Over zealous mods?

DublinWriter

I’ve been using boards.ie for over a year now and have posted some 600 times. Today I was banned for a week for the first time for my replies in the following thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=295502&goto=newpost

This was the private message I received from ‘nesf’:

Banned from work for a week due to personal abuse etc.

PM next Tuesday to remind me to unban you.

Please don't attack posters on Work, I know the person involved was offering far too little for the work, but isn't an excuse to become uncivil and get personal digs in on them.

Personally I don’t think my responses where unreasonable and certainly couldn’t be classified as an ‘attack’ or ‘personal abuse’!

That aside, am I the only one here that thinks that the over-zealousness of certain mods in closing and banning people in a very arbitrary and unfair way is spoiling the spirit of ribald and robust discussion here?

Sure, there will always be idiots who try to seek attention by being intentionally inflammatory and racist, but I’ve noticed an increasing trend of threads being closed down because a mod takes exception or vigorously disagrees with the OP.

…or is just me?

astec123

Personally from experience myself as a mod I find that it is better to leave banning to admin types. I have not looked at the thread in question but looking over this site I can see large differences between moderating techniques. Being just a basic user I would ask if they have their own lounge. Generally if a poster misbehaves we move it to the watched thread of our lounge and take action from there. The first mod will take the point but another generally is awaited to back up the action. Otherwise nothing is done. I wont argue with the mods here myself as I know what it is like to wake up before work to find a spammer has had a field trip over night when the rest of the team is at work or still tucked up in bed.

I suppose the spammer thing is just a matter of the diversity of the site but I have to admit that a lot of threads here seem to be kulled before they can take root. Usually people take time to start discussing properly after the first 10 posts and if a mod says "get this back on topic now or it will be closed" tends to solve the problem.

Just my 2cents on the matter.

A

Farls

I didnt see anything wrong with what you said DubWriter...but end of the day its down to the mods

Gordon

You dug the oar in after a mod gave a warning. Pure trolling.

UberNewb

They were a bit harsh on you.

secret_squirrel

What Gordon said - you just had to get a final dig in didnt you?

Harsh but fair I thought.

Try restricting your desire to have the last word....

RopeDrink

Certain forums (Especially hyper active ones) have gotten very sensitive lately due to the amount of spamming and crap that has overwhelmed us.

Warnings are usually posted up in sticky threads regarding this, whenever mods feel that things need to be kept tight, so it's no suprise sometimes when people get a bit huffy when warned or banned for something 'light'.

I have never been on the Work forum, nor have I checked out your thread, so I wont preach on the matter - But it could be that the place has become infected with muppetry that needs to be stamped out, and you happen to be one of the victims / causes, and have been dealt with in a manner that the mod see's fit.

Boards has expanded it's horizons a LOT lately, so we can't really expect 'JUST' admins performing the bannings, mainly because they are few and far between, and are no more active than us just because they are administrators - Even at that, they'd be consumed with exploring new features and updates for the site itself (Inbetweem browsing boards), I assume, so wouldn't be too willing to have to respond to multiple Moderator requests for people to be banned.

This is why SuperModerators have been asigned, to distrube work over the backs of others rather than just Admins and basic Moderators.

If you have a problem with an action that is performed, you should first send a PM to the mod in question (Nicely) stating your situation, and if that fails, take it up here.

nesf

Gordon wrote:

You dug the oar in after a mod gave a warning. Pure trolling.

Exactly.


WWM asked people to stop, you got one more dig in, that equals a ban in my eyes. If your post had contributed anything to the thread then I'd have probably let it go, but you just took a dig at the OP.

I don't view this as me being overzealous or overly harsh.


You do contribute a lot to the forum and you are a regular poster. This doesn't mean you get to be treated differently.

DublinWriter

My last post, the one you took offence at nesf, was aimed at the apparent sensitivity of the OP who seemed to take offence at constructive criticism by myself and the half-a-dozen others who thought that 8 Euro per hour was a tad ambitious a rate to hope to pay for a native French translator who also had knowledge of French Governmental procurement procedures.

