Is SF more strict than it used to be?

[D2J 10]

Since the reigns were handed over this forum has become a bit of joke. I used to enjoy posting on a variety of threads but more military style ruling crept in. It's more a case of sheffield'you'll do as I tell you or your banned'forum.co.uk

 

I appreciate that with significant growth comes the need for a little more ruling but over the last 18-24 month it's more like you need permission to post.

 

Joe, Geoff, Sian, Tony and Max did excellent jobs under the circumstances with problematic users but as least they made the effort to clearly outline their issue and talk to users where as now it more click and bin.

 

Mod's ask for respect, people will tell you that you earn respect...

 

I give this post a max of around 5 minutes, my first post in months may be my last

[Nagel 10]

There isn't a position from which you could defend a Holocaust denier. The Holocaust did happen, so why not respect the memory of those who perished instead of disrespecting it for the sake of a pointless debate.

 

You can defend a Holocaust denier's right to free speech. This is the viewpoint of the British legal system which has chosen not to make Holocaust denial a crime and rightly so in my view.

 

It's that old Voltaire quote of "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

[rad 10]

I've been around here for five or six years now I think and there has always been an 'is the SF too strict?' debate. I'm not sure that much has changed in terms of what is and isn't permitted - what HAS changed is the size of the forum and the size of the team needed to keep it running. That means it is a little less 'everyone knows each other' than it was a few years ago. It's sad but inevitable. This then means the admin team, mods and AMs simply can't be as involved in terms of stating why each and every decision has been made - we spend most of our modding time:

 

- Deleting so many threads that are spam and banning the spam users

- Checking up on posts we believe to be from dupe users

- Dealing with classifieds that don't fit the criteria in one way or another

- Merging and moving threads

- Removing posts that are off-topic or offensive.

 

Were we not to have the first three jobs on our hands then maybe we'd have the time to explain why we were doing the latter two things, but unfortunately we can't leave a note for every single thing or PM every single user. The other problem with PMing users is that it can then sometimes get the user thinking a certain mod has an issue with them personally, when it's just standard procedure. There's also the issue of keeping the forum tidy - too many locked threads and redirects and it looks a right mess.

[Thunzi 10]

Since the reigns were handed over this forum has become a bit of joke. I used to enjoy posting on a variety of threads but more military style ruling crept in. It's more a case of sheffield'you'll do as I tell you or your banned'forum.co.uk

 

I appreciate that with significant growth comes the need for a little more ruling but over the last 18-24 month it's more like you need permission to post.

 

Joe, Geoff, Sian, Tony and Max did excellent jobs under the circumstances with problematic users but as least they made the effort to clearly outline their issue and talk to users where as now it more click and bin.

 

Mod's ask for respect, people will tell you that you earn respect...

 

I give this post a max of around 5 minutes, my first post in months may be my last

We've barely removed anything from this thread so far D2J, we've tried to leave it as open as possible.

You're entitled to your opinion and you're entitled to post it.

Things are slightly different now, but only very slightly. A lot of users look back to the 'good old days', but they really didn't exist. There were just as many complaints about how things were run then. It’s a shame some of the ‘older’ members feel pushed away by the new influx of users but it’s not something we can change.

We appreciate all of the efforts made by the old team members, but the Forum is a different animal now. We couldn't do the sort of hands on management that Tony, Max, Sian and Joe used to do. There is simply too much going on. You also need to bear in mind that the trolls and banned members are all much better at disguising themselves than they used to be in the old days, that can cause significant issues. We still have issues with banned members returning where the bans were issued by the aforementioned team.

[rad 10]

You can defend a Holocaust denier's right to free speech. This is the viewpoint of the British legal system which has chosen not to make Holocaust denial a crime and rightly so in my view.

 

It's that old Voltaire quote of "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

 

But the point is, they didn't say anything, they just threw out a video link for debate. Yes, you can read between the lines and say you could tell it's a holocaust denier video, but that still doesn't alter that they didn't debate their own take on the video in the post.

 

A debate on holocaust denial is one thing (though I can see it getting too heated/offensive to last as happens with some of the other debates on religion/race/football/etc when they descend into personal insults and/or offensive language), just throwing up YouTube links to be provocative is another.

[alchresearch 215]

Hmm, has my post disappeared from this thread?

