Banning of Posters...

[sherrife]

Hi Mods,

I want to make it clear that i'm not pissed off at any of you personally, but just think the current setup is a bit authoritarian.

How about in cases like DtM where there is significant dissent about your decision, you place a sticky in the main forum and we have a vote about it, make it last for 2 days or something. You could even suspend the poster until the vote was resolved.

I would suggest that every single card/banning could be voted on, but i'm guessing you would never agee

How about it, this is a test to see if you will willingly give up some power in order to make the system fairer. It would actually make your life easier if you adopted my second suggestion, as we could have spontaneous votes without your involvement at all, and all you would have to do is act on our decision. I'm guessing very few posters (bar the trolls) would be banned, which i think would be a good thing for the health of this awesome site.

cheers, Omar

[Joel]

It's not a bad suggestion (in theory), though I'm not sure how workable it would be in the scheme of things.

For instance, people often say some pretty obscene stuff. Those comments are often deleted before most people see them. How would the users of Nick's vote when they don't have the full facts?

sheriffe, do you have an experience running a bulletin board?

[stui magpie]

OK, first point, if you don't want to get a reply, then PM or email the mod rather than post a thread.

2nd point, I don't think there is significant discent about the decisionto suspend DTM. Yes, plenty of posters (me included) would like him back but once the situation was clarified, I don't believe many people have an issue with what happened.

3rd point. The Mods issue warnings via PM to people when they infract the rules. DTM had 2 yellows and had previoulsy been suspended so I can only assume he was fully aware of what behaviour had been considered innappropriate in the past. It might be nice to know in a voyeristic sense what was said but it's none of our business and in DTM's position I would appreciate the courtesy of a personal warning rather than a public one.

4th point. This is bulletin board, not a democracy or a hippie commune. It is like a benevolent dictatorship. benevolent in the sense that the rules are clearly posted and the "rulers" (Mod's) do their job voluntarily and derive no personal benefit from doing it.

5th point. To put everything to a vote would, IMO, create a situation where the loudest faction would continually prevail over the more apathetic majority, changing the character of the Board and IMO ruining it.

I lke the way things work, I don't always agree with the Mods but if i really don't like it I can exercise the ultimate in choice. Leave.

The Mods run the site according to a charter they have. The population on the site varies from time to time, the charter doesn't. That's what makes this a good place to come IMO.
Feedback is accepted and sometimes acted upon which is how DTM got his original red card overturned.

There's very few places where two people as different as you and I would ever meet and engage in civil conversation. This is one of them.

[The Prototype]

I think that Dave is lucky, no I am not taking a shot at him, I like him and think he adds some value to the site. But no he does ignore the rules and after it's explained he goes off a bit, like in the Doggies game in chat he went very overboard in there with his swearing and other things that he said.

But...to the point he is lucky he's just been suspended some people that keep breaking rules (most are more serious though...) are banned rather then suspended which is what he has.

I want to know can we have a different coloured card for someone suspended? Like maybe a green card? Just so we know who is or isn't banned and who is or isn't suspended? Just you know when you suspend someone rather then ban we have an idea..

Just curious:)

[Johnson#26]

[member34258]

Not missing Dave, and don't know the full facts.
I have moderated a tech board and found it to be a very unsatisfying experience. Whoever said "you cannot please all the people all the time" deserves a medal.
Though I must admit that some decisions I see on this board do confuse me, I understand that all the facts are not before me.
On th tech board I was involved with we would always leave the offensive material up for the community to see why the action was taken. Thankfully, geeks are a lot less volatile than footy fans!

[Bucks5]

I cannot see the point of a vote, whether a person is banned or not should not depend upon their popularity.

[The Prototype]

[gregpie]

I'm a Mod on a support forum and it's generally a fairly thankless task.
Sometimes posters break the rules(which are normally very lenient) and they need to be suspended or in the case of repeat offences banned.
The Mods here do a good job. Allowing everybody to get involved in policy decisions would lead to anarchy and chaos.

greg

[Alec. J. Hidell]

I have trouble understand anything DtM says, so most of the time I wouldn't know if he should be banned

[DidakinthePocket]

No comment on the DtM side of things, as I dont want to say something Ill regret.

