as i've said before, i'm not a huge fan of the Other forum, but i think the Other forum mods deserve a big for the way they handled the WTC tragedy. they were excellent at closing dupe threads and maintaining order in what could have become an anarchic situation. the extra activity, and the fact many non-Otters were drawn there must have made things very difficult, but they were more than a match for the challenge.

Thank You.

I agree, excellent job -- I hope the server's holding up.

We all knew today would be busy at DVDTalk, but we thought it'd be for Star Wars info...

Bravo!

good job

great job, guys

I think Dead is trying to earn a *

Thanks for holding the fort, guys. Much appreciated for controlling the chaos.

Agreed. Very thankful for our new mods.

randyc, stuck in Kansas now....

I think that not only the moderators should be proud of what they did yesterday and today, but DVD Talk's posters also really came together yesterday to comfort one another, provide information and discuss.

The mods have done an unbelieveably good job handling this. The volume of non-regulars posting and the emotionally charged topics could have easily got ugly. Just a damn_good job all round.

very thankful for the extra help. great job guys.

I was extremely impressed at the moderating in the Other forum this week. I thought it several times on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Then my girlfriend told me how the moderator lost her cool on a different site, and I'm impressed all over again.

Good job on a tough day. I owe you a Coke.

Thanks, but I prefer iced tea.

No iced tea from me... you never responded to an email I sent you asking why all of the "face in the smoke" threads were locked the second they appeared. There is no open thread on this topic, if you wanted to talk about it all you can't because you and some of the other mods have decided that that topic is a forbidden topic of discussion.

Edited to add: In general, yes, the mods did do a good job, it could have been much, much worse. I did miss randyc's cool headness during his absense last week, it is good to see him back.

what 'face in the smoke'? i must have missed this. please explain?

I think there was some level of confusion about this. I closed the initial thread because I assumed it was just another hoax, a doctored picture. Then it snowballed as other mods closed all threads related because there already were threads on the subject, and it just snowballed on itself. It is hard enough keeping order in Other at normal times, multiply the workload by 50 and that was a close approzimation of what they had to deal with.

Another reason I closed the initial thread with such prejudice is because it completely belittles the gravity of the events. I (and I believe DVDTalk) is grounded in the rational and logical, or simply just the plausible. Suggesting a 'face of the devil' was 'intentionally' in the smoke is ridiculous and early on in the tragedy was not welcome by me or anyone else who has had to live through this around 'ground zero'. I felt quite comfortable in determining what was in good taste or not as I understand this tragedy as few others can. You can disagree with that assessment, but I (as the one who closed the initial thread) am the one you ought to have adressed that too, not heimer.

And finally, all of the mods did a great job. Your sideways insult of all of these other fine mods isn't appreciated by me in the least (I exclude myself from the group that was modding since I was sort of busy supporting my community and away from the computer at times). I thought they showed great levelheadededness at all times and at every step of the way.

Bushdog, yes, I saw that you had closed the original thread (with a comment of "obviously faked" or something like that) (and for what it's worth, I thought it was faked the first time I saw it also). After that there were about ten threads closed with comments of "already posted" or closed with no comment at all, just closed.

Was the face in the smoke "real"? Yes, there was an image of a face in the smoke, although I do not believe that it is "the devil", it is just an image, just like you might see sheep in the clouds. Is it in bad taste to look at images in the smoke following this tragedy? Possibly, in which case just saying "this is in bad taste considering the circumstances, closing thread" would have been fine. What if the thread had remained open and people started talking about seeing Mickey Mouse or Santa Claus?

I singled out one mod simply because he was the one who closed my thread, then didn't respond to a reasonable email I sent to him asking about it. Communication is important.

I'll agree that, overall, the mods did a good job. My "randyc" comment should not have singled out randyc, it should have said "the senior mods". I did miss the levelheadedness of the three senior mods of the Other forum, randyc, yourself, and namja. Yes, overall the new mods did do a good job, but I can see a difference between them and the senior mods (not a blanket statement, there are many new mods I am unfamiliar with).

In conclusion, I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers with my posts, I just wanted to remind the new mods that communication is key. If you close a thread, please be clear why it is being closed. If somebody emails you with a reasonable question, please respond.