Over-zealous thread locking?

Long Johns

Hi folk,
Hope u all had a good one etc.

Regarding this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055204476&page=2

If you read down and see how it progressed and then how it was locked I feel it might have been a bit swift. The reason for it being locked was for 'mentioning the unmentionable' etc but actually said promoter or said concert was never mentioned unless I'm mistaken - just an assumed price for (any) gig on the upcoming Radiohead tour, as you will see the direction it was going was about how much they charge for shows and who has control which admittedly getting to close to comfort to banned subjects. But does Denalihighway's post constitute breaking the rules? I'm asking and not telling by the way, just hoping to open up some dialogue...

- and if it was actually 'mentioning the unmentionable' - then why not give a stern warning about what specifically should not be mentioned so as to cut everything off at the pass instead of instantly locking the thread and ruining what was shaping up to be an interesting one about Radioheads' new business procedures and revenue streams etc (and I'm not just saying that cuz I was opening poster).

whether or not this was 'over-zealous' modding is up for debate but as we've discussed before, over-zealous modding is highly counter-productive to the boards. My opinion would be that the mod was right to step in where
they did but a strict warning would have sufficed and then further sanction if the rules were flouted again.

Not very festive, sorry
Happy New Year though!

green123

way too many threads on this site get locked
its ridiculous

GhostInTheRuins

I think you're a week late. Most likely the offending post was deleted.

RoundyMooney

The mod did warn you lot.

This is precisely the reason that every forum has an omnipresent sticky in the first place.

A necessary, and correct lock. That's the way it has to be unfortunately..

green123, care to posit some examples?Have you PMed the mods in question where this has occurred previously?

green123

the interesting ones with speculation , hearsay, gossip
and the ones slagging off people or companies
the ones with links to streams or torrents

stop locking these threads

Silverfish

green123 wrote: »

the interesting ones with speculation , hearsay, gossip
and the ones slagging off people or companies
the ones with links to streams or torrents

stop locking these threads

No. Reason: Libellous / illegal.

Karl Hungus

The long and the short of it is, boards.ie has to tread very carefully in matters concerning an ongoing legal case, and if a thread happens to be bringing up certain topics that are banned, then of course it should be locked.

Look at the big picture here, would you prefer to see A) a few threads locked, or the entire site locked (Shut down)?

Gordon

green123 wrote: »

the interesting ones with speculation , hearsay, gossip
and the ones slagging off people or companies
the ones with links to streams or torrents

stop locking these threads

It's a ridiculous disgrace that you haven't set up your own site for people to talk about such things. Ridiculous.

wyndham

Quick, lock this thread! The ironing...

green123

other sites and forums allow pretty much anything to be discussed and dont seem to have these problems

circle the wagons, here come the mods to trot out the company line

Karl Hungus

green123 wrote: »

other sites and forums allow pretty much anything to be discussed and dont seem to have these problems

Others sites and forums that aren't hosted in Ireland and aren't bound by Irish law maybe? :rolleyes:

green123 wrote: »

circle the wagons, here come the mods to trot out the company line

Great. We hadn't had one of these threads in a while. :rolleyes:

RoundyMooney

green123 wrote: »

other sites and forums allow pretty much anything to be discussed and dont seem to have these problems

circle the wagons, here come the mods to trot out the company line

You don't know much about Irish libel law, do you?

It's all a mod conspiracy of course, and we are all mindless drones, acting on the whim of the admin overlords.

However did you uncover our secret?

Karl Hungus

RoundyMooney wrote: »

However did you uncover our secret?

He's a clever one, he is. Beware of his superior powers of deduction.

green123

I think we're gonna need a bigger boat.

green123 wrote: »

circle the wagons, here come the mods to trot out the company line

Giblet

green123 wrote: »

other sites and forums allow pretty much anything to be discussed and dont seem to have these problems

circle the wagons, here come the mods to trot out the company line

You haven't a ****ing notion about what you are talking about. Use those other forums and piss off if you're going to piss your pants about it.

