Be Excellent To Each Other

Those glasses don't suit you.

*snicker*

Anyway, no, the thread was a smart move. You wouldn't expect it for every random troll but of COURSE CUS doesn't fit that description.

Mimi, I don't think you ae being patronising at all, I think you are being constructive, and that is all that I/we are asking for. You have made some very good points in your post, as have others. We really do listen to everybody. We made a mod desicion based on something that CUS suggested this week because it was constuctive and it made sense and we thank him for his input on that matter.

The problem arises for the mods I think when they do as has been asked (there has been a lot of 'these are your boards - how do you want them ran?') but then get slated for it by others who didn't agree with the suggestion in the first place. The people slating don't always come up with an alternative either - we are mods not gods (well apart from myself of course... ).

But thank you Mimi, that is exactly the sort of post I would encourage.

I think if the thread was a god idea it turned out all wrong, because people were more interested in CUS, his general personality, what he had done, etc, rather than the modding decision. It didn't end up as the 'why we took this modding decision, we hope you understand' thread as was intended but was rather sidetracked down a quite unpleasant route, by everyone, not just the mods. It didn't achieve it's aim, I think.

The mods agree, which was why the decision to lock it was taken. It was unfortunate that it happened that way.

You know I love you to pieces, and that's all that matters.

I am going to make toast. And marmite. Or vegemite. What ever I find first.

I can't speak for Grim... on this, so I won't. But I will say that this can work both ways. I shalln't mention names, but sometime users take a mod desicion as being personal. I'm pleased to see that someone can see that a mod role is not personal, it's just something that we need to do sometimes whether we like it or not.

De-lurking...

Users getting banned for things we don't get to see or judge, posts deleted and censored with the message "this is not a debate", complaints of threads being constantly derailed by stupid nonsense... exactly how is this any different to WoS, except that here there are four or five people making the decisions instead of one?

I got banned from WoS long ago (and I probably WAS being pretty out of order at the time), but at least Stu was always honest about being a dictator, and he kept the WoS forums going as a pretty civilised and intelligent place for five years. BeeX hasn't managed five months before turning in on itself. If this place is a "democracy", how come there wasn't a "Should we ban CUS?" poll? He was one of the main driving forces behind the creation of the forum, and now he's banned? It's Danton and Robespierre all over again, and all the sadder for being so predictable.

No, the mods are democratically elected. Then they make decisions on processes for us.
The current government doesn't hold a referendum for everything. It just gets on and does. And when we don't like it, we wait until the next election and change stuff then.

Anyway, if CUS was being as bad as is said then a week of separation from the board may help. I hope so, because there's nobody on this board I don't like so far.

Because you can't work that way. It's a democracy in the same way the UK is - you have full say in who the mods are, and there are regular elections.

Once again, the only deleted and edited posts were ones created by a suspended user after they were suspended. As Grim... said, once CUS is un-suspended, he can say what he likes.

In the same way England is Democratic but we didn't get a public vote on the Iraq war. We choose our leaders, however wisely or unwisely, and trust them to guide us through things.

Hmm, I'm not sure that's fair. I think the only posts that have been deleted/censored are ones made by CUS when he registered another account, or where someone has posted something that CUS has said to them outside the forums. CUS is not only one of the main driving forces behind the creation of this, he's also one of the main driving forces that keeps it an entertaining place to go to, unfortunately, for reasons I know nothing about, he's been a bit less "excellent" recently.
He hasn't been banned, he's been probated for a week, after which I (and everyone else I'm sure) hope he will return as the CUS we know and love.

Apologies to the mods if I'm speaking out of place.

Well, that's not true for a start. You edited Mimi's post, as I quoted above. You're just deleting stuff you don't want to be seen, which is EXACTLY what Stu did and what everyone made such a big fuss about.

Fine. Deleted posts from a suspended member - whether they came via a newly created account or via asking an existing member to post them.

Which is why I locked it. It wasn't supposed to be a CUS-bashing thread at all. It's not fair if he's not around to defend himself.

angel2: if we had a public vote on everything that went on in this forum, nothing would get done.

So just the same as WoS, then.

Anyway, I'll go now. I watched this place with interest because RLLMUK is so big and unweildy, and it might have been somewhere nice to talk games and shit with more signal and less noise. But now it's clear that it's going to disappear up its own crap-chute in a big bitter punch-up sooner rather than later, so I'll stick with the devil I know.

Nngh.

So, what, you think that banned or suspended members should be allowed to post? What, then, is the point in a ban or
suspension?

And taking this one instance and saying "God, you lot are as bad as Stu" is both off base, unhelpful and, frankly, a wee bit simplistically childish.

I've said it before and will say it again - the mods are doing a good job here, despite getting very little positive feedback and a whole fuck-tonne of whinging.

Anyway, I'm going to disappear off here for a bit until all this nonsense has died down and the excellence truly has resumed.

It did appear to have calmed down until someone random turned up to complain...

That's a pretty important difference there. That's pretty much "Well Britain is exactly like Zimbabwe apart from the fact we get to vote and white people can own land".

