Soccer Forum Mod infracted me for calling Luis Saurez a racist?

invinciblePRSTV

Not hard to guess which mod, but to those not in the know, it's the mod going by the name of 'Thanx for the Fish' who is, unsurprisingly, a Liverpool supporter (team for whom Suarez plays for).

Anyhoo, I called Suarez a racist in the S'land - L'pool match thread (my post was deleted), much to my surprise I received an infraction from the said Mod saying that calling Suarez a racist is considered abuse! This is in spite of course Suarez receiving a whopper of a ban for racially abusing another footballer!

In our PM's T4TF said that because the FA's report didn't call him a racist, then he's not a racist? despite the fact he was convicted and recieved a FA punishment and ban because "Mr Suarez's words, which included a reference to Mr Evra's colour, were insulting". (p. 114 FA report on Suarez) That to me is called racist abuse, from which it seems quite reasonable to infer that someone using racist abuse can indeed be described as a racist, though obviously not to the moderator in question.

Methinks T4TF is being overly precious and letting his footballing loyalties cloud his moderating judgement. As such I'd like to have my infraction rescinded. TIA.

TL: DR - On the Soccer Forum it's abuse to call someone who has been convicted of Racist Abuse a Racist. Well i never...

Black Swan

Please forward by PM to me all PMs exchanged between you and the moderator at your earliest convenience. Please don't post them here, unless asked.

invinciblePRSTV

Black Swan wrote: »

Please forward by PM to me all PMs exchanged between you and the moderator at your earliest convenience. Please don't post them here, unless asked.

I am on a mobile and it appears rather cumbersome to forward messages on in the touch format, so I'll forward them on tonite whem I'm at my PC.

As an aside, a good samaritan pointed out to me via PM that Martin Lipton - football writer and former court reporter in the UK - has determined it legally acceptable to describe Suarez as a racist using the findings of the report, and has reported it as such.

If its good enough for journalists in the UK to call Suarez a racist without fear of being sued, then it should be good enough for the Soccer Forum - To the impartial observer of course.

Black Swan

PMs received. I will begin the review of the thread, post, PMs, mod action, forum charter, and the information contained within this DRP during the next day or so. Please be patient, as we are volunteers with commitments outside of boards.

Black Swan

I have the PMs and everything I need. This volunteer is running a bit behind in this review given other commitments. Thank you for your patience.

Point of clarification: You may post PMs that pertain directly to your dispute resolution on this thread in accordance with the dispute resolution guidelines, with or without my permission. By asking to share them with me by PM first, which you have, I was hoping that this may serve to facilitate mediation of this dispute between parties. Thanks.

Black Swan

The patience and cooperation exhibited by invinciblePRSTV and mod Thanx 4 The Fish in the handling of this DRP are hereby acknowledged and appreciated.

Member invinciblePRSTV was given a yellow card warning (not an "infraction" as claimed above) by mod Thanx 4 The Fish for this post:

invinciblePRSTV wrote: »

5.8 for the racist, excellent technique in the dive.

The moderator noted when giving the warning: "Abuse is in breach of the charter" (quoted below).

Frisbee wrote: »

The rules on abuse apply to more than just boards users, and cover players/managers/fans/clubs/sports personalities as well... any nickname or phrase that is even vaguely derogatory may be considered as abuse for the purpose of the charter.

It would appear that the invinciblePRSTV statement "for the racist" certainly met, if not exceeded the "vaguely derogatory" reference to a Soccer player.

The spirit and intent of the guideline is to encourage posters to enjoy and focus on the game, and not allow a thread to descend into "derogatory" name calling, which may trigger others to do the same, thereby trashing the forum and the sport.

Furthermore, tossing in "for the racist" added nothing constructive to the thread discussion at the time, and may have taken it off-topic if not officially warned.

invinciblePRSTV wrote: »

Methinks T4TF is being overly precious and letting his footballing loyalties cloud his moderating judgement.

In reviewing the 7 PM's exchanged between the poster and moderator, there were no comments by the moderator that would suggest that he was assigning this yellow card warning to invinciblePRSTV as the result of a team bias. To the contrary, Thanx 4 The Fish has evidenced a professional attitude in regard to all matters that pertained to this DRP, and has a history of attempting to be fair and impartial in all this Soccer mod duties, regardless of what team he may cheer for.

