I need a vacation

03/18/2009

I've been unusually grumpy the past week, I don't know what's wrong with me other than needing a break. Today, the message board that I moderate just got on my last nerve.

It's a message forum for motorsports scale modeling, most of the stuff I have to sort through are just disagreements over trash talking someone else's favorite driver. There is a vendor in the hobby though, who casts parts for adding extra detail to the scale models or to make them more accurate. This vendor has been around for several years and some of the board members have bought hundreds of dollars of parts from him. About a year ago he started getting slower and slower with filling orders and some customers started to complain on the board. This always turns into a wizzing contest because some of the bigger customers still seem to get good service and they don't want him to be forced out of business. On the other hand, some customers have been waiting for a year for their orders (paid for in advance with PayPal) and I don't blame them for being upset. The thing is, it never fails to stir controversy whenever someone posts a question or update about that vendor. This morning the first thing I saw was one of our overseas members was asking about whether the company was still in business. One of our regular members, apparently aware of the crap that always gets stirred up, had posted with no response, just the "beating a dead horse" emoticon. I basically went livid, not only had he not attempted to answer the question but he had insinuated that the original question had no business being asked. I responded that his response to a legitimate question was uncalled for, and that if he wasn't going to answer the question then not to bother to post just to stir the pot. I was so angry that I posted an announcement for the entire board:

Recently I’ve noticed that some of our regular participants here on the board seem to have gotten the idea that they can decide what makes a post or response worthy of being posted here and worthy of discussion. I’m tired of this, and I will no longer tolerate it. I will begin deleting any post that judges whether another post or poster is justified, all it does is create hard feelings between members here.

If any member feels a post or reply is a subject that is forbidden or is intended to create controversy instead of ask a legitimate question, please e-mail or PM a moderator with your concern and if WE feel the post is out of line then WE will handle it. I can’t guarantee that we will handle it in the way you want, everyone has an equal right to their opinion and the moderators can’t promise you that you won’t get annoyed from what you read on here. If you’re easily butt-hurt then I suggest you take a break from internet message boards altogether because it’s a certainty that you will eventually read an opinion that irritates you. If you can’t handle that irritation like an adult then we will deal with it in a way that we feel will keep this board a place where opinions and civil discussion are welcome.

I'll probably regret posting that later but I was really annoyed.

Speaking of being annoyed, I was typing an e-mail today at 5PM (normal quitting time) and the boss came by on his way out. He was carrying a ziploc baggie of gun parts, the same gun he had asked me to take apart for him this afternoon so that we could get a part modified in the model shop. He had forgotten that he had a meeting at 8AM in the morning and needed the gun to be together and functional for the meeting. I had to retrieve the part from the model shop and reassemble the gun before I could go home, it was almost 6PM before I was able to get out. Then I had to go home and prepare home made pizza, it was almost 7PM before I was able to sit down.

Yeah, I need a vacation.