Moderation of the forums & a commentary

Blacklord · November 11, 2007, 08:09 AM

Guys,

Two members have asked to cancel their accounts (plbyrd & c128retired) presumably because they find certain comments in a couple of threads offensive.

One other member has asked me to remove & publicly apologise for comments made by a few board members in regards to comments around the US government. Another (fourth) member has demanded that I jump on any thread that supposedly purports to promote piracy of certain ROM-based products.

Let me make a few things very clear :

I will only moderate comments/messages when they fall into the following categories :

Pornography. (yes we do have people under the age of 18 using the board)

"Colourful" language (even here I take a very light hand as certain colloquialisms which are unacceptable in some parts of the world are quite acceptable in others (the word 'bloody' springs to mind as an Australian example of acceptable usage but is considered offensive elsewhere - ie "bloody hell!" is a well used exclamation in this country). In other words, the f-word & c-word are the only ones I'd consider banning.

Anything that deliberately contravenes the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia or the state of New South Wales (yes guys, this forum is hosted in Australia) - so far nothing I've seen posted in the near 6k messages here have done that.

I have always taken a very light handed approach to moderation on the assumption that we are all adults here & can all handle a bit of healthy criticism & sometimes wandering conversations.

I will not be censoring peoples posts for their political views (or any other views for that matter).One member complained that political discussions have no part in a vintage computer forum, the relevant thread that is being referred to resides in the "General off-topic talk" area, by definition this is a free for all area that has been made available to prevent off-topic posts being made in non-relevant areas.

Robust conversation about a variety of topics is what makes a community interesting & viable - we are all individuals here & all have different make-ups, beliefs & positions on various things. People need to be aware this - if they don't like what they are reading, block the poster, ignore the thread & move on.

So, what does this all mean ? Simply put, I will not cave in to demands to moderate the forums into a politically correct sanitised & sterile environment. If you don't like that, well, that's too bad in my books, as an Australian, I have a typically healthy Australian attitude that's fairly ingrained in our culture that says "give everyone a fair go". If this attitude is unacceptable to a small minority, well you know where the door is.

I would suggest that people follow a very simple guideline when it comes to off-topic posts (in the off-topic forum) - "don't be easily offended" - 99% of our members seem to follow this previously unspoken guideline anyway.

Now, feel free to comment or pick holes in my logic, I at least won't get overly upset!

Lance

Andrew Wiskow · November 11, 2007, 08:51 AM

Lance,

I couldn't agree more. :hurra:

-Andrew

Mark Smith · November 11, 2007, 08:51 AM

It's a shame a few people have decided to leave ... never mind it was nice knowing them while they were here.

Which threads are bagging the US ? I could do with an interesting read ;-)

Come on people .. lighten up, have some fun and chat with with the foreigners .. this is a forum for a fecking (can I use that word ?) old computer after all :-)

Mark

Andrew Wiskow · November 11, 2007, 08:59 AM

Quote from: strandedinnzWhich threads are bagging the US ? I could do with an interesting read ;-)

It's the thread in the General Forum that started out being about problems with Canada Post.

-Andrew

Blacklord · November 11, 2007, 09:40 AM

Quote from: strandedinnzchat with with the foreigners

I have to everyday - the bloody company that owns AAPT (who I work for) is in New Zealand (TCNZ)! Bloody mangled English accents. Grrrrrr.......

Lance

wte · November 11, 2007, 09:45 AM

Quote from: wiskowLance,

I couldn't agree more. :hurra:

-Andrew

So do I. :tummenupp:

WTE

nikoniko · November 11, 2007, 09:48 AM

I'm sorry to see any of our regulars go, and I'll miss their contributions here. If someone wants to leave, though, they don't need to slam the door on the way out. Just take a break from visiting, and if you feel like coming back later, do, or if you don't, don't. Besides, if you delete your account now and then change your mind, you'll have to start over at 0 posts as a Windows user and still have 500 more posts before you're a C128 user.

