[Resolved] Banned for a month

Musicrules

Hello. I think I'm doing this right. I have been banned for a month by a mod who has a personal issue with me. You've probably heard this before and are going yeah yeah whatever but let me explain. I can't see the post I was banned for but people were discussing kids on a thread I follow and I declared I was never happier than when I became free of kids. It's a long story and I don't really want to get into it but I now don't have custody of my kids and I was making light of the situation on a thread in the after hours forum. Now, the mod called Raichu banned me for a month for this post. There is no reason for any ban or anything for the comment I made.

But the reason for the ban goes back to the personal issue Raichu has with me. I made comments about Ian Bailey on a thread about the murder of Sophie Tuscan De Plantier. I got threadbanned for this. That was fair enough. I'm not sure how long but some time later I made another comment on that thread, I had completely forgotten that I was threadbanned. I said this to Raichu, not to dispute anything, just as an explanation. Raichu decided to post aggressively towards me. I told him that I hadn't remembered the threadban because of real life issues. One being that I had to put my dog down, anyone with a dog for over a decade will understand how hard that can be. Raichu continued to post aggressively and goad me after I told him this information. It kept going until the point where I had to tell him to stop private messaging me or I'll report him/her for harassment.

I can provide these private messages if you want? I made some comments on the thread I follow that Raichu wasn't happy with so they again private messaged me. I ignored their message. This obviously angered Raichu and my next comment about my family situation received a 1 month ban. Now, I may not be the greatest poster on this site but I don't think this type of behaviour from a mod should be tolerated. They couldn't explain why I was banned for the comment about my family and directed me here. I want this ban overturned but that's not really the important part. A person like this mod Raichu should not be in a position to taunt posters who are facing difficult real life circumstances. Is this something that is tolerated on boards.ie?

Spear

@ancapailldorcha @Ten of Swords If you could please review this.

Ten of Swords

Poster has been system banned due to accumulating too many warnings. We can pick this up again at a later date once that has expired

Musicrules

Hello. I would like this looked into. Thanks.

Ten of Swords

Hi @Musicrules

Can you put up the PM conversation you had with the mod at the time please and I'll take a look?

Musicrules

Hello. Sorry, I missed this. I'm copying and pasting the conversation below. I hope it's readable and I hope the below is considered fairly.

1

HOME› INBOX› YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

Raichu · You've been warned.

Moderator Raichu

Points 2

• Raichu November 2023
• 
  
• You are being warned for the following post:

• Musicrules✭✭✭
• Nov 16, 2023

Cold Case Review of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier murder to proceed.

• kirk.Nov 16, 2023
• How's Bailey these days
• Must be 2 weeks since I seen a news story about him
• 
  
• **** himself!
• 
  
• View Post
• 
  
• 
  
• I threadbanned you already, for ignoring it I’m applying a forum ban.
• It’s bad enough to ignore the threadban, but to ignore it only to post in a fashion similar to what caused you to be in the first place is astounding.
• You are banned for 7 days from After Hours.

• Musicrules November 2023
• 
  
• I actually completely forgot I was threadbanned!

• Raichu November 2023
• 
  
• Well, now you won’t forget!

• Musicrules November 2023
• 
  
• I actually forgot because a lot has happened in the past week including having to watch my dog die so I didn't really take notice of what I was posting as I'm trying to get my mind off that but you're a great lad for reminding me that you banned me. Give yourself a pat on the back.

• Raichu November 2023
• 
  
• will do.

• Musicrules November 2023
• 
  
• You must be so proud of yourself

• Raichu November 2023
• 
  
• Look I’m not going to keep going back and forth with you.
• Are you continuing to message me to challenge the ban or are you just going to attempt to guilt me into reversing it? That won’t work, sorry, but it’s not the first person who’s lost an aunt, cat, or parrot after being banned. I’ve heard that excuse before, it’s not good enough, do you understand?
• If you wish to contest your ban we can continue to discuss but if you are accepting it then we are moving on.
• Can you let me know your intentions so we can wrap up this nonsense because it is swiftly become a massive waste of both our time.

• Musicrules November 2023
• 
  
• I couldn't give a **** about the ban. Just pointing out what kind of person you are. You don't know what's going on in posters personal lives but still enjoy getting a kick out of being obnoxious to them. Wrap this up and get back to your power tripping.

• Raichu November 2023
• 
  
• Yeah, okay, well let’s get something perfectly clear;
• you are not above the rules of this forum. You are showing to be more trouble than you’re worth and if you continue to attempt to abuse me via PM as well as escalating this to admins I will permanently ban you from After Hours.
• You were threadbanned, you ignored it and posted in a similar fashion to get threadbanned to begin with. Now you’re crying to me about your dog dying and how you’re only posting to distract yourself.
• I don’t care what your excuse is. You have broken the rules, disrespected my warning and abused me via PM.
• I will not tolerate it from you or anyone else.
• Raichu

• Musicrules November 2023
• 
  
• Give yourself another pat on the back. Stop messaging me or I'll report you for harassment.

