Banned for being too blasé

Richard Bingham

I would like to appeal my one month ban by Turtwig. I sent a message to him asking him to reconsider; he has been online since but has chosen not to respond.

This was over two days ago.

He accused me of having a blasé style of posting, not long after I had been accused of being over emotive by another poster. Shortly afterwards he accused me of trolling and being deliberately provocative and banned me. I sent him a message asking him how he can stand over me being accused of being emotive and then accuse me of being blasé but he hasn't responded. Surely if I was being too blasé then the person who accused me of being emotive was wrong and should at least have been told to desist from moderating?


I don’t mind being corrected, I apologised to another moderator publicly earlier in the thread and undertook not to use a certain term again. I don’t think I should be banned for holding a different opinion to a Moderator on the subject under discussion.

RB

Taltos

Hi Richard - as you have reached out to the mod in question I will look into this for you, due to the length of the thread in question that might take a little bit of time so I have to ask for your patience here.

Taltos

Hi Richard,

thanks for your patience. I have gone through the last few days of the thread in question and have discussed this with Scofflaw the other Soc Category Mod.

Firstly I want to be clear here, action was definitely required. Your style of posting in this thread is not trolling, but the Mod has to choose from a list of values and so I believe chose what they felt was appropriate. I find you are being needlessly confrontational and on occasionally openly dismissive of others points of views. I am not sure if you are aware of how you are coming across in the thread or how your posts effectively derail open debate, a good description given to me was "stonewalling", irrespective though your posts are not conducive to the health of the debate.

Secondly I have noted that you have on more than one occasion argued with a mod on thread, i.e. quoted their mod direction and commented on it in one form or another. Please don't do this again - it's against nearly every charter here, if you have an issue with on thread mod direction take it to PM. This alone in can result in immediate infractions or bans and you have been very lucky to date. Had this ban been issued on this point I would be taking a different approach here right now.

With that said though I feel a months ban is excessive for your first actioned offense. If you agree to the above and are willing to agree to change how you post I will request the ban be reversed and instead will issue an infraction. In the meantime I will lift the ban, but will not request the reversal until you come back to me here.

Thanks
Taltos

Richard Bingham

Hello Taltos

Thanks for your response - I appreciate that your time goes into this.

I won't disagree that I probably have been confrontational and dismissive of others points of views at times in that thread but if you look at any discussion on abortion on this or indeed any website you will see numerous posts by pro-abortion posters which are totally dismissive of pro-life people - "If you don't want it don't have one but don't tell me what to do with my ovaries" is a common refrain. Most pro-abortion people openly admit that they think pro-life people aren't even entitled to have their view. The posts vary from calling us Holy Mary's or similar to saying that we are either cruel or stupid. To add to the pressure it is usually 8 pro-abortion posters against one pro-life and they all back each other up and scoff, especially when something insulting is said about pro-life people <smiley faces, facepalm, thanks and snide remarks>.

This behaviour also stifles meaningful debate but it is rare that any of it is moderated.

I feel that a huge amount of latitude is given to Pro-Abortion posters who post misinformation and are abusive towards Pro-Life posters, but rather than be abusive back, I reported three such posts (as has been the advice numerous times on boards.ie when faced with this).

1. When Corkfeen posted

“The Life Institute have kindly provided us with a list of people not to vote for in the European elections” and provided a link to the Life Institute’s website

this was deliberate misinformation. Corkfeen knows that the Life Institute provided that list of candidates to encourage people to vote for them. Deliberately misleading posts are specifiecally mentioned as being reportable in the guidelines on when to report a post

2. In the second post which I reported, alaimacerc was commenting on moderation policy;

“The mod can speak for himself (and probably would more sensibly be left to, as some of them seem to be pretty hair-trigger on handing out "infractions" for "dissent" from their interventions)…”

Again, I have seen numerous posters being pulled on for discussing moderation policy in threads, but no action by Turtwig.

I can’t recall the third post I reported. I expect you have access to them anyway.

Turtwig took no action against any of the three and went so far as to mention that I had reported them in his post banning me - this is just mocking for the sake of it.

In addition, there are loads of posts on boards which are insulting to Pro-Life posters such as the following by PoPalpatine

“Reminiscent of the professional-liars claiming they filled a hall in Dublin Castle with 2,000 people.”

When referring to the Life Institute’s National Convention for Life which was held 7 weeks ago.

and

“Oh boy, the David Quinn wannabe is back”

which was a reference to me.

If I referred to him as say, Kermit Gosnell, how would that go down? Obviously I would be subject to correction by a Mod.

Lingua Franca also stated

“The cases shown prove that doctors will not always treat the mother.

Blathering about them being refused abortions and getting to choose their treatment is misdirection. These women were refused their cancer treatments because of their pregnancies.”

LF was referring to my post when he/she used the term blathering. Again I don't believe that any pro-life poster would get away with accusing another poster of blathering?

I am normally a cool headed person but I don't believe that any rational person would stay cool in the face of what is posted here. I think that the only way that any abortion thread on boards can be sustained in a civil matter is if there is a sticky at the top reminding both sides that it is a complex subject, that they don't have a monopoly on what is right and reminding them to have respect for other posters who may have a different view to them.

I honestly thought that when a Mod posted in the thread they were getting involved in the debate and it was in this spirit that I replied. I won't do that again and I will leave it to the Mods to deal with any abuse.

Taltos

Richard - we don't discuss any action taken against other posters here, remember sometimes the action taken is via PM and sometimes the post might just be missed. This thread is purely to address your ban which I have found was too harsh and I have currently removed.

In terms of your range of issues with the moderation please take it Feedback, but please read the charter there as consider your posts as it too can have a strict approach, for example don't quote any PMs you've received. Alternatively you can PM the mod and cat mod team with your concerns.

Please confirm that you accept the action taken in relation to your ban. Once you do so I will request the ban be reversed and I will issue the infraction.

Mods: Asiaprod; Dades; robindch; Turtwig
Cat Mods: Scofflaw; Taltos

Thanks
Taltos

Richard Bingham

I accept the action taken.

Thanks for your time.

RB

Taltos

Thanks.

Team please close this thread.

Richard - I have issued an infraction with a note that the previous ban is not to be considered. Thanks for your assistance during this process.