Feedback on Politics Megathread here please

Marchandire

ziedth wrote: »

You have a point bards,

From this point in I'd appreciate it if there was no further discussion on the pros and cons of this megathread. Im happy to discuss it over in feedback if anyone would like to start a thread over there and link to it here.

Thanks in advance,

Hang on a minute, you're effectively banning us from discussing serious social or political matters in any other thread, then banning us from even discussing the merits of that decision in this thread?

This is bloody ridiculous.

MitchKoobski

I completely agree with this. It was getting ridiculous. There was barely any threads left on her to go into without finding someone arguing about politics.

Bards

The original Feedback thread which I started in the correct Feedback Forum can be found here


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056954429

Would be better to merge both Feedback threads into one though?

longshanks

If a politics megathread is a good idea would it not be useful to have a travellers megathread also?

Or would lumping all discussion of an element of society into a megathread then be seen as ridiculous?

CantGetNoSleep

We would also need one for Polish, Chinese and Indian (takeaways rather than people), Ballybeg, lost dogs, places closing down, and house break-ins. That should keep the forum nice and compact.

Trick of the Tail

I was going to post in the thread about the non-availability of Tayto chocolate bars. But i'm concerned that someone m,ight have the opinion that their distribution here is lacking due to Waterford not being as important a city as, say, Galway; so I guess I'd better post in the politics megathread.

OK, I'm being facetious, but I think that megathread is such a bad idea. You're stifling debate in the name of making moderating easier. I know there is probably a fine line between a free, democratic discussion board and an accusation of over-moderating, but I believe you have crossed it.

Unless of course the intention was to dampen down political discussion on this forum, which is what you've done.

Bad decision, shame.

Trick of the Tail

Bards wrote: »

Here's a radical Idea,

Why not create a Waterford Politcal Sub-Forum, Keep everyone Happy, instead of having one crazy stupid free-for-all thread

Now, that IS a much better idea.

fuzzy dunlop

This is censorship plain and simple. You cannot discuss issues like the fate of the hospital or WIT without bringing politics into it or the ability/performance of our politicians. It is impossible. As far as I can see this move is to protect the FG supporters here from embarrasment. If it hasn't been done on any other regional forum it shouldn't be done here.


You've just destroyed the busiest regional forum. Shame on you.

Deise67

if a mod is so overly politically biased then maybe just maybe Modding is not for them ! instead the threads are derailed and split into sub forums to protect the FG fanboys !

Wanderer2010

Sully wrote: »

Did I rattle your cage? Bless. Amusing the blind eye you turn towards other personal posts frequently directed at me, but my general post pointing out some home truths appears to have upset you.

We have always allowed political discussions as long as they are strictly local but as of late, people insist on bringing each thread into a farce and then hop into other unrelated threads to have a go. That's the only issue. This issue was discussed by all the mods and CMods for sometime before it was decided to run with a 'megathread' covering all aspects of Waterford politics, and the Waterford is the only regional forum with such a huge discussion on Politics, which is supposed to be in the Politics Forum by default anyway.

FWIW, I took a backseat in the discussions due to my personal involvement and interest in politics.

No offense Sully but you very rarely take a backseat when it comes to politics. Even the comments that are obviously posted to wind you up and bait you, you bite practically every single time. And when this is pointed out to you, you just ignore it! One of the basic rules of internet debate is dont feed the troll. You simply dont get that.

fuzzy dunlop

Bards wrote: »

Here's a radical Idea,

Why not create a Waterford Politcal Sub-Forum, Keep everyone Happy, instead of having one crazy stupid free-for-all thread

Or perhaps if Sully hadn't started using the forum to pimp Fine Gael in the first place it wouldn't have come to this.

Dicky Pride

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

Or perhaps if Sully hadn't started using the forum to pimp Fine Gael in the first place it wouldn't have come to this.

Just out of curiosity, can you show me an example of where he has done that?

fuzzy dunlop

Yes see any post by Sully in the last four years practically defending every decision FG has made.:rolleyes

I also see Meatwad still can't get over having his ass handed to him in a discussion with me.

