Ah well, I'm going to have to stop looking at this site because of the recent large increase in racist postings - it is considered a racist and defamatory site according to my employer's e-policy . I certainly don't want my bosses to consider that I visit such websites, so sadly (or thankfully given how downhill this site has gone?) I shan't be visiting any more.

This site no longer reflects the caring tolerant Sheffield that I know.

Goodbye from one more a lurker than a poster.

PS btw how does anyone dare go on a forum meet in case they end up sitting in a pub having a pint with some worthless BNP member? (shudder)

It's getting difficult to stay out of the political threads on here. It's getting swamped. Even the 'normal' threads are getting 'poisoned'.

We need some old fashioned over-zealous modding to clear out the dross.

Theflyingfish has left the building :(

Bye :sad:

Hope you find us in a better state in the future :(

Originally posted by theflyingfish
it is considered a racist and defamatory site according to my employer's e-policy
How can open discussion be considered "racist and defamatory", do you work for the McCarthy book club?

We do our best. We actually kill a lot of unleasant postings but keeping teh balance between freedom of speech and bigotry is always difficult.

The BNP oiks never come to the meets, and on teh forum we do try and keep the politics in a couple of places.

Of course, if lots of people lurk and never post then Gresham's Law takes over - the bad drives out the good.

Rather than lurk, get a subject to talk about and post it!

Joe

What do you suggest, complete censorship? Let the BNP members have their say, they usually get out-argued within minutes anyway.

Originally posted by Strix
Theflyingfish has left the building :(

Bye :sad:

Hope you find us in a better state in the future :(

Did Theflyfish leave the buildingvia flying through the air or swimming through water.? I want to know.

Originally posted by Strix
It's getting difficult to stay out of the political threads on here. It's getting swamped. Even the 'normal' threads are getting 'poisoned'.

We need some old fashioned over-zealous modding to clear out the dross.

Have I missed something? :suspect:

I usually glance at the forum during the day at work. All my activities on the machines at are audited, my boss' have never had a problem (unless it affects my work output :hihi: )

As someone said, its an open forum :D

Aren't freedom of speech, thought and expression treasures of a civilised democracy? It strikes me that to over censor some of these threads is more damaging than the content expressed.

There is no censorship as such on Sheffield Forum. The Mod Team keep it running within the terms and conditions and what is suitable for the style and policy of Sheffield Forum.

The original posters point is a valid one and it is one of the reasons why moderating is sometimes robust on some topics.

A stringent policy that all users must display their last passport photo as an avatar might keep things from boiling over.

Not only would all the names have faces put to them, but the general poor quality of the photos might encourage a little humility!

Originally posted by theflyingfish
(or thankfully given how downhill this site has gone?)

Glad you e-mailed me your concerns and gave me/us fair opportunity to right our wrongs... oh wait, you didn't.

We are actually tackling this issue right now, but please don't just lurk and keep your thoughts to yourself and expect us to mind read. If you're not happy then get in touch.

:(

Well I am one who has emailed Geoff and have posted about this issue on a number of occasions. I agree with much of what flying fish said - the number of iffy postings on this site does not reflect the Sheffield that most of us live in. It makes me use this site less and is ruining it in my opinion.

And for all the people who talk about freedom of speech - absolute nonsense! This site is moderated and censored watch:

**** **** ********

for example. Not to mention the fact that defamatory postings get deleted and users get banned. So this is not a 'freedom of speech' forum. So get that idea out of your head at once.

Geoff I hope you sort all this BNP stuff out soon. You seem to be able to make rules about various types of non-grata postings, but you haven't quite got to grips with this yet.

Clean this forum up guys!

and get the BNP scum out of here, seen as though this forum is seen to be 'family friendly'.

Do we really want easily influenced youngsters starting to hate someone just because of the colour of their skin?

Think about it!

Originally posted by E-Man Groovin
Geoff I hope you sort all this BNP stuff out soon. You seem to be able to make rules about various types of non-grata postings, but you haven't quite got to grips with this yet.
Not had an e-mail from you in the last 2 months.

Look... we created a politics forum. We are moving all political related threads there to clear things up for people who are not interested. If, like me, you don't want to discuss immigration (it's all over the news, Channel 4 and 101 other forums - it's not exclusive topic to SF) or other political issues then avoid that one forum.

And... if you spot something that you feel is overtly racist then use the Report this Post function. None of the users who have posted in this topic so far have reported a post recently. Don't keep your complaints/worries to yourself and then act surprised we don't know about them.

Help us to help you - that's all I'm asking.

[Moved this to General Chat. I don't normally ask for feedback via threads, but I'm happy to on this occasion as I'm on SF more than normal at the moment]

It really amazes me how flippant some people can be about stopping someone else stating their views.

Please guys (and gals), this is an open forum, as t020 says, "Let the BNP members have their say, they usually get out-argued within minutes anyway."

