Banned from Golf

Sean Bateman

I was banned from "Golf" yesterday by Licksy and I'm not at all happy with the decision because there was no reason for the ban.

The ban notification accuses me of "trolling/flaming" when I was doing nothing of the sort. The main question now in relation to the US Open is whether Rory McIlroy will kick on and win the tournament (which I hope he does) or whether he will collapse (like he did in the Masters). I thought that he'd do the latter, and backed up my opinion. That isn't trolling or flaming. It's relevant discussion. Trolling and having a view contrary to the herd are two very different things.

Needless to say I PM'd Licksy almost immediately (as per the guidelines). I have not as yet heard back from him/her.

Regards,

Sean

Khannie

You really need to give the mod a reasonable amount of time to reply, especially over the weekend. Mods have lives too.

I'd suggest you hang on 'til you hear back from Licksy and try to sort this out by PM. If that doesn't work out, then come back here.

PhilipMarlowe

Sorry for not replying to your message sooner but it has been a busy weekend.

A little background here...

When the first Major of the year was on (The Masters), I was glued to it on TV and I had college deadlines so I didn't give the golf forum proper attention at the time and it was unpleasant with the amount of fly-by-nights who came in to stir and ridicule etc.
Rory McIlroy had lost a lead and had a turbulent evening and most of the world and it's mother felt sympathy for him. But of course, the schadenfreude displayed by others with no desire to hang around and debate rubbed the 'locals' up the wrong way...

Now, cut to the US Open weekend.
Yours truly didn't want a repeat of the same type of behaviour so I put up an announcement in the Golf Forum along with the same message in a Sticky Thread and then put the same message again in the busy thread with an edited title so that anyone posting in the Golf Forum would be fair warned.
The warning was:

It's that time of the month... (Major Time).

Mod tolerance levels for trolling and similar annoying behaviour are low... we like to watch the golf too y'know and not have to babysit here.

The Masters was made less enjoyable on here because of trolls who have no interest in sticking around to debate.. just interested in being a pain in the a**e.

Please report post(er)s that are just acting the armhole. An alternative opinion is fine but play fair if you want to stick around these parts.

It also warned against degenerating into a nationality debate which it often can.

So we were all set for the weekend's golf.

Saturday morning then and Sean wades in with the post he got banned (10 days) for - (note, the first part of the post is him quoting Rory McIlroy in an interview)

Sean Bateman wrote: »

"After Augusta I said I needed to be a little more cocky, a little more arrogant on the golf course, and think a little bit more about myself, and I have tried to do that this week," he said. "I'm just trying to have a bit of an attitude, you know? When I get myself in these positions, I have to really make sure that I don't get ahead of myself and I don't start playing defensively. I have to still play aggressively to the targets that I pick.
"And that's really the main thing, even if you get four or five shots ahead of the field, you have to try to get seven ahead, or eight ahead or 10 ahead.
"You have to try to keep going."

Idiotic.

I used to suspect that McIlroy was a fool with no respect for the history of the game. On the basis of the above, I now know that it's true.

You heard it here first folks...McIlroy's collapse this week will be even more embarrassing and humiliating than the Augusta farce. But it'll all be fine 'cause sure he's an incredible talent and he'll have loads more chances to win Majors. A few idiotic posts and pictures on Twitter later and all will be good on planet Rory.

Just to note that Sean had already posted about the imminent demise of Rory umpteen times already in the thread, not to mention that he made the same point again and again in the post-Masters discussions (the vast majority of his postings in the Golf forum are on the subject).
I considered his post above to be flaming and considering that there were 3 discrete, distinct warnings in place about "playing fair" I decided that some time off was deserved.

Also to note, last night there were ~500 active users in the forum, the US Open thread has 1,350 posts and close to 50,000 views at the time of writing.
In the thread, there was only one infraction (for Sean's post), 1 ban (for Sean) and 1 user got site-banned for a porn post (his first post on boards.ie) so IMO the warnings served their purpose and allowed the users to engage. There was no other intervention.
Oh, and McIlroy won

I am happy to abide by whatever decision the higher-ups take in this matter.
Naturally I would prefer my decision to stand but if it is deemed excessive/unfair then I'll console myself with my own schadenfreude as Sean faces the lions...

His PM for reference:

Appeal
Licksy

Banning me is ridiculous.

I steered the conversation away from McIlroy's nationality and back to the golf.

All I've spoken about is the golf. The thread is full of people claiming that it's all over and that it's a procession for McIlroy. I don't agree with that and have put my money where my mouth is (I backed him for a place from the start and I've recently laid him).

All I'm saying is that McIlroy's naivety, youth and bizarre outlook (as evidenced by his public statements) sugges that this isn't over.

I read the warnings and Mod Posts and they're genuinely not relevant to my posts.

I am not trolling...after decades of watching the game I believe that McIlroy will collapse.

Thanks.

Sean

Khannie

Thank you Licksy.

All seems reasonable to me. Ban upheld.