Feel i'm being unfairly targeted

Bodhisopha

Hello,

I have received 2 infractions in the space of hours from the same moderator on the Soccer Forum. I feel that both are unfair and i am being targeted by this particular moderator. I have tried to plead my case with him on both infractions but have found him to be uncooperative on both occasions.

The first infraction was issued for "back seat modding" when i enquired why a thread about a convicted football player was locked while one largely speculative thread about another football player based on a tabloid article was allowed to continue.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70890837#post70890837

I have re-read the forum charter and as far as i can tell i have not breached it. Also, i think it would be helpful if mods posted before locking the thread stating why they are doing so. If a poster takes issue with the reason they'd at least know which mod to contact via pm.

The second infraction i believe is beyond petty. During a football match an incident occurred prompting another poster to ask what player slapped an opposition player on the back off the head while celebrating a goal. The camera never showed who did it - this was my response...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70901300#post70901300

So i have effectively received an infraction for labelling an anonymous person four stars (****). Again, as far as i can see this is not in breach of the forum charter.

Out of interest, do all forum mods have the power to issue warnings? I only ask because all four infractions i have received in the Soccer forum have all come from the same moderator. I have never had any problems with the others.

Khannie

I'd agree it looks like there's a bit of a trend there alright. I had a look at each of the infractions though; They're all warnings / yellow cards. Two of them are for back seat modding and both clearly stand on their merits in those cases (including one that you raise below - You said you couldn't see how it was in breach of the forum charter, but it's very definitely in the list of "yellow card offenses"). One is for a breach of the charter and very clearly stands on its merits. The last one (which you raise below) I'm waiting on some clarification from the mod so I'll get back to you.

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Out of interest, do all forum mods have the power to issue warnings?

They do indeed. Some moderators are more active than others though, especially in specific threads / areas of interest.

Bodhisopha

Thank you.

I had accepted the first warning even if i felt it harsh and wouldn't have bothered to dispute it until the second warning came along which i definitely don't see any grounds for, and also find the timing strange. To my understanding, these things add up and the football forum bans are quite lengthy.

Can you explain how the system works? I see another poster has received a ban for an accumulation of warnings.

Do warnings that have expired still count towards a banning?

Khannie

Bodhisopha wrote: »

I had accepted the first warning even if i felt it harsh and wouldn't have bothered to dispute it until the second warning came along which i definitely don't see any grounds for, and also find the timing strange. To my understanding, these things add up and the football forum bans are quite lengthy.

They are lengthy, but they only come into effect after a large number of infractions have been issued (6 yellows). It takes quite a bit of poor behaviour to rack that number up.

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Can you explain how the system works? I see another poster has received a ban for an accumulation of warnings.

I'd suggest you have a read of the soccer forum charter. It's very clear about how the system works.

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Do warnings that have expired still count towards a banning?

Yes.


So....on to the question at hand: Whether the second post was worthy of a yellow card. I've given this quite a bit of thought and taken your input and input from the mods on board. I think it's reasonable to infer "Abuse of players" from your post. That's covered under the yellow cardable offences in the charter. I do acknowledge that your post uses stars instead of an actual swear word (though it's impossible for me to determine whether this was deliberate or not) but your intent was clear. I have asked the mods to add a specific rule to the charter to cover cases like this so there wont be any confusion in future.

Bodhisopha

Khannie wrote: »

They are lengthy, but they only come into effect after a large number of infractions have been issued (6 yellows). It takes quite a bit of poor behaviour to rack that number up.



I'd suggest you have a read of the soccer forum charter. It's very clear about how the system works.



Yes.


So....on to the question at hand: Whether the second post was worthy of a yellow card. I've given this quite a bit of thought and taken your input and input from the mods on board. I think it's reasonable to infer "Abuse of players" from your post. That's covered under the yellow cardable offences in the charter. I do acknowledge that your post uses stars instead of an actual swear word (though it's impossible for me to determine whether this was deliberate or not) but your intent was clear. I have asked the mods to add a specific rule to the charter to cover cases like this so there wont be any confusion in future.

I inferred abuse of a non specified player, rather than abuse anybody. The inbuilt censorship on boards is to keep things like that in check, to stop rules being broken and it worked in this case.

You know it's petty, you know it's dodgy timing, you know i'm being targetted by a specific mod.

You say it's hard to rack up 6 infractions, well it's not when you're receiving infractions like the above from a mod with an agenda.

Should've known i wouldn't have received a fair hearing on this.

Khannie

Bodhisopha wrote: »

You know it's petty, you know it's dodgy timing, you know i'm being targetted by a specific mod.

I should have gotten back to you on these points, apologies. I don't agree that you're being targeted. The mod in question just happens to be the most active of the soccer mods. That will always be the case in any forum (that one mod is the most active). While I had to give your last infraction some consideration, the other 3 are very clear rule breaches (as such you can't really argue targeting for them).

