So is the intention of this thread to be purposefully irritating? Because it's certainly working. Surely deliberately making something "nauseating and over-long" is essentially WUM'ing. I don't really understand the "personification of swords" bit. Why is creating a thread in the style of a poster necessary? We know what swords is like, just let him be banned/or not. Trolling: Practice of posting a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument. That definition would also seem to fit with what this thread is now being used for. I appreciate that you were offended by swords' OP, and many have acknowledged that you were justified in your initial response to it. But that was a week ago, and the man himself hasn't posted since then. Just let it go
" The fact is though, that you the user, are lucky in that nothing forces you to read or respond to this thread. I take it those who do, do so because they care enough to restore a bit of order. " This is a fairly patronizing statement. Are you essentially saying, "if you don't like what's happening here, then do one" ? Equally by that token, swords mischief could be justified by saying "nothing forces you to read this". No, nothing FORCES us to read these threads. But when you're a regular visitor to a football forum, and a particular thread keeps hopping to the top of the screen, you're bound to notice it. Particularly when the contents of it are unnecessary/unhelpful.
Not at all Griff. In the context that starts above that bit, it's a comparison between mods and users. Mods HAVE to spend a lot of unseen time on other people's (often deliberate) bollox. Users have an option to avoid the rubbish by ignoring it.
Well it seems then that Swords should say Sorry and job done ... many posters on here see him as a badger baiting cross dresser, some don't like him, some do. He made his statement in public which may have been wrong then he could say sorry and it's all done therefore? Hasn't changed my opinion ... I like everyone
It does seem a fairly handy comparison for the purpose of fending off those who disagree with the usage of this thread though. Users aren't forced to read things in the sense that Mods are- they haven't made a commitment to sift through every post, and so feel no obligation to do so. But anyone with multiple hours usage of a forum is likely to feel enough affinity with the site, for it to be difficult for them to "just ignore" when something they disagree with is happening. Particularly when that thing is frequently bumped to the top of the forum. If this weren't the case, then it would be an entirely reasonable response to people's complaints about swords to say "you're not forced to read his threads". I'd also add that if the purpose of this thread is now as a "reminder of the costs of accommodating and supporting a deliberate mischief maker", then presumably the intent is to irritate people to the level where they don't want swords as a part of the board any more? Which is little better than those threads people make calling for an individual user to be banned.
Are we really up to 14 pages on this? It's simple: The moderators of this board are appointed to keep order. They have the approval of the board's owners (i.e. those who pay to let us have our fun here) to moderate as they see fit. Different club's boards have different rules, and I for one prefer the way this board is run to (for example) the outright vitriol you see on the Celtic / Rangers boards from time to time, or the Newcastle / Sunderland ones, or the General board. If some posters don't like the way they are moderated, they have choices. They can stay and post within the board rules that have been clearly defined and communicated. They can stay and breach those rules, in which case they shouldn't be suprised if they get moderated. or they can walk away and find a board that allows them to post they way they want to. It's completely up to them. The moderators have a very tough, unpaid and often unappreciated job to do, and the last thing they need is someone deliberately making that job harder than it needs to be. No one poster is more important than the board itself. Anyone who acts like this is their own personal playground, attracts the attention of the mods, and shouldn't be surprised when the mods tell him he's not welcome (as is currently being determined by the moderators). Whatever they decide, is the right decision, and needs to be respected by ALL. OK, that's my say.
My point is that it's all a reappraisal of cost, e.g. general amusement through dissing of rules, standards expressed by many (audacity) vs. personal time and effort that goes into clearing up. The 'LIMO' approach (listen, ignore, move on) advocated by the 'apologist' lobby presumes a free lunch at the expense of our mod system. That's counterproductive to the light touch approach to modding a quality forum depends upon. The longer bollox is tolerated (whether in one thread as this one, or repeatedly over many months / years) the more the hidden costs accrue. There's only one reason why it's taking my colleagues time to decide on Swords' future on here, and that's the anticipated reaction of those who crave the amusement factor he brings (it's happened before); and negative impact of that on the board as a whole. All I'm doing here is bringing the real issues (as opposed to the perceived non-issues) to the surface by appearing to fight fire with fire. No offence is intended to anyone, including Swords - but if I have to risk a ban to make a point about indulging audacity at the mods' expense, then so be it. Has to be done I'm afraid.
