Trolling/racist posts

[martin]

Acute sense of humour failure! I've just removed a thread in it's entirety - it was obviously designed to "stir up" dissent of the very worst sort, and succeeded!
Like spam, trolling is a timewaster for the moderating team, and reflects badly on the board, and those who use it.......
Last, final warning, any further posts/threads of a similar nature will be dealt with summarily, brutally, and finally for those perpetrating/contributing!
And NO correspondence will be entered into on the subject!

[MR GUS]

seeing as my innocent & utterly misconstrued post was removed Martin, does this mean that ALL non-renewable threads will be removed & that you yourself will no longer be posting interesting pieces about other items (eg political, policing, poor animal husbandry  GM) etc?

 
There'll be alot of self reporting then, suggest you get rid of off-topic section for starters.

 

[SteveH]

(handbagging self edited)....., suggest you get rid of off-topic section for starters.

 I'd second that... But not for what appears to me to be a rather too personal reasons....

 To my mind it detracts from what I see as the focus of this Forum... ie "Renewable Energy and Sustainability Forum".

Please note - you may not post smut, indecency, offensive material, etc. This list is not exhaustive. It's pretty obvious really, but we'll add more to this later if necessary.

http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5366.0.html

[MR GUS]

I'm not being a pedant, however one persons veg is another persons meat, "offensive" comes down to the viewpoint of the individual, this is where confusion as to what warrants removal will inevitably arise.

such as, should I as a meat eater take offense at sentiments expressed by a vegetarian? ..no not unless i'm stupid, however some people are pushing on the basis of  having taken offense to something not even in relation to a threads origin.

For instance, a work colleague used to feel "safe" knowing that I was with him when drinking in the type of pub that kicked off everyday & was renowned for violence, glassings, stabbings & raids, as he could be quite sure that I was there & capable of putting down violence by means of presence & engaging promptly if things kicked off regardless of numbers.

This did not mean he could spout off & get cocky using me as a shield, If I did not agree with his vocal nature I could & would stand back & leave him to a beating as I told him.
My presence did not /does not mean I should be lumped in with his / that individual viewpoint.
Therefore please read posts carefully lest you take offence, I know I am deeply offended at the thought of being deemed racist from someones clouded viewpoint, after all who here has lived my life?

I suggest people look at the amount of posts someone has made & the overall content therein, rather than simply jumping on one thread, phrase or word.

Or else it all gets a bit section 44 "vs" photographers ..loses all sense doesn't it?

 Let's not get "daily Mail" ..please.

[martin]

I have just popped out for a couple of hours and walked back to this - firstly wingeing pms about being "censored" and demanding that any reference to trolling be removed - Mr Gus - you have trolled once too often - if it happens again you are off the board -permanently!

[guydewdney]

Hmmm. Sounds like a dictatorship to me. 'do as I say or be expelled'

[Amy]

Ive got pop corn, wine, a comfy chair and bags of time.   
 
For once, my lips are sealed. 

[martin]

words of one syllable for those of an obtuse bent.......... FAR too much time is demanded of the moderating team on dealing with spam and the occasional hackers - to add trolling into the mix is sufficient to try the patience of a heaven full of saints...... as I said - nil tolerance thereof from now on..........
And Guy, if that's the way you wish to read it, that'll do fine!

[Amy]

  

[wookey]

Mr GUS has posted a load of largely irrelevant stuff recently. But he does put it in 'off-topic' where it can be ignored so it's mostly harmless. No idea what caused this particular blow-up (anyone care to enlighten me?). But, like SteveH, I'd prefer more focus on renewable stuff and not posts about random 'bargains', the pope's visit, MP's expenses, etc. Mind you looking back it seems Mr GUs and Martin are almost equally guilty of filling that section up.

This has been annoying me mildly for a while, so whilst we're having a flogging I thought I'd get it off my chest :-)

[knighty]

^^^


what he said

[martin]

I thought

"Acute sense of humour failure! I've just removed a thread in it's entirety - it was obviously designed to "stir up" dissent of the very worst sort, and succeeded!
Like spam, trolling is a timewaster for the moderating team, and reflects badly on the board, and those who use it.......
Last, final warning, any further posts/threads of a similar nature will be dealt with summarily, brutally, and finally for those perpetrating/contributing!
And NO correspondence will be entered into on the subject"

was fairly self-explanatory..........

An "off topic" section is what it says on the tin - somewhere that people can post threads which aren't particularly "mainstream" to the boards main thrust, and I consider an excellent and worthwhile part of the forum - it shows we're not "one trick ponies" and on a "slow news day" for renewables can help keep discussion going......

BUT, of late, there have been threads that have caused a great deal of upset, dissent, and ultimately complaints, some justified, some not - all time-consuming, and to be frank, a pain in the ar*e for those of us who have to run around tidying up, deal with the complaints, and haul petulant two-year-olds apart screaming "He hit me back Miss - snot fair!", so I said quite loudly "enough is enough" and made it plain that I really didn't want to waste any more time over it - over, past, forgotten, let's get on with life.......
and returned to the forum after a short while to find whingeing self-justification posts, and a pm box full of "determined to waste my time" messages........

[EccentricAnomaly]

+1 for focus.

I gave up with the forum about six weeks ago (this is a reincarnation of my account with the same name) I was so fed up with the off-topic rubbish.  I've been dipping in on and off of recent as there's some really good stuff here.  Pity it can easily get lost.  It doesn't help that the forum software makes it a right pain to read all except one or two topics (e.g., off-topic and media watch).  And yes, the last straw happened to be a post by Martin.

[martin]

I'm very happy for the board to return more to it's "roots", and to be more focussed on it's core subject - I've no problem with moderating a heated discussion over what's relevant to "the subject", but I'm hanged if I'm going to waste time breaking up fights over total irrelevancies........
As always, we're striving to get the balance right, and constructive feedback is always welcome
Welcome back by the way!

[Amy]

The danger with all this isnt the bandwidth it wastes but the people who quietly slip away cos they have had enough.

YOU, the forum members, are the most important thing to me.

YOU are the brains and knowledge I wish to communicate with and learn from.

Without YOU, none of this will work.

Please can we have a forum for science and renewable topics, but thats also friendly and a comfy place to chill out.

That means an emphasis on renewables with a soft friendly center that doesnt pull yer fillings out.