In short, Nicks is a sort of dictatorship, although, Id prefer family. Mods as the parents and all of us as the little s*it kids running around stiring the pot!

Keep it the way it is!

Cheers

Tobes

[~Madness~]

Nicks mods: Old Woman!

The peasant turns around, revealing that he is in fact a man.

tobes: Man!
Mods: Man, sorry.... What knight lives in that castle over there?
tobes: I'm thirty-seven!
mods: (suprised) What?
tobes: I'm thirty-seven! I'm not old--
mods: Well I can't just call you "man"...
tobes: Well you could say "tobes"--
mods: I didn't know you were called tobes!
tobes: Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?!
mods: I did say sorry about the "old woman", but from behind, you looked--
tobes: Well I object to your...you automatically treat me like an inferior!
mods: Well I *am* king...
tobes: Oh, king, eh, very nice. And 'ow'd you get that, eh?
(he reaches his destination and stops, dropping the cart)
By exploiting the workers! By 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma
which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.
If there's ever going to be any progress,--
Madness: tobes! There's some lovely filth down 'ere!
(noticing Arthur) Oh! 'Ow'd'ja do?
Mods: How do you do, good lady. I am Arthur, king of the Britons. Whose
castle is that?
Madness: King of the 'oo?
Mods: King of the Britons.
Madness: 'Oo are the Britons?
Mods: Well we all are! We are all Britons! And I am your king.
Madness: I didn't know we 'ad a king! I thought we were autonomous collective.
tobes: (mad) You're fooling yourself! We're living in a dictatorship! A
self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
Madness: There you go, bringing class into it again...
tobes: That's what it's all about! If only people would--
Mods: Please, *please*, good people, I am in haste! WHO lives in that
castle?
Madness: No one lives there.
Mods: Then who is your lord?
Madness: We don't have a lord!
Mods: (spurised) What??
tobes: I *told* you! We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune! We're taking
turns to act as a sort of executive-officer-for-the-week--
Mods: (uninterested) Yes...
tobes: But all the decisions *of* that officer 'ave to be ratified at a
special bi-weekly meeting--
Mods: (perturbed) Yes I see!
tobes: By a simple majority, in the case of purely internal affairs--
Mods: (mad) Be quiet!
tobes: But by a two-thirds majority, in the case of more major--
Mods: (very angry) BE QUIET! I *order* you to be quiet!
Madness: "Order", eh, 'oo does 'e think 'e is?
Mods: I am your king!
Madness: Well I didn't vote for you!
Mods: You don't vote for kings!
Madness: Well 'ow'd you become king then?
(holy music up)
Mods: The Lady of the Lake-- her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite,
held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by
divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why
I am your king!
tobes: (laughingly) Listen: Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords
is no basis for a system of government! Supreme executive power
derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some... farcical
aquatic ceremony!
Mods: (yelling) BE QUIET!
tobes: You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some
watery tart threw a sword at you!!
Mods: (coming forward and grabbing the man) Shut *UP*!
tobes: I mean, if I went 'round, saying I was an emperor, just because some
moistened bink had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
Mods: (throwing the man around) Shut up, will you, SHUT UP!
tobes: Aha! Now we see the violence inherent in the system!
Mods: SHUT UP!
tobes: (yelling to all the other workers) Come and see the violence inherent
in the system! HELP, HELP, I'M BEING REPRESSED!
Mods: (letting go and walking away) Bloody PEASANT!
tobes: Oh, what a giveaway! Did'j'hear that, did'j'hear that, eh? That's
what I'm all about! Did you see 'im repressing me? You saw it,
didn't you?!

ehehehehe I couldn't help myself tobes, your dictatorship comment reminded me of this skit in the Holy Grail

[Proud Pies]

Madness..........i can only say........


THANK YOU

[David]

Too long since I've seen that film Madness .... might go and watch it now.

"Aha! Now we see the violence inherent in the system... come see the violence inherent in the system!"

[DidakinthePocket]

Nei Nei Nei!

The purpose of my post was to simply say that Nicks is a sort of dictatorship, but in the nicest possible way.

Even I confuse myself sometimes.