1 Month ban for 'Trolling'

Stercus Accidit

The moderator has been pm'd, twice now, the first within minutes of the ban being implemented.

The reason given for the 1 month ban is 'trolling' which is not helpful and does not apply to my post.

I think that this is representative of the moderation of the airsoft forum by a certain group of individuals who have a 'mates as mods' system going on and who don't show much discretion in the use of their additional user privileges. I thought there was some sort of oversight to prevent this kind of thing?

In fact I would hazard a guess that this has coincided with a reduction in traffic to the airsoft forum and a parallel reduction in advertisement revenue. I am certainly aware that several sites and retailers have decided not to renew their affiliation fees with boards.ie. This behaviour is in direct odds with boards.ie's business model, in fact several feedback threads have stated the same thing but never seem to reach anyone who has a business interest in boards, just the lower volunteer echelons, but that is a bigger problem than this thread so I will wrap it up.

This ban is lazy & bad moderation, I would guess its harshness is due to my referencing a poster whom the mods have decided they don't like, and my previous criticisms in feedback of the moderation style being employed. My contributions to that forum have been positive, when I have criticised the moderation style in feedback has also been a positive thing but has not been welcomed by some.

Beasty

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

The moderator has been pm'd, twice now, the first within minutes of the ban being implemented.

Has the mod responded to your PMs?

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

I think that this is representative of the moderation of the airsoft forum by a certain group of individuals who have a 'mates as mods' system going on and who don't show much discretion in the use of their additional user privileges. I thought there was some sort of oversight to prevent this kind of thing?

In fact I would hazard a guess that this has coincided with a reduction in traffic to the airsoft forum and a parallel reduction in advertisement revenue. I am certainly aware that several sites and retailers have decided not to renew their affiliation fees with boards.ie. This behaviour is in direct odds with boards.ie's business model, in fact several feedback threads have stated the same thing but never seem to reach anyone who has a business interest in boards, just the lower volunteer echelons, but that is a bigger problem than this thread so I will wrap it up.

This ban is lazy & bad moderation, I would guess its harshness is due to my referencing a poster whom the mods have decided they don't like, and my previous criticisms in feedback of the moderation style being employed. My contributions to that forum have been positive, when I have criticised the moderation style in feedback has also been a positive thing but has not been welcomed by some.

None of this is relevant to your appeal. It's more a matter for Feedback, and I do not intend addressing it here

Assuming you have had a response from the mod, I will deal with your appeal against a 1 month ban from the Airsoft Questions Forum

Stercus Accidit

Beasty wrote: »

Has the mod responded to your PMs?

None of this is relevant to your appeal. It's more a matter for Feedback, and I do not intend addressing it here

Assuming you have had a response from the mod, I will deal with your appeal against a 1 month ban from the Airsoft Questions Forum

Still waiting, thanks Beasty. There is no rush, the part of the forum I was banned from is more of a loss to the posters I would have helped there than a loss to me.

I do however disagree with you regarding the following part of my above post, and do think it is pertinent:

I would guess its harshness is due to my referencing a poster whom the mods have decided they don't like, and my previous criticisms in feedback of the moderation style being employed. My contributions to that forum have been positive, when I have criticised the moderation style in feedback has also been a positive thing but has not been welcomed by some.

I'd like to know why Dogwatch knee-jerked for a 1 month ban for a relatively innocuous post.

Beasty

I will only consider this once you have discussed it with the mod, as outlined above as the first step in the process

You are jumping to conclusions over the reason for the ban. Should I be required to review the ban I will do so on it's own merits, taking into account any relevant history within the Airsoft Forums. If your actions in those forums warrant the ban, I will not overturn it. If I believe the ban to be excessive I will reduce it or overturn it completely, or impose an infraction or warning in its place. I do not anticipate any posts you have made outside the Airsoft Forums having any relevance to this ban or appeal

Stercus Accidit

I am not satisfied with the resolution that the moderator has offered and would like to go ahead with the dispute resolution.

The reason give for the ban at the time, "Trolling", and the reason given now that I have appealed the ban are different. This says to me that the mod wants to defend the ban itself, not the reason to impose it in the first place which is not defensible, but he wants to argue a new reason which wasn't even mentioned nor I imagine considered in the first place.

Beasty

OK, I've reviewed the thread and in particular the post that resulted in your ban. The mod has edited the post but I can see the original wording you used.

The thread was started by a user who wanted some information (not surprising given it's the Airsoft Questions Forum). After various exchanges when helpful responses were given to the OP's questions, at post 15 a user went off-thread. There was an exchange between the user and another mod in the forum which resulted in the mod issuing a warning for posters to stay on-topic (post 20). The user continued off topic, and challenging the forum mods generally - essentially trolling the thread. The mod edited out the comments and banned the user

You then chose to quote the edited post and made the following statement (since edited out by the mod)

I find that I often look at the google cache of a thread trying to see what was edited away to protect my delicate sensibilities in the hope of a laugh, but google has updated its page already. You need to tell them to slow it down a bit, spill some coffee on a server or something.

The mod then banned you for a month, using "trolling" as the reason. TBH there are a number of standard ban reasons that could have been given. You decided to post off-topic, you ignored the previous mod instruction, and it would appear to me that you were looking for some way to challenge the mods in the forum. "Trolling" just about sums it up in my opinion, but as I say there are various reasons that coud have been given, none of which I would have argued with

When I first saw the length of the ban I thought it a bit harsh, but noted that the mod had taken into account your 2 previous bans. After some discussion amongst the mods the one that banned you realised that your previous bans from Airsoft forums were over 3 years old. Now ban history is always relevant in considering what action to take, but the relevance can diminish over time. If you had incurred those other bans in the last 6 months a 1 month ban now may well have been perfectly reasonable. However the mod decided to reduce the ban to a couple of days recognising the fact that your recent record has been "clean".

This to me is a fair conclusion, but I note you have not agreed. Your PM exchanges with the mod have shown a complete disrespect of him. Your opening post here and in the earlier thread in the forum that was locked by an Admin show a similar lack of respect for the forum mods

I'm half-minded to revert to the original 1 month ban because of the "attitude" you have shown both here and in your dealings with the mod. However I'm prepared to leave it at 2 days with a warning that you need to improve that attitude or will find yourself in further trouble in the Airsoft forums

So my decision is that I agree with the mod's reduction of the ban to 2 days, but I see no grounds for overturning the ban.

You may of course ask an Admin to review this

Stercus Accidit

Have I even been banned from airsoft 3 times? Are you sure it's not the adverts sub-section which is an adverts ban not regarding conduct.

I didn't read the whole of the thread including any warnings, it seems humor is off-topic in a thread where a lad is looking to break his ankles.

Do feel free to revert to the full month if you are upset by my attitude, it hasn't changed and is in response to how that place has been run for a long time.

I stand by my pm's too, (and I always thought you guys frowned on sharing pm's, it must be entirely one sided as is the usual fare here). The one directed at me with a link to the 'troll' wikipedia article is a fine example of sharp wit as though it doesn't apply to ludicrous moderation. Bad mods are the worst trolls.

oscarBravo

And we're done here.

I'll share some friendly advice in closing: I suggested you park the attitude problem outside this forum when bringing a dispute to our attention. You have consciously chosen not to. If and when you decide to dispute a moderator's decision in the future, I strongly recommend you take the suggestion a lot more seriously, because this isn't a soapbox for you to bitch about the moderators who freely volunteer their time to help run this website.