Risk a ban? If it's that bad there's little point continuing to post here. Frankly it's a ****ing disgrace this should happen to a mod and even more so to Brixton. About time this was dealt with. It's not morally right and one doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that.
Me too Dave, including Swords - when he produces material that doesn't offend our people / causes work for mods. And he ALWAYS says sorry after the event. That's been fine in the past and we HAVE moved on. But then up pops another Swordism - and bang goes another evening / weekend relaying the pitch! Has to stop - and we ALL have to find ways of making him stop.
I should qualify what i mean by "let it go". I just mean cease from talking about it in the public domain. Of course it's your prerogative whether to hold a grudge against Swords or not, and it's completely understandable that modding would continue behind the scenes with regards to his offense. It's just the daily restating of the slights directed toward you- "despite his scathing slurs in the OP against my mod character" (12.30pm today), give the impression that you're still sort of hung up on what he said a week ago- and want to continue to direct users' attention to the injustice of it. But you're saying this is all sort of a counter-wum to highlight the initial wumming?
You're cool Imaz. Let's look at the bright side. Given my personal involvement, I'm technically off mod duty for the duration - for the first time in nigh on two years! I'm using it to come of the fence and speak my own mind (respectfully I trust) as opposed to toeing a necessary, neutral mod line. This is the first time I've had the chance to discuss, debate, rant even on my own board related issues. There's no reason why people who haven't modded should understand exactly what's involved, including lost time, and how it feels to go over and over the same 'respect' message so often. It's so nice to get the opportunity to actually talk about it to others who as Rs fans, I have huge regard for - but who may not agree with me on some stuff. It's good to talk about it though.
Apologies understand it a bit better now .. I agree you should have your say as well ... I like the fact that 9's/Matt are still really posters to most ... I think that is very important as Swords maybe seeing you as the teacher and he is the naughty schoolgirl in boys underwear. I would ask directly if you feel more liberated as a poster do it more often and say what you feel ... it must be very liberating as I respect teh amount of work that is done behind the scenes ... do it i say! ... speak your mind I am Swords would welcome that IMO
I spent 18 months sharing the house with a moderator for another forum (that ran on ProBoards). I've seen it first hand the stress and bullshit that comes through as soon as the subject turns to ethnicity, religion, politics and gender. 'Who makes you do it?' as one says in Italian.
I said this with my original comment to swords OP on no2 answer. Not surprised to see the biggest troublemaker on here constantly threatening to go if swords is not banned. If you are that bothered about other posters mate then go, who cares if you want to post or not
Good sense, Willy. To my mind, the two factors that make this a great board are the quality of the contributors and the continuity of high quality modding from Brix who has provided this consistency since Northolt had the good sense to bring him in soon after Day 1. Personally, having seen that side of things, I'm mightily sympathetic with him and our current mods over having to deal with unnecessary and unending strife caused by a contributor. I'd be sad to lose Swords - I've really enjoyed much of his stuff - but if we can't have the good stuff from him without all the ancillary aggro... I just hope he sees sense before the mod decision deadline, makes the necessary apologies to Brix, accepts the mods' authority going forward and generally comes at the board with a more positive frame of mind.
If you mean me why not say it directly instead of childishly putting me in the red? What's the reason, why hide and not say things openly?
Apologies mean nothing from that moron, he takes his aim at someone trolls them, gets banned and apologises and two weeks later does exactly the same thing. Most boards would have banned him at the 1st or 2nd time but hes well into double figures and anyone is an idiot if they cant see through him, they are defending a scum fan FFS masquerading as a QPR fan. 99% of the mods time is taken up with this prick.
Calling a fellow poster, no matter how much you dislike them, a 'moron' and a 'prick' is in clear breach of the QPR Board House Rules, rule number 3, personal abuse. Whether that makes you a WUM, troller, baiter, hijacker or whatever I'm not quite sure. I'll let it ride this time sunshine, but watch your Ps & Qs. Yep let's keep this going to see how irritating we can really get. BTW Goldie, Swords gave a full and unreserved apology on page 5, post 100 of this thread and hasn't posted since. Not good enough apparently, he has to go, but through a drawn out process which is akin to being on death row in the States. I think the option of lobotomy like Jack Nicholson in One Through Over the Cuckoos Nest is not available. QPRs season finished early, the silly season on here starts early. When does the transfer window open?
