"Please do not trivialize what happened. If there was a pedophile named Chris Pan that lived in Ontario and you were accused of being him, perhaps you'd see my plight slightly differently."

You may be right, I would be angry, but I'm pretty sure I would not seek to have the thread deleted, and I would be wrong if I did.

"As figlesquidge pointed out to me a little while back, it would prevent that thread coming up in a google search. If I was unemployed and looking for a job, that could very well destroy my chances at gaining employment in this competitive job market. Perhaps it is unlikely, but I'd rather not accept those chances simply because the mods of some game website has deemed it irrelevant."

It was pretty clear from the thread that you were seeking punitive action against Draugnar not because you were concerned for real life ramifications but because you were sorely offended by his accusations and your temper was running high as well. It's all well to step back and bring up new arguments now, but this was never the issue from the start.

"My ill sentiments are directed at the mods because their inaction (not deleting the thread) has sent me, and most assuredly others, that the behavior in question is acceptable."

No, I think it's been very clear from my personal opinion and from the community backlash that nobody thought Draugnar's behaviour was acceptable. You'd have to be a child to think that just because some authority figure on an internet diplomacy website didn't do anything that falsely accusing someone of being a pedophile is acceptable. I'm not trivializing what happened to you, but I think it should be resolved between you and Draugnar, which it apparently has been. I think you're completely inflating the complicity of the moderators in this instance, and my personal analysis is that you've simply deflected resentment from Draugnar to the moderator team.

I think you're retrospectively confusing the time scale here. If we as moderators deleted the thread when you requested it to be deleted, it would have preceded community backlash and the reconciliation between you and Draugnar. It would have totally been censorship, and not a simple matter of deleting history so it doesn't affect your real life in case an employer googles you. It seems like you've completely reevaluated your reasons for wanting the thread deleted now that you and Draugnar have kissed and made up, but it was quite clear (to me anyway) that you were angry and hurt, understandably so, and that you wanted us to shut Draugnar up. There's a reason moderators do not have the power to moderate the forum at all, and that is because we are not here to moderate the forums at all.

All this said, if you would like to have the thread deleted so that you don't have to worry about the unlikely situation that someone googles you and finds the thread, then I think you could take the issue to Kestas, with Draugnar's support, and you might convince him. However, don't act like this is some matter of principle and that there's some kind of moral imperative to delete the thread when it's really just a personal feud that got too heavy.

*My opinions are in not necessarily reflective of the "official" stance on the issue. I'm just trying to explain to you why I did not take action as a moderator, and why I think you're unfairly inflating our complicity.

Apologies to the Duke for derailing his thread. Seems like a stand up guy, but you'll find that all the best threads here get hijacked at least once.

I would go so far as to say a thread on this site is a failure if it isn't derailed.

At last: success at something :D

The amusing - kinda - thing about this hijacking is (aside from it NOT involving a VERY suspect bottle of Volvic) is that it all came about as a result of someone else, another newb, asking for mentoring. I just said hi :P

Ah well, as you say, most threads get derailed at some point.

@ Genghis: no I borrowed the name from the only English general to successfully march an army across mainland Europe (other than France, Iberia and, arguably, Italy of course) and whip continental butt. Naturally I will never draw England on this site as a result of my choice. ;-)

Darwyn, moderators act purely on the basis of applying precedent. I will not take an action unless I or another moderator has done similarly before, or the matter has been discussed with kestas. This means that we cannot deal with an unusual complaint such as yours speedily. Added to which, both figle and I, who were the two more experienced moderators currently active, are university students, and this matter turned up at one of the busiest parts of our term. Making time to discuss something at length with Kestas, who is on the other side of the world, is not an easy thing to do. Hence the delay which you have incorrectly interpreted as an attempt to allow the matter to blow over.

However, it is more important to note that moderators simply do not moderate the forum beyond blocking spamming of threads. Even if we were going to, it would take a long time to do so because there is no precedent to work from. Next time I speak to Kestas, I will raise the issue again for you, but until I have done so, I implore you, since we do this in our spare time, to do us the favour of reserving judgement.

TheGhostmaker

And welcome, Duke!

@ Duke

If you were going on that historical context, wouldn't the Duke of Wellington be a more appropriate name?

I think Beef Wellington would be even more appropriate.

@ goldfinger: The Duke of Marlborough predated the Duke of Wellington by 100 years and Wellington recognised his greatness as a general. Whilst he obviously wasn't the first to gain great military victory on the continent, he was seen as the greatest general England had produced (at least until Wellington). Marlborough's campaigns in the War of Spanish Succession are comparable to Wellington's in the Peninsular War (which did as much to break Napoleon as Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia did). Both Marlborough and Wellington were superior generals in their time.

Very well and good Duke. I don't think Marlborough is given his fair share in the historical limelight. That whole war isn't often scrutinized by scholars as much as I would like it to be. I know well about what Wellington did in the Peninsular war and then at Waterloo, but I think I shall look more into Marlborough and his claim to fame

Duke - sorry for hijacking the thread. I suppose that was mostly my fault. But Chris is right, any good thread will be hijacked at least once. :)

Ghost - thank you again for your attention to the matter. I realize you are all volunteers and that is why I decided to wait a month and, aside from one post, refrain from posting here until I heard back. But the time frame you assured me of a response came and went. And then I waited another week after that.

Chris - I will PM you.

btw - figlesquidge has done a tremendous job of responding to me and diffusing a large part of my ire. Next to Ghost, he is this sites best asset, IMO.

@ Darwyn: I really don't have a problem with it :P