[I cause] Constant problems on rugby forum

wixfjord

I've been having constant issues with two moderators on the rugby forum, and feel I have been treated unfairly on numerous occasions.

First of all, I feel that forum is far too overzealously moderated, but worse than that, there is absolutely no consistency as to what gets you a ban. Moderators seem to make decisions in a split second based on quite little, and whereas some posters get the benefit of the doubt, others dont.

The two moderators I've been having issues with are justsomebloke, and RuggieBear.

The first complaint I will make is towards RuggieBear. I was banned today from the rugby forum after the following thread. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056497271&page=28
Now I was being attacked from all sides, with no hint of a moderator in site, called a liar etc but all of a sudden in wades the man himself to issue a ban. A 7 day ban for telling a group of supporters who attacked me to "grow a pair of balls"

The second complaint I would like to make is the following. I will now copy a PM which I sent to Sports CMod Dub13, which explains the situation.

First of all, I'm an abrasive and informed poster, who sometimes steps over the line, and I've no problem with an occasional infraction when I do cross it. However, I think that both rugby mods, Ruggie and justsomebloke are overbearing, and have an angle against myself.

This specific complaint is simple.

I posted the following comment:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76161618#post76161618

This was followed by a personal attack on me by a poster called CPT Blackbeard, who is generally a thorn in everyone's side, with personal abuse in it. (Here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=76162253&postcount=42)

I reported the post and asked them to look at it by PM.

Following this, I made this post back to Cpt.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=76162328&postcount=43

Ruggie then proceeded to give a stern warning to both of us, despite me doing nothing incorrect at all. I PMd him to ask why, and his response was
"if you had not called him names he would have been infracted. i thought this would be preferable to infracting you both as you are both acting as bad as each other to me.

if you have a problem with this moderation take it to the cmod and follow the dispute resolution procedure."

I asked him where I called him a name, and he replied with:
"Cpt.

Straight out.

i'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't see the warning considering the length and substance of the post.

take it to the cmod. i'm logging off for xmas.

have a good one."

So basically, having asked what the name I called him was, I was told that CPT was the derogatory nickname, and even though the poster had posted 7 minutes after the warning, he would not be infracted. (Here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=76162697&postcount=50)

Now, previously I've been infracted for things like calling a group of supporters arrogant (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76133567#post76133567) and also "using derogatory language" (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75442877#post75442877), yet when I'm called "bitter and jealous" directly, nothing is done? I think the part about "Cpt" is a derogatory name is especially indicative of this. It's almost as if both mods are waiting for a reason to infract me for something small, and not giving any reasoning when I report a post against me.

There is constant OTT moderating on the forum, and to be honest I feel like there is a lot of rein given to certain posters, and not to myself. I am a valued poster on the form, often with strong views, but I have been constantly flustered with the complete lack of reasoning behind some decisions.

Three other examples:

Infracted without warning for calling a whole supporter group arrogant, with the reason of "insulting other members".
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75611218#post75611218


Infracted for back seat modding for asking a poster whom I have a good relationship with a question in jest
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75611218
(Post has been edited but what I was banned for was asking "Didn't know you'd turned your hand to modding? " 

Banned for telling a known trolling poster who I had reported twice that that day that they were "talking ****e"
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75423105#post75423105

Justsomebloke has also made the following remarks to me via PM, while being questioned about his strange decisions:

"The mods hoped that the couple of infractions that you got recently would of made you step back and slightly alter your posting style but it hasn't. So I will admit it was a soft one to finally be banned on but it was the straw that broke the camels back. "

"I guarantee I will get a chance to go through your posts to pick out the ones which are the ones that could of gotten you banned."

Needless to say, these posts never arrived.

If the mods are trying to make a point about my posting style by harshly banning and infracting me, then that is not fair to anyone. Debate is debate and with rugby debate is heated. You can't pick and choose when to ban someone because you don't like their style and want to make a point.

Just as an example, here are two posts which I feel are far worse than what I've been banned and infracted for, where no actions have been taken:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75558606#post75558606

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75558738




I could go on, but I think you get the point, and I would ask for this to investigated fairly, as there have already been threads about mods on the rugby forum.

g'em

you are currently banned from the rugby forum for 7 days - in a DRP thread you can only address existing bans so that can be dealt with here. If you have more general issues with Moderation you can contact the Sports CMods with your concerns, and if that does not reach a favourable outcome you can start a thread in Help Desk.

If you would like to dispute your current ban I can alert the Sports CMods to this thread.

wixfjord

g'em wrote: »

you are currently banned from the rugby forum for 7 days - in a DRP thread you can only address existing bans so that can be dealt with here. If you have more general issues with Moderation you can contact the Sports CMods with your concerns, and if that does not reach a favourable outcome you can start a thread in Help Desk.

If you would like to dispute your current ban I can alert the Sports CMods to this thread.

I was asked by Dub13 to start a thread in this forum, and have alerted him to it, but have gotten no reply.

I have already contacted Dub13 also about the issues, and again, he has asked me to start a thread here.

I certainly would like to dispute my current ban, so yes can you alert them again please?

Sparks

wixfjord wrote: »

I was asked by Dub13 to start a thread in this forum, and have alerted him to it, but have gotten no reply.

Sometimes the outside world can cause things like that...

wixfjord

Sparks wrote: »

Sometimes the outside world can cause things like that...

What, you mean there's an outside world?!
Ah I didn't mean it in that way at all, just stating the facts after ge'm's post!

