Warning Received.

Hagar

Myself and eight other posters received sanctions of varying severity for our participation in this thread Man beaten to death by Loyalist mob.
My own warning came for my response to a post by futurehope

futurehope wrote:

No, The Irish are not the enemy of Unionism - only those who seek to tear Unionists from their own country - by hook or by crook.

Hagar wrote:

On the contrary I would very much like to see the Unionists living happily in their own country, Scotland wasn't it?

Text of warning PM

Dear Hagar,

You have received a warning at boards.ie.

Reason:

---

Breach of Peace

This yellow card is for direct trolling of a poster. The post in question adds nothing to the debate and is designed to inflame and incite.

You are receiving a yellow card and 1 week ban for your contribution here, you will be named at the end of that thread as list of people partly responsible for the vicious circle that we see in Northern Ireland threads.

Any further such posts in a NI thread will result in a 1 month ban and red card on the spot.

I was accused of trolling for pointing out that the ancestral home of Ulster Unionists is Scotland.
I contacted GuanYin by PM and explained my post/position as follows:

Hagar wrote:

I refute in the strongest possible terms that I was trolling in the politics forum.
The historical fact that the province of Ulster was planted with Scottish people is undeniable. I merely pointed out that Scotland was the ancestral home of the modern day Unionist community.

Hagar wrote:

…May I refer you to the Wiki page on the Plantation of Ulster which fully supports my post where I claim that the Unionists are of Scottish descent. What I said was factually correct and was pertinent to the topic. The man who was murdered was killed by Glasgow Rangers supporters, a Scottish football team whose fans are infamous for their violent sectarian behavior. I would much rather we didn't have their kind of mindless thuggery in Ireland.

It was not an attempt to bait I assure you. I have my political views and I will debate them with people but baiting and trolling are poor substitutes for facts and reason.

There was undoubtedly trolling in that thread, at times it was blatant and personal but I took no part in it.

GuanYin didn’t accept the fact that what I posted was on topic and not trolling despite my assurances to her.

Taking the small number (2) of reported posts, which generated no mod action, the ongoing active participation of a politics mod who contributed 30 posts to the thread and the absolute lack of on thread warnings from mods it would appear that the thread was not regarded as troublesome. How could so many posters get sanctioned? This is bizarre in the extreme. I would love to hear an explanation for this extraordinary occurrence.

GuanYin wrote:

you will be named at the end of that thread as list of people partly responsible for the vicious circle that we see in Northern Ireland threads.

Posters being named at the end of a thread?
Exactly where has this new public pillorying of posters come from? Isn’t the display of a red or yellow card against the offending post the accepted norm?
Has this got official sanction from the Admins or is it over zealous modding?

Now since I have been publicly named as one of the people responsible for the “vicious circle” I’m calling you on it. Show the links to posts by me that have contributed to this "vicious circle".

If there are any I should have already been sanctioned for them, right?

I challenge you to put up the links to my errant posts or withdraw that statement and amend the post where I am falsely named.

The warning I received and the accompanying ban are groundless and should be rescinded.

Thanks for your time,

Hagar


Notes:
Extract from PMs published by kind permission from GuanYin.
I took the liberty of correcting any spelling errors I spotted in PMs for legibility.

GuanYin

Hagar wrote: »

Extract from PMs published by kind permission from GuanYin.
I took the liberty of correcting any spelling errors I spotted in PMs for legibility.

No extracts.

full PMs only or no permission.

Hagar

If I have misrepresented anything said by anybody please post the full PM otherwise you are splitting hairs.

I didn't come here to do that.

/edit/ They were my Pms to you. I don't need your permission for them/

GuanYin

Hagar wrote: »

If I have misrepresented anything said by anybody please post the full PM otherwise you are splitting hairs.

I didn't come here to do that.

/edit/ They were my Pms to you. I don't need your permission for them/

My bad, I thought you were saying you would post selectively from the other PMs.

I have no problem with any moderation PM being posted as long as it is fully reproduced.

Hagar

No problem, thank you.

GuanYin

Ok, firstly, you mentioned nothing about an ancestral home. You said you would like to see current Unionists go back to Scotland in response to a comment about current Unionist's "own country".

That is Ireland. As I pointed out, by the 2nd and 3rd articles of your constitution, as people born on the Island or Ireland are protected by the Republic's constitution.

In any case, I won't get into this debate here, I've already pointed out to you the flaw in your logic and your attempt at semantics are rejected by the politics mods.

sceptre

Hagar wrote: »

Has this got official sanction from the Admins or is it over zealous modding?

