Open Apology to Paranormal Forum

Zombrex

This is a copy of a PM I sent to the Mods of Paranormal, posted here a open apology to users of the Paranormal Forum to anyone who has been upset, felt ridiculed, or turned off posting in paranormal by my posts - I would post to that forum but I'm currently banned

it's quite possible to say that the dangers are mainly to do with the mental state as opposed to paranormal factors, without having to sneak in a claim that there is nothing paranormal about ouija boards.

I accept it is quite possible to do that. The reason I gave my own opinion is that I believed explaining the non-paranormal dangers of Ouji boards made little sense without explain how a Ouji board can work using natural rather than supernatural phenomona. I also honestly didn't realise we were not supposed to express personal beliefs on how certain phenomona work, based on reading of posts by posters like Solas and Mysteria who regularly post (I stress as their opinion, and only their opinion) that they don't believe a certain phemonona work in a paranormal nature.

I appologise for doing this. At the time I believee what i was posting did not break the original forum charter, and I was not aware of the "zero tolerance" system that had reciently been put in place. I apologise for not making it clearer in my post that my position was only personal opinion, and was not mean to state as fact that Ouji boards are not paranormal.

Any future posts to the paranormal forum I make will not include my personal opinions or beliefs on the phenomona, only the point I wish to raise (which will not be overtly skeptical in nature)

Actually my question was rhetorical.

Apologies again. This was not clear to me

I felt (and still feel) the statement you made did not represent my position or content of my post and I wished to clarifiy that I was not stating as a fact that all ouji boards were not paranormal in nature.

That is, and always has been, my position, which I attempted to clarify in my response to you on the forum. I am aware of the spirit of the forum charter what means that no paranormal phenomona must be out rightly dismissed or ridiculed, and I agree with it fully.

The rhetorical nature of your question was not clear to me. If I had realised I would not have replied to your question which turned the discussion onto a clarification of my views, when it should have stayed on topic.

My post asking the rhetorical question was an attempt to warn you your post was on shakey ground without being stern.

I'm still not quite sure what response would have been acceptable but I admit that my attempted to clarify my position dragged the thread off topic and was a mistake in hind sight with a clarification of the rehtorical nature of your questions to me.

A better response would have been to send this clarification on my position to you as PM, and then re-written my original post to address any problems you had with it.

Apologies, I was not thinking straight at the time.

In future if myself, or any poster, makes a comment that breaks the charter or is deemed unacceptably skeptic in nature, I would recommend you simply ask them to rephrase it or remove it.

At least two lines are word for word from the straight dope and the US site you mentioned.

I'm was unware of this (i don't actually know what "Straight Dope" is), but if it is necessary to delete lines from the post for copyright reasons there is no objection from me. The origin of the Ouji board is not vital to the content of my post.

However, I had, just the day before this incident, posted a sticky stating Zero tolerance was in effect.

Apologies, I was unware of that fact or its effect on posting rules.

If I had been aware I assure you I would not have posted my personal beliefs about the subject, instead I would have stuck exactly to the point I wished to make (about the non-paranormal dangers of Ouji boards)

You may not be doing it on purpose, however teh fact is, you have reacted aggresively, on thread to EVERY moderating point I've ever made.

I apologise for my posts to you with relation to this incident and previous ones.

These were a result of frustration on my part based on what I percieved at the time to be unfair attacks and misrepresentation of my views and posts.

Since my very first post on this forum I have been publically called a troll and liar on the forum (and others) by the previous mod of this forum, so my back was up against a wall from the beginning.

But it was jumping the gun to assume your moderation was following a similar line as Solas, and I apologise for assuming the worst explination of your replies to my posts, when a more rational one would have explained your questions and comments to me.

The fact that I clearly didn't understand that your questions to me have only ever been rhetorical in nature lead to frustration on my part as to what exactly you were asking or expecting me to do. (the "bait" as I incorrectly assumed your posts were). It seemed to me at the time that any response, even attempts to clarify my position, were futile.

While I still think you missunderstood my position a number of times, I fully accept that you were simply doing your job as mod and attempting to protect the forum from what you believe could be skeptical ridicule.

I assure you I have no desire to ridicule anyone who posts or reads this forum. As I said before I am skeptical by nature, and my posts were always following my belief that skeptical viewpoints were acceptable so long as they were expressed as opinion, not fact. I was unaware of the chance brought in by you with regard to zero tolerance.

I assure you I will in future refrain from expressing this skepticism, even as personal preference, on the forum in the future.

I believed you would be ikely to do the same thing again.

I assure you that I will not post any skeptical opinion, personal or otherwise, to the Paranormal forum again.

Apologies to yourself and to the other mods of the forum. I meant no disrespect to your forum, which I enjoy greatly.

DeVore

Sorry but why are you posting this here?

I'm not having another 10 page Paranormal soul search again. That forum is genuinely getting to the point where its on dodgy ground.

I've no idea what you want to come from this post or why you felt you had to post it here.

This is not feedback as I understand it and I've locked this thread.

DeV.