Dub13

Sorry about the short reply I am having broadband issues and am on the phone.I will open this up to the rugby mods with regards the 7 days ban.

wixfjord

Dub13 wrote: »

Sorry about the short reply I am having broadband issues and am on the phone.I will open this up to the rugby mods with regards the 7 days ban.

Please do, I would like them to talk about it openly on this thread though, not via PM.

Dub13

wixfjord wrote: »

Please do, I would like them to talk about it openly on this thread though, not via PM.

Ok thats fine if you feel it would be more open.

RuggieBear

Dub13 wrote: »

Sorry about the short reply I am having broadband issues and am on the phone.I will open this up to the rugby mods with regards the 7 days ban.

Thread was dragged off topic into an argument about fans' "abuse" of leinster players.

Thread becomes nothing but wixfjord claiming his friends hearing one thing and Connacht fans (who were there) hearing nothing. Did wixfjord really think that the Connacht fans were going to pat him on the back for claiming they were "venomous" and "abhorrent"? IMO this pejorative language was little more than flamebaiting.

wixfjord feels he were being attacked on all sides but he didn't report any posts... instead he dragged the thread further off topic by having a go back at the posters criticising him for his "hearsay" claims.

The first time I realised that the thread was being derailed was a reported post from another user and when i logged on to investigate (2 minutes later), i saw the thread was being turned to ****e with tit for tat rubbish.

Final straw for me was wixfjord telling the connacht posters "to grow a pair" and another poster asking him if had "dropped his monocle?". Neither discussing rugby but attacking the poster and imo making the thread more or less irretrievable. Hence both posters banned (with another infracted).

IMO this was all down to wixfjord's "abrasive" initial postings.

wixfjord

RuggieBear wrote: »

Thread was dragged off topic into an argument about fans' "abuse" of leinster players.

Thread becomes nothing but wixfjord claiming his friends hearing one thing and Connacht fans (who were there) hearing nothing. Did wixfjord really think that the Connacht fans were going to pat him on the back for claiming they were "venomous" and "abhorrent"? IMO this pejorative language was little more than flamebaiting.

wixfjord feels he were being attacked on all sides but he didn't report any posts... instead he dragged the thread further off topic by having a go back at the posters criticising him for his "hearsay" claims.

The first time I realised that the thread was being derailed was a reported post from another user and when i logged on to investigate (2 minutes later), i saw the thread was being turned to ****e with tit for tat rubbish.

Final straw for me was wixfjord telling the connacht posters "to grow a pair" and another poster asking him if had "dropped his monocle?". Neither discussing rugby but attacking the poster and imo making the thread more or less irretrievable. Hence both posters banned (with another infracted).

IMO this was all down to wixfjord's "abrasive" initial postings.

First of all, at least one other poster remarked hearing the abuse, so whether or not that happened isn't the issue, please don't use that in a bid to discredit me. My two mates which were at the game told me that both players were called bad names, but that is not the case at hand. In your, perhaps biased, opinion it was flamebaiting, however it was not me who brought the issue up, and the accusations are serious and relating to the game. There have been multiple precedents for this on the forum.

None of the posts you refer to were abusive, which is why I did not report them. I also did not report them because in the past two weeks I have reported two very bad posts to you guys, and heard nothing back at all. However, the posts were getting increasingly aggressive, as you can see.

Anyway I was arguing my case, and not dragging the thread off topic in any way. The topic related to the game. If the thread was irretrieveable, then why not close it, or issue a warning?
My opinion is that it's an incredibly soft ban, made in the heat of the moment, and actually incorrect in any case.
Also, you have very recent history with me of being very unfair, so it feels very much it's just trying to get one over.
By the way, is calling a poster a liar attacking them, and if so, why wasn't that poster banned for 7 days?

Have you anything to say about the other above matters?

I've witnessed direct attacks on posters, including myself, which have gone unnoticed. However, when I address a group of supporters (not simply posters), I am banned twice. Is that consistent of fair? There seems to be one rule for one, and another for another, and different rules applied at different times by different mods.

Just like a poster, a mod can't just decide to make up their own rules and ban someone on the spot for 7 days, without warning, for something as innocuous as that.

Be honest now, do you have an issue with me or my posting, and why do you feel the need to be so harsh towards me, and not towards other posters, like the examples I gave above?

Dub13

Ok first off apologies for the shortness of this reply as I am still having broadband issues and on the phone.As pointed out above we can only deal with the 7 day ban here so lets not muddy the waters with other forum related issues as a good chunk of your post does,for overall forum running issues please go to help desk.

RuggieBear wrote: »

wixfjord feels he were being attacked on all sides but he didn't report any posts... instead he dragged the thread further off topic by having a go back at the posters criticising him for his "hearsay" claims.

The above sums it up for me,your posting style is abrasive and combative and this is why you were infected/banned.To say 'no hint of a moderator' is not true as once the mods come online a few infractions and a couple of bans were issued.The mods could have got there a bit earlier if YOU had of reported the posts,but you decided to take the thread down a notch or 2 instead.

So the infraction & ban was merited in this case.You will need to look at you posting style on your return to the forum.

Trojan

Cmod has made a decision and I wholeheartedly agree with it.

I'm a regular reader, if not poster, on the Rugby forum and the "Constant problems" referred to by the OP here do certainly exist - because of troublemakers like him who constantly cause problems.

I'm closing this as 1) we have a ruling and 2) I'm about to siteban the OP for using a second account to evade his Rugby ban.