Banned from television

Richard Dower

"Banned from Television
Hi Richard Dower,

You have been banned from Television for the following duration:

7 Day(s)

for the following reason:

Insulting language, backseat modding

Providing your ban is not permanent, it will be lifted automatically after 7 Day(s). You will get an automatic message informing you that the ban is lifted. If you do not receive this message after the allotted time, please PM a moderator to clarify.

Bans occur after a serious rules breach so please keep in mind that Moderators don't just decide to ban people out of the blue. If you wish to appeal this ban, please follow our Dispute Resolution Process here. Your first action should always be to PM the Moderator(s) of the forum to discuss the ban. Remember that our Mods are volunteers and are not always online, so they may not be able to answer you straight away.

All the best,
boards.ie"

Forum moderator Haddockman banned me, here is my reply to his PM:

"You've just been waiting for an excuse, that post was 100% tongue in cheek and totally sarcastic, and you know it.

i even "**" the asswipe... with added

As for backset modding, did you ban the others who pointed out the retart comment?

Of course you didn't, again you've just been looking for any lame reason."


I posted on the Fade Street ep. 2 thread, i made a clearly sarcastic and not intnded as serious posting, one poster called another a "retard", i and others pointed out this was not allowed on Boards, to insult forum members.

Haddockman claims this comment is "backseat modding", my point was if this is the case, then did he issue bannings to the other FM who also commented on the "retard" posting or single me out?

As for insulting language, i said "A**wipe!" with an added

It was clearly and blantantly tongue in cheek and not an intended serious insult, i also said "rules don't apply to me"....again this was nothing but a joke.

Haddockman has been waiting for any excuse, any reason to ban me....but choose this, imo he has brought his own personal issues with me into play and has not acted as an impartial moderator should.

Will

Could you link me to the particular thread please?

Will have a look through it and then take it from there.

Richard Dower

Will wrote: »

Could you link me to the particular thread please?

Will have a look through it and then take it from there.

Here is the thread in question: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056093972

But Haddockman deleted the specific posting i made about "the rules don't apply to me" and "A**wipe"....i'm hoping Google chached it.

He also deleted the post whereby a FM called another a "retard", but you can see this posting whereby someone refrences it:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=69095845&postcount=51

Richard Dower

Will, i also want to point out something, i suspect Haddockman will state...oh he's been an ass and troublemaker for some time now etc, so my decision was a culmination of things. If he treis to pull this crap then his original reason for banning should be thrown out.

He's stated QUITE clearly i was banned for two reasons and two reasons alone, two specific posting on a specifuc thread, NOT what he percieves to be past ill deeds.

IMO....when i posted that sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek comment that "the rules don't apply to me" Haddockman saw that and said, right...i'll show him, he thinks he can get away with anything, and then used the backseat modding/insulting language for his reasoning to ban me. Now that i've brought this to resolution he'll now try and say, oh he's been a troublemaker for sometime, that's bringing a biased and personal agenda into play.

He's not supposed to use what he considers past deeds as reasoning for banning, i want the banning to be about that specific thread, those specific two postings....both of which were deleted by Haddockman. The two postings in question, one was about the "retard" comment made by another poster....i and others pointed out this was not on and against forum charter, he considers this "backseat" modding.

OK, but then if i was banned for backseat modding, why did he not ban the other posters who commented on the retard comment?
Second post, i posted a togue in cheek and 100% sarcastic comment in reply to another, in reply to someone else i said "the rules don't apply to me" with "grin" emoticon, undeneath i posted "A**wipe!" with another emoticon, i "**" deliberately to ensure it would not be taken as a genuine or serious insult.

IMO what really set off Haddocman man was not "backseat modding or "A**wipe"...what set him off was "the rules don't apply to me", he saw that and said, i'm a mod and i'll teach this guy a lesson.

He let his personal feelings come into play, i know FULL well Haddockman will attempt to expand the banning past these two specific posts, stating i've been causing trouble for and on other threads etc.