I’ve been running my own business successfully and profitably for the past nine years, and if there’s one lesson the whole experience has thought me is that you can’t afford to be sensitive-soul and that you need a brass-neck.

Now in my eyes nesf, that doesn’t constitute “a cheap-dig” at the OP, it constitutes a free-lesson in the hard facts of life of trying to set up a business in this country.

As for your request for me to remind you to unban me from ‘Work’ in a week’s time, you know what? I’ll think I’ll stick to my regular forums, thanks anyways.

nesf

*shrugs*

Up to you if you want to come back or not. Threatening to not come back isn't going to make me unban you tbh.

I think you are taking this far too personally. We all break the rules now and then and most of us have picked up a ban or two in our time here. It's really not something to get worked up about tbh.

sceptre

She was rather taking the proverbial with the amount on ofer, wasn't she. Mind you, that was pointed out enough.

As a general rule, I tend to see a week's ban as almost nothing at all. We've all[1] had a week's ban at one time or another from somewhere. I'd tend to agree with Gordon - sticking the auld oar in after everyone was asked to stop is sort of asking for a short holiday or a slap. Harsh, maybe, fair, certainly. I'd take it and come back. That's my entire opinion I'm afraid.


[1]OK, I haven't but almost everyone else has, including at least one of the admins

WhiteWashMan

DublinWriter wrote:

My last post, the one you took offence at nesf, was aimed at the apparent sensitivity of the OP who seemed to take offence at constructive criticism .

'you are over sensitive', is not constructive critisism.

DublinWriter wrote:

by myself and the half-a-dozen others who thought that 8 Euro per hour was a tad ambitious a rate to hope to pay for a native French translator who also had knowledge of French Governmental procurement procedures..

just becasue you dont agree on a rate, does not mean you are correct in anything at all, nor does the fact that some people agree with you.
and it certainly doesnt give you the right to harp on about it.

DublinWriter wrote:

I’ve been running my own business successfully and profitably for the past nine years, and if there’s one lesson the whole experience has thought me is that you can’t afford to be sensitive-soul and that you need a brass-neck.
.

good for you. then perhaps you should be a little bit more thoughtful in how you word things in future.
being successful in business still does not mean you can get digs in at someone.
especially straight after i have posted asking people directly not to do it.
i mean seriously, a person would have to be think or stupid to do that...

DublinWriter wrote:

Now in my eyes nesf, that doesn’t constitute “a cheap-dig” at the OP, it constitutes a free-lesson in the hard facts of life of trying to set up a business in this country..

oh get over it already. it has been viewed a cheap dig, and it shall remain that way. no amount of whinging and whining will change that.
unfortauntely for you, nesf is a moderator, and its what counts in his eyes that matters.

DublinWriter wrote:

As for your request for me to remind you to unban me from ‘Work’ in a week’s time, you know what? I’ll think I’ll stick to my regular forums, thanks anyways.

oh noe. its my interweb, and im going home....
grow up.


you know, if you want to survive on boards.ie, you just cant afford to be sensitive....

it constitutes a free-lesson in the hard facts of life of posting on boards.ie...

WhiteWashMan

DublinWriter wrote:

but I’ve noticed an increasing trend of threads being closed down because a mod takes exception or vigorously disagrees with the OP.

…or is just me?

its just you.

ive noticed an increase in the closure of threads by mods because of personal insults, the thread being tken so far off topic you cant see the original point, boards.ie is not a chat room, general muppetry, spam and advertising.

i however have seen very little of threads being closed because a mod disagrees with a poster.

your ban was not the result of disagreeing with you.

your ban was for being a muppet, poisting something stupid right after i asked people not to.

again, i have to say, youd either have to be thick, or stupid, or trolling to do something like that.

Hobbes

Its touch and go. If the mod hadn't of warned people it would of been left.

If I was you I wouldn't get over sensitive about it.

