I understand Gary that you feel that a personal part of yourself was in your opinion "attacked" on your personal view of how you project yourself as to whom you believe to be. Taken out of context from your wording from your intentions- it did not reflect your true intentions. It happens. To the best of us.
Another point of view on this:
I do not know you personally, all I have to go on is how you present yourself here on this site. Over time, I can form some sort of charaturistics and personallity based on how you post and what you state by how you word things. At first glance, I might not fully know what you are saying at times. This is normal, until after some time has gone by to get to know you better.
Is it possible that the mod that had given you the infraction is not "shocked" that you had posted something, since him knowing you personally that right off that he might be slightly upset himself that he did have to enforce a rule upon you? What if he did not like the fact that he needed to give you the infraction due to the personal friendship with you?
There are fine lines as to what crosses those lines. Myself being a mod- I do need to sepporate "personal" from "stranger" to do a job I volunteer my time to doing things that keep this site flowing smoothly for everyone. Myself included. If I get out of line, post something offensive, break a rule- whatever- there is a chain of "command" and steps to correct my behavior. I encourage any member who has an issue with me to take it up to my "higher up's". How else can I continue to working towards being a better mod if no one tells me what I am doing wrong?
Also to, if you encounter a problem with a member, you choose a personal friend mod to handle this issue to resolve it. That mod should not be more "harsh" on that member just because you are a personal friend.
Over all, lines need to be drawn. Say you work for a company 25 years, and then you got fired for a mistake. Unless the company is heartless, the company has a great loss on their hands if you were a reputable person. But rules are rules. It is life in general. And in general, rules are supposed to be created that is in the best interest of the majority.
I do commend you and standing your grounds on how you view yourself on how you belive your demeaner to be as to how you present yourself on this site. But it could have been handled a little bit better. You reacted normal as well- frustration gets the best of us all.
Granted, there are members with no infractions, and some with many. But everyone is treated the same to the best of abilities regardless of personal friendships.
I could know a person for 50 years- it does not mean that in year 51 they don't steal all of my video games. It happens. (an example there is all.
I do belive that with your history (you have been here longer then me) of contnuing to be a good contributor/poster on here that you will have no problems remaining the same person.
There are speed bumps in life, we all hit them. Some speedbumps dent your car, which is inevitable. Sure, you can get it repaired, but you have to take it in to get repaired. Just like taking a simple infraction- it will repair itself over time if you take it in and accept those repairs.
The only thing we all are perfect at is being imperfect. Learning from mistakes regardless of the situation. Since the member has already posted that a mod made a mistake with giving them an infraction:
I made that mistake. Human error with having to many tabs open and selecting the wrong tab to continue to try and do my duty. I appologised, and will again do it publicly right now. Sorry.
I do not think of that member any less, but I am still working on getting the infraction system down so as to not make that mistake again in the future. I accepted that the member was upset- but I do hope that member accepts that I am human and error while trying to do a job is all.
That infraction was reversed- and it still bothers me that I goofed so bad towards that member. But at least in the notes on the infraction being reversed- current and future mods can see it was a mistake and why. But we need to keep track of things so we can be certain of how to continue to be fair across the board to all the members.
Thanks for reading, and really know that we all could use a deep breath every now and then in order to continue to be the best that we all are in trying to have a community that has something in common to share and enjoy just being human with unintentional errors at times on either side of the table.