Andrew Wiskow · November 11, 2007, 09:53 AM

Quote from: adminI have to everyday - the bloody company that owns AAPT (who I work for) is in New Zealand (TCNZ)! Bloody mangled English accents. Grrrrrr.......

I learned long ago that it's unwise to confuse an Aussie for a Kiwi, or vice-versa. :cool:

-Andrew

Blacklord · November 11, 2007, 09:55 AM

Quote from: wiskowI learned long ago that it's unwise to confuse an Aussie for a Kiwi, or vice-versa. :cool:

-Andrew

Yes, our sheep are prettier, more intelligent & more committed to long term relationships than the NZ ones. (Oops, I think it's be best if I leave now).

Lance

airship · November 12, 2007, 09:42 AM

So now Golan and I can exchange insults about Canada and the US without worrying about repercussions?

Seriously, I try to keep my comments to those that are obviously 'in good fun'. We've lost a couple of guys who have a lot to contribute to the C128 community. But apparently it comes with the qualifier that we have to wave the stars & stripes constantly and never, ever question anything that Bush does. If that's the price, I won't pay it.

So now I guess you know my politics, even though I never expressed them in the thread in question. I try to keep politics off this board. There are plenty of places to discuss that. I was trying to just kid a Canuck about what a frozen popsickle his country is, and it turned into this. I think it just shows how bad things have become.

Golan Klinger · November 12, 2007, 01:16 PM

Quote from: airshipI was trying to just kid a Canuck about what a frozen popsickle his country is, and it turned into this.

That was NOT your fault. That was the fault of those without sense of humour.

zeke1312 · November 12, 2007, 10:24 PM

Wow, those 2 folks have been a great help to me! I hope they change their minds............

Blacklord · November 13, 2007, 05:05 AM

I received the following from Payton & asked him if he wanted it posted in it's entirety, to which he agreed :

Lance,

I read your post about the bru-haha and people leaving the forum and people
asking you to censor the forum. The way your message comes across implies
that I'm one of the people who asked that you censor the forum. This could
not be further from the truth, and the reason I simply asked to be removed
from the forum is because I wouldn't ask you to censor the forum because
that wouldn't be the ethical thing to do. I personally do not want to wade
through yet another forum where I have to ignore half the messages because
of religious and/or political nonsense; we get enough of that on c.s.cbm and
Lemon 64. Since I am not capable of refraining from such conversations then
I felt it was best if I just simply go away. The community has to learn
that it drives people away with such behavior (regardless of whether they
feel their way-off-topic opinion is right). Just because a section of a
forum is marked as "General" or "Off-Topic" doesn't mean that people should
start bashing the politics and beliefs of other members. Decorum should be
preserved anywhere in the forum. It would be nice if the forum allowed
members to turn off the off-topic discussion board and simply not have to
see those messages in the new posts list; then nobody would have a reason to
ask for any kind of censorship as they can choose to not even see the
discussions and off-topic posts in the on-topic areas could be dealt with
appropriately.

I just ask that you make a clarification on the forum that I did not in any
way ask for any kind of censorship or punishment for anyone and was not
involved in any of the demands that you correctly refused to honor.

And just for the record, I'm staying away from c.s.cbm and Lemon 64 as well.
I am just tired of the CBM "scene" and would like to enjoy my collection in
peace.

nikoniko · November 13, 2007, 11:24 AM

Payton, I like and respect you and all of the other regulars here. I think you've been a valuable member of the board and would like to see you continue to be, but I respect your decision to leave if that's what you feel you need to do. Frankly, though, your suggestion that a brief period of heated discussion with a few members getting agitated reflects the board descending toward the chaos seen in other parts of the net is ridiculous. There are hundreds of topics here which demonstrate otherwise. Even more ridiculous is that the recent events here were, at least to some degree, provoked by your decision to single Golan out for jokey behavior that many of us engage in. I have no idea how long of an unpleasant history you two have, or who's more justified in scorn of the other, but I won't contradict your mutual right to dislike one another and even to express that here if either of you so choose. Now, if either of you wished to escalate that into an all-out war across the board, I wouldn't care for that too much and would say so, especially if someone brought it into my SLOPe sub-forum.