1 dictator with a history of censoring all dissent vs 5 people, whom we elect, and can chuck out every 6 months and have in fact never deleted the post made by a non-banned member.



Because we democratically elect people to make these decisions for us, you simply couldn't have a poll for "Shall we delete this spammer?" "Shall we edit this post?" Plus how long would you want that poll to run for to let everyone vote? The actions which got CUS suspended would have been going on longer than his suspension will.

Plus yes, CUS has not had a single post deleted.



And frankly at this point, since I don't know who you are, I start to suspect you're some sort of shill because that's not even remotely true nor is it even a conclusion you come to with even the slightest rational reading of events.

If the mods here start deleting posts simply for saying "Actually I quite liked Forza 2" then we have a debate but regardless whether you agree with the specific actions, to compare it to the debate level allowed on WOS is insulting.



Except not. Even a little bit. You can't serious think this... you just can't.



It already has, I can only assume this is a snipe attack because it doesn't even have a "passing in the hall" relationship with the truth. CUS has not had a single post deleted, 1 dictator for life with anger issues is not 5 democratically elected mods on a 6 month term and sending (apparently) abusive PMs is certainly not "Dared to remind Stu he was ignoring the profiles question" (which you'll notice he's left to rot again since then, neatly proving he removed it just to stop us finding our way here in the first place).

When Grim... removes a board feature out of spite because people don't want to pay to be his friends angel2 starts to have a point. Now? Nope.

I agree with certain points by both sides of what is being said, but this whole thing is almost physically tiring to read, now.

I think I am going to just hang around the more lighthearted threads for a little while because stupid as it may sound the last couple of days with so many people upset for one reason or another have made me feel quite tired, stressed and upset, and just visiting an internet forums shouldn't make anyone feel like that. It feels this way because I rather like everyone, and don't like seeing people arguing and upset with each other

I'd suggest to anyone else who feels anything like that through either being hurt by something someone said or just tired of the whole business just enjoy the other threads (five and a half hours to take a picture for the contest, if you are quick!) [/seamless plug] and not to disappear off the forums completely (Mr Chris) because then the amount of this kind of stuff will seem all the more with any diminished amount of 'good stuff'.

It was a pretty specifically chosen example as it happens. You might not *like* the actions taken by the people you vote for, but you still have to go along with them. The word "leaders" was more in relation to the country itself. Still, I can't speak for others but I certainly see the Mods as figureheads and role models for the board; after all, why would we elect them if we didn't like their style of behaviour?

Janitors get very little respect in the real world - I certainly have more respect for the job these guys and girls do than that.

Dudley, that last quote was from Mr Chris, so you might want to take that out.

Mimi - Yeah it's one thead, avoid it if you like.

But I like it open, because I'm not going to let the kind of slanderous bollocks I just read pass unchallenged.

And you know what, it's not making me feel like that. WOS did on occasion because there was no right of reply to the guy being a cunt, same on RG where I've been suspended by an admin on a power trip before too. Here? If I have a problem with the mods I can at least talk to them, if I don't get the right answers, well I can challenge them soon enough, if I don't get enough support doing that then I can't have been that right in the first place.

I know it was, I was replying to him.

Edited to make that more clear.

Might as well have made that the whole post really, angel2 won't be back, although if he is of course he'll discover he can actually still post. What do you think the chances are that would be the case on WOS? Nil of course, at least partly because, as I hear, you can't even sign up there anymore so paranoid is the administration.

Ok, fair enough.

I've been following this in a slightly bemused fashioned - surely it all comes down to something mentioned earlier on, that even CUS admitted was true:

Someone asks Mod if they can block CUS from PMing them because it's upsetting them.
Mod asks CUS to stop.
CUS says "No".

I really don't give two tugs about anything else that went on, if CUS is having some issues, if said person over-reacted, if an admin accidentally made it worse by trying to fix it with technology after CUS said 'No'. Irrelevant.

A member felt harassed by someone else. A polite request was made for that someone to stop. Or at least stop doing it by PM and do it out in the open. This was refused. At this point, knowing that the person was bothered or upset by such PMs, the only reason for CUS to continue doing so was out of malicious intent. That clearly breaks the first rule, hence ban.

Now I know the mods might have been dealing with other problems with him, and he said/she said and so and I really don't care. The above is frankly more than enough justification for at least a one week ban. I imagine had the mods just said this to start with no-one would be complaining. But they attempted to go the extra mile and explain all the whys and wherefores without without being able to explain everything without impinging on peoples privacy.

We're going on and on a bit, and this thread is creating some negativity toward a whole host of different people, so let's forget about it for the time being, and go out an play in the sun, eh?
Or, at least, the happier threads.

I'm not saying we're done talking about this, and if anyone wants this thread re-opened then just PM the mod team. Otherwise - happy thoughts. There's been enough shit news this week.

So why didn't you?

EDIT: Sorry for posting in a locked thread, keeping it in so I don't get accused of shenanigans.