Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

A discussion on the rules.

1202123252689

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    anymore wrote: »
    " Don't be a dick. "
    If moderator s are going to be posting this kind of comment to the applause of other mods, then it is time for moderators to take a good hard look at themsleves.
    The term ' Moderator' should at least imply moderators refrain from abusive vulgarities.

    Um, the number one golden rule on this site is "Don't be a dick." You can blame one of the founders DeVore for introducing it into the lexicon.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,294 ✭✭✭✭A Dub in Glasgo


    Actually, I would consider 'don't be a dick' to be abusive vulgarity. It is a negative way of saying you are a dick.

    Is 'don't be an asshole' fine or 'don't be a twat'?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    Actually, I would consider 'don't be a dick' to be abusive vulgarity. It is a negative way of saying you are a dick.

    Is 'don't be an asshole' fine or 'don't be a twat'?

    It's part of the culture of the site. It's long been used as a pithy way of summing up the ethos here and what is expected of users. Might not be to everyone's tastes but it is part of our history on here and like Atari Jaguar and similar will pop up now and then.

    Anyway, when I use it it's not intended as an insult. It's pretty much the same as when I tell users to cop themselves on and similar.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,294 ✭✭✭✭A Dub in Glasgo


    I think it is fine saying DBAD as a way of conducting yourself on the site. A different thing if you retort to someones post with a DBAD

    Edit: I had not encountered it on the site before and I had plenty of reason to earlier on!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    I think it is fine saying DBAD as a way of conducting yourself on the site. A different thing if you retort to someones post with a DBAD

    Edit: I had not encountered it on the site before and I had plenty of reason to earlier on!

    Depends which mods you meet it's a bit of an old timer thing from a time when people weren't so damn politically correct on this site. :p


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    Oh and from the site FAQ:
    Be Civil (Don't be a dick)

    The internet is full of anonymous keyboard warriors being rude to each other. We don’t want that here. We're not saying you have to be super-nice to everyone and sign each post with a little heart, but we DO require that you are at least CIVIL to the humans on the other end of this intertube. Everyone is tired of the muppets online and if you feel you must be a dick to others, you aren’t welcome here.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    Actually, I would consider 'don't be a dick' to be abusive vulgarity. It is a negative way of saying you are a dick.

    Is 'don't be an asshole' fine or 'don't be a twat'?

    No, we should celebrate Irish culture by changing it to 'Don't be a fucking gobshite' which is the kind of language used on a daily basis in this country. This will inevitably lead to research to finally define what a gobshite is for the benefit of our non-national members. We win, science wins. Happy days.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭anymore


    :)After Bluewolfs latest ridiculous warning to me on the usual anti israeli thread, I have asked him to cancel my account, so goodbye all. A little bias is fine even funny, but really ordinary posters actually have other alternatives. It is not that surprising, Boards politicial is sinking into obscurity.
    Bye all and happy Xmas, Scofflaw - please cancel my account - no hard feelings ! :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,396 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    anymore wrote: »
    :)After Bluewolfs latest ridiculous warning to me on the usual anti israeli thread, I have asked him to cancel my account, so goodbye all. A little bias is fine even funny, but really ordinary posters actually have other alternatives. It is not that surprising, Boards politicial is sinking into obscurity.
    Bye all and happy Xmas, Scofflaw - please cancel my account - no hard feelings ! :)
    I don't think bluewolf wields that kind of power. Unless she's holding out on us!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    anymore wrote: »
    :)After Bluewolfs latest ridiculous warning to me on the usual anti israeli thread, I have asked him to cancel my account, so goodbye all. A little bias is fine even funny, but really ordinary posters actually have other alternatives. It is not that surprising, Boards politicial is sinking into obscurity.
    Bye all and happy Xmas, Scofflaw - please cancel my account - no hard feelings ! :)

    You'll have to email hello@boards.ie from the email registered with the account.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,373 ✭✭✭Dr Galen


    You control that yourself through the control panel nowadays


  • Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭ Silas Salmon Buckle


    I don't think bluewolf wields that kind of power. Unless she's holding out on us!

    I'm just waiting for the right moment...


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 7,225 ✭✭✭Yitzhak Rabin


    anymore wrote: »
    :)After Bluewolfs latest ridiculous warning to me on the usual anti israeli thread, I have asked him to cancel my account, so goodbye all. A little bias is fine even funny, but really ordinary posters actually have other alternatives. It is not that surprising, Boards politicial is sinking into obscurity.
    Bye all and happy Xmas, Scofflaw - please cancel my account - no hard feelings ! :)

    Click on the control panel. Click on close account. No need for the drama. See ya when you rereg pal.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,396 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    yekahS wrote: »
    Click on the control panel. Click on close account. No need for the drama. See ya when you rereg pal.
    I just can't quit you boards!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭anymore


    I don't think bluewolf wields that kind of power. Unless she's holding out on us!