Musicrules

Hello. I'm wondering is there any progress on this? Thank you.

Ten of Swords

@Musicrules thanks for posting the messages, I will take a look at this tonight and let you know.

Ten of Swords

Hi Musicrules,

OK I have gone through the PMs, as well as your site record and I've pieced together the below.

According to the PMs above you are disputing your 7 day ban from After Hours which was the result of posting in the Sophie Tuscan du Plantier thread while threadbanned, which occurred back in November, is this correct?

Later, in early January, you were warned by a different moderator for disrupting the "I don't know where we're going" thread and for taking digs at Raichu. A few days later you came to mod attention again and Raichu banned you from AH for one month.

You opened this thread on Jan 7th and before we could move forward with it you picked up more warnings and the system enforced a month long site ban due to accumulated warnings.

Now, notwithstanding your claim you had some personal issues last November and that you had forgotten you were threadbanned, what is your reasoning for disputing the second (month long) threadban and can you explain why you accumulated so many warnings in such a short space of time (from 6 different moderators across 4 different forums by my count) that the system enforced an automatic ban?

Musicrules

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121910778#Comment_121910778

I think it's safe to say that my posting style wasn't good and it hasn't been good. I have no reason to dispute the majority of the actions against me. I will dispute the bans handed out by the mod Raichu though. The ban on January 4th was completely uncalled for and I believe it stems from the way they interacted with me in the PM conversation I linked above. As I stated in my opening post:

"I may not be the greatest poster on this site but I don't think this type of behaviour from a mod should be tolerated. They couldn't explain why I was banned for the comment about my family and directed me here. I want this ban overturned but that's not really the important part. A person like this mod Raichu should not be in a position to taunt posters who are facing difficult real life circumstances. Is this something that is tolerated on boards.ie?"

But as I said, my posting history hasn't been good but it has definitely improved. Even today, I have had a threadban lifted. Thanks for reviewing this.

Shield

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121919234#Comment_121919234

Hi Musicrules,

Don’t forget that you must contact the moderator who imposed a sanction on your account in every instance. This means you need to contact @[Deleted User] via PM to try and resolve the bans you refer to between yourself and himself before you can go straight to disputing them in this forum. If you have tried to contact Raichu via PM and he has not replied within a reasonable timeframe, you can come back here and get the process moving ONLY IF you are within the 14-day time limit for disputes. If you are looking to dispute something that happened in January, then you are out of time.

I hope this is helpful to you in some way.

-Shield

Musicrules

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923541#Comment_121923541

Hi Shield. Thanks for the post. I was banned from this site for a month since January. I had discussed the ban with Raichu and they told me I can report them if I wish. So I'd like to continue with the appeal over that ban, please.

Separately, what are the procedures for reporting a mod for bad behaviour/harassment? This doesn't seem to be the forum to do it, is there anywhere else? Thanks.

Shield

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923690#Comment_121923690

If you have a complaint against a specific moderator, your starting point is to initiate a PM exchange with said moderator until they either agree to reverse their decision, or (in your case) the moderator tells you that they are not changing their mind. You then start a discussion in the Help Desk, giving as much information as possible, preferably with examples that can be easily verified. Try your best to keep the emotion out of it, no matter how irate you are, and just stick to the facts. From there, that moderator’s Category Moderator will start looking into your complaint and will post his/her findings in due course. If you are not happy with that outcome, you can appeal to a site administrator whose decision is final.

If you have a more generalised complaint about how a forum is run (for example, you believe that the moderators of forum X hate astronauts and run the forum bashing and belittling astronauts at any given opportunity), then you would go straight to Feedback and air your grievance there, again, with verifiable examples.

In both instances, exchanges of PMs may be requested by either the CMod or the admin should you appeal. Wait until you are asked for PMs to be either posted in public or in private, and then act accordingly.

I hope this is helpful to some degree.

-Shield

Musicrules

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923919#Comment_121923919

Hi Shield. Yes, thanks very much. Very helpful. I understand how the appeal process works and also the process of complaining about mod behaviour. I will start a thread about the specific mod in the feedback thread in the coming days if I have the time.

I think it's very important as going by private messages I have received, the mod in question has been causing issues for others also which I really don't think is fair. When posters are behaving inappropriately, they should hold their hands up and amend their behaviour, the same should be true for mods.

Shield

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923966#Comment_121923966

If you’re starting a thread about a specific moderator, it goes in the Help Desk, not in Feedback. The Feedback forum is for complaints about how a forum is run in general by the moderation team as a whole (for example, “forum X is moderated with a left wing/right wing bias; here are some examples to back up my claim”). Your complaint is about one single moderator, so it goes in the Help Desk.

