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FF/FG/Green Government - part 2

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  • 10-11-2020 6:27pm
    #1
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭


    Hello,
    We'd a poster make a remark about a public figure should be '****ing buried'. All posts quoting it and the post itself have been deleted. I assume there was some MOD sanction imposed, might there be an in thread warning or note? Some of the follow on posts didn't include the original, yet they were deleted too. Looking for clarity and consistency. I don't think it's good practice to simply delete a slew of posts with no comment from the MODS. It's difficult enough to navigate what constitutes 'uncivil' in the forum.
    Thanks.


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    #2
    Boards.ie: Niamh
    Boards.ie Employee Posts: 12,597 ✭✭✭✭✭Boards.ie: Niamh
    Boards.ie Community Manager


    Since this is a forum-specific issue and not site wide feedback, I've moved it to Help Desk.

    The obvious question here is have you asked the mods?

    How can I? User's guide to some features on the new site



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    #3
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭James Brown


    Boards.ie: Niamh wrote: »
    Since this is a forum-specific issue and not site wide feedback, I've moved it to Help Desk.

    The obvious question here is have you asked the mods?

    Thanks.
    That's why I was posting here rather than PM any specific MOD. I just noticed my post and others missing. No idea which MOD carried it out or what happened.


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    #4
    McMurphy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,365 ✭✭✭✭McMurphy


    Bowie wrote: »
    Thanks.
    That's why I was posting here rather than PM any specific MOD. I just noticed my post and others missing. No idea which MOD carried it out or what happened.

    Not just me then, yeah I noticed a half a page of posts was zapped.

    Strange.


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    #5
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    I presume this is the thread in Current Affairs

    I've just looked at the moderator log and there have been no mod deletions in that thread since 31 October

    Is it another thread (perhaps the Varadkar one) you are thinking about?


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    #6
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭James Brown


    Beasty wrote: »
    I presume this is the thread in Current Affairs

    I've just looked at the moderator log and there have been no mod deletions in that thread since 31 October

    Is it another thread (perhaps the Varadkar one) you are thinking about?

    Yes, it might be the Varadkar Village leak one. A number of posts were deleted this afternoon.


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    #7
    McMurphy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,365 ✭✭✭✭McMurphy


    Yes it was in the Varadkar thread, and the funny thing is a short while after the posts were deleted, an in thread warning was dropped for folk to "stop childish digs or don't post in the thread"

    Yet none of the posts the mod quoted - and directed their warning at were included.

    Sorry, but it appears to me that if you threaten "to bury" a public figure, you can get your offending post, and a half dozen or so follow ups that quote it or make reference to it deleted, and no (from what we can see) subsequent warning or sanction.

    It's not a very transparent way of doing things tbh, it certainly appears that one poster can have his post and all the follow ups "record erased" whereas if you post something innocuous you get an in thread warning about childish digs.

    How in under jaysis are we supposed to know what is deemed actionable and sanctionable, and what can just be wiped from memory.

    Btw moving this thread to a pre moderated forum isn't exactly transparent either.


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    #8
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    McMurphy wrote: »

    Btw moving this thread to a pre moderated forum isn't exactly transparent either.

    Are you seriously suggesting this is site-wide feedback?

    This forum is deliberately pre-moderated to stop threads which may be complaining about specific mods or specific mod actions becoming a free for all with the hounds baying for blood

    And it's always been that way

    Feedback was resurrected but under quite strict conditions because of exactly that sort of behaviour in the past. Here posters have a place they can ask questions without the restrictions of Feedback but with pre-moderation to keep those hounds at bay

    And of course this is actually off-topic for this thread. The thread is about a specific issue raised on a specific thread in a specific forum


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    #9
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    I've looked at the posts - 4 of them that add precisely nothing to the discussion. Yes the mod could have mentioned posts had been deleted, as I could have done for the dozen or so I deleted the previous evening. Another dozen or so posts from a re-reg troll were deleted by another Admin after the 4 posts being discussed here.

    Sometimes drawing attention to such stuff ends up being counterproductive. It gives oxygen to posters and/or their posts which a mod feels is not warranted. It's part of what is left as mod discretion.

    Each of you had a post deleted - do either of you think there was an important message you were trying to relay? (and to be clear I don't think there could have been having looked at the posts in question)


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    #10
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭James Brown


    Beasty wrote: »
    I've looked at the posts - 4 of them that add precisely nothing to the discussion. Yes the mod could have mentioned posts had been deleted, as I could have done for the dozen or so I deleted the previous evening. Another dozen or so posts from a re-reg troll were deleted by another Admin after the 4 posts being discussed here.

