Infaction for posting a newspaper article

Discodog

I started a thread by posting an article from today's Sunday Times newspaper concerning the sponsorship of Greyhound Racing. The moderator Adrenalinjunkie has removed the thread from the Animal & Pet forum & given me an infraction.

The grounds for the infraction & removal were:

Reason: Breach of Forum Charter

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You are being issued with a red card because you reproduced a newspaper article with potentially defamatory content with the purpose of encouraging negative discussion on certain individuals and businesses. Boards.ie is not a noticeboard for people to promote their own personal agenda. If you have a problem with how any organisation runs their affairs, take it up with them directly.

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I pointed out that once an item is in the National press that there is no problem in posting it & I have received the following reply.

An article in a major newspaper is evidence of nothing, newspapers can and have been taken to court for defamation. You did not provide a link to anything in your post, neither the article nor anything to back up the contents of it. The article also refers to coursing which has been considered by other forum mods in the past to be covered under 'discussion of violent activities'.

I believe the post well and truly comes under the soap-boxing rule. There is also no rule that posting newspaper articles is automatically permissible.

I have never heard of a poster having to "back up" a newspaper article & such articles are posted on Boards every day.

Coursing is a national sport backed by the government & is not considered a violent activity. It is discussed here on occasions. But in any even the article was about Greyhound racing not Coursing.

The soapboxing reference is of particular concern because it can be used to remove any post & issue infractions at the whim of a Mod. To be guilty of soapboxing there must be evidence of a poster repeatedly pushing a subject. In any forum subjects get repeated & regular posters may express an opinion to a new thread. This cannot become an offence of soapboxing otherwise we would have to ban half of Boards.

The Recliner

Hi Discodog

I will have a look into this and get back to you as soon as I can

Thanks
Rec

The Recliner

Discodog wrote: »

I started a thread by posting an article from today's Sunday Times newspaper concerning the sponsorship of Greyhound Racing. The moderator Adrenalinjunkie has removed the thread from the Animal & Pet forum & given me an infraction.

The grounds for the infraction & removal were:

Reason: Breach of Forum Charter

---

You are being issued with a red card because you reproduced a newspaper article with potentially defamatory content with the purpose of encouraging negative discussion on certain individuals and businesses. Boards.ie is not a noticeboard for people to promote their own personal agenda. If you have a problem with how any organisation runs their affairs, take it up with them directly.

---

I pointed out that once an item is in the National press that there is no problem in posting it & I have received the following reply.

An article in a major newspaper is evidence of nothing, newspapers can and have been taken to court for defamation. You did not provide a link to anything in your post, neither the article nor anything to back up the contents of it. The article also refers to coursing which has been considered by other forum mods in the past to be covered under 'discussion of violent activities'.

I believe the post well and truly comes under the soap-boxing rule. There is also no rule that posting newspaper articles is automatically permissible.

I have never heard of a poster having to "back up" a newspaper article & such articles are posted on Boards every day.

Taken from the Animal and Pet issues Charter

- Is it OK if the statement is true?
Yes and no. A statement is only legally "true" if you can back it up with evidence.

- What kind of evidence is acceptable?
Official reports filed by other organisations (with links, etc)*
Statements by the company themselves*
Any other evidence which can be shown in print and which is not subject to interpretation*

You did not supply a link with the article, given that you mention that you have never heard of posters having to back up articles it might be worth your while to re-read the charter

Coursing is a national sport backed by the government & is not considered a violent activity. It is discussed here on occasions. But in any even the article was about Greyhound racing not Coursing.

The soapboxing reference is of particular concern because it can be used to remove any post & issue infractions at the whim of a Mod. To be guilty of soapboxing there must be evidence of a poster repeatedly pushing a subject. In any forum subjects get repeated & regular posters may express an opinion to a new thread. This cannot become an offence of soapboxing otherwise we would have to ban half of Boards.

Given that you didn't post anything other than the article (without a link to show that the content wasn't edited) it is hard to know what it was you wanted to achieve and it comes across like you posted it just to provoke a reaction or as was described soapboxing

In future if you are going to post articles (with links) then you should include your own opinion otherwise it is likely the thread will be locked/removed and continuous behaviour will lead to more infractions/bans

You have been around long enough that the rules of the site should be familiar to you funnily enough Soap-boxing is also mentioned in the Animal and Pet Issues charter (though in a different form) so I strongly urge you to have another read of it and make sure you understand it, feel free to ask any of the mods or CMods for clarification on anything that isn't clear to you

I don't see any compelling reason to remove the infraction at this time

Discodog

So are you saying that it is ok for me to start a thread including the article provided that I link it & include my own opinion ?

If the Mod was concerned that I may of invented the article they could of checked it online before issuing an infraction. I did state clearly where the article originated.

Aren't many posts designed to provoke a reaction & discussion ? Surely one of the reasons for Boards existing is to discuss contentious issues.

The last time that I have commented on the Greyhound Industry was probably over a years ago. How can that possibly be soapboxing ?

The Recliner

Discodog wrote: »

So are you saying that it is ok for me to start a thread including the article provided that I link it & include my own opinion ?

Provided the thread content is within the bounds of the charter then yes, if you want to repost the thread in question it might be an idea to PM the mods first and check that they are ok with it

If the Mod was concerned that I may of invented the article they could of checked it online before issuing an infraction. I did state clearly where the article originated.

it is not the Mods job to verify the content of your post, it is clearly laid out in the charter that you must provide a link

Aren't many posts designed to provoke a reaction & discussion ? Surely one of the reasons for Boards existing is to discuss contentious issues.

Yes but when you don't give any indication as to what your own opinion is and reason for starting the thread then how do you expect discussion to form out of that?

The last time that I have commented on the Greyhound Industry was probably over a years ago. How can that possibly be soapboxing ?

When you don't provide any detail as to what the thread is about and just copy and paste an article about the Greyhound Industry then what way do you expect it to be interpreted

Discodog

Could you please clarify another aspect of the moderation.

The Mod said that:

If you have a problem with how any organisation runs their affairs, take it up with them directly.

The inference is that we are not allowed to discuss or criticise an organisation & this has been hinted at before. However Boards is full of these types of posts from RTE pay to Government policy etc.

For example we are now not allowed to discuss animal for sale adverts on donedeal yet similar discussions occur elsewhere on Boards every day.

I appreciate that ever forum has an individual charter but surely it should comply with the basic principle of all Boards discussions ?

It does seem bizarre that we can go to another forum & discuss a puppy advert or an animal rescue without any problem yet we can't discuss it in the forum that was set up for the purpose.

The Recliner

Discodog wrote: »

Could you please clarify another aspect of the moderation.

The Mod said that:

If you have a problem with how any organisation runs their affairs, take it up with them directly.

The inference is that we are not allowed to discuss or criticise an organisation & this has been hinted at before. However Boards is full of these types of posts from RTE pay to Government policy etc.

For example we are now not allowed to discuss animal for sale adverts on donedeal yet similar discussions occur elsewhere on Boards every day.

I appreciate that ever forum has an individual charter but surely it should comply with the basic principle of all Boards discussions ?

It does seem bizarre that we can go to another forum & discuss a puppy advert or an animal rescue without any problem yet we can't discuss it in the forum that was set up for the purpose.

Boards has basic rules and purpose but how each forum is run and operates is up to the Mods of that forum

If certain topics are off limits in a forum it more than likely because they cause more hassle than they are worth and a decision to ban discussion on certain topics would not have been made lightly

But given that this current line of discussion isn't really relevant to the DRP process I suggest you take up any further question like this with the Mods of the forum concerned