Complaining about a mod

corblimey

So I started this thread yesterday in relation to an assignment I have to do. While the assignment is about interview techniques and whatnot, I came across these 2 acts and thought the friendly people of the politics forum might be able to help me with discerning the differences between them. I got a good concise answer from DadaKopf and left it at that. I was just having a lookie this morning and noticed that my thread had been closed. Looking at the thread to see why, I noticed this dumba*s Moriarity had injected his worthless 2 cents into it.

Needing to know the difference between 2 acts is hardly "coursework", as DadaKopf's reply shows, the differences are there albeit subtle (in my mind).

To put up a worthless reply basically telling me to sod off (even after I got the answer I was looking for) and then lock the thread is an abuse of this person's power if ever I saw it. I'm surprised they didn't try and ban me or something at the same time. It's absolutely ridiculous.

As I said, I have got the answer I was looking for, but I won't be back to the politics forum (or indeed any of the ones this guy mods) for a long time, if this is the sort of thing they enjoy doing.

Nerin

it seems to be a bad idea to ask for help on college work here.i asked once,but didnt get much.
of course you have to see from their point of view you could just be a lazy sod looking for an easy way out.
they prob get that kinda stuff alot. did you pm the mod in question?

corblimey

I really couldn't be bothered. Like his post states, he thinks I'm asking for someone to do my homework for me. This is obviously not the case, but no amount of pm'ing would change his mind. The problem I have with it is his reply and thread locking after I'd got the answer I needed, it just seems flagrant to me.

Nerin

i honestl cant see you getting whatever it is you want done,done.
why are you angry he locked the thread when your got your answer?theres no point complaining about that.
not havin a go at you btw,just i can see your arguement torn apar by the mods.
lolcats will more than likely show up.
itll be anarchy.

Moriarty

corblimey, the politics board isn't there to help you with your assignment. I locked it to discourage you or anyone else that saw it from asking for more help.

RoundyMooney

While your request may have been genuine, if the Politics forum was allowed to deal with such requests, on an ongoing basis, it would be snowed under.

Rightly, such a practice is discouraged. You have your answer, so why worry?

Hivemind187

Says nothing about it in the charter and frankly, if someone is looking for advise or differing perspectives on a piece of legislation - surely thats the very purpose of the politics forum?

If the thread was to be locked, the mod could have been a lot more polite about it. Perhaps an unbunching of the panties might be in order.

RoundyMooney

If its not in the charter, and AIUI it is policy, not just there, but on other forums too, then it should be added in a clear and concise manner. We all know the Politics board is for discussion, but sometimes issues such as this require additional clarification.

How could he have been more polite? I'm not reading anything sinister into his remarks.

If this is coming down to him not saying please and kthksbai, then it is a spurious complaint.

If it serves to have a point of order clarified in the Politics charter, then that, at least would be a positive outcome.

Talliesin

corblimey wrote: »

Like his post states, he thinks I'm asking for someone to do my homework for me. This is obviously not the case, but no amount of pm'ing would change his mind.

How is it "obviously" not the case? The post is worded like someone trying to get people to do their homework for them. If this isn't the case it's far from obvious.

When I modded the Programming forum I would allow requests for help with school or college work if people were extremely clear about what their specific problem was and where their point of confusion was because to do that required that they'd actually made some attempts to deal with things and were stuck rather than lazy or incompetent.

The Politics mods might be more tolerant of a post which demonstrated that you had actually examined the acts in question and were stuck in trying to find differences rather than lazy or incompetent.

And then again they might not, there's more than one reason for the general ban on school and college work questions and I'm not saying they should see a reason I once found as sensible for a reason for an exception as also a sensible reason in a different forum.

But your post looks like a straight-forward "please do my homework for me".

BuffyBot

Got to agree with the above. Apart from anything wouldn't the Legal Discussion board have been more appropriate (if your thread was permitted there)?

seamus

Talliesin wrote: »

But your post looks like a straight-forward "please do my homework for me".

Pretty much.

corblimey, you may as well have said, "I haven't read either of these acts, and couldn't be arsed. Can someone summarise the differences for me. kthxbye"

If you had shown that you had read the two acts, came up with some opinions of your own and then asked others for their feedback, then perhaps you may have gotten something more receptive. Or perhaps if you had said, "I've gone through them and they appear identical except for some slight changes in the definitions, is that all it is?"

corblimey

seamus wrote: »

Pretty much.

corblimey, you may as well have said, "I haven't read either of these acts, and couldn't be arsed. Can someone summarise the differences for me. kthxbye"

If you had shown that you had read the two acts, came up with some opinions of your own and then asked others for their feedback, then perhaps you may have gotten something more receptive. Or perhaps if you had said, "I've gone through them and they appear identical except for some slight changes in the definitions, is that all it is?"

