Banned from immigration thread.

This issue amongst many others was raised on the Site is a Graveyard thread:

Apparently this rule against anecdote is applied on certain specific threads and these must be a warning on Page 1 of same. If it were applied across the site, it would collapse within a couple of days for obvious reasons.

It doesn't make any sense to me but it does apparently to those who moderate. You need to avoid anecdote, so instead of saying 'my student daughter lost her job to a non national who was happy with less wages' you write something like 'young people are being disadvantaged in lower paid jobs by non nationals undercutting them'. When asked for proof & reports by the obvious trolls, you simply ignore them or reply - 'sorry, no anecdote allowed'.

Of course it's noticeable that some posters of certain views seem to avoid the anecdote sanction as their stories are deemed valid..

No white smoke as promised I note yet as a result of the above extensive thread…

See, this is part of the problem.

I dare say that most posters have never reported a post. They read it, reply to it (maybe exposing themselves to mod actions in the process which is often the intent), or they ignore it and move on.

However, I'd be pretty confident that those doing the reporting are the same ones who are often behind many of the in-thread problems in the first place, or who are "known" generally for disruptive behaviour/posting under the guise of balance.

How far back do mods read when they get a report? How much is the context/intent/provocation/responded to poster's history factored into a decision to threadban someone.

In the thread in question I would say there are up to half a dozen regular posters whose only real contributions are to cause disruption to the discussion though this applies to most of the longer running "controversial" threads. It's very obvious from the tone and content of their posts, the repetitive and selective nature of their responses, the "funny"/dismissive/one-line type response etc.

Again it's very obvious from reading through the thread who they are, yet while the threadban list in the OP's continue to grow, these posters (often the same ones across multiple threads) seem to escape unscathed. It doesn't go unnoticed either, and THAT is what annoys others who are trying to engage honestly.

"Report them" is a cop out that relies on users to do the work. If mods haven't the time to review in the manner suggested above, or aren't familiar with the posters I refer to (hard to believe as it carries over between threads) then that's a bigger issue probably best addressed by simply adding more mods (and as I've repeatedly said, preferably from outside the normal limited gene pool that is usually the well for such things).

It's also fair to say that personal bias or even conflicts of interest may be a factor in some of the decisions, but in that case I would certainly hope that mods (regardless of level) would refer the report to someone else to review.

If posters are asked and indeed expected to use and trust in the process, that process needs to be as transparent as possible, and demonstratably balanced and fair - something which the current approach often fails on. You/mods may disagree with that statement, but the onus is on the mod team to improve that perception, not push it back on the users.

For some strange reason anecdotes like: “I see Ukrainians driving around my town in flash cars” is not allowed

However anecdotes such as: “I live three doors down from a Direct Provision centre and there’s no hassle at all and they’re a great bunch of lads involved in the Tidy Towns committee” are allowed.

So mods don't moderate a 'forum' they only moderate reported posts?

To be honest iv started to lately out of curiosity.

The only conclusion I can come to is that I must be doing something wrong.

Just because it's not, doesn't mean it can't be. Bang of arrogance off this reply too.

The poster is giving some feedback, maybe take some of it on board instead of "like it or shove it"?

There are certain agitators in this thread that would tell you it's black when they know it's white. It's a game to them. Posters with some sense shouldn't need to depend on the report button, but these agitators are painfully obvious to see, and can derail pages of discussion with deflection and citation requests (followed in formulaic fashion with dismissal of author once handed to them). There isn't one post specifically that can necessarily be referred to, nor am I bothered enough to go constantly reporting, but you just need to give it a read every once in a while to see the bad faith posting (trolling?) from the half dozen as someone referred to above.

Just another disgruntled mods are bullies thread. They keep picking me .....😭

Now duplicating the same ground as was only recently discussed in detail in this very active thread...