appeal but I am not optimistic of a favourable outcome. Mods have considerable discretion and misapplication of powers is a common occurrence. Firstly, the owner may agree with the mods position, and even if he doesn't, the OATT only usually responds to egregious examples that threaten the forum - your current complaint isn't in that class though.

Maybe he'll surprise me and respond.

We'll see what he does, bro.

Ihedinobi,

Mynd_44 is still struggling to adapt to the religion section and he wants to prove his authority by being unnecessarily tough

Logicboy03: Ihedinobi,

Mynd_44 is still struggling to adapt to the religion section and he wants to prove his authority by being unnecessarily tough

That is quite silly.

Ihedinobi:
That is quite silly.

The good news is that your thread has been moved back to the religion section


Was the renaming of your thread really necessary or is it just to massage Mynd's ego?

^^ You know, I just noticed that now. Right now I want to start my day. I'll worry about new titles later. In a sense, I don't mind the change, but I think it is quite arrogant. I'll decide how much I can stomach it later. Make I do my exercise regimens finish first.

Ihedinobi: ^^ You know, I just noticed that now. Right now I want to start my day. I'll worry about new titles later. In a sense, I don't mind the change, but I think it is quite arrogant. I'll decide how much I can stomach it later. Make I do my exercise regimens finish first.

@ bold- great description

Exercise away!

NL na job

Na wa o