Let's talk about bans, warnings and closing of accounts

[May Contain Nuts]

7 hours ago, David said:

They are now using the Forest thread in the Football Forum to have a pop at us which kinda works now as they have always been pull each other’s leg topics, you know what you’re getting into in there and it doesn’t effect members that have no interest in them.

Aye, kinda works. I'd say mostly works but with some small caveats.

The only problem (if you can even call it that) is that there's very little discussion of anything that's going on at Forest on there - they can't discuss Derby on the Derby threads so they discuss Derby on the Forest thread, so essentially the thread may as well just be on the Derby boards! 

I know we're in a bad position, glass houses, stones etc so can't really laugh at them, but it could still provide some light relief that it doesn't at the minute. 

I'm not planning to sign up to any Forest forums as an away fan (an alien concept to me tbh) but reading that thread I have absolutely no idea how Forest are shaping up for the season, how they're going to improve on last season (they only scored 3(?) more goals than us), how they're feeling about their own chances this season (usually there's some delusion to prey on!) or anything like that.

...tbf I could probably help with that by asking these questions there instead of talking about it here! Also I have no alternative to offer.

Edited July 31, 2021 by Coconut

[Pearl Ram]

I’m wondering what’s happened to Ramnut ?

Haven’t seen him on the forum for a while and while you’ve got to respect people might just have had enough, you do hope there is no health issues going on. 

I tried to use the @ thing to alert him he’s being thought about but his name didn’t come up. ?

 

[richinspain]

Just now, Pearl Ram said:

I’m wondering what’s happened to Ramnut ?

Haven’t seen him on the forum for a while and while you’ve got to respect people might just have had enough, you do hope there is no health issues going on. 

I tried to use the @ thing to alert him he’s being thought about but his name didn’t come up. ?

 

Maybe he/she's changed their username?

[Boycie]

7 minutes ago, Pearl Ram said:

I’m wondering what’s happened to Ramnut ?

Haven’t seen him on the forum for a while and while you’ve got to respect people might just have had enough, you do hope there is no health issues going on. 

I tried to use the @ thing to alert him he’s being thought about but his name didn’t come up. ?

 

Wanted his account closing if I remember correctly?

[Pearl Ram]

4 minutes ago, richinspain said:

Maybe he/she's changed their username?

That’s a very good point well made. That would surprise me mind as I’d got him down as a forum stalwart of many years standing. Hmm, I should have thought of that I suppose being as I changed mine a few years back.

[Pearl Ram]

37 minutes ago, Boycie said:

Wanted his account closing if I remember correctly?

Oh. That’s a shame, he posted good stuff and I liked his art, thanks for letting me know. ?

[Rev]

3 minutes ago, Pearl Ram said:

Oh. That’s a shame, he posted good stuff and I liked his art, thanks for letting me know. ?

He pulled a massive Diva strop, after getting into an nothing argument with another poster, which seemed most unlike him.

Not the argument, the flouncing.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Rev
Context

[Pearl Ram]

1 minute ago, Rev said:

He pulled a massive Diva strop, after getting into an nothing argument with another poster, which seemed most unlike him.

Not the argument, the flouncing.

Been there, done that, served the ban. 

Been there, done that, took 6 months out. (Having learned my lesson)

I had no idea but I will say in his defence, I’m finding the smart Alec’s a bit tiresome myself these days there’s less humour and more devils advocates these days trying to trip people up. Just my opinion you understand.

Still think asking for an account to be closed is daft mind.

[Day]

On 31/07/2021 at 22:48, Coconut said:

Aye, kinda works. I'd say mostly works but with some small caveats.

The only problem (if you can even call it that) is that there's very little discussion of anything that's going on at Forest on there - they can't discuss Derby on the Derby threads so they discuss Derby on the Forest thread, so essentially the thread may as well just be on the Derby boards! 

I know we're in a bad position, glass houses, stones etc so can't really laugh at them, but it could still provide some light relief that it doesn't at the minute. 