He shouldn't be allowed to do this, nor use anything he thinks i've done in the past as backup or further justification, again i'm not bother about being banned, what bothers me is the petty reasoning and the TRUE nature of the ban is he's been annoyed with me for sometime, saw "the rules don't apply to me" sarcastic comment, let loose and banned me.

I don't expect to me unbanned, i know how it works on boards, but at least he could be man enough to admit the real reason in PM, i'd respect him for that.

Will

Insults against forum members such as this are not allowed.

Unfortunately while your intentions may have been sincere, it is really backseat modding. In future you are best to just report the post and leave it in the hands of the moderators and ignore the squabbling.

Naturally those rules don't apply to me

A**wipe!

Again this wouldn't have been the best action to take, again all be it playful. Both yourself and the other person were banned for equal amounts of time. It clearly annoyed the person as you coulda seen by their reply.

Personally speaking I would have just warned on thread and left it at that, but again that's down to the individual moderator. I will consult with An Cat Dubh and see, will try get back to you by the end of the day.

AnCatDubh

I've reviewed the thread impartially and the sequence of posts around the incident. I had not previously read the thread and I don't know of you or the moderator in question that issued the ban.

Of note is the forum's charter, relevant extracts I include below;

The Rules:
There should be no spam, trolling or any general muppetry. (Any of this will result in posts being edited/deleted)
Try to be friendly & courteous to each other. If things get out of hand, offenders will be banned. (Any Abuse or Racism will not be tolerated)
Any "off topic" posts will be edited, closed or deleted without warning.

Any repeat offenders of these rules, will result in them being banned.
All the usual Boards.ie rules also apply.

I think that you should have used the report post feature, if you wanted to draw attention to something on forum. If you don't whether your intentions are good or bad, the chances of a negative interaction being produced between you and another poster are greatly increased ie. the other poster can and will validly claim 'who the heck are you to be telling them what to do'. In the specific instance, the second poster did the lolcat thing of dropping an OMG in there at which point you chose to "tongue in cheek" in your own words drop in a post about the rules not applying to you and the sarcastic response of a**wipe which garnished an abrupt response from the other poster who didn't like your sarcasm. Of note - you and your approach to what the other user posted are the source of this particular problem.

With the length of time that you've been about the place and your posting history, I find it unusual that you think this may have been just ok - or a harmless bit of fun. It obviously wasn't taken up as such by the other poster in question and the moderator stepped in.

Whether there was history or not here is irrelevant in my opinion. When you apply the criteria of outlined of the charter to your posts, there appears to be trolling / general muppetry. The post could hardly be described as being friendly and courteous towards the other poster, and the whole episode could hardly be considered "on topic". Thus you appear to have created a set of circumstances which when in the attention of the moderator they had definite grounds for action.

As to the action itself, it is at the discretion of the moderator what is appropriate given the set of circumstance including the general cut and thrust of the thread. While you may have felt your on thread contributions were not excessive - a ban of a week is a relatively minor sanction. Being banned for a week gives the thread (and forum) a space to continue without your intervention and sets a marker to you in terms of what is appropriate behaviour on the the forum in the context of your ban notice. Should the ban have been of a months duration, then I would have considered it harsh given no previous ban is visible to me, but a week is really a small duration in my opinion and you will have your access restored automatically in what is a really short time.

It is obviously not recommended to continue on forum in the manner which has received the sanction in question as you would reasonably expect to find the sanctions to ramp up in terms of the duration of any bans deemed appropriate to impose.

As you indicated that you didn't expect the ban to be overturned, I can only assume your intentions are to highlight the moderators action on this occasion. I don't find, in these specific circumstances, action which is overly harsh or inconsistent with a reasonable and solid approach to moderating a busy forum, attempting to retain the peace on the threads of a forum, and generally ensuring that everyone enjoys boards.

I therefore find the approach taken in this instance to be reasonable.

Richard Dower

Thanks to Will and AnCat for reviewing the situation, you may now close this dispute and consider the matter resolved.