Humour now against forum rules

liamdubh

I made a harmless joke (and made it clear it was a joke) before making a serious reply. I think the Moderator is completely over the top in banning me for 1 month and he failed to quote the rule that was broken. At the very least if a specific rule is said to have been broken by a Mod the banned user can avoid making the same mistake twice.

Seems to me that the less the authority you give to some people the more zealous and petty they are in using it.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=53244513#post53244513

feylya

Did you pm the mod?

liamdubh

Yes I did. But if the Mod took is banning for genuine reasons, and not because of some power-trip (in my experience a significant number of Mods have gone literally insane with banning people - reminds me of that Peep Show bit where they all threatened to section each other), then he/she should quote the rule that was broken.

feylya

TBH, I would have banned you for that too. It condones violence towards animals and doesn't contribute much to the thread.

monkeyfudge

liamdubh wrote:

Yes I did. But if the Mod took is banning for genuine reasons, and not because of some power-trip (in my experience a significant number of Mods have gone literally insane with banning people - reminds me of that Peep Show bit where they all threatened to section each other), then he/she should quote the rule that was broken.

In your experience? You only joined the site 2 days ago.

Personally I don't think a ban is necessary a warning should have been enough... it's not a particularly funny joke though and I hate dogs....

liamdubh

I don't mean to be a smart ass, but I think it would be helpful at this point to look closely at the meaning of the word "joke":

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/joke

It's that simple. It was a joke. I made it clear it was a joke and that I was a dog lover/owner.

liamdubh

monkeyfudge wrote:

In your experience? You only joined the site 2 days ago.

Personally I don't think a ban is necessary a warning should have been enough... it's not a particularly funny joke though and I hate dogs....

A joke not being funny isn't a banning offence. And I've been reading boards.ie for years, just never bothered posting. Thankfully there are plenty of smart people around who always make the same points I would make.

Karl Hungus

You know, I would agree that it's very clearly a joke, and it's obvious that you don't condone such action, especially when you go on to give genuine advice.

But you really have to ask yourself, is all this "OMG, OTT powertripping petty zealous mods gone insane!1!!" bullcrap helping your arguement at all?

As I see it though, some boards are more serious than others, and while your joke was clearly as such, perhaps it's not appropriate for that particular board. I mean, you can get away with a lot more on After Hours than you could on Politics, for example.

liamdubh

Yes you're right. It probably doesn't help but in my opinion there are unreasonable Mods and reasonable Mods. The reasonable Mods would recognise there are is a serious problem on boards.ie with over-zealous Mods ready to hand-out bans or even lifetime bans on a whim. The reasonable Mods, if they didn't like my post, would have given me a warning. And the zealots are no reflection on those who are reasonable and judicious in their role as a Mod.

feylya

Crash

A bit over the top in my mind. in all fairness, a regular poster on said forum most likely would've gotten away with it. new poster got a hard rap in my mind.

Time Magazine

liamdubh wrote:

in my experience a significant number of Mods have gone literally insane with banning people

Literally?

liamdubh

There is a God!

I can do without posting to that forum for 1 month, undoubtedly this particular Mod (Victor) will never change his mind, but I think boards.ie would run a lot smoother if Mods didn't ban people on a whim and at least gave people warning, as policy. Banning in what seems to be an arbitrary way creates ill-feeling and a culture of disrespect towards moderators in my opinion. A "2/3 strikes and your out" policy would work much better. Then nobody could ever complain about being banned.

Rabies

There was me thinking I was getting my first thread in FB. Got my hopes up for nothing

/strokes me cherry

liamdubh

Ibid wrote:

Literally?

Yes. I've seen some crazy banning decisions. I'd genuinely wonder about the frame of mind of the person doing the banning at the time. All sense of reason, logic and fairness is gone. They become temporarily insane sitting in front of a keyboard imo.

All power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely....

(okay, maybe not clinically insane, but if their behaviour banning people was repeated in real life, yes)

Karl Hungus

liamdubh wrote:

undoubtedly this particular Mod (Victor) will never change his mind

Did you ask him? Did you say to him, sorry man, it was only a joke. Or are you making assumptions and coming along with baseless accussations about abuse of power?

Maybe he just saw the initial part of the comment, and banned you because of that?

Time Magazine

liamdubh wrote:

They become temporarily insane sitting in front of a keyboard imo.

liamdubh

Karl Hungus wrote:

Did you ask him? Did you say to him, sorry man, it was only a joke. Or are you making assumptions and coming along with baseless accussations about abuse of power?

Maybe he just saw the initial part of the comment, and banned you because of that?

I've PM'ed him, only a few minutes ago so he hasn't replied. 1 month ban from an obscure board isn't a big deal, I was just annoyed with the fact I was banned.

