Thread in Animal & Pet Issues

angelfire9

First off can I state that I do not have any bans/infractions or warnings in this forum nor have I ever had and I have always found the posters & mods to be helpful in the extreme with any queries i have had in relation to animals

Secondly, I have not PM'd the moderator about whom I wish to complain because I do not think it would achieve anything

The thread I have an issue with is this:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056363848

Now while I have a problem with AJ's attitude to cats to be fair everyone is entitled to their opinion and my complaint is not really about that

I found this post to be extremely offensive & I reported it:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=73968955&postcount=77
(it has been edited now but I think ye can probably still see the original???)
Since when is a poster allowed to post that kind of thing (advocating animal cruelty) without any kind of infraction warning or ban????

I reported the above post to the mods and I would be confident that I wasn't the only one who reported it!!

I responded in thread (in defence of cats)
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=73970039&postcount=81
And had my post snipped as apparently spraying a cat with water is inhumane I would like to think its a hell of alot more humane than running them over or strangling them and would IMHO be a much better solution than killing strays
(honestly I do and I have a cat)


Anyway, to get to the point
In my humble opinion adrenalinjunkie should not have moderated this thread at all it should have been left to one of the other Rec mods as she has displayed an obvious bias with regard to the subject at hand
Furthermore, again in my humble opinion any poster who posts in a thread in the animal & pet forum advocating cruelty to animals should receive a warning at the very minimum

To quote from the forum Charter:

Charter

We all love pets, and we love to talk about them and that's why this forum is here. But remember, there are some simple rules:

This board is intended for the discussion of;
- the ownership of all pets (ie feeding,care etc.),*
- help with locating pets of all kinds*
- general discussion about pets and animals, their general welfare and animal-related topics.


Forum-Specific Rules
- No discussing illegal or violent activities - be these carried out by individuals or extremists such as ALF.*
- Advocating animal cruelty will be harshly dealt with(however the discussion of reducing vermin is allowed)*

I feel that AJ's actions in moderating this thread did not fall within the guidelines as set out in the charter

I am not sure what can be done about it at this point and I have no idea to be honest what kind of response I actually want from the C-Mods in relation to this complaint but I really feel disappointed & disgusted by the contents of this thread and the moderation therein and I would hope that as someone who contributes to boards on a regular basis that perhaps someone can look into this issue

Regards
Angelfire9

Spear

angelfire9 wrote: »

First off can I state that I do not have any bans/infractions or warnings in this forum

Then it doesn't fall under the current definition of the DRP, so it's moved to Helpdesk and I've corrected the prefix.

angelfire9

Spear wrote: »

Then it doesn't fall under the current definition of the DRP, so it's moved to Helpdesk and I've corrected the prefix.

Thanks
Sorry I've never actually done this before

g'em

Hi angelfire9.

Mods aren't made Mods solely due to their beliefs, they're made Mods for their ability to understand a forum, its posters, the forum ethos, and how they can handle problems that may arise. aj isn't obliged to hold the same views as the majority of posters, but she is obliged to stay within the rules of her own forum which from what I can see she has done here.

It's not advised that Mods actively Moderate threads they participate in because it's not fair on anyone involved when the topic gets heated (Mods can feel under fire and posters can feel that priviliges are being used to one sides' advantage) but given that aj is only a Mod for a short time I think it's only reasonable to chalk this one up to experience.

aj seems to be proving herself as quite capable for the role and I don't think it's fair to call for de-Modding over one incident (in which I'd really find it quite hard to apportion any blame in the first instance).

It's a very emotive topic, and one I can understand people getting heated over. If this is an issue that's representative of a bigger problem then by all means we'll look into it further but I don't think that's the case from what I know of the forum?

angelfire9

Hi g'em

I wasn't asking for AJ to be demoted, not at all she is quite helpful on the forum generally speaking
I do feel though that the post I reported is against the charter and perhaps AJ's opinion on cats influenced her decision not to even warn the poster much less infract him
It is THIS that I have a problem with

Advocating animal cruelty should receive a warning at the minimum should it not??

g'em

That's entirely up to the local Mods to be honest and it's not my call, in this case I think that aj felt that the appropriate action was to remove the offending text as you quoted.

I know you say that you don't feel PMing the Mod would achieve anything but hoenstly, that's the best way to question these things initially - if you don't get a response or you get a response you don't agree to then you can bring it to the CMods, but given that aj hasn't had her say in it there's not much more I can comment on at this time