Wow! That's the most boneheaded thing I've read on boards for a long time. FYI, I did read both acts, if you look at my op, you'll see that I can tell they're both on discrimination on the same 9 grounds, and having read through them I couldn't really discern the differences. That's all I was asking. Are you seriously trying to tell me that saying "I've read them through them and they appear to be identical, am I wrong?" is better than "Can anyone who's more aware of the specifics tell me if there's any major differences?" which is what I put down? Isn't that just semantics? Yes, maybe I could've worded it better or it's in the wrong forum. But I think anyone with an ounce of sense would've dealt with it better than Moriarity did, particulary after the fact.

Talliesin, if I hadn't mentioned that I was "doing a paper on it" but was just interested in the differences between the 2 acts purely from an informational point of view, would the thread still be valid? As I stated above, I am doing a paper but it's not on these acts specifically, although they are linked. By way of this, I determined that both acts were almost identical to my mind and I wanted to know the difference. Where's the line?

I've never had a problem on boards before, and any locked threads have been dealt with professionally and competently, but this mod has totally abused his power. I can see I'm not going to get any satisfaction from this.

seamus

It's actually this line that's the key in your post:

I'm trying to figure out if there's any difference between them.

You could figure that out by reading them. I don't know what kind of additional specifics you would expect people to know, except for what's written there for all to see...?

jhegarty

tallaght01

jhegarty wrote: »

medical/nursing/science students, and even people doing leaving cert biology have come onto the biology/medicine forum looking for clarification on coursework-type stuff, or stuff they've been reading.

We've always been happy to help, and don't think it's caused any problems.

Boston

Seamus and Moriarty stop being bone-ass dumb-heads. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob the Builder

Your answer can be found here: http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=fgs&q=difference+between+equality+act+equal+status+act&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryIE
..and if not there, call the citizens information helpline: http://citizensinformation.ie/categories

That is how you revise for coursework. Then when you get an answer you say "I obtained these answers by contacting a very helpful person by the name of **** on the Citizens Info helpline."
......not "ara, got my answers off a few of my mates on the Politics Forum"

IMO, in your first post, i got the strong impression that you were just looking for answers, and it is only in your second post, that i realised that it was in relation to interviews.

I think both parties involved were correct to do what they did, even tho, this did result in a collision of interests. You must understand that everyone is bound by the same rules, and if they allow one person to request that their homework be done, they must grant everyone the same privelage.

~NevF

DeVore

Boston wrote: »

Seamus and Moriarty stop being bone-ass dumb-heads. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boston has had to have a little lie down. He'll be back, possibly.

DeV.

Stark

You banned him for that comment? It's obvious he was just taking the mickey.

DeVore

Stark wrote: »

You banned him for that comment? It's obvious he was just taking the mickey.

Um... really? cos that seems like a very Boston thing to say in all seriousness.

DeV.

monkeyfudge

Of course he was serious.

He used 14 exclamation marks... that's about as serious as you can get... eh... without using 15 or more.

AckwelFoley

Personally i dont think its appropriate to question moderator actions on the open board.

If you have a problem contact the moderater directly or send a pm to his supervisor.


*Thread closed*


Hmm, my magic moderator wand is broken again... crud.

Stark

DeVore wrote: »

Um... really?

Yeah it was a parody of the "boneheaded" remark that the OP made.

monkeyfudge wrote:

Of course he was serious.

He used 14 exclamation marks... that's about as serious as you can get... eh... without using 15 or more.

Now I can't tell if you're being serious. Stupid plaintext

RoundyMooney

Ironic if Boston took an early shower for that tbh.

padser

Moriarty wrote: »

corblimey, the politics board isn't there to help you with your assignment.

I thought boards were here for discussions. If that discussion centres around an assignment whats the problem? If you didn't want to answer the question - or give help with an assignment, fine. Clearly DadaKopf was happy to help. Should he not be allowed?

Talliesin wrote: »

The post is worded like someone trying to get people to do their homework for them.