*edit* Dam WWman got the obvious joke first


... you get banned. it happens. its a temp ban. You learn from it. Pretty sure most of the long term mods have been banned/warned at one stage or another.

egan007

DublinWriter wrote:

I’ve been using boards.ie for over a year now and have posted some 600 times. Today I was banned for a week for the first time for my replies in the following thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=295502&goto=newpost

This was the private message I received from ‘nesf’:

Personally I don’t think my responses where unreasonable and certainly couldn’t be classified as an ‘attack’ or ‘personal abuse’!

That aside, am I the only one here that thinks that the over-zealousness of certain mods in closing and banning people in a very arbitrary and unfair way is spoiling the spirit of ribald and robust discussion here?

Sure, there will always be idiots who try to seek attention by being intentionally inflammatory and racist, but I’ve noticed an increasing trend of threads being closed down because a mod takes exception or vigorously disagrees with the OP.

…or is just me?

Becareful - It's getting to the point where you can't have an opinion on boards without getting banned .

"Boards.ie -Now ye're talkin" - well sort of, in a limited censored way.
After all the Public Do need protection.

WhiteWashMan

ah youre just annoyed because i locked a thread that should have been in another thread, was full of abuse, and really had no point.


and shure hey, if you dont like it, leave.
no ones keeping you posting here.

just becuase you have an opinion, doesnt mean youre right.

Nukem

Take the week its no biggy,telling Mod you wont come back to the forum because you were banned really wont phase them! Idle threat!

Nukem

Talliesin

astec123 wrote:

Personally from experience myself as a mod I find that it is better to leave banning to admin types.

There are over 500 forums.

Unless it's a site-ban matter the admins don't have time, indeed apart from ecksor (due to the way the admins divide up the workload amongst themselves) most site-ban matters are dealt with by the SMods (and we mostly don't have time to deal with forum bans outside of the forums we are normal mods of, or have been asked to keep an eye on, either).

Further, different forums have different tolerance levels for different degrees of rule breaches. That this is so is appropriate - different forums have different purposes and flavours and should do, but it means that the call on what should be a warning, a ban or just ignored can be harder for an admin to make than for the mod.

In all, it's better to leave banning to mod types.

DublinWriter

nesf wrote:

*shrugs* Threatening to not come back isn't going to make me unban you tbh.

I didn't threaten, I stated an intention.

I would prefare to stay banned from the 'Work' forum as life's too short to worry about what particular goose I was saying 'boo' to.

End of argument, afaic, tbh.

WhiteWashMan

and so this thread was just a complete waste of time because you felt the need to whinge?

discuss?

Raiser

I think its a little harsh to be honest, message boards are about opinion and discussion.

Once all the posts on boards.ie are all uniform token responses without feeling and personality the boards will cease to be. Who will want to visit an over-policed site where response to posts must be robotic and sterile?

Also I have noticed the Jailer/Prisoner syndrome manifest itself amongst certain MODs here.

One MOD regularily threatens people will widespread "bannings" - two or three posters at a time like shes waving a magic wand. Power corrupts MODs - you're not here to control but to facilitate. I've heard the disdainful "Wretch - should I forget to unban you whimper at my door....." a few times before and it always smells a little bit like power trip....

Finally, and you folk may not realise it, but people are here not for the yawn responses but for the incitefull, informative, humourous/witty, heartfelt ones - so maybe lay off and stop stifling people.

P.S. Most of the MODs here do an excellent job.

Talliesin

Raiser wrote:

I think its a little harsh to be honest, message boards are about opinion and discussion.

This doesn't always hold. In some threads on some forums - those which attempt to be useful rather than a way to pass the time - it is more important that the thread remains on-topic.

Raiser wrote:

Once all the posts on boards.ie are all uniform token responses without feeling and personality the boards will cease to be. Who will want to visit an over-policed site where response to posts must be robotic and sterile?

Eh, have you read boards?
It's not exactly Emily Post.

Raiser wrote:

One MOD regularily threatens people will widespread "bannings" - two or three posters at a time like shes waving a magic wand.

On some forums most incidents that require a banning or a warning involve more than one poster simultaneously (e.g. in PI - where remaining on topic is particularly important - off-topic spats between two or three posters would require such).

