Banned from legal discussion

Filfot

Dear Sirs

I am a regular reader and sometimes contributor on boards. Today I was banned from the legal discussion for a month and have no access to it at all now. My post merely asked would anyone have details of the questions which came up in recent sittings of fe1 exams or a simple grid showing this. These are exams which I am trying my level best to pass. The moderator justified this ban on the basis of breach of forum charter, which you will note clearly says nothing on such a request.

There is indeed a series of conflicting posts on the thread one stating a 3 day ban and the other a one month ban from two different moderators. I would assume that both these durations are still in operation as if the 3 day ban was no longer operative why is it still there ? I feel a one month ban is entirely disproportionate as the moderators have removed in their entirety a previous forum which facilitated discussion on past papers and facilitated swapping of materials. This was done with just over two weeks to the exams. Surely such should have been done after the exams at least

Regards

Filfot

Filfot

Filfot wrote: »

Dear Sirs

I am a regular reader and sometimes contributor on boards. Today I was banned from the legal discussion for a month and have no access to it at all now. My post merely asked would anyone have details of the questions which came up in recent sittings of fe1 exams or a simple grid showing this. These are exams which I am trying my level best to pass. The moderator justified this ban on the basis of breach of forum charter, which you will note clearly says nothing on such a request.

There is indeed a series of conflicting posts on the thread one stating a 3 day ban and the other a one month ban from two different moderators. I would assume that both these durations are still in operation as if the 3 day ban was no longer operative why is it still there ? I feel a one month ban is entirely disproportionate as the moderators have removed in their entirety a previous forum which facilitated discussion on past papers and facilitated swapping of materials. This was done with just over two weeks to the exams. Surely such should have been done after the exams at least

Regards

Filfot

I would also like to add that I was in no way advertising any material or indeed intending to pay money for information in relation to what questions came up in previous sittings of fe1 exams nor was I offering to trade anything for such information .this can be seen from my original post in said forum which has now been deleted. Furthermore prior posters were seeking such information and were offering trades for exam grids and were clearly not banned for a month like myself as they made subsequent posts

Filfot

Filfot wrote: »

I would also like to add that I was in no way advertising any material or indeed intending to pay money for information in relation to what questions came up in previous sittings of fe1 exams nor was I offering to trade anything for such information .this can be seen from my original post in said forum which has now been deleted. Furthermore prior posters were seeking such information and were offering trades for exam grids and were clearly not banned for a month like myself as they made subsequent posts

I would be obliged if Boards.ie would assist me resolve this dispute as I have have not been accommodated by the moderator

Taltos

Please confirm that you have followed the process above. Step one being to attempt to resolve this with the relevant mod.

Filfot

Taltos wrote: »

Please confirm that you have followed the process above. Step one being to attempt to resolve this with the relevant mod.

I can confirm I have followed the process the mod hullaballoo has upheld his one month ban on me for my post seeking information about what came up in past fe1 exams in the fe1 exam thread

Scofflaw

Hi Filfot,

I'll have a look at this for you. Is this the post in question?

Filfot wrote:

Hey there, would anyone have an upto date grid for constitution or alt the papers for which came up in the frenzied spring sittings? your help would be much appreciated.

I have to say that I can see multiple deletes of similar posts asking for exam grids, and the following mod note was highlighted on the thread, and in the thread title:

hullabaloo wrote:

Moderator: due to a recurrence of issues around the swapping of notes/grids/manuals and other FE1 exam-related materials we will no longer facilitate this practice in this thread.

From today onwards, any exchange of materials must be done through the FE1 manuals, nutshells, papers and notes for sale thread and will be subject to the rules set out in the OP thereof.

Unfortunately, this is not up for debate. Ordinary moderators on this site are not equipped to deal with contractual disputes between users and, as a result, we will be insisting that swaps take place via adverts.ie.

Until further notice, failure to comply with this warning will result in an instant 3-day ban. We are reserving our position in relation to increasing that period if this warning is ignored/flouted.

Moderator: This is a final warning.

The next time anyone attempts to buy/sell/swap using this thread, I will totally remove the trading facilities we offer.

As I have said before, we are simply not equipped to deal with any disputes between users when things inevitably go wrong because you skipped that chapter in contract law.

Other users who posted similar inquiries for exam grids have also been banned for a month. I'm not sure there's much I can do about this for you - the mod note explicitly says "don't ask for exam grids on pain of a ban", said mod not is highlighted in the title and OP of the thread, and anyone else who made similar posts to yours has suffered a similar ban.

moderately,
Scofflaw

Filfot

Scofflaw wrote: »

Hi Filfot,

I'll have a look at this for you. Is this the post in question?