Dicky Pride

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

Yes see any post by Sully in the last four years practically defending every decision FG has made.:rolleyes

I also see Meatwad still can't get over having his ass handed to him in a discussion with me.

There's a bit of a difference there though isn't there? You say he was using the forum to pimp out FG at every opportunity...which is not the same as defending a party that he supports. I find it funny that people get so upset my his beliefs as if they carry so much more weight than your own. When sully talks about politics on this forum he always does so as a user and not a moderator but people just can't seem to handle it. I don't even know the lad but I don't see why so many people get upset about him doing what everyone else is entitled to do - defend their beliefs.

ziedth

I'm going to make this very simple for all concerned, as of this post the next person to abuse or bully Sully (or any other poster on this forum) in this or any other thread is getting a lengthy ban. I don't know at what point people thought it became acceptable to do it but it I feel a total failure that it's happened on my watch. Nobody should be talking about people personally, attack the post and not the poster is one of the fundamental rules of this site.

I was beginning to think that we jumped the gun with the megathread and I was starting to come around to the idea of suggesting a different approach but until this ugly childish bullsh!t is gone from this forum as far as I'm concerned that thread will remain.

It's the sheer bloody hypocrisy of it that annoys me. Sully is perfectly entitled to defend FG just as anyone else is to criticize them*. If he is so corrupt all I would like (it shouldn't take long if some people are to be believed) is three instances that AS A MOD were he let his stance on FG effect his decisions. This could range from banning people, closing threads without good cause or anything you feel another MOD wouldn't have done. PM me these examples and I'll take it to the Cmods myself.

If this forum was all of us sitting around that big table in Geoffs talking the posters behaving this way would sound like absolute dickheads. I think anyone who has posted here long enough will know that I hate throwing around posts like this one but I genuinely like being a member here and this Kind of craic would have never been allowed fly when I started all those years ago. So if I have to go and act this way to try and get this place back to the way it was then I'll do it.

Any questions on with is or isn't acceptable then please don't hesitate to PM me.

Thanks.

*going by the new updated charter nobody is allowed do either

decies

Nothing wrong with the way things were, heated debate is often getting mistaken for personal attacks ,if somebody is getting out of control maybe a week in a cooler but at the end of the day it's up to two people to be debating in a cool resaonable manner and if those people end up in a celebrity death match situation, the rest of us should not suffer . At the end of the day we are all grown adults here . Peace everybody !!!

mecco

A couple of feedback points, all IMO:

1) When a forum is designed to cover a particular geographical area, the governance of that area is going to be a very large part of the discussion and won't work in a single thread. Bar specific threads like "where is X?" or "Y is on this weekend", there will be a political aspect to all news/threads. Therefore I don't think a single thread is the way to go.

2) The continually outraged people on both sides have ruined any chance of a discussion on what's actually going on. They've all made it a nasty little point scoring exercise that's purely antagonistic. Evidence of that exists in this thread from both sides already.

3) It's a shame that good contributors are feeling stifled from contributing. Similar to this, it's the point-scorers who will take over the megathread too and ruin that, so that won't work either.

4) I think the way forward is to stop the tit-for-tat in a thread after x posts, give the 2 pointscorers 1 more post to sum up and then they have to wait for maybe 5 new posts before they can come back into the thread. EDIT: I do understand this is a big ask on volunteer mods though.

5) I personally feel the mods have a very unenviable job. The users generally need to understand that the mods are volunteers. Try to lessen their workload by not taking the bait on thread and by losing the us against them mentality.

fuzzy dunlop

Dicky Pride wrote: »

There's a bit of a difference there though isn't there? You say he was using the forum to pimp out FG at every opportunity...which is not the same as defending a party that he supports. I find it funny that people get so upset my his beliefs as if they carry so much more weight than your own. When sully talks about politics on this forum he always does so as a user and not a moderator but people just can't seem to handle it. I don't even know the lad but I don't see why so many people get upset about him doing what everyone else is entitled to do - defend their beliefs.

