I regret everything that happened the past few days. When I logged on Sunday little did I realize that things would be so radically different on Monday. I have been very quiet publicly about everything that went on. Now that the smoke has cleared i will share my thoughts and clear things up as best i can, as I promised i would do when it was all sorted out. Unfortunately things took a lot longer to sort out when new issues came up.

I take quite a bit of responsibility for all the proceedings. I really do regret how things went down yesterday. I do not like banning anyone, let alone long time quality posters. I should have handled the situation better/differently from the outset, which may have nipped this in the bud. Unfortunately I am human and probably typed before thinking, I think we are all guilty of that from time to time.

IREXES

That said, I do stand by the 1 day ban of Irexes. As a former moderator he is fully aware of our private discussions on open criticism of the staff. In fact Irexes himself said, he "deserved" the ban on his blog. Regardless of how you feel about me, there is a right and a wrong way to handle these things.


YOU CAN DISAGREE WITH US

There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with a moderators decision: "why is so and so banned" "why does x get do this but y cannot" this is fine. Comments like, "you are a xxxx moderator" or "this is Fxxxing bxxxshxx" are not acceptable. Would you walk up to your supervisor at work, say that, and expect to still have a job? To be run properly and effectively, PFO needs some structure or it will talespin into RGP, a spam infested Flame contest. The beginning of structure is the moderators. If you have an issue bring it to the staffs attention privately. Kid or any moderator will gladly listen to your gripes and take action where necassary. The public face of PFO is for poker discussion, not for internal issues.

BEAVIS

The banning of Beavis was a no brainer. His Steve-O should not be a mod thread was disgusting and was a premeditated attempt to rile the forum into a frenzy. This cannot be tolerated, no matter what kind of esteem the member is held in. He knew the reaction that thread would get - side choosing, the lynch mob forming, detractors, supportors - and posted it as fast as he could. This is trolling and is not tolerated.

We mods are supervisors, appointed by election or by the head honcho himself. In this respect we have "earned" Kids or the communities trust and deserve at least a snippet of respect in our handling of moderation issues. We have enough to do without being questioned on every decision we make. A lot of what looks like quick decisions is actually talked about in private beforehand. There is a moderator forum that you guys can't even see, and we work together in there for the betterment of the community.

MARM

Finally, after things had calmed down overnight Marm logged on in the morning, and without talking to anyone, reversed the decisions that had been agreed upon. This is the saddest outcome of this whole debacle.

He also criticized me publicly and started posting private conversations him and I had in the moderator forum. Yes, all of those quotes were taken from private conversations. This is where I blew my top. Beavis also posted some of these so I know Marm was sharing them with him. And Irexes had posted them on his blog the day before.

I asked Marm several times to speak to me privately and each time was rebuffed and taunted. He then continued to post my private responses to him (keeping his taunts private mind you) in the public forum. I would like to point out that I did not delete any of those messages from the forum, the other staff did. I have been vilified for this in private and want to clear up that misconception.

I felt completely betrayed that someone would post private conversations for all to see. Even worse, he DID NOT POST THE ENTIRE CONVERSATIONS! You never once see any of my civil posts to please speak privately to me, you only see my responses after he calls me Stalin or Hitler. You also see none of his taunts, As I will not stoop to posting private conversations I will say this, these were not 1 sided affairs. Marm would have you believe I am a raving lunatic and he is calm and level headed, this is not the case.

Alex requested that I include his private reply to Marm, in the moderator lounge on the whole breech of trust issue

STEVE-O

While I admit I can get pretty worked up, it takes something specific, like betraying my trust, to do it. I feel many of you would be as livid in the same situation. My threats to them were also given in private, THEY CHOSE TO POST THEM PUBLICLY. They said they wanted all of you to see the true Steve-O, well I have always been open about my shortcomings, I am argumentative, hard headed, and opinionated. What i also am is, honest, helpful, and loyal.

I have a strange reputation for having a quick banning finger. The truth is that until yesterday I had temp banned only 1 member, ONE! If it is true that I ban everyone who disagrees with me, wouldn't my ban count be well above 1, considering a lot of people disagree with me. I think my reputation has been distorted by a vocal minority. I'll let the facts speak for themselves, 1 temporary ban, thats it. Typically, I am the one voting leninency in the mod forum, so I'm not sure where this rep comes from.

I am in no way blame free in any of this, and I readily admit that. With me you have to take the bad with the good. Fortunately the good greatly outweighs the bad and the bad is few and far between. As in poker, I try to always learn from these mistakes and I don't hold any type of grudges. That is the real Steve-O. and I have always been honest about that.

PFO voted me in as a moderator. PFO recently voted me the best overall poster.I also received votes as most helpful and such. I hope that this vocal minority has not spread enough propaganda to completely destroy the communities trust in me. I point only to my track record.

Hopefully this thread will shed some light on what really happened. And I'll let you guys judge for yourself on who has been being honest with you: Me, who tells you flat out I can be a jerk but it's all good. Or, the people who break your trust and post snippets of private conversations to make someone look as bad as they can for their own warped agenda.

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Thank you John McCain for picking a woman who represents the worst-case scenario: A cute wild buffoon who is proud to be dumb.