6th

Down with the mods! Lets hunt them all down!!

Santa Claus

RoundyMooney wrote: »

It's all a mod conspiracy of course, and we are all mindless drones, acting on the whim of the admin overlords.

Don't you mean reptilian admin overlords ? Oh Sh*t, I've said too much haven't I :o

Just to clarify, did someone mention the unmentionable and the offending post was deleted as can't see any trace of it on the thread the OP linked ?

Zapp Brannigan

There were references to ticketprices, and so i felt that it was only a matter of time before someone came in and started talking about it. So taking John's (the old mod of Alt & Indie) advice i locked the thread.

Yay, my first feedback!!

Santa Claus

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

There were references to ticketprices, and so i felt that it was only a matter of time before someone came in and started talking about it.

OK, so just to clarify.....no-one mentioned the unmentionable and you just locked it in case they did ?

leninbenjamin

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

There were references to ticketprices, and so i felt that it was only a matter of time before someone came in and started talking about it. So taking John's (the old mod of Alt & Indie) advice i locked the thread.

Yay, my first feedback!!

i was gonna say something to someone about that lock at the time but forgot...

could mods have not split the thread, garbage the unmentionable mentions or posts leading to unmentionable mentions, deliver a stern warning and taken it from there? it wasn't a bad discussion, in fact compared to any of the other active topics it was positively riveting until the unmentioned unmentionable mentions, better than all those facking list threads in the music category we see too often.

Zapp Brannigan

When a topic is gravitating towards the unmentionable (which this one was always gonna go to, seeing as how discussion had moved on to ticket prices to make up for album sales) I see no problem in locking it. Saves boards from getting in any trouble.

Denalihighway

Zapp I agree with your point per se but I think there's a bigger picture in that over-zealous thread locking could quite easily turn people off setting up interesting threads or even coming to Boards in the first place - basically it could be bad for business. So its defo something that shouldn't be looked at lightly from Boards' point of view and yourself. Its constructive critisism. Its in everyone's interest to find a balance thats all.

I would suggest more stern warnings and less foul swoops!

WhiteWashMan

green123 wrote: »

other sites and forums allow pretty much anything to be discussed and dont seem to have these problems

circle the wagons, here come the mods to trot out the company line

Then what are you doing here?

Surely if these other sites are better, you should be there?

I dont understand why people complain bitterly that this isnt the experience they want, and yet still hang around complaining.

Esel

A mate of mine got locked in the unmentionable recently. The nice door staff helped him out though.

the_syco

Denalihighway wrote: »

but I think there's a bigger picture in that over-zealous thread locking could quite easily turn people off setting up interesting threads

Like the one he just locked? "Interesting" threads about the banned subject? And how is this bad?

Denalihighway wrote: »

I would suggest more stern warnings and less foul swoops!

We've tried to ban every muppet that brings it up, but at this stage, we've found that it's more effective to just lock the thread.

This message is sponsored by our reptilian overlords.

Denalihighway

Syco, the thread was clearly NOT 'about the banned subject' - the mod in question has said that the thread was coming too close for comfort to banned subjects which he claimed warranted it to be locked - which is a million miles away from the black and white scenario you and some others are trying to paint.

I honestly don't think it will be more effective for Boards to just do blanket thread-locking. My point is that its in Boards' interest form a business perspective to be vigilant about this stuff but not as disciplinarian as some mods seem to be or else people will lose interest and not return if they feel like there's no point in posting. We're not trying to demonise the mods here, its constructive critisism...and it is the feedback area after all.

WhiteWashMan

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

When a topic is gravitating towards the unmentionable (which this one was always gonna go to, seeing as how discussion had moved on to ticket prices to make up for album sales) I see no problem in locking it. Saves boards from getting in any trouble.

I have to admit, you probably shouldnt lock a thread unless it warrants locking.
Unless you have the power of foresight, which you dont Id suggest leaving things open until something actually happens.
And then Id just delete the post.
Its much easier, and it doesnt piss off people half as much as blanket locking threads.
And then everyone is happy, and we all roll around in our special underwear, and....

