I already let people know on SB why I left the forum, but I suppose it shouldn't be too much of a problem putting it here as well.
For several years I had been a moderator, I took over at request from some of the SMods there and did everything I could to keep reports down and people aware that I was trying to be a fair and just moderator.My way of thinking as a mod was that if I believed that someone was breaching the rules, it didn't matter who it was, they were hit with an infraction. I hit staff members, newcomers, people who had been there for longer than I had. Every one of them was if I believed they be punished, that was it.
Sometimes I may have been wrong, I'm only a human and quite often I was doing the job of a half dozen or more moderators, occasionally having to do over one hundred reports in two days because no-one else could be bothered. If people wanted to complain about it or ask for an appeal, I would go over it with them and with the SMODs.
There were times that I was overruled one way or another, if I thought someone else was wrong I'd be ignored even if it turned out afterwards that I was in fact right. It was having to deal with people from all sides of the political spectrum that had me decide enough was enough. I had come into conflict with other staff because most were lazy and did nothing, I had been forced more than once to fix the problems by burning through hundreds of reports a week, usually most could have been done in a minute or two either because they were spurious or very basic zero or ten point infractions.
I also refused to tow the line for either side I any way as I am apolitical, I distrust politics and those that use it to their own ends (like most people in power) and so in the end I got in shit for infracting people who apparently ‘shouldn’t have been’ because of who and what they were, even though they had breached the rules. So in the end I left the forum due to its politics, I do not follow one side or another, especially American politics due to not being an American myself. In fact I was not aware of what was happening there regarding the left/right conflict due to a prolonged time away from the site. I believe that politics should have had nothing to do with a science fiction forum.
All kinds of ideas and thoughts I had to make things easier for the staff in general was ignored or pissed on for one reason or another, only for those same ideas to end up in use several months later as if it was a new and revolutionary idea (This was both in front and behind the scenes). I was also ignored for any form of SMod promotion due to my actions, again because I didn't kowtow to anyone and dared to infract anyone who needed to be, politics be damned.
In fact I have been asked to return to SB to take up a position again and i said no because of said politics, its choking the place and honestly I can't say I'd be shocked if it went the way of the dodo one day. Will I ever go back? No not with the way the place is, to be honest I don't miss it and I don't care for most of the people there anymore.