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This is kind of true. In the oldish days, we had an unofficial policy that the rules were not enforced as strictly when people were sounding off against mods. We understood and expected that people would often get pissed off about being modded, and so we'd let people bitch and whine about moderation and even take shots at us and not mod them the way we would if they spoke to another poster the same way.
It got very tiresome, though. People abused the privilege and thought it was open season to dump on us every time they didn't like how a mod ruled. Eventually we said "That's it, you don't get to abuse us just because we're mods."
(I say "us" but I can't actually remember if I was a mod while this policy was still in effect. I think it changed either just before or just after I became a mod.)
I'll tell you frankly: I'd be okay with loosening up and letting people like Steve take his shots at us, but only if y'all would be fine with us not being expected to be impartial and modly in our responses. I am not sure the people who want to give us "blunt feedback" would enjoy our blunt feedback about their conduct and posting history. Every time someone complains about how converged or biased we are, I remember how that complainer wrote a tirade at us which they then deleted, just because they know we can see deleted comments, or dropped hostile DMs on us while they were banned, or wrote an antagonistic report, or keeps making the same claim that we've addressed and refuted multiple times until you are a liar would be an accurate characterization.
I'm not saying I want mod feedback to become petty flamewars, but we are held to a higher standard. You want people to be able to bite our ankles with impunity, but when I (in an admitted deficiency of patience) said bluntly "Stop the ankle-biting. Now" - Oh, that was too hostile?
I get that some people think that letting people blast us is part of a mod's job, and to a large degree it is, but I don't think it's our job to let someone say the same dishonest thing over and over again, as belligerently as possible, and never tell them to knock it off.
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