JREF Admin: Comments on recent reports (Closed Moderated Thread)

[Darat]

JREF Admin: Comments on recent reports

There have been several reports of posts in this section of the forum over the last few days; these reports have contained serious accusations and allegations ranging from racism to libel.

Because of (what I perceive) the serious nature of these reports I am going to discuss them with Linda when she returns and seek clarification of exactly which (if any) the JREF considers are breaches of the Membership Agreement.

This is not a threatening post, there is no major problem overall, there is no discussion or suggestion about the Forum or even this section being closed down or significantly altered it is merely my way of making sure that Members are aware that over the last few days there have been several reports that I need to discuss with the JREF to ensure that the forum is being run as they wish it to be.

As a final comment although it is expected (and accepted) that "Politics, Current Events, and Social Issues" will always be the most "heated" section of the Forum your posts should always strive to "be civil and polite". If you are not capable of remaining (overall) civil and polite in a discussion about the "hot subjects" discussed in this section then this is probably not the best section of the Forum for you.

These matters have arisen only (so far) in this section of the forum so I will leave this thread open here (even though it is really a “Forum Management” subject) in case Members have any comments directly related to the content of this post.

I will not, at least at this time, mention any Member by name or the exact content of the reports.

This is a moderated thread
Any posts, comments etc. that are considered to be inappropriate may be deleted, edited or moved to another thread at my discretion.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: Darat

 

[davefoc]

Darat wrote:

This is not a threatening post, there is no major problem overall, there is no discussion or suggestion about the Forum or even this section being closed down or significantly altered it...

These words were greatly appreciated by me. Thank you.

I would like to say that for me, the current level of moderation/administrative action in the politics section is exactly correct.

I believe I may have happened upon one of threads that has caused some of the reports that you alluded to. While I was initially taken aback by the thread initiator's tactic of using such an inflammatory opening, I thought the thread served as a perfect example of why censorship for content or potential hurt feelings in the political section is so problematic. The thread's initiator was making a point about what he perceived as hyposcrisy in another poster's thread by substituting Jews for the group (the UN) criticized by the other poster. I don't know that the comparison/parody was valid or fair but I definitely think that it was worthy of being discussed and criticized based on that and not just dismissed out of hand and censored because somebody didn't like the tactic.

 

[aerocontrols]

This is not a threatening post, there is no major problem overall, there is no discussion or suggestion about the Forum or even this section being closed down or significantly altered...

I believe that the fact that a handful of people on both sides are so immature as to prompt such a post by a moderator is a major problem.

I've got no idea how adults can waste their time engaging in such name calling and fight picking. Honestly people... grow up.

MattJ

 

[Ed]

Re: JREF Admin: Comments on recent reports

There have been several reports of posts in this section of the forum over the last few days; these reports have contained serious accusations and allegations ranging from racism to libel.

Darat, I know that you are not a US person so you should know that here a charge of "racism" holds no meaning. This epithet has been so misused that it can apply to the mayor of NY regulating street vendors (I am making this up).

As far a libel goes, I suggest that as part of the terms and conditions people agree to take abuse like a man (or chick, as the case may be). Lordy, lordy, lordy, this is the Internet, after all.

 

[zenith-nadir]

I won't beat around the bush nor will I wring my hands in diplomatic abivalence.

I was totally offended by a_u_p's thread which is misleading, inflammatory, full of lies, has no meaningful contribution to JREF, is socially inept, is attention-seeking, outrageous, argumentative, conflicting, and it's only purpose is to inflame and pollute JREF with nonsensical garbage. It was a premeditated and direct attack upon Skeptic's religion and ancestry and a_u_p knows that. It is an insult to all rational posters here who want JREF to be a voice of reason not a voice of trolling, intolerance and bigotry. Many excuse this behaviour as "parody" which is a rationalization I find incredulous.

This behaviour taints JREF to the worldwide audience who view these pages, and inaction towards, or lack of censorship of trolling is no less than condoning such behaviour.

My comments and actions were prompted by reports of several posts by several Members. No one post or report is responsible. I do not want this thread to be about a particular poster (or posters) or a specific post. Please keep to generalities

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: Darat

 

[Ed]

I won't beat around the bush nor will I wring my hands in diplomatic abivalence.

I was totally offended by a_u_p's thread which is misleading, inflammatory, full of lies, has no meaningful contribution to JREF, is socially inept, is attention-seeking, outrageous, argumentative, conflicting, and it's only purpose is to inflame and pollute JREF with nonsensical garbage. It was a premeditated and direct attack upon Skeptic's religion and ancestry and a_u_p knows that. It is an insult to all rational posters here who want JREF to be a voice of reason not a voice of trolling, intolerance and bigotry. Many excuse this behaviour as "parody" which is a rationalization I find incredulous.