His PM to me said:

" Joke
Banned. 1 month."

Savman

Kick one of the dogs to death. Send out a message.
(joke, I love dogs, just explain your situation, it's unreasonable, if my dogs bark late while they're out the back I'd bring them back in immediately)

If this is what you were banned for, Logic and Reason seem to have left the building with Humour.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

cast_iron

liamdubh wrote:

I've PM'ed him, only a few minutes ago so he hasn't replied.

You pm'ed him a few mins ago and he hasn't gotten back!! A disgrace, he should be defrocked of all his mod powers immediately....and permanently site banned.

If "literally insane" doesn't mean "clinically insane", I'm not sure what meaning of the word you want.

oleras

cast_iron wrote:

If "literally insane" doesn't mean "clinically insane", I'm not sure what meaning of the word you want.

NO medical advice !!!!!

OP, it does seem ott, obviously said tongue in cheek, and even writen at the end for those who dont get subtle humour.........

Karl Hungus

cast_iron wrote:

You pm'ed him a few mins ago and he hasn't gotten back!! A disgrace, he should be defrocked of all his mod powers immediately....and permanently site banned.

Nah, kick him to death as a message to all other powertripping mods!

Rabies

I hope you are joking about that Karl :eek:

cast_iron

Rabies wrote:

I hope you are joking about that Karl :eek:

Does that matter?

Smellyirishman

The Scientist wrote:

Nobody wins in Feedback. Nobody.

I win; along with the rest of the onlookers.

Hobbes

feylya wrote:

...

gandalf

Ban is warranted but 1 month is harsh, a week would be more appropriate.

OP interested in your choice of language thought, you sound like you have been on this site alot longer than a couple of days. Is this your first account on Boards.ie?

biko

I made a harmless joke (and made it clear it was a joke) before making a serious reply.

No you didn't. This is your post, including space lines to make the first comment look real.
Take your ban and learn from it.

A good kicking
Kick one of the dogs to death. Send out a message.























(joke, I love dogs, just explain your situation, it's unreasonable, if my dogs bark late while they're out the back I'd bring them back in immediately)

Boston

It's like the way people abuse others then add no offense at the end

The question here is, "Is it ok to make a retarded comment if I acknowledge that it is, in fact, reatarded".

Answer on a post card.

hullaballoo

liamdubh wrote:

A joke not being funny isn't a banning offence. And I've been reading boards.ie for years, just never bothered posting. Thankfully there are plenty of smart people around who always make the same points I would make.

You said "humour" in the thread title. By definition, humour has to be funny. So what is your complaint, then?

liamdubh wrote:

All power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely....

If you mean, "power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely", then you have again minced your words:

Seems to me that the less the authority you give to some people the more zealous and petty they are in using it.

I'm having trouble reconciling the conflicting phrasiology you are using. I can't see my way through to what your complaint actually is.

However, I'll try to assess it: (i) is it that you feel hard done by because people are given what you term "power" and you are not? (ii) or, is it that a particular instance represents an abuse of "power"; (iii) or, is it that you feel any grant of "power" necessarily leads to an abuse of it?

Giblet

Na it's not like that at all Boston.

Faith

I think a ban was harsh there, and a one-month ban was even harsher. I think a warning would have sufficed. However, Victor is usually a very fair mod, so it's possible he was just having a bad day and you happened to suffer because of it.

I don't know what you said in your PM, but the best way to deal with the situation would have been to PM him and say, "Sorry about the "joke", it was in poor taste. I won't do it again. Any chance of having the lenght of the ban reduced?" or something along those lines.

I doubt this thread will help at all, they rarely do. Also, if you've been content just reading boards for years, then another month won't hurt! You can still post everywhere else.

kaimera

..it's not a particularly funny joke though and I hate dogs....

How in the hell can you hate dogs? :boggle:

Mans best friend and all that yacc.

6th

Kaimera, its monkeys or nothing for that guy.

liamdubh

hullaball&#250 wrote:

You said "humour" in the thread title. By definition, humour has to be funny. So what is your complaint, then?

Ok pedant, I was responding to somebody saying the joke wasn't funny. I wasn't saying my joke wasn't funny.

If you mean, "power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely", then you have again minced your words:

Your pedantry has caught you out for the 2nd time in 1 post. Mincing words implies the meaning was lost. And besides, you're wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton

Ha.

(ii) or, is it that a particular instance represents an abuse of "power"

Jesus. Quite cleary, it's number 2.

liamdubh

Boston wrote:

It's like the way people abuse others then add no offense at the end

The question here is, "Is it ok to make a retarded comment if I acknowledge that it is, in fact, reatarded".

Answer on a post card.

This wasn't abuse. It was a joke.

liamdubh

biko wrote:

No you didn't. This is your post, including space lines to make the first comment look real.