Raiser wrote:

Power corrupts MODs

Not being a mod corrupts some user's perception of power. Really, we don't have much power, and have little illusion of that (sure we joke that we do all the time, but the point of those jokes is that we really don't have much power just because we're mods of a web forum or two)

Raiser wrote:

I've heard the disdainful "Wretch - should I forget to unban you whimper at my door....." a few times before and it always smells a little bit like power trip....

It became common practice because people were upset that mods tended to forget about unbanning them.

Raiser wrote:

Finally, and you folk may not realise it, but people are here not for the yawn responses but for the incitefull, informative, humourous/witty, heartfelt ones - so maybe lay off and stop stifling people.

The thread was spiraling away from it's purpose. It had ceased to be informative, though the moderator action gave it a chance to get back on track and perhaps be so, and I see no evidence of inciteful humor or wit.

A heartfelt response to a sits vacant notice would be a bit scary tbh.

Nukem

Raiser wrote:

P.S. Most of the MODs here do an excellent job.

The Interrogation continues to find these mods................

egan007

WhiteWashMan wrote:

ah youre just annoyed because i locked a thread that should have been in another thread, was full of abuse, and really had no point.


and shure hey, if you dont like it, leave.
no ones keeping you posting here.

just becuase you have an opinion, doesnt mean youre right.

Point proven....Over zealous mods

oscarBravo

Raiser wrote:

I think its a little harsh to be honest, message boards are about opinion and discussion.

...within boundaries. Those boundaries are set by the moderators on the boards they moderate.

Raiser wrote:

Once all the posts on boards.ie are all uniform token responses without feeling and personality the boards will cease to be. Who will want to visit an over-policed site where response to posts must be robotic and sterile?

Who, indeed? But then, who's talking about that? Why is it that any moderating decision that someone disagrees with prompts talk of Orwellian censorship?

Raiser wrote:

...you're not here to control but to facilitate.

On the contrary, we're here to control and to facilitate.

Raiser wrote:

Finally, and you folk may not realise it, but people are here not for the yawn responses but for the incitefull, informative, humourous/witty, heartfelt ones - so maybe lay off and stop stifling people.

Took a vox pop, did you? Maybe we should hold a boardswide referendum before taking any moderating action.

oscarBravo

egan007 wrote:

Point proven....Over zealous mods

Point proven....Red haired posters

Hey, it makes just as much sense to me...

egan007

I think if's funny how an electronic identity thinks it has some kind of power over another electronic identity and takes satisfaction from it.

This is even below Security Guard level - even below Bouncer!

HEMAN - I have the power

WhiteWashMan

and yet you are still here, whinging away....

egan007

WhiteWashMan wrote:

and yet you are still here, whinging away....

And obviously striking a chord

Judging by the responces on this thread alot of people find a problem here but it's clear that some mods don't want to recognise it.

God forbid they might be wrong.
Expecially you

TerrorFirmer

Actually, now that you mention it, I have noticed *some* such incidents cropping up.

I'm not going to promote myself as the above and all pristine example of model behaviour, and have been rightfully checked in some cases, but other times have been threatened with a ban simply because the mod in question does not like my opinions, even though they stay well within the boundaries of opinion rather then trolling. This seems to be the major problem. Some people are a bit too ban-happy, be it temp or permanent.

Although on that note, there's not a big problem, and I think most of the mods are excellent...

WhiteWashMan

not really.
havent you seen the hudred and one other threads on the feedback forum complaining about how unfair it is that they were banned or had threads locked?

theres loads of them.

but you know what, since you are so eager to prove something or other, why dont you tell us all exactly what the problem is.
and then tell us all how to solve it.

because now im going to play a little devils advocate. im bored of explaining myself to people like you who dont seem to be able to comprehend or grasp simple ideas, so, what im going to do is in going to make you tell us all how what the worlds problsm are, and how to solve them.

and then i will smugly reply back with one liner pot shots about your ability to do anything, and how stupid all your ideas are.

so, on your marks, get set.... go!






im really excited about this experiment. i cant wait give ambiguous answers that mean nothing. come on now, youve got yourself a little preachers corner, tell us how its done now!