Banned by .Kovu

allbuiz

Dear Sirs,

I was banned by .Kovu for a discussion that took place in The demise of the Suckler herd. I was having a debate with another member and this regulator banned him from the discussion. I asked what was the ban for and I got banned also. It is an absolute disgrace to treat members in this caviller manner. This website is supposed to be about discussions in a civilized mannor. If you read the topic you will see I didn't use any vulgar language.

I have even received a support message which I will quote hereunder.




Therefore I seek clarity on your position on this subject because if the ban is upheld I will be deleting my account as this attitude towards members is utterly shocking.

Taltos

Hi allbuiz

as you have already discussed this with the mod in question I am going to review the ban and the steps leading up to it. However, your threat to close your account depending on the outcome of this investigation will have no bearing on any ruling I make, if you choose to close your account you are free to do so at any time.

Taltos

allbuiz

Dear Taltos,

My threat of closing my account was not designed to change your decision upon the ban being placed upon my username, it was due to utter disgust at the caviller manner by which the moderator has treated me. I completely agreed that this site must have rules to sustain certain codes of conduct however this moderator has taken this to the extreme that even other people are now sending PM messages to me in support of my questions prior to my ban to this moderator. Please review my ban at your earliest convenience.

Thanking you,

Allbuiz

Taltos

OK allbuiz, sorry this has taken a while but there are quite few days worth of posts to go through there.

Basically from what I can see since the 6th / 7th May you and one or two other posters have consistently though possibly inadvertently tried to derail this thread.

Looking at the posts directly.
> General Mod warning here from Rovi post #118
This should have been the end of it.
> Your post #142; where you received a warning for backseat moderation.
> Mod Warning Post #143. Asking folk to keep it on topic again.
> 3rd Mod Warning Post #145 after one of the other posters ignored the above, you were specifically called out on this warning, a clear sign that no more messing would be tolerated.
> And your response, the very next post - you challenged mod direction in thread - something that is a big no-no on boards, we even call it out in our charter, something that if you had not read before you were duty bound to read after your yellow in Post 142.

So no, after going through the recent days on the thread, all moderation messages and your insistence in posting as you saw fit this ban stands.
You can take it to the admin team if you want, but I am satisfied that the mods have acted appropriately here. As above there is no free speech, we clearly ask posters to respect the T&Cs and the forum charters when the post as well as all mod direction, failure to do any of these does as you can see have consequences.

Thanks
Taltos

allbuiz

Dear Sirs,

Please see relevant posts to other personnel of boards.ie which has led to my current ban.

It appears you have a lot of legislation in place to uphold a decision to ban members for certain periods of time however while my knowledge of this topic will be lesser than yours I would ask you to treat this matter fairly and based on its own merits, my records of the situation prior to the ban are detailed hereunder,

1. Involved in chat with other members within a discussion regarding suckler farming.
2. The person whom the moderator banned supposedly for offending me I questioned for this ban and subsequently got banned myself.

It appears to me that these discussion members are being treated like children in relation to what they can and cant say. Do you really expect adults to contribute to your website if you treat them like children?

Regards,

Allbuiz

Taltos

Allbuiz

we cannot see PM's. So your private messages with other messages are beyond the scope of what we can do.

So the PMs were not taken into account for your ban - you repeatedly dragged the thread off topic, ignored multiple mod instructions and worse challenged mod instruction on thread. I don't know of any forum here where any of that is acceptable.

In relation to the other poster who was banned, that is not the remit of DRF, we will not discuss bans or moderation of other users here.

Again though - if you wish the Admins to look into your ban here we can ask them to do so.

allbuiz

Dear Taltos,

Please have admin look at my ban,

My principle argument to this ban is that I am being treated like a child and how do you expect adults to contribute to your website when you do this furthermore I did not drag the conversation off topic as it was a discussion on how dairy farming could escalate over other sectors of farming.

I also detail the PM hereunder in support of my questions to the moderator, I would also request that you think about why I have received a PM in relation to this matter from someone I haven't really chatted with before. Could it be that there is a general consensus that moderators are being to strict within chat discussions? Perhaps put a general discussion on moderation within the forums to see what your contributors think about this subject.


PM message sent to allbuiz,

Taltos

Will flag to the admins now.
Again - quoting PMs from other users shouldn't be done here in DRF, if you wish to discuss moderation in general suggest you take it to Feedback once your ban here has been dealt with.

Thanks allbuiz

Taltos

allbuiz

Dear Taltos,

Will the PM be available to admin as it is supporting documentation to this argument. If not, then how do I send this PM to admin?

Regards,

Allbuiz

Tom Dunne

When you are reading the PM, use the report function and it will be sent for Admin review.

If you look to the top-right of the PM, you will see a small red/ white triangle. Click on that to report the pm.

Tom Dunne

Ok, PM received.

I think there are two issues at hand here - the perception that there is an ongoing issue with the moderation of the forum and the ban itself.

The perception of issues with moderation is irrelevant to the ban. One PM from another user does not constitute an issue with a forum. If there is an issue, or at least the perception of an issue with the forum, this needs to be dealt with separately and will therefore not be dealt with here.

So, to the matter at hand - the ban.

I feel I must first deal with the emotive language you are using. The landslide in Afghanistan is "utterly shocking", the kidnap of 200 girls from a school in Nigeria is "utterly shocking". An anonymous user on the internet being banned from a forum dedicated to farming and forestry is not "utterly shocking."

Threats to close your account server no purpose other than to show a manner of petulance that is comically ironic given the fact that you claim you are being treated like a child.

The core of the issue here, I believe, is that you appear to not understand what is an appropriate manner to conduct yourself on a forum. As Taltos has explained, questioning moderator directions on thread is not the done thing - it derails threads and quickly turns discussions into arguments.

The ban was issued after a number of clear and unambiguous warnings. I honestly cannot see how this comes as a sock to you. Therefore the ban is upheld.

I suggest until such time as your ban is up that you have a look around the site and get a feeling for what is considered acceptable behaviour.

That is assuming you don't close your account.

allbuiz

Dear Tom,
I notice how you have distanced yourself from a possible underlying issue that may be within your website, however if you don’t feel that you are able to discuss this topic further we can move on to the different topic.
Your perception of utterly shocking is founded on your views and perceptions of items that are utterly shocking to you and to try and dictate how someone interoperates the English language would appear to be somewhat overconfident on your part and is boarder line arrogant and pompous.
You then state that threatening to close my account is somewhat childish, you seen to have a benign dictatorship style within boards that is somewhat appalling and I will reserve judgement as to whether I will continue as a member on this website. The sequence of appeals vindicates this as new evidence was submitted within the appeal however due to the superior ranking personnel’s loyalty to the subordinate the decision is upheld regardless of any sense of justice for the banned person.
Tom, I shall end on this note, a wise old woman once told me, in business don’t fall out with anyone regardless of who they are and you sir could do with remembering this.
Warm Regards,
Allbuiz