    In fact four of the five warnings I have received since Sept have been from Blue wolf and as none of them followed on from any grave offence, I think it is fair to suggest that Blue wolf has her own agenda here. Is she particularly close to Noddy who of course has posted his/her thanks to Bluewolf. Or maybe it is my refusal to swallow much of the usual politicall correct nonsesne that is spouted on so many threads ?.
    My highlighting the hyprocisy in the censorship that allowed 3 of the Norris Presidential threads to be closed before the election of course probably didnt endear me to the moderators involved. The catholic Church would have been proud of this kind of politicial censorship !
    It seems to be often the case that people get warnings if they have upset moderators even though moderators themselves appear to be allowed to behave as badly as they wish. As a matter of routine moderators can be snide, insulting and provocative in thier posts and their fellow moderators ignore it. I have made this point several times myself in the past and the stock reply ' Report the post' Which is just a cop out for allowing some moderators, and I mean some, to act like mangy dogs around a bone when they are insulting ordinary posters. Why is that so often you see moderators posting ' Thanks' when some ordinary poster gets a warning or infraction ? Is that not provocative inflammatory behaviour ? For example, we do not see linesmen jumping up and down in delight when refs hand out red or yellow cards do we ? No, linesmen and other officials are expected to be detached and neutral. No such guidelines seem to apply on Boards. I would have thought the standard of behaviour required from moderators would be much higher than that expected from ordinary members. Yet in some cases, and again I say in some cases, moderator's standards fall below that of many ordinary members. In here, in the rules thread, you see examples of a kind of mob mentality displayed by some moderators.
    Some threads seem to be treated as being particularly sensitive and some posters appear to be very very sensitive to comments passed about themselves but feel they can be as rude, inflammatory and provocative as they like. Poster Nodin as one of these - and yet moderators, some of them, are very happy to take a one sided view and hand out warnings to order when some of our 'sensitive 'posters inparticular get upset and report posts. I mean, I say again, I see the funny side and as I am leaving it doesnt really matter that much to me. And I said before the owners of the site can develop it any way they please, (this is private enterprise after all. I know that the thought of private enterprise is anathema to some people !) But the reality is that if Boards.ie political were a stand alone site, it would have failed. It is all the other sections on Boards that keeps Boards Pol alive.
    Consider this, there are days when it is mainly moderators of one kind or another posting on boards POls. So if you ignore the number of moderators who are posting on the Politics, and if you ignore the small number of posters who have several identities on Boards, then how many ordinary people are left ? Not that manyI would say.
    As for Nesf and what is traditional - you really mean you can as abusive as you like and then you climb up on your 'High moral ground' soapbox. Sorry that is far far too transparent. You are a moderator- if you are being provacative- it is you who are the problem. My advice, take a break from being a moderator for a while, switch off the computer for a while and take a period to readjust. :)
    Now I will try agian to cancel account.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭anymore


    yekahS wrote: »
    Click on the control panel. Click on close account. No need for the drama. See ya when you rereg pal.
    No yekah, I am afriad I wont be reregistering - - as I said there are plaenty o other alternatives, P.Ie being jsut one. I have had my time here and it is time to move on.Happy Xamas.
    getting off here is almost as difficult as stopping being a member of the catholic church - funny that isnt it ? :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,672 ✭✭✭anymore


    Mr Scofflaw, the message below keeps coming up when I try to close the account.
    Can you please Cordially sort this out for me ?
    Cordially yours,
    Anymore

    anymore, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
    1. You may be trying to post in a restricted forum such as Soccer, or one of the many private forums on boards.ie.
      For clarification, check our Help Desk forum.
    2. You may be banned from this forum if you contravened an element of the forum charter.
    3. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
    4. If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,396 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    anymore wrote: »
    Mr Scofflaw, the message below keeps coming up when I try to close the account.
    Can you please Cordially sort this out for me ?
    Cordially yours,
    Anymore

    anymore, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
    1. You may be trying to post in a restricted forum such as Soccer, or one of the many private forums on boards.ie.
      For clarification, check our Help Desk forum.
    2. You may be banned from this forum if you contravened an element of the forum charter.
    3. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
    4. If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
    Not all "moderators" are acting as such in that forum. When I post in Politics, I'm posting with the same rules and responsibilities as you.

    Secondly, neither Bluewolf nor Scofflaw can close your account. You need to do that yourself and if you cannot do so, contact an administrator.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,373 ✭✭✭Dr Galen


    anymore wrote: »
    Mr Scofflaw, the message below keeps coming up when I try to close the account.
    Can you please Cordially sort this out for me ?
    Cordially yours,
    Anymore

    anymore, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
    1. You may be trying to post in a restricted forum such as Soccer, or one of the many private forums on boards.ie.
      For clarification, check our Help Desk forum.
    2. You may be banned from this forum if you contravened an element of the forum charter.
    3. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
    4. If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

    Go to the control panel. ON the left hand side, right down the bottom there is an option called "close your account" click this, and follow the instructions.

