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Banned from the shoutbox.

Meat Pie said:
Perhaps also with an explanation as to why no expiration date has been posted where it is meant to be underneath the "You are banned" notification. If I've received a life-time ban, I think even most who feel this action was justified would consider that a tad over-the-top.

Craig - I take the point, but considering the Shoutbox had been dead at the point the discussion came into being and has recently been dead anyway, it certainly seems counter-intuitive to me to stifle conversation by putting sanctions upon those who are actually being active.

The ban should have had an expiration date, and this was an error with the shoutbox script. This has now been set to 7 days.

I don't believe we are stifling conversation, we are actually trying to encourage it by asking that any debates or serious discussion be taken to a proper topic. That way more people have the opportunity to get involved, rather than seeing discussion flow off the shoutbox due to multiple posts from just a few people.
 
JRLDN said:
Meat Pie said:
If I've received a life-time ban, I think even most who feel this action was justified would consider that a tad over-the-top.

I think you should just be grateful you haven't been banned from the forums altogether. Quite frankly your behaviour was absolutely disgraceful.

OK this stops now, this is not a topic to start pointing fingers at each other yet again. The matter regarding the actions of members in the shoutbox is closed as far as I'm concerned, and your issues between each other do not need to be brought up again in here. Either take it to PM or just leave it be please.
 
Sigh... Yes the team is voluntary and puts a lot of work in. Not disputing that, and I never would. I am deeply grateful for all the good work that they do. That doesn't however mean there are not things they get wrong, or could have handled better.

That said, I'm not saying I did nothing wrong. I certainly didn't de-escalate the situation and for that I am sorry, but I think the team also failed in places to properly inform me of 'warnings' or deal with the situation before it got to the point that it did, and finally to make clear defined lines as to what is an offence that requires punishing.

I never saw any warnings on the shoutbox earlier in the afternoon. I'm assuming they came during the period where I left and was no longer on the forum, in which case I find it hard to accept that I ignored 'multiple' team warnings. If I had been PM'd, I would have gotten an email and notification that would have informed me.

If the team had been quicker to react to the unprovoked attack, I would not have reacted in such an ugly manner, although I take responsibility for having done this, I think you would be hard pushed to say when being insulted it isn't quite a human thing to respond angrily. That is just a note to improve to avoid future issues.

Finally, we need more well defined lines as to what constitutes an insult rather than an opinion. It somewhat makes it had to gauge what is acceptable in the eyes of the Mods.
 
I can't say much not knowing the full story although from experience as a forum (and shoutbox) moderator when you see something not ill-fit on the forums or have complaints then on rare occasions quick action has to be taken without notification. Never really a personal thing it's just one of those things that can leave a mod with a tricky decision.

Maybe it would be best to take things to PMs in future? I've never really understood making a topic in anger when you can just contact a team member (or admin) in private and sort the issue out without causing a scene...
 
If people want to add their opinions to this topic, they should do so in a constructive manner.

Any posts which are only added to fuel the flames will be simply deleted as per our Member Expectations.
 
Meat Pie said:
I never saw any warnings on the shoutbox earlier in the afternoon. I'm assuming they came during the period where I left and was no longer on the forum, in which case I find it hard to accept that I ignored 'multiple' team warnings. If I had been PM'd, I would have gotten an email and notification that would have informed me.

If the team had been quicker to react to the unprovoked attack, I would not have reacted in such an ugly manner, although I take responsibility for having done this, I think you would be hard pushed to say when being insulted it isn't quite a human thing to respond angrily. That is just a note to improve to avoid future issues.
Earlier this evening (at the tail end of the first discussion) I posted in the shoutbox asking for the discussion to end and to either be taken on privately or to a thread for others to be able to access. I believed the discussion to be continuing on in the shoutbox so dealt with the issue in the area of the site that was being used by the members in question at the time.

I strongly take offence to the loaded statement "if the team had been quicker to respond to the unprovoked attack" though. We are an unmoderated community - in that posts and messages are not screened by the team before being posted. Therefore we rely on spotting things as they happen or being alerted to events by the members of this site. I would suggest that if somebody says something to you that you believe is offensive or against our expectations - that you tell the team so that we can be quick to react.

We can't be everywhere at all times unfortunately.
 
Meat Pie said:
Firstly, if I am to be 'warned', then it MUST be via PM. As someone who has been dipping in and out of the forum today, I was unable to see some prior warnings and only saw that which I was given by Lottie. Warnings via the shoutbox will flow right out the other end until they cannot be seen, and that is not a reasonable enough way to offer warning.

...and only saw that which I was given by Lottie.

so you did see the warning.

why are you acting surprised then?
 
If I remember rightly Fredward, and it is hard when I had my access to the shoutbox snatched away, it came across more of a request than a warning, and not one that I had even initially realised had come from a Mod, I seem to remember the message being in blue and not Green, not the colour which Mods normally post with on the Shoutbox.

That's another reason why receiving a formal warning via PM is superior and fairer.

And Scott, personally I've always felt it would perhaps be beneficial if there was a dedicated mod to police the Shoutbox. That could have better dealt with the situation more swiftly.
 
Meat Pie said:
Sigh... Yes the team is voluntary and puts a lot of work in. Not disputing that, and I never would. I am deeply grateful for all the good work that they do. That doesn't however mean there are not things they get wrong, or could have handled better.

That said, I'm not saying I did nothing wrong. I certainly didn't de-escalate the situation and for that I am sorry, but I think the team also failed in places to properly inform me of 'warnings' or deal with the situation before it got to the point that it did, and finally to make clear defined lines as to what is an offence that requires punishing.