I don't agree. The OP demonstrated he had at attempted to read and understand the acts by noting that they refered to discrimination on 9 grounds. Reading (similar) legislation looking for differences can be VERY difficult. One word or phrase in the middle of 3/4 pages of text can be the only differeniating factor. Even after you have found the differentiating phrase, correctly interpreting what this means in practice can still be difficult. I don't think it looked obvious from the OP's that he hadn't already made an effort to answer the question himself.


TBH the reason I post on this is because I have used forums (legal discussion mostly but once I think I used UCD as well) for help with assignments and have found it be a particularly useful source of information if you get a helpful poster willing to engage with the topic. Had I had knowledge of the area that the OP here was asking about I would have answered and found it to be a question worthy of devoting time to answering. I think it really makes a mockery of the whole concepts of boards if a moderater finding an innocious question such as this distasteful - decides to lock a thread which could potentially have become an interesting discussion between the OP and DataKopf had it been allowed to develop.

Stark

padser wrote: »

I thought boards were here for discussions. If that discussion centres around an assignment whats the problem? If you didn't want to answer the question - or give help with an assignment, fine. Clearly DadaKopf was happy to help. Should he not be allowed?

A discussion implies more than one party contributing in some sense. A homework handout isn't a discussion.

padser wrote: »

I don't agree. The OP demonstrated he had at attempted to read and understand the acts by noting that they refered to discrimination on 9 grounds.

The dogs on the street know about the 9 grounds. It doesn't demonstrate that he read the acts.

padser wrote: »

I think it really makes a mockery of the whole concepts of boards if a moderater finding an innocious question such as this distasteful - decides to lock a thread which could potentially have become an interesting discussion between the OP and DataKopf had it been allowed to develop.

It makes a mockery of things if boards is seen as domyhomework.com.

It could be that there was a misunderstanding and the OP did in fact read the acts before asking. But even if that was the case, he still got what he wanted before the thread was locked so no harm done. Meanwhile, locking the thread lets other people know that the thread doesn't set a "we're fine with doing your homework for you" precedent.

Nevyn

DeVore wrote: »

Um... really?

DeVore wrote: »

cos that seems like a very Boston thing to say in all seriousness.

Once maybe but he appears to have grown up and acquired a sense of humour

Cabaal

The OP was wrong the mod was right. thats the way of the world

DeVore

Boston was being sarcastic for effect apparently, I didnt pick up on that. My bad, Boston unbanned.

DeV.

padser

Cabaal wrote: »

The OP was wrong the mod was right. thats the way of the world

I guess I hadn't looked at it that way :rolleyes:

Rock Climber

padser wrote: »

I thought boards were here for discussions. If that discussion centres around an assignment whats the problem? If you didn't want to answer the question - or give help with an assignment, fine. Clearly DadaKopf was happy to help. Should he not be allowed?

It's a discussion forum full stop.
My rule of thumb in situations like this is if the op hadn't the curtesy to pm one of the mods in the first placeregarding what to do I'd have done exactly what moriarty had done and closed the thread.

If I had got a pm,I'd have explained the score and asked the op to go ahead and post but to put some work into the thread such that it didn't give off the whiff of a cut and run do my homework thread.
That would have been the community spirit way of doing it and boards is a community.
It's not there to be used and abused by people who won't foster anything towards it.

Cor Blimey,consider your lesson learned and be thankfull that you at least managed to get something usefull out of it before a mod rightfully stepped in and laid down the law.

Gandalf23

:cool:

padser wrote: »

TBH the reason I post on this is because I have used forums (legal discussion mostly but once I think I used UCD as well) for help with assignments and have found it be a particularly useful source of information if you get a helpful poster willing to engage with the topic. Had I had knowledge of the area that the OP here was asking about I would have answered and found it to be a question worthy of devoting time to answering. I think it really makes a mockery of the whole concepts of boards if a moderater finding an innocious question such as this distasteful - decides to lock a thread which could potentially have become an interesting discussion between the OP and DataKopf had it been allowed to develop.

+1

I've found the computers and Open Source forums an invaluable source of help and information when I was doing "homework" a few years ago.

Boston

Everyone keeps talking about DataKopf as if he thought hghly of the thread and predicted great debate. While he answered the question, he clearly didn't seem impressed.

GuanYin

tallaght01 wrote: »

medical/nursing/science students, and even people doing leaving cert biology have come onto the biology/medicine forum looking for clarification on coursework-type stuff, or stuff they've been reading.

We've always been happy to help, and don't think it's caused any problems.