    If for some reason that doesn't work, then you need to post in the Helpdesk forum for assistance, none of us can help with this.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,373 ✭✭✭Dr Galen


    anymore wrote: »
    In fact four of the five warnings I have received since Sept have been from Blue wolf and as none of them followed on from any grave offence, I think it is fair to suggest that Blue wolf has her own agenda here. Is she particularly close to Noddy who of course has posted his/her thanks to Bluewolf. Or maybe it is my refusal to swallow much of the usual politicall correct nonsesne that is spouted on so many threads ?.
    My highlighting the hyprocisy in the censorship that allowed 3 of the Norris Presidential threads to be closed before the election of course probably didnt endear me to the moderators involved. The catholic Church would have been proud of this kind of politicial censorship !
    It seems to be often the case that people get warnings if they have upset moderators even though moderators themselves appear to be allowed to behave as badly as they wish. As a matter of routine moderators can be snide, insulting and provocative in thier posts and their fellow moderators ignore it. I have made this point several times myself in the past and the stock reply ' Report the post' Which is just a cop out for allowing some moderators, and I mean some, to act like mangy dogs around a bone when they are insulting ordinary posters. Why is that so often you see moderators posting ' Thanks' when some ordinary poster gets a warning or infraction ? Is that not provocative inflammatory behaviour ? For example, we do not see linesmen jumping up and down in delight when refs hand out red or yellow cards do we ? No, linesmen and other officials are expected to be detached and neutral. No such guidelines seem to apply on Boards. I would have thought the standard of behaviour required from moderators would be much higher than that expected from ordinary members. Yet in some cases, and again I say in some cases, moderator's standards fall below that of many ordinary members. In here, in the rules thread, you see examples of a kind of mob mentality displayed by some moderators.
    Some threads seem to be treated as being particularly sensitive and some posters appear to be very very sensitive to comments passed about themselves but feel they can be as rude, inflammatory and provocative as they like. Poster Nodin as one of these - and yet moderators, some of them, are very happy to take a one sided view and hand out warnings to order when some of our 'sensitive 'posters inparticular get upset and report posts. I mean, I say again, I see the funny side and as I am leaving it doesnt really matter that much to me. And I said before the owners of the site can develop it any way they please, (this is private enterprise after all. I know that the thought of private enterprise is anathema to some people !) But the reality is that if Boards.ie political were a stand alone site, it would have failed. It is all the other sections on Boards that keeps Boards Pol alive.
    Consider this, there are days when it is mainly moderators of one kind or another posting on boards POls. So if you ignore the number of moderators who are posting on the Politics, and if you ignore the small number of posters who have several identities on Boards, then how many ordinary people are left ? Not that manyI would say.
    As for Nesf and what is traditional - you really mean you can as abusive as you like and then you climb up on your 'High moral ground' soapbox. Sorry that is far far too transparent. You are a moderator- if you are being provacative- it is you who are the problem. My advice, take a break from being a moderator for a while, switch off the computer for a while and take a period to readjust. :)
    Now I will try agian to cancel account.

    Any specific examples of what you are claiming above?

    As for Bluewolf having it in for you, well I know that is simply not the case. I've looked at the warnings etc that you have received and in fairness I would have done the same as Bluewolf in those situations. If anything Bluewolf has been a bit more lenient than I would have been tbh.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    If he has an issue he can take it to DRP and Dades will deal with it. Otherwise, if he's going to cancel his account I'd appreciate he didn't clutter this up with drama, thanks.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,116 ✭✭✭RDM_83 again


    Sand wrote: »
    This sort of stupid scaremongering is exactly the path *not* to take. People are sick of being terrorised, theyre in a sullen and defiant mood already. Support for the fecking crazies (Sinn Fein and the ULA) is rising. If people are backed into a corner, and offered only threats, they'll deliver a massive No vote just to regain some control over their own lives.

    Whats the line on the rules on throw away lines like this?is it worthy of a report?read the feedback thread and decided to be more pro-active for reporting, but since its not a person or Beard/scumbag etc unsure where to draw line (because annoys me as some one who occasionally votes for these groups but its not really offense or in any way the main point of post at all.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    Whats the line on the rules on throw away lines like this?is it worthy of a report?read the feedback thread and decided to be more pro-active for reporting, but since its not a person or Beard/scumbag etc unsure where to draw line (because annoys me as some one who occasionally votes for these groups but its not really offense or in any way the main point of post at all.