I have to say that I can see multiple deletes of similar posts asking for exam grids, and the following mod note was highlighted on the thread, and in the thread title:



Other users who posted similar inquiries for exam grids have also been banned for a month. I'm not sure there's much I can do about this for you - the mod note explicitly says "don't ask for exam grids on pain of a ban", said mod not is highlighted in the title and OP of the thread, and anyone else who made similar posts to yours has suffered a similar ban.

moderately,
Scofflaw

I understand that but there is no facility for one to ask what came up on prior exams anywhere on the site and a grid is essentially just that. This is due to the fact that the mod also deleted the material swap thread and banned the creation of a new one .It falls for a matter of interpretation what I said if I asked directly for information on what came up in last few sittings I don't think I would have had a ban imposed on me even though that is exactly what a grid is ? Would you not agree that it is a harsh rule especially in light of fact it is an fe1 thread and there is no facility to ask what topics came up on previous exams ?? I do understand that asking for a grid clogs up the forum but would you consider a one month ban to be excessive?

Scofflaw

Filfot wrote: »

I understand that but there is no facility for one to ask what came up on prior exams anywhere on the site and a grid is essentially just that. This is due to the fact that the mod also deleted the material swap thread and banned the creation of a new one .It falls for a matter of interpretation what I said if I asked directly for information on what came up in last few sittings I don't think I would have had a ban imposed on me even though that is exactly what a grid is ? Would you not agree that it is a harsh rule especially in light of fact it is an fe1 thread and there is no facility to ask what topics came up on previous exams ?? I do understand that asking for a grid clogs up the forum but would you consider a one month ban to be excessive?

I can certainly ask about the policy in question, and look to see if there's some other way of facilitating such requests, but unfortunately a one-month ban is reasonable in the light of so many posters ignoring a very clearly stated warning.

From that perspective, your ban would be harsh if you were the only poster to have done this - but if you had been, I don't think the ban would have been so long. It's long because too many people, yourself included, ignored the mod notices.

Anyway, I'll PM the mod in question and get back to you.

moderately,
Scofflaw

Filfot

Scofflaw wrote: »

I can certainly ask about the policy in question, and look to see if there's some other way of facilitating such requests, but unfortunately a one-month ban is reasonable in the light of so many posters ignoring a very clearly stated warning.

From that perspective, your ban would be harsh if you were the only poster to have done this - but if you had been, I don't think the ban would have been so long. It's long because too many people, yourself included, ignored the mod notices.

Anyway, I'll PM the mod in question and get back to you.

moderately,
Scofflaw

Thank you

Filfot

Filfot wrote: »

Thank you

Any update on this?

Scofflaw

Filfot wrote: »

Any update on this?

I've asked, but haven't yet received an answer - but it is end of week/weekend.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Filfot

Scofflaw wrote: »

I've asked, but haven't yet received an answer - but it is end of week/weekend.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Thanks I look forward to resolving this

Scofflaw

Filfot wrote: »

Thanks I look forward to resolving this

I've had an answer from hullabaloo, and the gist of it is really as per the mod notes on that thread.

The forum mods feel they're simply not equipped to deal with any disputes resulting from failures by any party to honour commitments they make with respect to exam grids and the like. They agree that grids are 'low value', but point out that even so they produce exactly the same contractual issues as any other product offered by way of favour or exchange.

Initially, the mods tried to facilitate the exchanges by stipulating very precisely the way in which such exchanges could be undertaken, but posters didn't follow the rules, or apparently even read them, and continued trying to ask for or offer materials casually in the FE1 thread, as you did.

The mods therefore withdrew any facilitation of such exchanges, and made it clear that they were doing so with a series of warnings, the issue first being flagged in January.

Offering any facility for trade/exchange/gift on any boards forum apart from those specifically for the purpose is always going to be at the discretion of the mods, and as an exception to the usual rules. There is no right or entitlement on the part of the users to have such facilities. If users won't then cooperate with the mods be following any rules they may have set down as part of that offer, they will find that the offer is withdrawn. If that is inconvenient to the users, they have only themselves to blame - they have abused a goodwill offer, and it has been withdrawn.

So, yes, the mods were trying to facilitate such requests originally, but too many people ignored the fairly simple rules the mods asked people to follow in order to do so, so the facility has been withdrawn entirely, and people who ignore that face a one-month ban, on the basis that:

the ban was set at a month for a first offence to make sure the message gets across to people. If people are not going to cooperate with such a serious rule, particularly in the Legal Discussion forum, then we have to exclude them.

hullabaloo will amend the charter to include a link to adverts.ie and a note as to why the trading facility has been withdrawn.

With respect to your ban, I'm afraid I have no choice but to uphold it.

moderately,
Scofflaw