Banned for Work re Eastern European thread

BossArky

Yesterday I was banned from the work forum:

http://blah.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055022121

Was that really deserved?

I would have thought that most of my posts on the work forum have been helpful and constructive over the past years.

My post was not trolling from my point of view. My gf is Czech (which the original poster could not even spell), plus I have many extremely well educated and sucessful colleagues from Poland and other Eastern European countries. It therefore annoys me that the original poster is (in my opinion) attempting to import cheap labour and exploit other less aware people from these countries. I seriously doubt his claim that he cannot find Irish workers for these positions.

I have PM'd the mod responsible so that I can follow up with these comments. No response yet. Viewing the thread in logged out mode shows that I am not the only person annoyed with the original posters idea. When the ban ends I will post these comments anyway. I don't feel this ban was justified.

petes

Totally justified imo. Just because the rest of your threads are helpful doesn't excuse this one. From reading the thread which I have followed I think the op is sincere as from other posters it seems its a hard enough position to fill. You jumped the gun a wee bit on this one.

Lafortezza

Seems a little harsh, no warning or request to explain your comment by the mods.
But if it's only for a week then meh.

6th

Yep agree with it 100% and the fact that you are generally a very good poster doesnt come into it.

Fair play to the mod for judging on a post by post basis, I can only imagine it can be difficult to banned someone whos been around for so long.

Take the week ban on the chin.

koneko

Justified, I'd say. I agree you jumped the gun on that one, you could have asked him and fished out more info, but instead you seemed attacked him right off the bat. It's only a week, so sit it out.

Hobbes

You came in fighting on that thread. Could of been worded more diplomatically. A good example...

http://blah.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=52425746&postcount=12

humanji

Hobbes wrote:

You came in fighting on that thread. Could of been worded more diplomatically. A good example...

http://blah.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=52425746&postcount=12

Beruthiel's ass is for sitting, not kissing, Hobbes!

gandalf

Justified you came charging into that thread like a bull in a china shop without waiting for the OP to clarify his position.

How long is the ban for?

The Sweeper

Harsh IMO. I'm big into one warning for posts that can be construed as momentary lapses of judgement.

You did wade in swinging, but banning you outright with no warning perpetuates what I feel is the stifling of discussion on boards by overzealous moderation.

Warn.
Then ban.

I don't think your prior contribution should make a difference either way, but as a standalone decision I still think it was just as snappy as your first response to the OP.

nesf

BossArky wrote:

Yesterday I was banned from the work forum:

http://blah.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055022121

Was that really deserved?

I'd have warned first personally, but yeah it's an attack so it's the kind of thing that could get you banned.

BossArky wrote:

I would have thought that most of my posts on the work forum have been helpful and constructive over the past years.

This doesn't make it better. Actually, for me this makes it worse. You know better than most what is and what is not acceptable on there.

BossArky wrote:

My post was not trolling from my point of view. My gf is Czech (which the original poster could not even spell), plus I have many extremely well educated and sucessful colleagues from Poland and other Eastern European countries. It therefore annoys me that the original poster is (in my opinion) attempting to import cheap labour and exploit other less aware people from these countries. I seriously doubt his claim that he cannot find Irish workers for these positions.

Right, so without any evidence and backed by your own assumptions you attacked someone on the forum. The thing is that it doesn't matter that you doubt his claim or that a lot of your friends are Eastern Europeans or that there is exploitation of foreign workers in this country. None of this justifies what you did and it most definitely doesn't mean you get out of the ban.

BossArky wrote:

I have PM'd the mod responsible so that I can follow up with these comments. No response yet. Viewing the thread in logged out mode shows that I am not the only person annoyed with the original posters idea. When the ban ends I will post these comments anyway. I don't feel this ban was justified.

If your comments are civil and you don't attack the poster that will be fine. If you attack him again then you'll just earn another ban.


All we expect from people using the forum is that they remain civil towards each other. Attacking them or making allegations etc does not consitute this and will earn a ban. You know this very well, you literature is run in much the same fashion.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

DublinWriter

BossArky wrote:

Was that really deserved?

Yes. For a mod in literature I would have expected a more literate response.

Now be a good boy, suck it down, and learn your lesson.

CuLT

DublinWriter wrote:

Yes. For a mod in literature I would have expected a more literate response.

Now be a good boy, suck it down, and learn your lesson.

He's a mod of Literature, doesn't mean he has a BA(Mod) in it

I believe the phrase is "suck it up", I've never heard "suck it down" used in anything other than one unusal item of porn.