It's got sanction from me for what that's worth. Every single thread on Northern Ireland ends up in the way that thread did. Every single one.

As I said elsewhere, there's a line drawn in the sand after this one: every poster can make up their own mind whether they want to be part of the group that seeks to move threads onward with every additional post with reasonable discussion or part of the group that doesn't.

Hagar

GuanYin wrote: »

Ok, firstly, you mentioned nothing about an ancestral home. You said you would like to see current Unionists go back to Scotland in response to a comment about current Unionist's "own country".

That is Ireland. As I pointed out, by the 2nd and 3rd articles of your constitution, as people born on the Island or Ireland are protected by the Republic's constitution.

In any case, I won't get into this debate here, I've already pointed out to you the flaw in your logic and your attempt at semantics are rejected by the politics mods.

Show me the word "current" please, I can't access the forum. I can't fathom your attitude. I'm baffled by it.

I am not responsible for every single thread on Northern Ireland but it looks like I've been caught up in a general sweep.

Nobody has addressed a single point I made about the thread. Not a single point. Come on folks play fair.

GuanYin

"who seek to tear Unionists from their own country"

Present tense, with respect to the North of Ireland.

Your reply:
"I would very much like to see the Unionists living happily in their own country, Scotland wasn't it?"

It's trolling, its plain, it's simple, it's insulting that you're trying to deny it now.

If someone overrules this, OK, but as it was cleared with all Politics Mods (psssst... sceptre, you're an Admin)..... it stands unless it's over-ridden by the Cmod or Admins

Hagar

Whatever, the outcome has been decided elsewhere.

Thanks.

nesf

Seriously there was no other way to interpret your statement other than Unionists in the North should go back to Scotland. If you cannot see how this is inflamatory then you should avoid posting in such threads.

Hagar

I have taken in what has been said, so I can honestly say I have learned a lot from this thread, sadly most of it from what hasn't been said.

Hagar wrote:

Taking the small number (2) of reported posts, which generated no mod action, the ongoing active participation of a politics mod who contributed 30 posts to the thread and the absolute lack of on thread warnings from mods it would appear that the thread was not regarded as troublesome. How could so many posters get sanctioned? This is bizarre in the extreme. I would love to hear an explanation for this extraordinary occurrence.

Hagar wrote:

Now since I have been publicly named as one of the people responsible for the “vicious circle” I’m calling you on it. Show the links to posts by me that have contributed to this "vicious circle".

If there are any I should have already been sanctioned for them, right?

I challenge you to put up the links to my errant posts or withdraw that statement and amend the post where I am falsely named.

Not one word in reply, a shameful response to fair questions,

Since nobody is prepared to answer may I request an Admin to close this thread? Thank you.

sceptre

I assumed I was clear in addressing it above. Apparently not. I'm going to cheat and quote myself from the other thread started in the Help Desk.

sceptre wrote: »

Your posting added nothing to the thread except an added fanning of a flame war.
<snip for irrelevancy>
Politics isn't your playground, nor is it the playground of anyone else on the thread who was issued with a penalty.

None of those Northern Ireland threads are locked because the moderators want to see them locked. They're typically eventually locked because of the continued and unwarranted flaming, goading and idiotic actions of people on both sides of the argument who frequently post on them. While I suspect that I may be repeating this paragraph a number of times in the coming days, I don't have a problem with copying and pasting it repeatedly.

Hagar

I'm patently getting more more stupid as each day passes.
I can see nothing in your post which directly addresses either of my points. in particular the second quote.
But I will endeavour to cope with my encroaching handicap as time goes on.

Any chance of lock?

sceptre

Well, I've directly addressed your point twice so I can only assume you're deliberately ignoring it, which isn't like you at all. But I can lock it if you like.

nesf

A post of yours was inflammatory, you got a warning (i.e. yellow card) for that. I'm still failing to see what your problem is. It was flamebait, whether or not you realise that and it had that effect as shown by the response it got from futurehope.

oscarBravo

I'm genuinely puzzled. Hagar, are you seriously contending that your suggestion that Unionists should move to Scotland - that Northern Ireland is not their home - was intended as a calm, rational contribution, with no intention to inflame an already heated debate?

nesf

oscarBravo wrote: »

I'm genuinely puzzled. Hagar, are you seriously contending that your suggestion that Unionists should move to Scotland - that Northern Ireland is not their home - was intended as a calm, rational contribution, with no intention to inflame an already heated debate?

Actually, given the context, it's the literary equivalent of poking a badger with a sharp stick.

Hagar

I give up, I really do.