I never saw any warnings on the shoutbox earlier in the afternoon. I'm assuming they came during the period where I left and was no longer on the forum, in which case I find it hard to accept that I ignored 'multiple' team warnings. If I had been PM'd, I would have gotten an email and notification that would have informed me.

If the team had been quicker to react to the unprovoked attack, I would not have reacted in such an ugly manner, although I take responsibility for having done this, I think you would be hard pushed to say when being insulted it isn't quite a human thing to respond angrily. That is just a note to improve to avoid future issues.

Finally, we need more well defined lines as to what constitutes an insult rather than an opinion. It somewhat makes it had to gauge what is acceptable in the eyes of the Mods.

Just to add to Scott's points:

Sadly the team can't be around every minute of the day, so it's inevitable that there will be times where we're unable to deal with a situation for a while. I would urge any member to pm a team member or alternative drop us a mail from the contact us page rather than jump on the defensive if they see something in the shoutbox which they deem to be inappropriate. That way the situation won't escalate into something like it did today. Even with a dedicated shoutbox mod, they can't be around every single minute of the day, so ultimately there would still be times where no one would be around.

I'm not (and I'm sure many others aren't) a fan of a myriad of bulletpoint after bulletpoint of rules, and when we started TowersStreet we made a conscious decision to try and make our member expectations as simple and to the point as possible. Ultimately, it's a case that I'd like our members just to use a bit of common sense and try not to get involved when things get out of hand. For established members such as yourself, (and let's face it no danger to controversy ;)) I would like to think you could realise when things do start to get out of hand and take a step back.

Finally, it's impossible for us to realistically detail every scenario that constitutes an insult or opinion, and that's why we have a team to determine this on a case by case basis. I'd also like to point out that we also reacted off the back of a number of reports of what was going on in the shoutbox by other members, so this is by no means
 
Well if nothing else, I hope going forward from this that we can agree that any formal warning should be sent via a PM as to ensure maximum likeliness that the member receives these messages.

And I will try my utmost not to let my emotion rule my keyboard. If I'm honest, I've had a rather rough time emotionally speaking in recent weeks (not an excuse) and my reaction to the other member who I maintain was at least as insulting and abusive if not more so than myself, was a result of some pent up stresses.

I'm sorry for causing a problem.

However there is still room for improvement on the forum's part in these situations.
 
If justice is seen to be done, it seems perfectly reasonable to post the transcript in question.

If the team were right, then they'll presumably have no problem posting the transcript and letting everyone see that they were in the right. :)
 
Sam said:
If justice is seen to be done, it seems perfectly reasonable to post the transcript in question.

If the team were right, then they'll presumably have no problem posting the transcript and letting everyone see that they were in the right. :)

As mentioned earlier, the shoutbox only records a limited number of posts, they're not recorded indefinitely. This is why we encourage lengthy discussion to take place away from the shoutbox and in the boards on the forum itself.
 
Craig said:
As mentioned earlier, the shoutbox only records a limited number of posts, they're not recorded indefinitely. This is why we encourage lengthy discussion to take place away from the shoutbox and in the boards on the forum itself.

I thought that there was a permanent shout box log which is viewable to team members for. :/

Meh, anyway I just thought that I'd bring up the fact that 7 days isn't very long to be honest, so can the subject not just be dropped?

On the other hand, I've felt that a certain few members (not mentioning any names) have been quite verbally abusive, disrespectful, and making false facts about youngsters of the forum (such as myself), and I've felt quite uncomfortable with posting on here, which is not the TowersStreet I signed up to.

Having said that, I believe that the mods, as said before, do an amazing job of running the site and forum, and make it as happy a place as possible!
 
The log is only there if an incident which is reported occurs so we can check back through it and find out what the incident was. We are unable to constantly look back through the log and only do so if necessary.

With an incident such as this, the ban is in place for the week and if an incident similar occurs again with the user then a longer, possibly permanent ban will be enforced.

If you have any issues with any other members then PM a team member and the incident will be dealt with, whether it is issuing a warning or a ban or just keeping an eye on some members. :)
 
Craig said:
As mentioned earlier, the shoutbox only records a limited number of posts, they're not recorded indefinitely. This is why we encourage lengthy discussion to take place away from the shoutbox and in the boards on the forum itself.

Fair enough. If the team can't physically get access to the offending conversation, then it's impossible to form an opinion on who was right here. :)
 
Couple of things I would add:

Those moaning about this thread existing, why are you here?

Second, if MP was called a "filthy marxist fascist" I hope the member in question was also subjected to a ban.

Third, the PM for a warning sounds perfectly reasonable, as it is recordable and the most fair way to action things - don't see an issue with that - good housekeeping.

Fourthly after debating heavily last year the shoutbox function I have to agree that extended debates are better in the forum, whilst non-conversational in nature, the point was to include others and give opportunity for the community to get involved, and seeing as this is primarily a forum, I personally took those points on board and think they are fair and make sense. Indeed also, the shoutbox is one of the first things present on the forum, it's not beyond reason to wish to keep that good spirited and welcoming.

I know MP can rub people up the wrong way, we certainly did initially lol! However, he is also at times I believe subjected to a preconceived judgement of what/how he is behaving based upon his reputation for being argumentative. In actual fact, most of the time, his points are based on equality and frustration at the lack of it, so as I say, I just hope the other member whom MP suggests was equally as antagonistic was also subject to the same sanctions.

I got cheesed off in here last year, but I have since met a ton of peeps including an mod whom shall remain nameless (SCOTT) who whipped me last year *(KINKY) and in actual fact they aren't vicious, antagonistic, draconian dictators after all!! ;D

(Well, unless they're trying to shift everyone around park...)

:twirly:
 
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