This behaviour taints JREF to the worldwide audience who view these pages, and inaction towards, or lack of censorship of trolling is no less than condoning such behaviour.

I agree, with some exceptions.

I ablosutely support AUP's right to post whatever he feels moved to post. Certainly you have faith in the rest of us that we can see this stuff for what it is, no?

 

[zenith-nadir]

I agree, with some exceptions. I ablosutely support AUP's right to post whatever he feels moved to post. Certainly you have faith in the rest of us that we can see this stuff for what it is, no?

I have faith in everyone to make their own judgements. They can post anything they want. This is not an attack upon the freedom of speech. But I have lost faith in people's ability to distinguish between parody and pre-meditated trolling.

Edited by Darat: 

Content removed.

 

[Matabiri]

[B

Edited by Darat: 

Content removed

[/B]

Given that the thread in question starts

Actually, this belongs on the "Another thread smearing a group by cherry picking a scandal" thread

I think it's obvious that it's an intentionally inflamatory parody. Even if it didn't, the similarity in thread titles is an indicator. Had it been posted apropos nothing, I'd agree, but not in this case.

 

[Darat]

…snip…

I believe I may have happened upon one of threads that has caused some of the reports that you alluded to.

…snip…

Thanks for your comments.

I don’t want to single out any particular post, thread or person at the moment. I will say that the reports are from different Members and are reporting different posts. So my post isn’t in response to one particular report.

I believe that the fact that a handful of people on both sides are so immature as to prompt such a post by a moderator is a major problem.

…snip…

It really isn’t a major problem, just something that’s come up that is a bit different from our normal run-of-the-mill stuff therefore the Mod Team needs some input from the JREF and in the interest of trying to keep everyone informed I thought I’d make an “official” post about.

Darat, I know that you are not a US person so you should know that here a charge of "racism" holds no meaning. This epithet has been so misused that it can apply to the mayor of NY regulating street vendors (I am making this up).

As far a libel goes, I suggest that as part of the terms and conditions people agree to take abuse like a man (or chick, as the case may be). Lordy, lordy, lordy, this is the Internet, after all.

That’s why we need the JREF’s input, it is more about refining how and what we respond to in posts and reports.

 

[Darat]

Sorry for the temporary closing, I was splitting and editing this thread and with vBulletin 2 strange things can happen if people are posting whilst lots of editing is going on.

 

[crimresearch]

Trolls spend their time looking for ways to violate the spirit of the rules...I doubt if going elsewhere is going to help you, or anyone else.

This whole thing spawned from a thread I started, in which I simply referred to a mainstream news story on UN misconduct, and asked if anyone else had more information, and if it compared to the oil-for-food situation in terms of UN deniability.

While that may have been irresistible to the trolls who descended with posts about wanting to rape my mother, and ridicule of me as an affirmative action beneficiary, it was in no wise comparable to AUP's supposed 'parody'.

Hate mongering trolls are here to stay at JREF, and we have it as our cross to bear, just as UofA has Gary Schwatz.

 

[CBL4]

I am often offended by AUP's and ZN's posts. I wish they would both go away. That is - I wish they would go away voluntarily. I do not want them to be censored away. I expect offensive posts on this type of forum.

What is not expected is the censoring of one of ZN's reasonable posts in a discussion about censorship. He showed why he thought AUP's post was offensive by parodying AUP's parody. It is absurd that ZN's parody was censored and AUP's was not. (I do not think AUP's should have been.)

In a thread about manners, it should be expected that there will be some posts that will be on the edge. Without examples, it is simply impossible to make informed decisions. This thread is about finding where the edge is. Nothing but the most extreme name calling should be censored on this thread.

AUP and ZN, please go away. It would make the rest of our lives more pleasant. However, if you stay, I will always oppose censoring you. You both say inane and offensive things that have made you both seem like idiots at times. It makes it easy for your opponents to ignore the reasonable things you say. Please stick to the facts and make reasonable arguments.

Darat - please do not censor these people especially in this thread.

CBL

 

[Darat]

...snip...

Darat - please do not censor these people especially in this thread.

CBL

Your post is off-topic in this thread however I will leave it in place so I can clarify what can be discussed in this thread.

This thread is not about censorship or about moderated threads or any particular post or thread.

It can be used to discuss points directly related to my OP all other content will be removed. So as a for instance the advice about racism from Ed was appropriate, ZN's analogy wasn't.

Discussion about my decision to make this a moderated thread can always be started in Forum Management.