False pretences

ahal

Hi,

Judging by the general tone of boards.ie this forum is probably just for the large minority of petty / childish moderators to laugh at, but here goes anyway. About 18 months ago your moderator over in the classic cars section insulted me on thread, and got a deserved reply. Since then he's been following my posts and deleting them / editing them to nothing, and then pretending that I wrote something terrible.

This took an interesting twist yesterday when he suggested that I had "insulted Travellers" in a harmless post that he deleted. I never mentioned Travellers, nor did I allude to them. It's an invention of Unkel's imagination and a continuation of his sour grapes re: the aforementioned episode over a year ago.

Have you ever heard of "Defamation of character"? Many people on that forum know who I am. Frankly I couldn't care less about my '1 week ban', but I do care about someone saying publicly that I said or did something that I neither said / did, and furthermore denying me the right to correct it.

Not only do I care about it, but I think you'll find that a lot of people care about it. I decided to mention this here as a first response.

Micky Dolenz

Hi ahal,

One of the Rec Cmods will look into this and get back to you.

Thanks

Micky

ahal

Many thanks, I appreciate it.

I note that several quite pointed remarks going a lot further than my (deleted) reference to "some people" have appeared, but have not been either edited or deleted:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056809023

Penn

Hi ahal,

Your ban was based off more than one post. Firstly, I must note that in the course of this response, I'm going to link to and quote from some posts you've made. These posts were either deleted or edited by the mod in question, but the other Rec CMods and the Admin can see what you had posted before they were edited by looking at the edit history.

This issue began with this post from you, the following section of which was edited out by the mod before they took the decision to delete the thread:

ahal wrote:

As anyone from the Newport area will know, there's a family of travellers there that breed like rats, and act rather like them. They've been pestering me for 10 years, and about 90% of the crime in the area always seems to lead back to these scumbags.

(http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056571729)

When that thread was deleted, you posted a new thread and changed some of the terminology you used. For example, the above section was rephrased as this:

We have a family living nearby (Newport) who are of a culturally enriching minority of <NAMELESS> They and their 20 children often borrow things in the neighbourhood. Most things that are borrowed lead back to this lovely family who, during the 'Celtic tiger' years, funnily enough could not find work.

(http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=77495280)

The mod edited that post and closed that thread.

Then on Friday, you made this post (which was later edited by the mod) in reference to a car being stolen:

ahal wrote:

Normal people wouldn't, but then again there's no point in trying to apply a normal train of thought when it comes to these morons. I've had plenty of fun with said minority, but not allowed discuss on boards it seems. It's in their blood: they'd steal a thumbtack just because they can.

(http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056809023)

After the mod edited your post and gave a warning not to post like that again, you replied:

ahal wrote: »

Nothing at all controversial in this post, you just edited it (as per previous posts of mine) to misrepresent me and make people think that you had good reason to edit it. For the love of Christ, be a man about it if you're going to insult people and then get all sensitive for 12 months + :rolleyes:

I can see absolutely no reason to overturn this ban. It's quite clear given your posting history who and what you were referring to, and I would suggest that you re-evaluate your posting style to stop making baseless accusations against a group of people. And arguing with a mods' decision on-thread is normally an actionable offence by itself. In future, discuss it with the mod via PM and do not post about it on-thread. I also don't appreciate your attempts to make it seem like the moderator has been misrepresenting you when he hasn't.

I recommend that the ban stands. If you wish, you can appeal this decision by asking an Admin to look over it.

ahal

I don't dispute that the post in question was OTT ... the one from 18 months ago, was it? I was angry because I'd been burgled and a substantial amount of my property stolen, and I assumed that the people who had been pestering me for 10 years might have been behind it. Very few people saw that post as it was deleted promptly, so when I returned with a post more in line with WHAT OTHERS POST that was deleted too!

Prior to this Unkel had made a personal comment regarding a link to a van that I posted in the 'This week's classics that I'm not buying' and I posted an apt reply. FANCY DREDGING UP THOSE POSTS? - NAH, GUESS NOT!

If you look at the thread he banned me from you'll see that his mates posted much worse than me (we're in 2012 now, right?) but he waited for someone who wasn't one of his mates to post and then banned him.

You have the same 'stitch up' mentality as Unkel. It's a sort of cancer on boards.

ahal

Penn wrote: »

I also don't appreciate your attempts to make it seem like the moderator has been misrepresenting you when he hasn't.

Read what you posted. Where did I mention Travellers? Are we talking about 2010, 2011 or 2012?

Did I mention Travellers?

You THINK that's what I meant ... you must be deleting half of boards on that basis!

It's okay to call people C**TS in the Entertainment section though?

You've as good as admitted it's personal (which I know anyway) because anyone not privy to the OP from over a year ago wouldn't see any difference from the latest post and what else is being posted by Unkel's mates - other than my post being more general! Go and re-check the thread, assuming it hasn't been knee-jerk edited / someone banned like what happened last night straight after my post here!

oscarBravo

ahal wrote: »

Read what you posted. Where did I mention Travellers?