GoneShootin

eth0_ conferred with me after the ban was put in place. I was going to ban you for the week when I came across your post, but was beaten to it.

BossArky wrote:

Was that really deserved?

Yes.

cast_iron

Without a shred of evidence, you assumed the OP was out to exploit the foreign workers.

In fact, did the OP not say that he could not source Irish workers at first so that is what forced him to enquire about Eastern Europeans? Such a reasonable attitude did not warrant your bullish, ignorant response.

Did you really expect to be exonerated here?

Ban thoroughly deserved.

BigCon

I don't think the ban was long enough

CiaranC

Totally justified. OP was obviously looking to recruit qualified people from the abundant labour pools outside of the country after being unable to fill the position with a suitably qualified Irish person.

How you get the idea that he is looking to exploit people is beyond me.

faceman

I think a warning was more appropriate, its obvious your post was in jest however irrelevent it was.
Then again I aint a Mod so my opinion is as irrelevent as your post was!

Gareth Austin

Hi there,

When I asked the OP about Eastern Europeans I was, and still are, being genuine, there is a skill shortage with the Horticulture industry in Ireland, something which is recognised by Bord Bia who are trying to recruit more Irish people into the colleges and into the industry.

The freedom of movement is one of the issues at the heart of the EU and as such, allows reputable employers, such as myself, to source skilled workers from throughout the EU.

I am not looking for Apple Pickers or Mushroom Pickers I am lookign for skilled florists and skilled horticulturists who can converse and offer advice to customers in the store. And as such I will be paying good rates for good staff.

I think the perception that every Eastern European who comes to work here is somewhat being taken advantage of shameful. As in the same way are all Italians, French, German etc who come here being taken advantage off?

There is a skilled shortage within many of the manual trades in Ireland, (plumbers, builders, tilers are in short supply), and I think we have to look at other EU members to meet our needs. Note the recent report about the possible road building plans for Ireland leading to an increase in house prices as there are only a limited amount of construction personnel available in Ireland.


I apologise for my bad spelling in earlier posts.

BossArky

The jury has spoken.

My point: I was not attacking the OP merely inferring a point with my initial question which then opened the flood gates. I had not meant the comments to be seen as galloping in on a battle clad high horse - seems to have been taken the wrong way. I'm not looking for vindication or lectures on rules of the road.

Regarding the various posts about literature mod and what not... well, I'm just a person who reads a few books and has an interest there. I humbly apologise if my posts are not always classical compositions which wax lyrically for your reading pleasure.

True, I'm not B.A. in literature (nor horticulture ) but an M.Sc in IT. Demotion imminent :rolleyes:

oscarBravo

BossArky wrote:

Demotion imminent :rolleyes:

Heh. I first read this as "demolition, innit". That worked equally well, funnily enough...

padser

CuLT wrote:

He's a mod of Literature, doesn't mean he has a BA(Mod) in it

If your going to correct someones grammar, at least make sure your are making sense, if you dont, you get left with egg on your face.

He is a moderator, in the literature forum. He moderates in the literature forum. Yes you could say he is a moderator of the forum, but that doesnt change the fact he moderates within it also.

OP: I actually agree completely that a poster with a long record of previously good posts should get some latitude if they mess up once. My reasoning behind it is this.

THe main reason we have moderators in internet forums is to prevent the forum degrading into a mess of personal abuse, and off topic conversations. To do this, moderators, in theory ban people to prevent this happening, to discourage people from breaking the rules and to make trolling and spamming more difficult on a practical level.

If a poster has had a good reputation on the site for 7 yrs, and has ammassed over 3000 posts, and are themselves a mod of/in a forum, is the deterent of a week long ban needed? I would suggest not, a warning would suffice.

I agree that your post was bang out of order, I simply dont feel that banning you serves any useful purpose. If you had been warned and persisted then the situatin would be different.

humanji

padser wrote:

He is a moderator, in the literature forum. He moderates in the literature forum. Yes you could say he is a moderator of the forum, but that doesnt change the fact he moderates within it also.

That joke went way over your head, didn't it.

BossArky

humanji wrote:

That joke went way over your head, didn't it.

As mod of the literature forum I would like to rephrase the above with the addition of a question mark:

That joke went way over your head, didn't it?

Time Magazine

padser wrote:

If your going to correct someones grammar, at least make sure your are making sense, if you dont, you get left with egg on your face.

Cringe.

CuLT

padser wrote:

If your going to correct someones grammar, at least make sure your are making sense, if you dont, you get left with egg on your face.

Look pal, you've more grammatical errors in your first sentence than I have in my last 2000 posts. It was a joke.

