myLot Admin Has Stepped out of Bounds

Should I write so much about another site on this site? Of course, it's myLot I am talking about. And besides, I am quite an opinionated guy, and I enjoy having places to share them.

And well, some of you here may also be on that site. Or I can let other "friends" of mine over there with like minds know what I have to say here and get their opinion on my thoughts as well.

I think it is important to air concerns when they come up, and myLot also has strict rules against airing concerns about the site over there. They prefer silence over thoughts when it comes to that issue. They prefer members submitting to their whims rather than wanting to know what anyone's thoughts are that could help or improve the site or open a dialogue that might lead to the site actually being better than it is.

Something I strongly disagree with, by the way, and it is something I have said directly to admin many times.

People should be free to speak their minds, even if it makes myLot look bad.

People can always agree or disagree with whatever comments are made and admin would be free to intervene and offer his two cents as well.

Which leads me to who admin is. It's apparent and obvious who the person is, and it's not something I know because I researched it or "found it out" through some deep investigation or anything.

It was suggested to me by a person. And then several others. And yet others more. And the more it was suggested, and diving deeper into the manner in which admin communicates, the answer became quite obvious.

Not rocket science, folks. It really isn't.

I don't need to call him out by name because it serves no purpose. He knows who he is. But so do we. The people who make myLot go.

I should point out that I like the guy mostly. We have our disagreements. Long ago we made a pact to not engage each other in politics. Long before he was admin. Fine with me.

He's an uber-liberal, pot smoking democrat. No problem with that either. People have their positions and their opinions, and I have mine. We don't have to agree in order to be friends or even to get along.

In personal circles we can follow each other's lead. No worries. It's the admin side of things where a problem is occurring.

He's not suited to the job.

I don't know exactly how long he has been in the job. But I can say without any hesitation he's badly mucking up the place, people are noticing, and the situation is quickly getting worse.

When more of my myLot time is spent outside of myLot communicating with others about myLot, and about admin in particular—that seems counterproductive for a site like myLot which wants (I think) for members to interact inside the site where it gets its revenue from.

Nonetheless.

So, what's my big issue today? What the role of admin is supposed to be.

To answer concerns from other members. To delete bad posts or any that break the rules, or to reach out to members in question and have them change their post or be warned that they have violated a rule. To be notified of or make members aware of issues that need to be addressed or are being addressed with regard to the performance and operation of the site.

There are probably other appropriate duties. But you get my point. The role of admin to "make sure the site is operating within the rules of the site."

The role of admin is not to "fact-check" nor to inject opinions on posts. Period. End of story.

But that is exactly what he did today. And there may be more to come.

That is quite outside the purview of admin's role. And beyond that, what if I disagree with admin? What if admin has injected an opinion that I strongly disagree with? What can admin do about that?

Ban me from the site.

If you ask me, that's censorship to the Nth degree. That's an obvious potential abuse of power. And of course, no one will be able to air their concerns over such a thing because myLot implicitly bars anyone from airing concerns about myLot.

The admin has no business interjecting on any post and sharing an opinion. It's not admin's role. Beyond that, the admin also has his own account. He can easily go in as who he really is and offer his opinion if he wants to.

But he can't do that as admin.

Okay, fine. He is admin and no one policies him that I know of. You can't report admin because the report just goes right to him. And you have no direct line of communication with the owners of the site that I am aware of.

Unless that's myLot Bugs.

The bottom line is that if admin is permitted to interject with opinions, his word, right or not, might simply be the only word that's heard because certainly some members would be afraid to dare go up against admin and disagree.

Some may even choose to agree simply to win over favor from admin. Do you see the problem here?

Not only that, but some people might go as far as to refrain from posting something having pre-determined that admin may not agree with it and they don't want to have a head-to-head battle with him—again, for fear they might be banned from the site even if banning is not warranted on any basis other than the admin decides he's going to have the final say by clicking the "delete account" button.

I think the owners made the wrong decision when they chose the current admin. It's going to cost them members at some point. Either from members leaving of their own accord, or him making that decision for them in a red-eyed pot infused state of misguided judgement.

Granted, this is only the first instance I have seen. But it is quite telling of what may be to come. And it's not good.

One thing I do know is that others and I will likely work together to have the current admin removed from his duties. Maybe we can accomplish that? Who knows?

But it needs to be done. It's just not a job for him.

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