    The other mods might take a harder line than I on this but I don't really have a problem with someone criticising parties in that way. It's no different to calling FG liars, FF corrupt or Labour Champagne Socialists.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,396 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    I've noticed in the past few weeks a distinct lack of moderation in Politics. I gave it the benefit of the doubt for Christmas and New Year; but now over half way into January and things haven't really improved.

    Obviously as a mod on boards, I know it's impossible to catch and respond to everything without making it a full time job; but I was thinking that Politics has 8 mods, 4 of whom are CMods of a huge number of fora and one is an Admin. That means there are only really 3 dedicated moderators for a forum the size of politics (which is astounding) and one of them seems to be relatively inactive.

    I'm not saying that CMods and Admins should give up their moderating duties on the basic level, but perhaps more dedicated mods would be useful?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    I've noticed in the past few weeks a distinct lack of moderation in Politics. I gave it the benefit of the doubt for Christmas and New Year; but now over half way into January and things haven't really improved.

    Obviously as a mod on boards, I know it's impossible to catch and respond to everything without making it a full time job; but I was thinking that Politics has 8 mods, 4 of whom are CMods of a huge number of fora and one is an Admin. That means there are only really 3 dedicated moderators for a forum the size of politics (which is astounding) and one of them seems to be relatively inactive.

    I'm not saying that CMods and Admins should give up their moderating duties on the basic level, but perhaps more dedicated mods would be useful?

    Already being dealt with.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,396 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    nesf wrote: »
    Already being dealt with.
    I'll be expecting a PM so... :P :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 39,019 ✭✭✭✭Permabear


    This post has been deleted.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 485 ✭✭Hayte


    I can't say I've ever participated in a forum discussion that benefited from harsh sanctions. People have to want to talk about political issues discursively. They have to be capable of that and if not, discourse has to be explained and encouraged. People have to want to learn and grow, to understand problems they wouldn't otherwise think about.

    It is easy to tell people how not to post but it takes more effort to explain how they should post. You have to foster an environment that encourages the exchange of ideas not an environment where people avoid talking for fear of getting sanctioned.

    You need a sourcing policy and you need to explain why citation is important to trace how information changes and propagates back to a source that can bear responsibility for originating it. You need to encourage people not to even respond to specious argument because you don't need to refute claims that are unsubstantiated. You can and should ignore it. You need to be distanced enough from the subject matter under debate so you can see flaws in your own argument. That is difficult to do if you have vested interests in influencing the direction of the debate.

    Even if you address all of the issues above in meticulously written stickies, you can't count on people reading them and taking them to heart. In the end its something that people have to want to do themselves and if they don't you have to ask - why are you here if not to learn? All you can do is makethe information available and accessible and then the rest is up to the individual. Thats just the way it is I guess.

    I've participated in debate forums that are much more harshly moderated than this one and they aren't any better or worse in case you were wondering. Positive reinforcement usually works better than punishment for changing behavioral norms (see reinforcement theory). Trolling is a separate issue but I don't see much of that here.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,396 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    Hayte wrote: »
    I can't say I've ever participated in a forum discussion that benefited from harsh sanctions. People have to want to talk about political issues discursively. They have to be capable of that and if not, discourse has to be explained and encouraged. People have to want to learn and grow, to understand problems they wouldn't otherwise think about.

    It is easy to tell people how not to post but it takes more effort to explain how they should post. You have to foster an environment that encourages the exchange of ideas not an environment where people avoid talking for fear of getting sanctioned.
    As a moderator on a smaller forum, but one with posting issues as well, I can say you can tell people know to post until you're blue in the face - they will not do it. Some posters are like puppies and children; sometimes negative reinforcement works better.

    We have a for sale thread with clearly posted directions and warnings. I've said a million times that people need to follow the directions and nobody did. I started handing out infractions and bans and deleting posts and hey-presto, by the end of the week everyone was doing what they were supposed to be.
    Even if you address all of the issues above in meticulously written stickies, you can't count on people reading them and taking them to heart. In the end its something that people have to want to do themselves and if they don't you have to ask - why are you here if not to learn? All you can do is makethe information available and accessible and then the rest is up to the individual. Thats just the way it is I guess.
    That's the problem... for all the good posters, some just do not want to follow the rules or play nice. Why should the rest of us suffer?
    I've participated in debate forums that are much more harshly moderated than this one and they aren't any better or worse in case you were wondering. Positive reinforcement usually works better than punishment for changing behavioral norms (see reinforcement theory). Trolling is a separate issue but I don't see much of that here.
    There is a lot of trolling here, luckily most of it gets removed.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,644 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    Hayte wrote: »
    Positive reinforcement usually works better than punishment for changing behavioral norms (see reinforcement theory).

    It does but it takes far, far more time to do and it isn't feasible for a forum of this size for the mods to do that. Now if the community wants to start doing it I'd be all for it.


This discussion has been closed.
Advertisement