RoundyMooney

I'm not wearing any special underwear, a hooker stoled it.

While I take your point, I have no problem personally with erring on the side of caution, once that caution is reasonable.

A post was reported the other day, which may have been of a certain event promoted by a certain body, hard to say tbh.

While I fully supported the report being made (as I always do), I suggested that the image not be removed, as it was merely a generic image of a guy with a guitar (well taken, mind you).

It remained, and to my mind, that was a reasonable moderating decision.

Time Magazine

This post set the tone for this one, which imho would unacceptable given the current situation. There's nothing concrete calling a certain company "exploitative c*nts", but the link is too strong to be allowed imho. I often criticise mods on this forum, but I think that's a good call by Zapp.

RoundyMooney

As the Churchill dog might say, "Ooooohhh Yes!".

Crash

Neither of those posts solidly reference anything - I can maybe understand the first one being construed, the second one is an honest question with no connection to either company or country.

Knickers, twist to be honest. I'm all for upholding the ban on said company, but this one was way too far.

Interesting thread btw.

Time Magazine

çrash_000 wrote: »

Neither of those posts solidly reference anything

It's in reference to the ticket prices of the upcoming Radiohead gig, which at over €70 are widely accepted to be extremely expensive.

You get overly expensive tickets and add talk of whether bands check to see if promoters are "exploitative" and you have a link which is very close to obvious. You don't have to explicitly state something for it to be libel. The case that's most obvious to me at this moment in time in this regard is a newspaper being successfully sued for suggesting a snooker table "told lies"; the comments had (imho) veered too close to "telling lies" for safety's liking.

Crash

actually, its in reference to ticket prices of the upcoming radiohead tour. context of the discussion is interesting isn't it? no one specifically references country or promoter, or even prices of specific gigs.

Time Magazine

çrash_000 wrote: »

actually, its in reference to ticket prices of the upcoming radiohead tour.

Which includes....

Crash

Ah I see - so not only are we now banning events run by said promoter, we're also now banning unconnected events under the umbrella of the whole tour, thanks to the connection?

logical. And where did this idea come from?

kermitdfrog

It does seem a tad over-zealous - are we to take it that discussions of (certain types of issues) are banned in their entirety then, in all forms, whether in reference to the unmentionables, this country, etc. or not, just "in case" it might veer to other stuff or be construed as meaning X or Y?

Time Magazine

çrash_000 wrote: »

Ah I see - so not only are we now banning events run by said promoter, we're also now banning unconnected events under the umbrella of the whole tour, thanks to the connection?

logical. And where did this idea come from?

Interesting that you think that ending discussion of Radiohead gigs, including those priced at €75 (see final post before Zapp's) when the price is 40% lower in Germany for instance, on an Irish discussion forum known for its dislike of a promoter of gigs, using the term "exploitative c*nts" in relation to promoters of gigs, is the "banning [of] unconnected events."

You're right: context is important. In what context would people be likely to refer to ticket prices as exploitative, €45 or €75?

Denalihighway

well its defo a tricky one which must be taken on case-by-case basis which is why I dont offer a black and white opinion and why I think vigilant and tactical modding is the only solution for the good of Boards going forward. (I sound like David Brent or something..too much time in boardrooms...not as a member of a board mind you...anyways...). I also acknowledge the fact that boards members can be flippant about what is probably a difficult position for the mods given the pressure to please above and below as it were. But its good to see some healthy debate about it - that alone will help things for the better I think.

why not re-open the thread and anyone who mentions said event gets whipped in public?

Zapp Brannigan

I don't think the thread will be re-opened. There was mention of a 75 euro ticket fee, which can only be reffering to one thing. Thread stays closed.

Denalihighway

I wasnt really expecting that but it was worth a try...

well you know what they say about bad publicity Zapp! You don't get away with 'owt around here