Er...I wrote below that I was joking. Such utter pedantry.

Take your ban and learn from it.

I've already said more than once that I don't really care about not being able to post. I don't care if it's overturned or not. Thanks for your contribution.

RoundyMooney

Meh. It wasn't funny,but such is life.

liamdubh wrote:

completely over the top...authority...zealous and petty...power-trip...a significant number of Mods have gone literally insane with banning people

Karl Hungus wrote:

But you really have to ask yourself, is all this "OMG, OTT powertripping petty zealous mods gone insane!1!!" bullcrap helping your arguement at all?

liamdubh wrote:

a serious problem on boards.ie with over-zealous Mods ready to hand-out bans or even lifetime bans on a whim...crazy banning decisions...temporarily insane...All power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely

Firstly, give the mod in question (Victor I presume) a chance to reply. A "few minutes" is not a reasonable response time in the real world. To me, a month seems harsh, but if you used the same flowery tone elsewhere on the forum (not saying you did), or in your subsequent pms to him, then you certainly won't help your case.

The mods are not "hungry on power" (paraphrasing), and even if they were, hypothetically, they can be demodded. One mod was demoted only last week as a matter of fact.

At the end of the day, mods provide a voluntary service to give something back to a site that we enjoy, and it's widely acknowledged that the system works well. If you have a genuine grievance, allegations of inconsistency and power tripping will not help you in your argument.

Perhaps you can link us to a few examples of spurious bannings and power tripping by moderators around the site, as a guide to where you're coming from?

tbh

RoundyMooney wrote:

Perhaps you can link us to a few examples of spurious bannings and power tripping by moderators around the site, as a guide to where you're coming from?

Roundy, your transformation is now complete. Ascend the crystal staircase

RoundyMooney

LOL!

You mean, I'm now...one of...them?

ZOMG!

liamdubh

RoundyMooney wrote:

Firstly, give the mod in question (Victor I presume) a chance to reply. A "few minutes" is not a reasonable response time in the real world.

Where did I say it was unreasonable that he hadn't responded in a "few minutes"? I said the exact opposite.

In fact I said it was ONLY a few minutes since I had PM'ed him SO he hasn't replied.

stovelid

liamdubh wrote:

Where did I say it was unreasonable that he hadn't responded in a "few minutes"? I said the exact opposite.

In fact I said it was ONLY a few minutes since I had PM'ed him SO he hasn't replied.

Dude, you would probably have got a lot further just waiting for the PM.

Coming to feedback with guns blazing fulfills a vital entertainment service for the rest of us but rarely seems gets you anywhere re: ban.

RoundyMooney

liamdubh wrote:

Where did I say it was unreasonable that he hadn't responded in a "few minutes"? I said the exact opposite.

In fact I said it was ONLY a few minutes since I had PM'ed him SO he hasn't replied.

Grand job, I withdraw that, citing a quick read as my excuse

Has he replied as of now?

While we're at it, with a view to your allegations (as detailed in my last post)...

me wrote:

Perhaps you can link us to a few examples of spurious bannings and power tripping by moderators around the site, as a guide to where you're coming from?

Enquiring minds want to know.

liamdubh

stovelid wrote:

Dude, you would probably have got a lot further just waiting for the PM.

Coming to feedback with guns blazing fulfills a vital entertainment service for the rest of us but rarely seems gets you anywhere re: ban.

As I've said 3 times in this thread, I can do without posting to an obscure forum for 1 month. I don't particularly care if it's overturned or not.

Mr. Presentable

liamdubh wrote:

As I've said 3 times in this thread, I can do without posting to an obscure forum for 1 month. I don't particularly care if it's overturned or not.

Sound man. Take your ban and learn from it that some fora are so po-faced in moderation that you feel you are on egg shells when you reply. Read the charters and understand that some Mods are spirit of the law Mods, and others are letter of the law (extreme moderators if you will. Oxymoron, I believe )

But mostly, as you said, who gives one? It's only an internet forum. Not like you've been banned from your Off-licence

jhegarty

liamdubh wrote:

As I've said 3 times in this thread, I can do without posting to an obscure forum for 1 month. I don't particularly care if it's overturned or not.

first ban was it ? me thinks you have found your way here very quickly....

RoundyMooney

liamdubh wrote:

As I've said 3 times in this thread, I can do without posting to an obscure forum for 1 month. I don't particularly care if it's overturned or not.

Your eagerness to start a Feedback thread would appear to indicate otherwise.

My question above stands, by the way.

WindSock

But would you kick cats...?

amp

I'm am on record as being insane, therefore sometimes I become stark raving SANE when I go on a banning spree. Also I masterbate.

RoundyMooney

While you're banning?

You're so hot right now.

Suppose it's cat time now since I didn't get a reply from the OP...