The public nature of this forum [SPLIT THREAD]

Rovi

<SPLIT OFF FROM ANOTHER THREAD>

MOD NOTE:
By way of explanation, this discourse arose after a new poster appeared in a Hunting thread, decrying the morality of hunters and their activities.
That post and several replies were deleted.


CONTENT:
Some of you may have noticed we had a visit from a new poster who wasn't wholly enamoured of the content of the thread; their post and several responses now deleted.

Can I remind everyone that this is a PUBLIC forum, and also that every time someone posts something new in a thread, that thread bounces to the top of the list of 'Latest Posts' that appear on the front page of the whole site.
This occasionally results (as I suspect happened tonight), in someone jumping straight into a thread from the front page, without them seeing the Charter or knowing the ethos of the forum.

While ignorance of a Charter is no excuse for breaking it, it behoves the regulars to behave sensibly when/if it happens, and not set upon the visitor in the way they sometimes appear to believe we or our dogs do while engaged in our hunting activities.

My thanks to the two people who reported the incident.

locum-motion

Rovi wrote: »

...every time someone posts something new in a thread, that thread bounces to the top of the list of 'Latest Posts' that appear on the front page of the whole site.
This occasionally results (as I suspect happened tonight), in someone jumping straight into a thread from the front page, without them seeing the Charter or knowing the ethos of the forum...

Is there any way that Boards.ie can change settings or whatever so that posts from this forum don't appear on the front page at all?
This forum features content that is objectionable to certain sections of society. We could avoid two things if the above was the case; a) offending them and b) us having to defend ourselves from them.
Mods, would you consider asking the Admins the above question?
Or is it a bad idea?

johngalway

locum-motion wrote: »

Is there any way that Boards.ie can change settings or whatever so that posts from this forum don't appear on the front page at all?
This forum features content that is objectionable to certain sections of society. We could avoid two things if the above was the case; a) offending them and b) us having to defend ourselves from them.
Mods, would you consider asking the Admins the above question?
Or is it a bad idea?

Leave as is I say. We're doing nothing illegal and have nothing to hide. Plus it'd make it harder for new members to find this place

Too bad about them @ those certain sections of society, they don't like it up'em, advertise more if anything.

locum-motion

johngalway wrote: »

...We're doing nothing illegal and have nothing to hide...

That's kinda what I was thinking when I typed 'Or is it a bad idea'.

johngalway

locum-motion wrote: »

That's kinda what I was thinking when I typed 'Or is it a bad idea'.

I thought so as well Sorry if I seemed blunt, wasn't supposed to, I just hate the idea of "hiding" from people who don't agree with what goes on in this section

Rovi

locum-motion wrote: »

Is there any way that Boards.ie can change settings or whatever so that posts from this forum don't appear on the front page at all?
This forum features content that is objectionable to certain sections of society. We could avoid two things if the above was the case; a) offending them and b) us having to defend ourselves from them.
Mods, would you consider asking the Admins the above question?
Or is it a bad idea?

Purely from a moderating/housekeeping point of view, this would certainly be useful, and we have indeed asked the tech droids to see what can be done along those lines, short of turning it into a private forum.


But then there's this point of view, which is at least as valid:

johngalway wrote: »

Leave as is I say. We're doing nothing illegal and have nothing to hide. Plus it'd make it harder for new members to find this place

Too bad about them @ those certain sections of society, they don't like it up'em, advertise more if anything.

It's a difficult balance to strike.


We mods strive for the easy life, and having the Hunting forum not show up on the front page or in searches would most certainly reduce the chances of someone stumbling across something 'outrageous' and launching into a denunciation of everyone here and their 'barbaric' activities.
While it's understandable that the regulars here feel slighted by such 'intrusions', especially here in our own patch, and while most people will exercise self restraint and use the 'Report Post' button, it only takes one or two hotheads responding in kind for things to rapidly spiral out of control and we then have a right old mess to clean up.
Look at it from our (the mods) point of view: we will infract/ban posters who charge in here and go off on an 'anti' rant, and we can quote the Hunting forum Charter as justification of our actions whilst doing so. However, if some of the regulars here have been involved in a spitting match with the visitor, we are obliged, in fairness, to sanction them too under the same Charter. To do otherwise would be to leave ourselves open to (justified, in my opinion) charges of favouritism and bias, which would lead in turn to us having to explain our actions to the Admins.

We're not in a position, and don't want to be, to have to babysit the forum 24 hours a day, and it doesn't need such attention for the vast amount of the time anyway.

What happened earlier in this thread was very minor and was easily dealt with, but we've had a few doozies here over the years.

johngalway

In fairness, place would get a little stale without a bit of excitement now and then

Rovi

johngalway wrote: »

In fairness, place would get a little stale without a bit of excitement now and then

Of course, and the posting of contrary views isn't prohibited in the Charter either, provided everyone stays civil and reasonable.

I have better things to be doing than cleaning up a flame war though.

johngalway

Rovi wrote: »

Of course, and the posting of contrary views isn't prohibited in the Charter either, provided everyone stays civil and reasonable.

I have better things to be doing than cleaning up a flame war though.

No probs, I'll pack the RPG, flame throwers are for pansys anyway! lol