I'm not planning to sign up to any Forest forums as an away fan (an alien concept to me tbh) but reading that thread I have absolutely no idea how Forest are shaping up for the season, how they're going to improve on last season (they only scored 3(?) more goals than us), how they're feeling about their own chances this season (usually there's some delusion to prey on!) or anything like that.

...tbf I could probably help with that by asking these questions there instead of talking about it here! Also I have no alternative to offer.

Sorry about ignoring this, missed it completely.

I will look at it once the season starts, see if we can work something out, maybe an Away Fan board 

[Day]

56 minutes ago, Boycie said:

Wanted his account closing if I remember correctly?

You are correct for once.

He did ask for his account to be closed. 

If it wasn’t for GDPR I would say no, I’ll ban your account but the day you want back in, email me.

But thanks to the larger sites abusing the system, here we are and having to swat cookie notices away every time we load a new website.

I hate those things, hate it.

[Gritstone Ram]

I say welcome back Bris Vegas although some of his opinions leave a bit to be desired.

Who is this Derby Nutter? Ramnut by any chance? Only joking he sounds a wrong un! Keep him banned trouble causer.

[i-Ram]

13 minutes ago, Gritstone Ram said:

I say welcome back Bris Vegas although some of his opinions leave a bit to be desired.

Who is this Derby Nutter? Ramnut by any chance? Only joking he sounds a wrong un! Keep him banned trouble causer.

Sigh

[sage]

I sometimes bump into RamNut, will tell him folk were asking after him next time I see him, the soft old Hector. 

[rynny]

2 hours ago, i-Ram said:

Sigh

LOL

[Archied]

On 29/07/2021 at 20:59, David said:

Let's talk about bans, warnings and closure of accounts, something that I try not to discuss as members are not always aware of what has gone on so a public court is not the way to determine if any warning/ban should be issued.

I just wanted to be transparent about a few things and it will be a lengthy post, sorry.

Now you may have noticed Bris Vegas has returned to the forum tonight following a permanent ban, he's not the first to have done and he won't be the last. 

Not all members that are banned permanently will be allowed to return, this all comes down to the offence and how you react and handle yourself. 

Without sharing Bris's message, he made a request through another member on Twitter, polite, no insults, that was then forwarded to the moderators room where a discussion is had an a vote. Including myself we have 10 moderators, I abstained from the vote to allow for a majority and as a result Bris was reinstated.

This is not a well don't blame me, but it's a point that I wanted to share as I have another member later where I have been accused of having an agenda.

We have had no issues during Bris's ban, there hasn't been an influx of emails and abuse through other platforms.

The next member I will show you was banned for something that went beyond the forum and a moderators personal life, a member that would never be welcome back on the forum regardless of how they behaved. 

I have received hundreds of emails from all different email addresses, tonight I was given this screenshot as I have the user banned on Twitter, as I have all his previous accounts.

 

 

As you can see, he still regular reads the forum to be that quick on Bris's ban being retracted. Now, look, I find this funny to be honest, given all the communication we have had, I've warned him that the Police would be contacted which I was serious about, he must think this tweet would somehow change my mind.

Sorry but no. 

Putting the offence to one side, sadly we do see this level of response far too often to warnings and bans.

Absolute full transparency, if you react with any kind of insults, profanity to the moderator or via email to myself following a warning, you will receive another warning immediately which will trigger a ban. And if it's in response to a ban, don't ask a week later to be reinstated whilst it's fresh in our minds.

All we ask is for some respect, we understand the majority of members will disagree with their warnings and bans, believe me, I wish we never had to give any, but if we are to keep running a platform that welcomes all views (within forum guidelines), from time to time we must issue warnings to remind users of the guidelines, or bans where members have behaved in a way that we do not think are suitable for this forum.

Whilst I understand we are the most popular forum, and I say this not bragging, but calling it as it is, but we do not hold any members hostage here, there are other forums out there you can use if you do not agree with our forum guidelines or have issues with any of our moderation team.

Recently we have seen an increased amount of members that have recently requested to close their accounts, this is usually following some disagreement with another member and made in the heat of the moment, tired of the negativity or following a warning.