I don't see how. Especially as it started well before the last election and affiliations were only disclosed well after they became bleedin obvious. Also anywhere else this would be see as a conflict of interest. But not here. And you cannot seperate the two especially when you have had the experience of reporting abusive and slandering posts on a regional forum which went unmoderated. Yet my own reaction to aforementioned slander instantly receives an infraction.Or the experienc of being goaded by one of the moderators who is now proceeding to segratate the debate. Excuse me if I take take this current move with a mountain of salt.

Dicky Pride

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

I don't see how. Especially as it started well before the last election and affiliations were only disclosed well after they became bleedin obvious. Also anywhere else this would be see as a conflict of interest. But not here. And you cannot seperate the two especially when you have had the experience of reporting abusive and slandering posts on a regional forum which went unmoderated. Yet my own reaction to aforementioned slander instantly receives an infraction.Or the experienc of being goaded by one of the moderators who is now proceeding to segratate the debate. Excuse me if I take take this current move with a mountain of salt.

You do know this is just an Internet forum don't you?

Benimar

I think this is a terrible idea on two fronts.

1. Politics comes into so many areas of life in Waterford that it will be impossible to contain them all in on thread. As an earlier poster highlighted it would be a bit like having a single 'Soccer' thread. Reasoned political debate in individual threads shouldn't be banned because of a handful of posters on both sides seemingly overstepping the mark.

2. As this is a thread on politics I will use the political term. The 'optics' here are terrible. A moderator has come in for some strong criticism from some posters regarding his posting style and his moderation in the recent past. Whether this is warranted or not is a separate matter, but the decision to have specific politics thread (unlike all other regional forums) makes it look as if the two could be linked. I'm not saying/alleging they are, but it just doesn't look right.

The Hill Billy

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

I don't see how. Especially as it started well before the last election and affiliations were only disclosed well after they became bleedin obvious. Also anywhere else this would be see as a conflict of interest. But not here. And you cannot seperate the two especially when you have had the experience of reporting abusive and slandering posts on a regional forum which went unmoderated. Yet my own reaction to aforementioned slander instantly receives an infraction.Or the experienc of being goaded by one of the moderators who is now proceeding to segratate the debate. Excuse me if I take take this current move with a mountain of salt.

If you have issues with the moderation of this or any other Regional forum - PM the details to me & Mr Magnolia & we will review them & take action as necessary. Allegations of slander are particularly serious & we would very much like to see the evidence for this.

tHB

fuzzy dunlop

Dicky Pride wrote: »

You do know this is just an Internet forum don't you?

Yes I do. Have you an actual point to make?

Dicky Pride

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

Yes I do. Have you an actual point to make?

Oh sorry, was that not obvious? You're taking things a little too seriously.

fuzzy dunlop

Dicky Pride wrote: »

Oh sorry, was that not obvious? You're taking things a little too seriously.

How serious I take it is my business and mine alone. You need not concern yourself with it.

Dicky Pride

Lol. You sound like a hoot.

fuzzy dunlop

Dicky Pride wrote: »

Lol. You sound like a hoot.

You don't. Furthermore you seem to have nothing to say on the topic at hand. Maybe you should post in some "best chicken burger in town" or other mundane thread.

The Hill Billy

fuzzy & Dickie - Quit your sniping or I will remove your posting privileges to this forum.

tHB

wellboytoo

Jesus this is a right ball of ****e isn't it.
I have sympathy for the mods on this issue even though I am reasonably political myself it has become tiresome the constant bickering , I personally have backed off over the last few months to allow things to cool off maybe half a dozen should voluntarily do the same and let things cool, you know who you are.just saying like.

fuzzy dunlop

The Hill Billy wrote: »

If you have issues with the moderation of this or any other Regional forum - PM the details to me & Mr Magnolia & we will review them & take action as necessary. Allegations of slander are particularly serious & we would very much like to see the evidence for this.

tHB

Done example of slander and double standard of moderation

The Hill Billy

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

Done example of slander and double standard of moderation

PM received. Thank you. We will be in touch.

tHB