You say that you're incapable of refraining from such discussions, yet clearly you are, since you managed to get along here well enough for many months despite the occasional hot topic coming up. But if it's really so hard to resist checking out all the new topics that show up in the General forum, why not write a filter to block them out? Do you use Firefox? If so, whip up a little Greasemonkey plug. If you use IE or some other browser, I'm sure you can find another solution with the same result. Worst case, write yourself a little proxy to do the trick. I know that you're plenty capable of doing such things and could probably do so with just a few minutes effort.

The world is always going to be full of noise, and you can either accept that or try to filter it out. Of course, your choice to leave us gives you a 100% effective noise filter, but you also lose the signal along with it.

By the way, just to point out again: you could have gone away without deleting your account. The way you're coming across now seems like someone staging his own death and then showing up at the funeral to see what people say about him. Either rejoin the board or leave it. Personally, I'd like to see you come back, but it's up to you.

Blacklord · November 13, 2007, 05:15 PM

Quote from: nikonikoBy the way, just to point out again: you could have gone away without deleting your account. The way you're coming across now seems like someone staging his own death and then showing up at the funeral to see what people say about him. Either rejoin the board or leave it. Personally, I'd like to see you come back, but it's up to you.

Actually, he didn't post that - I did, Payton sent it to my email address.

cheers,

Lance

nikoniko · November 13, 2007, 11:42 PM

You asked him if he wanted it all posted, and he agreed, so yes, he did post it.

airship · November 14, 2007, 12:58 AM

I look at this just like I do any other relationship - you reach a compromise between what you're willing to put up with versus what you're going to get out of it.

To me, the signal-to-noise ratio here is VERY high compared to most of the net. And frankly, most of the noise that is here is mine, anyway.

He obviously decided the benefits weren't worth what he had to put up with. I don't understand it, but that's his choice and, as far as I'm concerned, his loss. We got the same thing with INFO - we were always receiving mail about how 'unprofessional' we were, etc., to which we responded "then don't read us".

hydrophilic · November 15, 2007, 06:11 AM

Keep up the good work Lance! I think your moderation is excellent. I have never seen any porn or other highly offensive material, yet you allow a wide range of topics and opinions. Fantastic.

I am disappointed some would want to leave us because of some comments. I really don't understand why a person from a country with Free Speech in the constitution would run from it, but I don't understand a lot of people.

Golan Klinger · November 15, 2007, 06:40 AM

Free speech often means 'say what you want but watch what you say'.

hydrophilic · November 15, 2007, 07:25 AM

I just noticed Nikoniko has changed from 128 User to Moderator. Did I miss something?

airship · November 15, 2007, 07:40 AM

Oh, how I hate him! He's SO much cooler than I am! :förbannad:

Golan Klinger · November 15, 2007, 07:41 AM

Quote from: hydrophilicI just noticed Nikoniko has changed from 128 User to Moderator. Did I miss something?

Nikoniko create SLOPe and there is now a support forum for SLOPe that he moderates. Have a peek at the forum overview and you'll see. Then read the threads about SLOPe (if you haven't already) because it is awfully cool.

hydrophilic · November 15, 2007, 07:50 AM

As long as he's only a topic moderator and not a site moderator. My brain might explode trying not to offend two people at the same time

Dragos · November 15, 2007, 08:19 AM

I am offended that you are not trying to offend me......

as far as the I'm leaving rants and unprofessional rants go, my advice is: GET THICKER SKIN!!!!! I am sick of political correctness and peoples "feelings". don't be a girl(unless you came from the factory that way)

nikoniko · November 15, 2007, 10:35 AM

Personally I don't really care what people do or say as long as some percentage of posts (greater than 0%) on my sub-forum have to do with SLOPe, at least tangentially. I suppose that topics which better fit a different area could get moved if it makes sense to do so.

That is, if I can move topics. Haven't really had a good look at what I can do yet. The only power I'm sure of is the ability to change your signatures to say whatever I want... so don't piss me off too often.