In most cases members are given a 30 day cooling down period where if they change their mind, the request is forgotten, However other cases where requests are accepted with immediate effect for a variety of reasons.

We do not appreciate members that have closed their accounts to return under different usernames shortly after. We understand at times frustrations boil over and I would advise all members that get a little tired of the forum, want out, to just logout, take a few weeks away before deciding to close your account.

This is not just a forum, but now a community that has been built over a number of years, a community that has seen real friendships that have extended outside of the forum. Having members that have basically given themselves a clean slate, know all the personalities and inside jokes go "undercover" goes against what we are trying to achieve here.

For those that have made it this far into the post, thank you, I appreciate it as it's been a difficult year for the moderation team as I'm sure you can imagine. I have asked earlier for respect and that works both ways, so when I can be transparent and feel it's important, I will be. 

With that I am working on a system where members are made aware when their posts have been hidden which will be left with the reason by the moderator. I have been and on forums myself, there is nothing more frustrating when a post is removed and you have no idea why. I get it, and I'm working on it.

If you have any questions or feedback on any of this, I'm happy to read and respond where I can. 

tl;dr Take your warnings and bans on the chin, don't abuse/insult moderators and you will be fine. And don't close your account unless you have absolutely no intention of coming back.

All pretty fair and clear ,I do like the idea of telling posters they have a post hidden and why , often seems non offensive posts get removed if another poster decides to reply to it in an unacceptable way 

[GboroRam]

40 minutes ago, Archied said:

All pretty fair and clear ,I do like the idea of telling posters they have a post hidden and why , often seems non offensive posts get removed if another poster decides to reply to it in an unacceptable way 

It's all about perception though. What you describe as non offensive actually caused an argument to kick off. 

The problem with telling everyone about every hidden post is it'll cause so many arguments it's not worth the aggro. Nobody will accept that their well crafter, reasoned response should be removed. And everyone posts reasoned, well thought out posts - it's the other people who cause the problems. 

[rynny]

One of the main reason why a post gets hidden is because of the post they have quoted needed to be hidden, then that post gets quoted, then that one does, ad inifinitum. We then have a decision to make whether we remove the whole lot or let it carry on from a certain point (which will include a quote from a post that has been hidden) and hope it makes sense to posters. 

This is another reason why we would like posters to report posts, saves your time, as well as ours.

[RoyMac5]

39 minutes ago, rynny said:

One of the main reason why a post gets hidden is because of the post they have quoted needed to be hidden, then that post gets quoted, then that one does, ad inifinitum...

Would be nice to know if it's your post being hidden or the post you are quoting. Then the poster can consider whether it's what they've written that was 'wrong'. Could just be sent a standard 'the post you quoted is now hidden' or 'we've disagreed with your post' message. Make the message non-replyable if necessary?

Edited August 4, 2021 by RoyMac5

[Day]

47 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Would be nice to know if it's your post being hidden or the post you are quoting. Then the poster can consider whether it's what they've written that was 'wrong'. Could just be sent a standard 'the post you quoted is now hidden' or 'we've disagreed with your post' message. Make the message non-replyable if necessary?

When a post is hidden on the forum, it still shows to moderators but with a pink background (see below)

Moderators can also leave a reason for the hiding. See top of your post in the pic below.

I’m working on a system where 1) The reason must be given before hiding and 2) Where the post will show as it does to the moderators when hidden to the member that posted it. 

This requires additional coding which I cannot put a timeframe on as yet, but that’s the plan.

 

[RoyMac5]

Just now, David said:

When a post is hidden on the forum, it still shows to moderators but with a pink background (see below)

Moderators can also leave a reason for the hiding. See top of your post in the pic below.

I’m working on a system where 1) The reason must be given before hiding and 2) Where the post will show as it does to the moderators when hidden to the member that posted it. 

This requires additional coding which I cannot put a timeframe on as yet, but that’s the plan.

 

Didn't realise it wasn't part of the package and you have to code it yourself. Cheers.