Infraction Appeal

GM228

Hi, I got an infraction for a posting in message No. #205 in this thread:-

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057512659&page=14

I received an infraction from MOD Victor for being uncivil due to the following comment:-

So if there is no cycle lane, you are going against the traffic flow, therefore you are required to cycle to the left of the road-which is actually the cyclists right

I have PMd the MOD regarding this infraction 2 days ago, but got no reply as yet.

The MOD has stated that this is trolling, however I believe that the comment as a whole and the reasoning behind it needs to be looked at again (and specifically why that opinion was reached) as it is not trolling and certainly not being uncivil, the comment was based on my interpretation of the law and I gave a specific reason why I would come to that conclusion in message no. #209 as follows:-

in legal terms (which is generally all road laws deal with) it could be argued that because contra means against the normal flow (by definition) that anything which references normal flow still stands and can't be overruled by something which is contra (contrary) to it.

For example a contra-flow bus lane is not a two-way street, it's a one way street which provides a bus lane against the normal flow of traffic, and it's the lane (rather than the act of contra-flow itself) that gives traffic in the lane a normal flow of traffic in that direction.

Please also take into consideration when a poster picked up on the comment I did specifically state that I didn't disagree with them, but it was based on legal terms.

Each and every study and legal definition/interpretation of contra-flow (weather it be buses, cyclists etc), all indicate that rather than being two-way, it is contra (i.e against the normal flow), naturally enough contra (which is legally defined as contrary/against) was interpretated by me to mean going against or opposite and so a rule which applies to normal flow, may not necessarily be the same for a contra-situation, as such when going against direction rules etc which apply to normal flow would be opposite to the person who is contra. I have shown that a cyclist must be in a cycle lane to contra-flow and therefore without a lane they can not legally contra-flow and therefore can't have a legal flow of traffic, so in legal terms normal flow of traffic dosn't apply.

I certainly didn't mean any sort of uncivil posting, and I'm not sure an infraction for my interpretation of the law should be considered uncivil, afterall the law is very open to interpretation.

Whilst I did get a warning from the MOD previously in relation to an off-topic comment (this comment was not off topic), and to my defence I stated publicly and privately that I apologised for the off-topic comment, however this comment for which I got the infraction was not off-topic and I received no prior warning to suggest otherwise. All my postings in the thread were based on the legalities of the law.

I feel that the infraction is wrong for those reasons and I apologise for any mistaken impression I may have given and I ask the infraction be removed and I will be more than happy to have the original wording of the message amended just to be sure.

Regards

John

EDIT: As a side note I would like to note that I have never had any infractions/warnings etc in the past prior to this, please also note I'm not sure if mods/admins etc take other infractions etc into account in their decisions, but just incase I'd like to note that I received a second infraction from MOD Monument for violating Victors warning relating to this infaction which I'm appealing. However the second infraction was issued by mistake and Monument has confirmed he has requested it be reversed which could take several days.

The Hill Billy

Hi there. Apologies for the delay. We are looking into this & one of the M&T CMods will be back to you shortly.

In the meantime - have you received any response yet from your PM to the mod?

GM228

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Hi there. Apologies for the delay. We are looking into this & one of the M&T CMods will be back to you shortly.

In the meantime - have you received any response yet from your PM to the mod?

Hi Hilly Billy,

No response received from the mod as yet.

John

tricky D

Mod has been PMed by me. Let's see what happens via that channel before continuing here.

GM228

Any update on this, I have PMd both the mod as outlined in the original post and PMd the CMod 2 days ago and still no reply.

Just curious how it is proceeding?

tricky D

Hi,

Apologies for the delay.

We've had a good review of this and taken our time examining the thread and interactions between you and the mod, and parsed the matters relevant to this DRP.

There's 3 factors we have considered:

1 Were rules broken?
2 Was it intentional?
3 Is the penalty appropriate?

1 Rules:
There were a number of problem posts including ones which were off-topic/derailing and some misinterpretation of legislation which resulted in you stick to your guns a bit too much causing some confrontation which wasn't helpful. This alone is borderline territory and probably wouldn't warrant a sanction.

2 Intent:
However the mod rightly stepped in and asked you to improve the quality of your posts before posting again. This should have been heeded before you posted the carded post but wasn't adequately, so intent is a factor here with a significant element of ignoring a mod instruction.

3 Appropriate:
In light of your previous good record and the above, we have determined that a downgrade to a Yellow Card instead of a Red one is the most appropriate sanction for dealing with this


Note on how that works: to change to a yellow card, the red is removed then we apply a yellow as there isn't a function to let us do it more directly.

I hope you find this outcome to your satisfaction. Please let us know below.

You may appeal to the Admin if you wish.

GM228

Yes the outcome is to my satisfaction and once again apologies to all concerned for any inappropriate or off-topic posts.

John