On the abuse part: The anonymous player part doesn't hold water. It's abuse of a player. The swear filter kicking in doesn't mean it's not abuse. "That Khannie's an awful ****" would still be abuse. Filter or otherwise.

Bodhisopha wrote: »

You say it's hard to rack up 6 infractions, well it's not when you're receiving infractions like the above from a mod with an agenda.

I would say to you that if you get more infractions from the same mod that you feel are borderline or unjust, come back to me. I will absolutely examine the situation again. For now it doesn't look that way to me.

If you feel like you're not getting a fair hearing from me, you can appeal to admin level.

Bodhisopha

Khannie wrote: »

I should have gotten back to you on these points, apologies. I don't agree that you're being targeted. The mod in question just happens to be the most active of the soccer mods. That will always be the case in any forum (that one mod is the most active). While I had to give your last infraction some consideration, the other 3 are very clear rule breaches (as such you can't really argue targeting for them).

On the abuse part: The anonymous player part doesn't hold water. It's abuse of a player. The swear filter kicking in doesn't mean it's not abuse. "That Khannie's an awful ****" would still be abuse. Filter or otherwise.



I would say to you that if you get more infractions from the same mod that you feel are borderline or unjust, come back to me. I will absolutely examine the situation again. For now it doesn't look that way to me.

If you feel like you're not getting a fair hearing from me, you can appeal to admin level.

The most active mod on the forum? I never see him join in on debate on the forum, not saying he doesn't, just saying i never see it. I see all the others are on a lot and very active, Frisbee and Slick Ric namely, yet i have never received anything from them. Strange? Do you mean most active in handing out infractions? I wouldn't doubt that, but i'm sure known supporters of a certain team get a slide. I see it every day, and the other mods aren't so petty. Rightly so.

The other 3 infractions stand, i accept that. They are still petty, you could just about log onto any thread and find something that you could infract if you really wanted to do so.

If i report every breach of the forum charter will my complaints be upheld? Will i get feedback on the complaints, told why or why not they have been upheld? Can i receive assurance that the charter rules are being strictly adhered to rather than certain individuals being targeted?

I request that i receive feedback on every complaint i make for one month, if that's not too much to ask. For my own piece of mind.

And inferring that an anonymous player is a **** is not quite the same as Khannie is a ****.

You know that was petty and simply a case of a mod looking for an excuse, as it were.

Bodhisopha

I've reported a number of posts on this thread - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70921358#post70921358

I'm sure you can identify them yourself. They are all, in my opinion, worse breaches of the forum charter than the post i received an infraction for.

Khannie

Bodhisopha wrote: »

I request that i receive feedback on every complaint i make for one month, if that's not too much to ask.

It's way too much to ask. As I said, if you feel like you are being targeted again, come back to me and I will examine it.

Bodhisopha

Khannie wrote: »

It's way too much to ask. As I said, if you feel like you are being targeted again, come back to me and I will examine it.

I do feel like i'm being unfairly targeted. It's why i'm here.

I have reported a number of posts on a thread with numerous offences worse than mine. I'm yet to see any yellow cards issued. Please, check it out and see for yourself.

Khannie

I think we're done here. The reported posts were dealt with. I have nothing more to add. As I've said, if it happens again in the future and you feel like you're being unfairly targetted, come back to me. For now, that doesn't appear to be the case to me.

Bodhisopha

Khannie wrote: »

I think we're done here. The reported posts were dealt with. I have nothing more to add. As I've said, if it happens again in the future and you feel like you're being unfairly targetted, come back to me. For now, that doesn't appear to be the case to me.

Yeah, i've seen how you deal with that... "The 6th infraction is a little harsh but the other 5 justified, decision stands".

Kick it a notch higher. I want to deal with someone else.

Also, am i allowed to use the report function again?

Khannie

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Yeah, i've seen how you deal with that... "The 6th infraction is a little harsh but the other 5 justified, decision stands".

That's not what I said at all.

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Also, am i allowed to use the report function again?

Yes, but if you abuse it again like you did yesterday, I will ban you.

Bodhisopha

Khannie wrote: »

That's not what I said at all.



Yes, but if you abuse it again like you did yesterday, I will ban you.

It's not what you said to me but it's pretty much what you've said on another ongoing dispute, involving the same moderator funnily enough.

I just want this post dealt with on its own merits. I don't want to hear about compiling lists or coming back when it happens again.

I want my infraction for calling an anonymous player a **** overturned.

For all anyone knows i may have been calling him a sh1t, is calling an anonymous player a sh1t worthy of an infraction while calling someone a ****ing moron or a bollix acceptable? (they are on the owl thread).

Khannie

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Kick it a notch higher. I want to deal with someone else.

FAO admins: I stopped dealing with the thread at this point.