Letting youngsters see how ludicrous their ideas are, and how unable to stand up to scrutiny they are is far better than driving the issues underground.

Well, that's my opinion anyway.

The balance is just about right with the moderators at the moment, in fact, as people will know (this is no secret to the mod's is it) if anything, I think the site is over moderated.

Just my 2p.

:)

And as I mentioned in the post above yours, if you don't want to see people discussing immigration or other issues that will be raised in the run-up to this year's General Election then just avoid that one forum (we acted on your feedback and made this forum so you can avoid being bombarded as you browse the general areas).

There are racists in every town and city in England. I don't like them, what they stand for or how they try to defend their views.

However, if someone is a BNP member or overt racist then it's good to know who they are - so i can avoid them!

We all share the one planet and life would be so much more pleasant if everyone were more tolerant of other people. Using reasoned arguments can help to demonstrate to the less tolerant amongst us where they are IMHO going wrong.

We're not doing anyone any favours by pretending these people do not exist. Perhaps if people were more aware of Hitlers views and how he tried to implement them something could have been done earlier to stop him and save many thousands of innocent lives. If there were an easy way to stop racial and religious and other hatred then it wouldn't exist. There isn't an easy way to stop it. But I think the best way of tackling it though is to constantly re-inforce how wrong it is by the use of reasoned argument.

Ok, back again for a quick look at the response. Geoff thanks for your response - I concede that I could have raised my views with you.

Accordingly here is some feedback for you - I can't avoid the postings as I browse the site using the "view new topics" function to see what posts have been updated, keeping the hot stuff at the top. At various times in the last two weeks, half of page 1 has been race related. The fact that it is in the politics form makes no difference - I enter the site and what do I see? post after post of stuff that frankly, makes me want to leave the country. The posts may be hot topics, but they are also dull, offensive and combative - not what makes a good forum.

And you ask for examples and say I don't report stuff OK, fair enough, but it's the general tone that I no longer like, rather than specific stuff which obviously is harder to pin down. But if it is specific stuff you want, what about the tool who posted the list of crime commited by immigrants? I can see no purpose other than to make a racist point.

And why does it have to be overt? There is loads of implicit racism in this site, for instance posts of the ilk "I'm not racist but look what the muslims are getting away with now" followed by some pathetic story dredged up off the BNP site. Or someone reports a crime and they make it implicit that the fact that the perpetrator is Somali, or whatever is of relevance. Without looking, I bet there is some postings on thin ice on this sie about the Luton school girl who is now allowed to wear Jihab to school. This is what I mean by general tone of some of the postings. It's almost like an electronic live version of the Daily Mail, but it has only got like this recently.

As for being at work - lets suppose someone glances over my shoulder when I am viewing an "open and fair discussion" and see the views of a BNP member on the screen? Who's to say what my interest in that is? My work colleagues may well ask themselves, am I browsing this site because I have an active interest in the BNP? Have I made those postings under an anonymously registered handle?

Geoff, I do enjoy this forum at times and I don't always post - don't forget people use Internet message boards in different ways, some lurk, some post more actively.

Pushed for time, so this post will have to end here.

Thanks for the post flyingfish. One thing that we can all agree on (not that I don't agree with the majority of your points anyway!) is that users need to help us (the volunteer moderators who have full time jobs etc.) to better 'moderate' this forum. On average 28 posts are made every hour (and that's based on 24 hours a day) and we really need more users (whether 'lurkers' or not) to use the Report this Post function to help us out.

Also, one last thing. The forum is indeed being flooded with lots of very similar threads at the moment. This has been caused by some users encouraging their friends (who have nothing to do with Sheffield) to come here and post. This forum is aimed at people who are interested in Sheffield - it's not meant to be a nationwide politics forum - there are plenty of those already, try Google.

Unfortunately, until the general election is over, all forums of a decent size (i.e. nearly 10,000 users :) ) are going to be a prime targets for political activists from all sides - we're just going to have to ride the storm the best we can.

And what do you know? Here is a good example of what I was talking about, about the girl in Luton, no less:

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31193

clearly racist dross (apparently I should be concerned about MY british taxpayer pounds being spent on HER), not to mention the threats to British tradition, but hey this post is OK becasue simeon is doing it for the GOOD OF OTHER MUSLIMS, bless.

How is this pre-election politics? What has this got to do with any election? I trust that a moderator will remove it?

I hope you read my post above and have now clicked the Report this Post link...

Edit: That post has since been merged in to a very similar, older thread.

Should we have a poll on wether to ban bnp?

No we can't.

But, I'm considering a possible public poll to decide whether to remove the politics forum. It is currently being hijacked by 'activists' (or supporters) who have nothing to do with Sheffield. We could then have 1 dedicated thread on immigration, 1 on anything Islamic related, and so on.

Closing this for now as I can't guarantee if I will be around to reply to any further questions. However, watch this space for a poll and be sure to have your say.