I'm curious: if you weren't talking about members of the travelling community, to which minority were you referring?

ahal

oscarBravo wrote: »

I'm curious: if you weren't talking about members of the travelling community, to which minority were you referring?

Hi Oscarbravo, the 3rd. person I'm dealing with on this thread. I don't think we've spoken before.

The answer to your question is "people who drive around in recovery trucks stealing cars from public and private places".

And yes, they're a "minority"! I stand to be corrected on that ... are they the "majority"?

You can choose to make something up like Unkel, or accept that I wasn't referring specifically to travellers. I was talking about a group of people who specialize in car crime, and sorry and all, but the facts in the public domain would suggest that this includes travellers! Unfortunately Unkel jumped the gun.

At no point did I ascribe this behaviour solely to 'Travellers'; Unkel did. I never mentioned Travellers in that thread at all.

Trusting that this clears it up for you.

oscarBravo

ahal wrote: »

Hi Oscarbravo, the 3rd. person I'm dealing with on this thread. I don't think we've spoken before.

We haven't. I'm an administrator. I get to have the final say on this dispute.

The answer to your question is "people who drive around in recovery trucks stealing cars from public and private places".

OK, so when your thread about members of the travelling community was deleted, and you posted anew on the same topic talking about a "culturally enriching minority", you were no longer talking about travelers? You decided to post the same story about someone other than members of the travelling community?

ahal

Which year are we talking about?

oscarBravo

ahal wrote: »

Which year are we talking about?

The posts I referred to in my last post are from this year.

I'm not sure why the evasion, it's a pretty simple question: when you refer to a culturally enriching minority, are you referring to the travelling community or to someone else? If it's someone else, why are you being coy about it?

ahal

oscarBravo wrote: »

The posts I referred to in my last post are from this year.

I'm not sure why the evasion, it's a pretty simple question: when you refer to a culturally enriching minority, are you referring to the travelling community or to someone else? If it's someone else, why are you being coy about it?

I'm not being coy about anything. The posts you're referring to relate to almost 2 years ago ... I'm talking about last week.

oscarBravo

ahal wrote: »

I'm not being coy about anything. The posts you're referring to relate to almost 2 years ago ... I'm talking about last week.

The posts I'm referring to are from this year; two from March and one from November.

I'll give you one more opportunity to answer the question: to what "culturally enriching minority" are you referring, if it's not the travelling community?

ahal

oscarBravo wrote: »

The posts I'm referring to are from this year; two from March and one from November.

Sorry, but I think you need to check the dates there. These are selections from posts which expand a little bit further but were whittled down to make it look like I was JUST talking about travellers.

oscarBravo wrote: »

I'll give you one more opportunity to answer the question: to what "culturally enriching minority" are you referring, if it's not the travelling community?

I've already answered that. There are several people who rob cars, but they're in a minority. This ranges between Eastern Europeans, Africans, Travellers and settled. No, I'm not going to say it was a reference to Travellers or any of the aforementioned in particular, but as clearly stated in several news reports available publicly, all of the aforementioned are involved in car crime. My experience has been with one group, so if you wish to take that as me referring to Travellers, so be it.

I'm amazed at how well you profile your contributers on boards.ie, given that you have so many! It just so happens that in the November 2012 post you refer to yourselves got it wrong and so did Unkel ... and this particularly relates to the mod. who previously posted that he "thought I thought" or something. This all began with the attached. Unkel then deleted / shredded several of my posts on other issues and applied supposed "rules" to me that his mates aren't held to.

The bottom line really is that he shouldn't give it if he can't take it.

ahal

Just another few wee words on this. The issue here is that Unkel accused me of "insulting Travellers" in the post which he deleted ... that being November 2012. I would like you to find my "insult" to "Travellers" or else correct Unkel's bogus and self - serving statement of fact based on a falsehood that his imagination conjured up. This goes a bit beyond putting words in someone's mouth: it's downright dodgy in any walk of life.

I'm not one bit concerned about getting any ban lifted. I already got banned for life from the Motors section! I fell victim of the matey club! It began with a troll (matey) correcting my grammar, then a thread where mateys were having a chuckle about how petrified animals looked before they ran them over, then a chief matey banned me. I suggested getting a life to said individuals, and I'd do the same today, so no hard feelings!

Re: continually calling me evasive, this thread is pretty long an neither you or anyone else has yet answered the question which I will repeat again. In last week's post of mine, where did I mention "Travellers"? You can try all you like to invent whatever you like based on this or that from the past, but the actual question is, where did I mention travellers?

Indeed if you look at the thread, there are quite a few references (post 'warning') which can't be taken any other way than as a reference to travellers, but no big deal it seems! So on the one hand Unkel makes things up, and on the other turns a blind eye?

oscarBravo

ahal wrote: »

I'm not one bit concerned about getting any ban lifted.

Then don't waste our time. Ban upheld.

Dav

In light of the email full of insults (not to mention untruths where ahal tries saying he's spoken to me whilst also insulting me), we're site banning him.