Cristina Ellisson, Moderator of the Public

Moderator of Letters Note-
The following are emails sent to tomarken by the Moderator of the Public Cristina Ellisson. Ms. Ellisson is not directly associated with the regular moderation board of tomarken.com, but instead acts as an advocate on behalf of those who wish to provide constructive criticism of this expirimental prototype community of the internet(R). You are of course always welcome to take up your grievances directly with the regular moderation board and in through the forum, and your specific voices will be heard. However, you now have the additional option of contacting Ms. Ellisson directly as well–her email address is posted at the begining of her messages

Dear Tomarken.com,

In the last year, you have posted 32 “objects” as you call them on your website. Only 4 are from non-intervalists, and 2 of those were “pilfered” or “prompted” leading me to believe they were also written by the omnipotent moderator of letters Daniel P. Beckmann. I have made one legitimate comment using the object “NerdWords” to refute your websites claim to being “the anti-plagairist” and it was not posted. This claim itself is interesting considering in was first put in the same post (11-12-03) which declared Tomarken.com to be “the website who still refuses to classify itself as anything at all”. Your links rarely work, and links to intervalists, responses, and moderation statements have been removed from your site. So while it is already apparent that the moderators Daniel P. Beckmann and Richard Tebrick are hypocrites on at least a few different levels, let me pose some serious questions.

When you post your user stats, do you ever consider what percent of those users are also contributors? It seems that if the few who are able to get their articles posted are likely to be the few that look at the website all day to amuse themselves. It also seems that some of these folks might just click back and forth between two of their own articles to boost their stats. Give us ALL the stats. Also, the user stats have not been posted since Mr. Tebrick changed his title and justified posting these stats. By the way, changing titles is another hint that the moderators are only running this site to amuse themselves.

Why is Tomarken.com updated so irregularly and so infrequently? This causes the non-intervalists like me to lose interest in reading. It also makes it seem as though anything an out-ervalist will be ignored, and I seem to have confirmation on this one.

What processes are in place for notifying out-ervalists whether their contributions were received, reviewed, accepted, or rejected?

Does anyone respond? If not, your website is a “magazine” not a “forum”. If so, why are responses not posted and so difficult to access when they are?

I guess ultimately there is only one question I really want answered: Is Tomarken.com a forum for voicing opinions that are otherwise in need of a home or merely a couple of kids who really enjoy cyber-masturbation? Your website makes some lofty claims which it does not live up to. If the moderators and website are what they claim, they ought to start acting like it. Perhaps the cozy web of intervalists are satisfied with what they have, but they ought to worry about the small size of their community and the absence of out-ervalists. Whether this lack of out-ervalists is a concerted effort of the part of the moderators or a lack of interest from out-ervalists themselves, Tomarken.com needs to make some changes in order to live up to its lofty ideals.

Sincerely,

Christina Ellisson

Dear Tomarken,

I enjoy reading this site. As you advertise, the site mostly an “anti-plagiarist”. It is a good place to read opinions that obscure, understated, or crazy. But for all your stupid moderation statements, you don’t seem to follow your own rules. How can a site claiming to by “anti-plagiarist” have an article at the very top of the page that is nothing but copying from the dictionary. Its so long (probably why its in pdf) that it doesn’t help anyonew ho “wants to read the dictionary but don’t have the time”. And its set up so I can’t respond to it. It seems to me Tomarken is left with 3 choices.

1. Take down “NerdWords”.
2. Stop claiming to be the “anti-plagarist”.
3. Continue living a hypocritical life.

I simply don’t understand where a list of words fits on Tomarken. If you decide that it does though let me know so I can start sending in directions to the mall, Jessica Simpson song lyrics and articles from my brother’smiddle school newspaper.

Sincerely,
Christina Ellisson

Related Objects-Nerdwords