Furthermore, in reviewing the invinciblePRSTV boards.ie disciplinary history since joining 27 January 2010, I found only this one warning by Thanx 4 The Fish, which failed to suggest bias towards him as a poster. What I did discover about the invinciblePRSTV posting history was troubling:

• Yellow card warnings = 9
• Red card infractions = 14
• Bans = 2
• Number of different actioning mods = 16

If invinciblePRSTV had only focused on the grey areas that pertained to the sports media's interpretation of the Luis Suarez FA Rule E3 Conduct sanctions, where some of those media sources (rightfully or wrongfully) suggested that Suarez was a racist, he may have been given the benefit of the doubt. But to needlessly and wrongfully attack the professionalism of the mod merely to have a simple warning reversed, I find inappropriate. Consequently, for this and the earlier reasons given, I cannot reverse this yellow card warning.

The Sports Cmod review has been completed. Poster invinciblePRSTV has two choices at this point: (1) He may learn from this issue, be a bit more mindful what he posts on Soccer (and other boards forums given his disciplinary history), and move on; or (2) he may appeal this Cmod decision to the Admin.

Please advise.

invinciblePRSTV

Black Swan wrote: »

The patience and cooperation exhibited by invinciblePRSTV and mod Thanx 4 The Fish in the handling of this DRP are hereby acknowledged and appreciated.

Member invinciblePRSTV was given a yellow card warning (not an "infraction" as claimed above) by mod Thanx 4 The Fish for this post:

The moderator noted when giving the warning: "Abuse is in breach of the charter" (quoted below).



It would appear that the invinciblePRSTV statement "for the racist" certainly met, if not exceeded the "vaguely derogatory" reference to a Soccer player.

The spirit and intent of the guideline is to encourage posters to enjoy and focus on the game, and not allow a thread to descend into "derogatory" name calling, which may trigger others to do the same, thereby trashing the forum and the sport.

Furthermore, tossing in "for the racist" added nothing constructive to the thread discussion at the time, and may have taken it off-topic if not officially warned.


In reviewing the 7 PM's exchanged between the poster and moderator, there were no comments by the moderator that would suggest that he was assigning this yellow card warning to invinciblePRSTV as the result of a team bias. To the contrary, Thanx 4 The Fish has evidenced a professional attitude in regard to all matters that pertained to this DRP, and has a history of attempting to be fair and impartial in all this Soccer mod duties, regardless of what team he may cheer for.

Furthermore, in reviewing the invinciblePRSTV boards.ie disciplinary history since joining 27 January 2010, I found only this one warning by Thanx 4 The Fish, which failed to suggest bias towards him as a poster. What I did discover about the invinciblePRSTV posting history was troubling:

• Yellow card warnings = 9
• Red card infractions = 14
• Bans = 2
• Number of different actioning mods = 16

If invinciblePRSTV had only focused on the grey areas that pertained to the sports media's interpretation of the Luis Suarez FA Rule E3 Conduct sanctions, where some of those media sources (rightfully or wrongfully) suggested that Suarez was a racist, he may have been given the benefit of the doubt. But to needlessly and wrongfully attack the professionalism of the mod merely to have a simple warning reversed, I find inappropriate. Consequently, for this and the earlier reasons given, I cannot reverse this yellow card warning.

The Sports Cmod review has been completed. Poster invinciblePRSTV has two choices at this point: (1) He may learn from this issue, be a bit more mindful what he posts on Soccer (and other boards forums given his disciplinary history), and move on; or (2) he may appeal this Cmod decision to the Admin.

Please advise.

So what you're saying is then is that its an infractionable offence on this website to describe someone who's been found guilty by a professional body of racist abuse as a racist?

oscarBravo

invinciblePRSTV wrote: »

So what you're saying is then is that its an infractionable offence on this website to describe someone who's been found guilty by a professional body of racist abuse as a racist?

You didn't describe him as a racist; you used "the racist" as an epithet in a situation where it would have been entirely more appropriate to simply refer to him by name.

So please, spare us the righteous indignation. The warning is upheld.