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Ok, last night I came across that “fingerprint” in my own edited post, and promptly freaked out.   I thought,  “Man, they roped me in good with this one.”   And really, I couldn’t blame my peers; as a moderator, I’m slightly more irritating than I was as a regular user of the forums. 

So I sat and stared at the end of my shenanigans with a heavy, black-clad heart.  Behave I must. 

Then this morning, it was brought to my attention - gently - that this little tracking device on edits doesn’t exactly work as I thought it did.

But I never edited my own post before, and so I had no idea what to make of the tag.  My guilt complex made rapid assumptions and I’d Thought The Worst.

In a nutshell, I’d been served my just desserts and nobody had done a thing to me.  I had spooked at my own shadow. 

To test this, I snuck around the ol’ place today, axed out a couple of old posts on a dead thread, removed the duplicate post I saw last night, and then….I found a fairly recent post by my enemy and made a tiny, tiny, innocent little change.  It took, and there was no lingering proof I’d ever been there. 

I felt a deep relief.  Yet because of this ironic moral lesson, I’ve resolved to change my sinister ways.  I’ll conduct myself with the highest ethical standards. Posts will be left alone, no matter who writes them.  I will allow all users of that fair domain to enjoy themselves without the Nasty Moderator having a laugh at their expense. 

Quietly and with due humility, I’ll attend to my assigned tasks.  When I post, it will be for constructive, thoughtful discussion rather than the stray placement of smartass remarks.  Meekly, I’ll look the other way when an advesary posts something to rile me.  No more will I take the least opportunity to humiliate a foe.  I will strive to make this small part of the world a better place.