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[Dave]

First off, let's keep this civil. Abusing other members of the site is against the rules, and more often than not it nullifies any point you were making in the rest of your post. Any further posts that break site rules in this manner will be deleted.

Secondly, if the views and opinions and the manner in which the members of this site express them displease you, my advice would be to just ignore them. Engage with someone who has something constructive and thoughtful to say instead. It's very easy to do, and once people find they're being ignored, they tend to buck up their ideas and start contributing in a more useful fashion.

Originally Posted by Dave

First off, let's keep this civil. Abusing other members of the site is against the rules, and more often than not it nullifies any point you were making in the rest of your post. Any further posts that break site rules in this manner will be deleted.

Secondly, if the views and opinions and the manner in which the members of this site express them displease you, my advice would be to just ignore them. Engage with someone who has something constructive and thoughtful to say instead. It's very easy to do, and once people find they're being ignored, they tend to buck up their ideas and start contributing in a more useful fashion.

Is calling people 'simpletons', etc not being abusive? Just wondering, because there seem to be several double standards in practice within this site's 'rules'.

From the 'Guidelines' -

"Be kind to one another.

Sharing your thoughts, jokes, experiences, opinions and beliefs is more than encouraged providing you do not do so in such a way that offends, insults, or otherwise disrupts the thoughts, experiences, opinions and beliefs of others within the community."

How many strikes and out does this site operate just out of interest - it must be in the hundreds for certain folk....

[Neil]

Originally Posted by bluesxman

Is calling people 'simpletons', etc not being abusive? Just wondering, because there seem to be several double standards in practice within this site's 'rules'.

In some people's opinion, yes, that might be considered abuse. But there has to be some common sense applied here. Calling someone a simpleton is not quite the same as calling someone a cunt, for example. Sometimes we (the staff) get it right, sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we miss it altogether (remember to use the Report Post function everyone - we don't have time to read everything). I think we do a pretty good job overall as if we weren't there wouldn't be anyone left posting here.

Personally, I think overall, we are actually too easy on people. There are some people still posting on these forums that would have been banned long ago on other web sites. I suspect that's what you're getting at.

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by bluesxman

As for you, I don't know you either but you also seem like a real cunt that has little of use to say, everything I've seen you post recently has been an obvious attempt to stir shit and it would probably be best for all concerned if you were banned from here too. Unfortunately it won't happen. The only folk that seem to get banned are the ones who wind up Dave enough.

I might be brusque in the way I express myself but I'm not calling for the people I disagree with to be banned, that would just be petty.

Originally Posted by Stripey

I might be brusque in the way I express myself but I'm not calling for the people I disagree with to be banned, that would just be petty.

It's not a matter of disagreeing with you or necessarily agreeing with the actions of others who have been banned, I just find the moderation of the site to be totally hypocritical. For instance, I tend to be pretty amaible on the whole, I expressed my opinion that Cloud is a cunt once and i'm getting the stock warning alerts going off.

Despite Neil's predictable speech, it doesn't matter at all what the level of insult is, an insult is an insult and you get away with blatantly insulting and ridiculing a large number of users on a regular basis and it's getting tired. The so-called 'rules' don't define what is and isn't acceptable, they use bland guidance to carry out bland moderation which has no bottle to live by the self appointed rule system.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by bluesxman

It's not a matter of disagreeing with you or necessarily agreeing with the actions of others who have been banned, I just find the moderation of the site to be totally hypocritical. For instance, I tend to be pretty amaible on the whole, I expressed my opinion that Cloud is a cunt once and i'm getting the stock warning alerts going off.

Despite Neil's predictable speech, it doesn't matter at all what the level of insult is, an insult is an insult and you get away with blatantly insulting and ridiculing a large number of users on a regular basis and it's getting tired. The so-called 'rules' don't define what is and isn't acceptable, they use bland guidance to carry out bland moderation which has no bottle to live by the self appointed rule system.

That was a friendly warning, not only for you but also for others who have contributed to this thread and may do so in future. I know you're rarely, if ever the cause of any hassle on this site. If you had been a persistent offender, I may have issued an infraction or even a temporary ban. We do judge these things on an individual basis and use our common sense. Most of the moderation on this site is done via PMs and email, away from the forums themselves. On the whole it works, and I think we manage to strike a pretty good balance.

However, there are always going to be attention seekers who know which buttons to push in order to provoke an angry response, and to be honest the membership as a whole have the power to deal with these people by not engaging with them. I'm not going to ban someone for having an opinion, no matter how ludicrous or ill-informed it may be.

[Cloud]

Originally Posted by bluesxman

It's not a matter of disagreeing with you or necessarily agreeing with the actions of others who have been banned, I just find the moderation of the site to be totally hypocritical. For instance, I tend to be pretty amaible on the whole, I expressed my opinion that Cloud is a cunt once and i'm getting the stock warning alerts going off.

But what's hypocritical about it? To call someone a cunt is a pretty bad thing - if I went upto some random in the street who was talking to his mate and said "Oi, mate, I don't know you, but you appear to be a bit of a cunt", I'd be expecting a swift punch in the face, if not worse. It's generally not acceptable to do so, unless you know the person, and even then, plenty of people will draw the line at 'cunt' being used in speech.

Thing is, there's plenty of ways of expressing an opinion that someone is full of shit without actually saying it in a way that devalues your own posts as well as the site. If someone's opinion (in your mind) is bullshit, then either use mature language, or don't say anything at all. It's really not hard to do. And, as far as I can see, the moderation is perfectly fine with that, as long as it doesn't get out of hand.

Despite Neil's predictable speech, it doesn't matter at all what the level of insult is, an insult is an insult and you get away with blatantly insulting and ridiculing a large number of users on a regular basis and it's getting tired. The so-called 'rules' don't define what is and isn't acceptable, they use bland guidance to carry out bland moderation which has no bottle to live by the self appointed rule system.

But it does matter, as I've said above. Politely disagreeing with someone's opinion is fine - no-one in their right mind should get upset and everyone's happy with a good discussion. But to turn round and call them all sorts of names because they dared to express an opinion that you (not you personally!) think is horseshit - then...come on, human decency should tell you that there's no need for it.

I can attest to the moderation being fair - if it wasn't fair, then surely I would've been banned ages ago for some of the opinions and comments made? I'm pretty sure (though I have no proof ) that Neil would've happily banned me a while back, and I'm positive that if I was to start abusing members, then I'd be banned. It's not like i'm friends with any of the moderators, two of them have actively told me that I'm full of shit (though in far politer terms)...so how could it be unfair?

Do you think someone should be banned for expressing an opinion?

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by Dave

However, there are always going to be attention seekers who know which buttons to push in order to provoke an angry response

oh come on, attention seekers? I don't see anyone here exhibiting that kind of behaviour, what I do see however is people whining about the few self-confident, assertive posters who aren't scared to stick by their individual beliefs and say what they think.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Stripey

oh come on, attention seekers? I don't see anyone here exhibiting that kind of behaviour, what I do see however is people whining about the few self-confident, assertive posters who aren't scared to stick by their individual beliefs and say what they think.

Are you being sarcastic?