It's a small world after all" why the heavy handed mod

Fab Foodie

Bit miffed at the sudden locking without warning on the "It's a small world after all" post.
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/forums/vi ... t=12538262
Things have really gone down-hill.

OK, I know about much of the history here between certain parties as does Sam W. I'm sure he expected a bit of flack posting here, after-all sometimes a bit of stimulation or provocation is needed to get a good debate going!
But to lock the thread without some kind of warning seems heavy handed IMO. I'd expect that elsewhere but not on the remnants of C+

I thought a good debate was just shaping-up with the arrival of simon L33 & 1/3rd.

If this is how it's gonna be maybe it's time to move-on.

Very dissapointed.

Simon L2

it's simon l53today to you, young foodie!

Yorkshireman

Fab Foodie wrote:

Bit miffed at the sudden locking without warning on the "It's a small world after all" post.
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/forums/vi ... t=12538262
Things have really gone down-hill.

OK, I know about much of the history here between certain parties as does Sam W. I'm sure he expected a bit of flack posting here, after-all sometimes a bit of stimulation or provocation is needed to get a good debate going!
But to lock the thread without some kind of warning seems heavy handed IMO. I'd expect that elsewhere but not on the remnants of C+

I thought a good debate was just shaping-up with the arrival of simon L33 & 1/3rd.

If this is how it's gonna be maybe it's time to move-on.

Very dissapointed.

To be fair John Stevenson gave a reasonable warning on the first page. As the thread degenerated into silly name calling and needless language (all from one side) rather than a possibly interesting discussion, the thread was locked. I'm rather heartened that someone is interested enough to take action to stop such pointless behaviour, it was neither witty nor humorous - simply childish (in my opinion). Others may have a different view.

Yorkshireman

Simon L2 wrote:

it's simon l53today to you, young foodie!

Geraht er it, yer just an old Birthday Tart (when you get the day right)

John Stevenson

Fab Foodie wrote:

Bit miffed at the sudden locking without warning

I thought "if this is going to degenerate into personal abuse take it elsewhere" was a perfectly clear warning.

It degenerated into personal abuse. I locked it.

rustychisel

Yes you did, and fair enough too, for it became something silly which involved toys being chucked out of prams, but I support FabF's comments because of deleted posts.

John, you may, or may not be aware of some of the history behind the thread, and it doesn't really matter if you are up to date. You'd get a distorted view from that thread, but the fact remains that the history is there.

In deleting posts (for whatever reason) you completely distort the thread IN AND OF ITSELF, rendering much of it worthless, which is far from the case, and contribute to the very poor standards you warned against.

THAT is heavy handed moderating, and is both unwelcome and in my opinion, unwise. If you adjudge it worthwhile to leave that crap about 'blowing goats' elsewhere, then what in Gods name was so wrong about this exchange. I should like to see the full thread reinstated, up to the point at which it was locked. THAT is fair moderating.

John Stevenson

I deleted four posts, all from the same poster, all of which contained personal abuse directed at an individual and contributed, as far as I could see, no facts to the discussion.

If I've distorted the thread by making that poster's side of the discussion seem less infantile, I apologise.

Differences between this and the 'blowing goats' thread are obvious I'd have thought. That was clearly a silly attempt to wind people up, and it was taken as such. It turned into banter pretty much immediately. It did not involve direct personal insults between individuals.

I've been around on-line discussions of one sort or another since the early 90s. I don't ever recall a conversation that degenerated into personal abuse contributing anything to the sum total of human knowledge and happiness.

If I see it here (abuse, not contributions to etc), I'll stop it.

rustychisel

Thanks John,

Well, no, it couldn't be LESS infantile, but it might be a bit funnier.

I'm hoping, for reasons of historical perspective, that at least someone was called a "cock monkey" or a "cheese eating surrender monkey". :P :P



'Razz'????? WTF. Who's used 'razz' as a verb since the early 1980s?


Edited: 'fool' does not mean 'c o c k'. Censorship or otherwise.

Glueman

The history, if anyone cares, is a bunch of people migrated from here because the moderation was rubbish; there wasn't any worth a light. Things seem to have improved no end if John's intervention is anything to go by. That the migrants ended up on Sam's site was pure chance but the mass flight lent the place a certain flavour. I no longer post there but there are two sides to every story. It's no reflection on the site as a whole.

The review of ACF was mine, as someone who was around from the start(ish). Outsiders will see it as hopeless hagiography, insiders as treachery. Whether Sam was wise to bring his views here is another matter. The willingness to intervene on this board looks hopeful.

Ravenbait

john_stevenson wrote:

Differences between this and the 'blowing goats' thread are obvious I'd have thought. That was clearly a silly attempt to wind people up, and it was taken as such. It turned into banter pretty much immediately. It did not involve direct personal insults between individuals.

Actually, given that at least one of Mr Walker's was full of factual inaccuracy and directed at me me personally, I suspect that his posting here was also an attempt to wind people up.

YMMV, but I note that he did not respond to my query before the thread was locked, although he did find time to respond to a query that was posted after mine.

Sam

Simon L2

I think I can answer your question., Ms. R.

Soapbox is no longer. It's a kind of Ellis Island in reverse. A requiem for itself. An ossuary. So where better?

Buggi

i think there's a difference between a debate and personal abuse??? was never involved in the original thread but i think that's probably why they closed it. you have to remember it's a public site and they want people to join, not be put off by name calling.

so if you have a genuine opinion then that's fine but i think it was because it got personal by the looks of it.

Patrick Stevens

Hmm.............some interesting observations above. My personal view on threads developing into personal abuse is that it usually involves eager volunteers and anyone sensible gives them a wide berth and lets them let off steam.