-Shield

Musicrules

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121924109#Comment_121924109

Ah ok, no problem. Thanks.

Ten of Swords

@Musicrules I'm going to wrap up the dispute re the bans for you. I know separately you have created a thread about PM's you and Raichu exchanged but right now that's out of scope.

When you say you've not been a great poster that is a complete understatement. Since you have returned from the system enforced ban a couple of weeks ago you have received 2 new warnings, from 2 different moderators in 2 different forums.

In the months prior to your system enforced ban you had received warnings from 6 different moderators, with a 7th adding a note to your profile that they had deleted a backseat modding post without adding a warning.

If you don't change how you interact with other posters, and conduct yourself in threads, then I do not see you having much of a future on this site. The mods, collectively, are getting sick of your behavior and warnings aren't getting the message across.

Re the one week ban that Raichu applied, it was justified in my view as you breached a threadban.

Re the month long ban that followed later on, at best I will say the jump from one week to one month would be at the upper end of the punishment scale but well withing the mod's purview, and given the amount of warnings you have accumulated on your profile it would have been clear to the mod that your overall conduct on the site is not good.

The bans have now expired so it's a moot point now but I'm not going to say either were unjustified or inappropriate. The mods actions were justified in my view

Their communication with you is a different matter and that can be looked at in your other thread.

Kind regards.

Musicrules

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121932243#Comment_121932243

Hi Ten of Swords,

Thanks for your review.

I am disappointed that you have reviewed this based on my overall record and not for the posts I was appealing. One was for an innocuous post but I was threadbanned so fair enough, the month long ban was for a post about my personal life which I posted about in a joking fashion on after hours. There's no way that merited any action, never mind a month long ban. That ban was given to me by Raichu because I stood up to their aggressive private messaging and told them I'd report them.

I'm well aware that my posting style has to improve, that's not in doubt. Since my month long ban, I have received 2 warnings but one was from Raichu. That said, even 1 warning is too much. I have tried to post in a constructive manner and I will continue to post in a constructive manner but as I can see from this thread, your previous record takes high importance on how mods view your posts. For that reason I ask that the one month ban be removed from my record. The ban was for this post:

"I left my wife and disowned my kids. I'll never regret that decision. Have had a great life since."

Now, I am divorced but have limited access to my kids. It's not something I really want to talk openly about on boards.ie but I was posting on a thread in after hours in a joking manner. I accept all other bans but this one should be removed from my record in my opinion.

Thanks,

Musicrules.

Musicrules

Hi Ten of Swords,

As you are looking after my report of the mod in the help desk, you can drop this appeal.

Just to be clear, I don't want anything overturned, I don't want to appeal anything, in fact, I will close my account when the other process is finished.

All I ask is that you look into things fairly. You have pointed out my bad record here and I agree with you. It has been really bad. Most of the bad behaviour has been after that mod had behaved horribly towards me but all that is not an excuse. As I said, after the other process is finished I will close my account.

But if my record has been taken into account when reviewing reports against me, then I only think it's fair that the mod in question gets investigated as well. My views on how they interacted with me in private message and again on the help desk thread are clear. It's an absolutely horrible way of dealing with someone who's upset and I can swear on my mothers life that I am not making up anything about my pet like was insinuated.

But it's up to you on how you make a judgement on their interactions with me. There are numerous other posters in the same boat as me though and they can't all be passed off as trolls as some have great records. They find the way this mod behaves towards people as unacceptable. I have received private messages but I'm sure you must have received reports also. I understand why others can't post on the thread in the help desk.

I found it upsetting when they were posting to me that way when my pet died but I was ok. What if they target someone with mental health issues? They clearly get a kick out of taunting people. Well this is my view anyway. They shouldn't have an opportunity to behave this way, most of the time it will be alright but there could be the one time a vulnerable person is on the receiving end. As I said, I'm closing my account after this process anyway, I just care strongly that someone lacking any form of empathy should be in the position there in on a forum like boards.ie.

I'm sorry for the long post and I know this is hassle you don't need. Don't waste too much of your time reviewing this and I will accept the decision made.

Regards,

Musicrules.

Ten of Swords

Hi @Musicrules

I have gone through the PM's you have outlined above and discussed them with others.

As @Shield and @Big Bag of Chips have closed your Help Desk thread (linked below) as it was attracting unwanted commentary from other posters I will wrap it up here

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058342940/reporting-a-moderator-raichu

OK - leaving aside your site record, the fact that you have had multiple interactions with Raichu before on other threads (such as the gangland thread) and the fact that I upheld your threadbans.

Leaving all of that aside and just evaluating the PM conversation between you and Raichu as listed above in post #6. The PMs you received do fall below the standard we expect from a moderator. This will be discussed at a CMod and Admin level, there won't be any further feedback on this.

Kind regards

Musicrules

Hi Ten of Swords,

Thanks for your review.

Regards,

Musicrules.