[D2J 10]

We've barely removed anything from this thread so far D2J, we've tried to leave it as open as possible.

You're entitled to your opinion and you're entitled to post it.

Things are slightly different now, but only very slightly. A lot of users look back to the 'good old days', but they really didn't exist. There were just as many complaints about how things were run then. It’s a shame some of the ‘older’ members feel pushed away by the new influx of users but it’s not something we can change.

We appreciate all of the efforts made by the old team members, but the Forum is a different animal now. We couldn't do the sort of hands on management that Tony, Max, Sian and Joe used to do. There is simply too much going on. You also need to bear in mind that the trolls and banned members are all much better at disguising themselves than they used to be in the old days, that can cause significant issues. We still have issues with banned members returning where the bans were issued by the aforementioned team.

 

It wasn't a criticism mate (though reading it I do agree it looks that way). I guess I was pointing to a selection of mods that had been 'chosen'. I think some would agree they would much prefer a choice of mods that at least have people and communication skills rather than sitting behind a screen clicking on their thread actions and ban user abilities.

 

I agree with some posts on here stating that the 'selection' has resulted in 'I have the power' ego's showing their ugly heads, whether this has been due to members 'colliding' in discussions I really don't know.

 

As an 'older' member I accept that change happens and you live with it but I'm also a fan of the saying 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'

 

I've met (all be it briefly in some cases) at least 200/250 members via this forum and I will confidently say that some would agree with some of what I say and that some of the measures brought in have been pointless and serve little or no purpose.

 

As you state, this is ruled forum and you apply these how you see fit.

[Thunzi 10]

Hmm, has my post disappeared from this thread?

Yes. Please see the post I made which directly followed the removal. Apologies if you have already done as requested.

[Twiglet 10]

... we spend most of our modding time:

 

- Deleting so many threads that are spam and banning the spam users

- Checking up on posts we believe to be from dupe users

- Dealing with classifieds that don't fit the criteria in one way or another

- Merging and moving threads

- Removing posts that are off-topic or offensive.

 

Were we not to have the first three jobs on our hands then maybe we'd have the time to explain why we were doing the latter two things, but unfortunately we can't leave a note for every single thing or PM every single user. The other problem with PMing users is that it can then sometimes get the user thinking a certain mod has an issue with them personally, when it's just standard procedure. There's also the issue of keeping the forum tidy - too many locked threads and redirects and it looks a right mess.

 

Rad is right on the mark. We simply don't have enough time to let people know where every deleted post or thread has gone. If it happens to you and you want to know why, contact the Helpdesk and someone will be happy to explain. I hope that you'd all agree that a forum without constant spam and without numerous repeated threads from users who can't be bothered to use the search facility is a better one.

 

If it is a new user who is unfamiliar with how the forum works or the terms of use, then I will usually try to send a PM or edit a post out instead of removing it.

[alchresearch 215]

Rad is right on the mark. We simply don't have enough time to let people know where every deleted post or thread has gone. If it happens to you and you want to know why, contact the Helpdesk and someone will be happy to explain.

 

But surely it takes more time to answer dozens of helpdesk queries to where thread x has gone, when it could be easier to lock it with a moderator's note?

[Twiglet 10]

But surely it takes more time to answer dozens of helpdesk queries to where thread x has gone, when it could be easier to lock it with a moderator's note?

 

I wouldn't know - the admins do it

[Classic Rock 10]

As an Assistant Moderator I'll chuck my 2p worth in.

 

I can't really comment on egos or banning as I don't get involved in that. Most of the work I do involves tidying up, removing comments that are not family friendly, moving threads to the sections of the Forum where they really belong, leaving 'please stop arguing' messages to try to stop bickering and if something does become out of hand I'll generally drop a PM to those involved or will ask for asssitance from a Moderator.

 

Rather than barging in I'll recognise when a Moderator is needed. This is usually where I suspect that a banned user has arrived to cause trouble or if a thread has potential legal issues. Fortunately most of the time when I do log in there are few problems.

 

The Groups are a different area where Group Leaders take control of their areas. Apart from advertisers and a few Chinese wedding dress spammers I've had few problems over there.

 

At the end of the day, we do our best and we're all open to advice and guidance. We hold our hands up if we are wrong and welcome any input that is given.

 

Ultimately we try to work together to make this site a useful discussion and information site. I hope that most recognise that this is our purpose, I think they do.