In fairness, there is a world of difference between B&M and Politics. The most obvious being as there is a larger gulf of knowledge between posters in the B&M forum.

Agree with Mor here (surprise!!!), although maybe we can move it to the coursework/college forums for the mod there to open??

RoundyMooney

Plus a haon.

Same to Boston. Dadakopf gave a response, but his tone showed that Moriarty wasn't the only one who felt that way.

To reiterate, Mor's response was a helluva lot more restrained than the OP in this thread.

Dumbass and worthless indeed :rolleyes:

AckwelFoley

Although funny...This ones better....

Amz

Old!

Hagar

godtabh

Is it a boards wide policy not to help with home work/course work what ever?

I asked a question in the maths forum about course work. I did the work but I was seeking opinions on my conclusions. Maybe that's different though?

Stark

That's different because you showed that you had done the work, you just needed help with a part of it. If you had come on and just said "How do I solve this?" and nothing else, then you wouldn't have gotten a positive response.

godtabh

Stark wrote: »

That's different because you showed that you had done the work, you just needed help with a part of it. If you had come on and just said "How do I solve this?" and nothing else, then you wouldn't have gotten a positive response.

Ah right get it now.

THink I took things up the wrong way

faceman

so some of the forums are sponsored by the Dept of Education so dont ask for help with assignments?!

I would have thought that a bulletin board is a healthy place for look for help as long as somone aint taking the pi$$?

stop talking at the back Boston or you will be put in the bold corner.

Nevyn

oh please, there is such a thing as knowing that people need to learn for themsleves and the admins choose to foster that ethos here, whoopdedoo get over it.

Otacon

I wouldn't have thought that at least pointing people in the right direction, giving them a helping hand, would be frowned upon.

Of course, some people may use it as a "Do my homework" thing, but for those out there needing some advice, it isn't unreasonable is it?

rmacm

Otacon wrote: »

I wouldn't have thought that at least pointing people in the right direction, giving them a helping hand, would be frowned upon.

It's not as long as you've shown you've made some effort yourself. The Programming forum is a good example of this. You get good advice if you post up your code and shown that you've put in some work yourself.

AckwelFoley

Personally i find it rather amusing that there is threads allowed about mod actions.

Ive about 15000 posts on interwebnet forums and in all but here the rule is "one does not talk about mod actions or your e - penis and bandwidth will be removed."

I find it makes amusing reading none the less.

Otacon

rmacm wrote: »

It's not as long as you've shown you've made some effort yourself. The Programming forum is a good example of this. You get good advice if you post up your code and shown that you've put in some work yourself.

Agree completely. As I said, as long as its not a "Do my Homework" thread, I can't see any reason why someone cannot look for help on the relevant board.

faceman

Thaedydal wrote: »

oh please, there is such a thing as knowing that people need to learn for themsleves and the admins choose to foster that ethos here, whoopdedoo get over it.

How does one know when someone is looking to plagiarise in order to get their "homework" done?

Nevyn

The mods make that call based on the post and the poster.

faceman

Thaedydal wrote: »

The mods make that call based on the post and the poster.

thats fair enough however its not that easy. On re-read the OP should have PM'd the mod(s) to explain what he/she was trying to achieve so that the thread could be re-opened, or vice versa.

seamus

faceman wrote: »

How does one know when someone is looking to plagiarise in order to get their "homework" done?

Actually, I imagine the bulk of the ethos came from the programming board. Anyone who has studied programming in college knows that the guy who asks to look at your code or who asks basic questions about a problem without even making an attempt, will be the same guy looking over your shoulder again next week.

So it's not about plagiarism, it's about doing good by the requestor. If someone has clearly made a decent stab at the problem and is only stuck on a certain aspect of it, then it's possible to to point him in right direction to figure out the answer, or to supply the answer and be sure that he has understood it. The poster benefits because he learns and the board benefits because that poster won't come back with the exact same questions* next week and has gained some expertise to similarly help others in future.

I say it comes from the programming board because this is a problem which exists constantly in programming classes and manifests very quickly. People can bluff their way through whole programming courses by asking other people to do bits of their code and unlike other subjects, they will never "get it" without sitting down and doing it themselves. Even if you hand up someone else's legal essay, you will gain some benefit from reading it and you will learn something. If you hand up someone else's programming assignment, you get no benefit whatsoever, none. You've learned zilch.

* We've all met that guy who you show how to do something and they continually come back again and again asking you to do it for them. I don't think I find anything more frustrating