    Sometimes drawing attention to such stuff ends up being counterproductive. It gives oxygen to posters and/or their posts which a mod feels is not warranted. It's part of what is left as mod discretion.

    Each of you had a post deleted - do either of you think there was an important message you were trying to relay? (and to be clear I don't think there could have been having looked at the posts in question)

    TBF, I was looking for clarity on it. I would have thought the poster might have got a red card or a thread ban, but either way coupled with an in thread MOD note/warning. Even just on the deletions. There is an issue with consistency IMO.
    Am I right in thinking a poster suggested a public figure should be '****ing buried' and the post and connected ones were deleted and no other action was taken?
    And if this is a private MOD off-thread issue, why bother carding anyone with yellows or in thread warnings at all if the point isn't to let others know where the line might be?


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    #11
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    If it's not "announced" in the thread or displayed via a card then yes, we would not normally reveal what action, if any, was taken against a specific user

    The 4 posts in question were not discussing the topic


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    #12
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭James Brown


    Beasty wrote: »
    If it's not "announced" in the thread or displayed via a card then yes, we would not normally reveal what action, if any, was taken against a specific user

    The 4 posts in question were not discussing the topic

    TBF, that doesn't address the issue of the appearance of seemingly no action and/or MOD follow through on deleting a number of posts.
    They were discussing or referencing the post suggesting a public figure should be "****ing buried".
    In any case if we're deleting posts MODS don't feel are on topic, with no explanation it's going to get very messy. Also you can say such a thing and for all intents and purposes merely have your post deleted without any sanction as seems to be the case here.
    I know this isn't on you and I appreciate you taking the time. Any Admins or C-Mods about? I'd like to know the Boards policy on such a thing. Again just looking for clarity as I feel there are inconsistencies on such matters.


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    #13
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    I am an Admin


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    #14
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭James Brown


    So it's a done deal there was no sanction for suggesting a public figure should be '****ing buried'? Just all traces deleted with no note?


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    #15
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    I am not at liberty to disclose what action, if any, was taken against the poster


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    #16
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭James Brown


    I appreciate you taking the time.
    As a poster I don't know why my post and the posts of others were deleted. I don't know if it's okay to suggest a public figure should be '****ing buried' or not.


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    #17
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    It's pretty standard practice when deleting one post to delete the follow-ups. Yes it's good practice to post a note to explain but as I've already stated I did something similar the prior evening and did not do so. I've started doing it moreso now but there is certainly no "official line" on the issue (and this is the first time in my recollection that it's been highlighted as a specific issue in a thread dedicated to that one issue. We've perhaps not thought it so much of a problem, and indeed when deleting posts from re-reg trolls we simply would not have time to go into each thread to explain where posts and indeed threads have gone)

    In this particular case, although I recognise your concern over the specifics, it was a small number of posts with what I would say was nothing substantive in the context of the thread in question


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    #18
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    I would just add there is an issue of context as well - I am sure we had plenty of posters making such comments about the likes of Bin Laden, Gadaffi, Saddam Hussein and the like, which is one end of the spectrum, but equally there is no specific rule against insulting political figures in Ireland

    Wishing death on someone is in my view uncivil - does that warrant a card, threadban, in-thread warning, a quiet word in the ear, a deletion or any combination? That is going to be down to mod discretion

    In my time on the site it is something I can confidently say that whoever the individual and whatever the circumstances I have not made such a comment, and would never do so. I do appreciate that a lot of posters value lives and I would not wish to offend with such comments. I've found it quite easy to avoid getting into any debates with mods by, in my view, staying well within the line of acceptability. The nearer you get to line the more likely a mod will have to exercise discretion, which could be either way


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    #19
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,594 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    And another "just to add"

    Different forums take differing views on such matters. Any such comment in, for example, Soccer, would probably be a straight red and ban. Politics has much stricter/tighter posting guidelines than CA. Other forums will have Charters specifically prohibiting certain comments about figures in public life, and there is no "one size fits all" solution for the site


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    #20
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭James Brown


    I appreciate the time taken. Unfortunately it just shows the inconsistencies in thread and forum moderation.
    I was interested because I got a yellow for calling a comment 'guff', which I'm disputing, when I see posters call people liars with no supporting evidence and infer racism on a regular basis and in this case suggest a public figure should be '****ing buried' with apparently no sanction.


This discussion has been closed.
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