While you are not required to get jokes, it helps to have a modicum of wit before mashing the reply button in retaliation to percieved injustice.

Time Magazine

Hey, at least I had the decency to only pick him up on what was definitely not a typo.

Your to cruel man, to cruel.

humanji

BossArky wrote:

As mod of the literature forum I would like to rephrase the above with the addition of a question mark:

That joke went way over your head, didn't it?

Eh, it was a statement, not a question. Will that do? Hey wait a minute, are you a mod of literature or a mod in literature?

CiaranC

Your to cruel man, to cruel.

Must....resist.....

Thats too cruel.

...gah

Stark

CiaranC wrote:

Thats too cruel

That's too cruel.

Now someone correct my grammar and we can all ride the grammar correction spiral together!

Gordon

Stark wrote:

That's too cruel.

Now someone correct my grammar and we can all ride the grammar correction spiral together!

Now, someone correct my grammar and we can all ride the grammar correction spiral together!

bonkey

Offtopic :

---

Isn't there some 'Law' which states that every post correcting a spelling or grammatical error will itself contain a spelling or grammatical error?

But hey, knock yourselves out.

Ontopic:

---

I would agree with the mod's decision. However, had I been in BossArky's position, the first thing I would have asked is why the OP was only interested in Eastern Europeans to fill his positions, and not EU citizens from outside Ireland. Why would - for example - a Spanish or Italian horticulturist not be acceptable or sought?

Time Magazine

CiaranC wrote:

Ibid wrote:

Your to cruel man, to cruel.

Thats too cruel.

BossArky wrote:

That joke went way over your head, didn't it?

.

BossArky

humanji wrote:

Eh, it was a statement, not a question. Will that do? Hey wait a minute, are you a mod of literature or a mod in literature?

I could answer that apparent question. However I'm now rather confused as to whether it actually was a statement or a question. Your preceding post demonstrates a flagrant disregard for the question mark :eek:

To clear up this whole debacle let me state that I am actually more of a rocker than mod.

CuLT

BossArky wrote:

To clear up this whole debacle let me state that I am actually more of a rocker than mod.

*groan*

Tar.Aldarion

CuLT wrote:

Look pal, you've more grammatical errors in your first sentence than I have in my last 2000 posts. It was a joke.

While you are not required to get jokes, it helps to have a modicum of wit before mashing the reply button in retaliation to percieved injustice.

I've read your posts and that is a lie!


It seems that we have some fresh faces for Spell Czechs.

CiaranC

Ibid wrote:

.

Why, yes. Yes it did.

/hangs head

hullaballoo

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

It seems that we have some fresh faces for Spell Czechs.

I initially read in a second "e" into faces. Yucky.

Tar.Aldarion

Well, we need some fresh... too.
I'm getting tired of that particular moderating doodee; are you not also?

hullaballoo

I take it slightly more seriously than you and I'm not so quick to pooh-pooh it. I will admit it needs something more to set it afloat again.

Tar.Aldarion

Ah, yes you do, do you not?
Then again, you probably enjoy the menial tasks more, as you've always been number two.

oscarBravo

Seriously, guys: cut the crap.

nesf

oscarBravo wrote:

Seriously, guys: cut the crap.

Semi-colon no?

The Sweeper

I think in this case the colon is correct as it is introducing a new concept into a sentence. A semi-colon should never be used to introduce a new concept; it is best used as a super-comma or a tool to avoid the comma splice.

nesf

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

I think in this case the colon is correct as it is introducing a new concept into a sentence. A semi-colon should never be used to introduce a new concept; it is best used as a super-comma or a tool to avoid the comma splice.

A semi-colon can be used to link two independent sentences together where a full stop would be too abrupt or create ambiguity. By using a semi-colon we have the meaning from the first sentence 'carry-on' into the second and thus reduce the ambiguity of the second. So yeah I think it's ok to introduce a new concept...

BossArky

Jesus; I am totally lost.

I had followed the conversation up until the introducation of a "semi-colon". What the hell is that?

Akin to a semicolon in much the same way as a muppet is akin to a puppet?

nesf

Afaik you can use semi-colon? Following the usual convention for semi-X.

I could be wrong though.

The Sweeper

I have but one defence: look at the time on the posts, would you?

hullaballoo

Allways read the small-print. Terms and conditions apply.

BossArky

Back on topic .... Can someone now lift the ban keeping me out of the work fourm? It has been a week. No response to my PM to the mod who put me out in the cold in the first place.

6th

hullaballoo wrote:

Allways read the small-print. Terms and conditions apply.

One "l" in always