IÃÆÃâÃââÃÆââââ¬à ¡ÃâìÃÆââââ¬à ¾Ãââm posting this on both the Sunderland and Newcastle forums and hope you will read it and see it as an attempt to ensure we move forward in some peace. Its very early days for the bulk of us coming over to our new homes from 606 and I feel a potential flash point bubbling that I would like to defuse if possible. One of the unique things, IMHO, of being a northeast footy fan is the rivalry between our two clubs. Last season we missed it, mind if I had known how the two derby games were to go I may not have been in such a rush to bring them back. Wind ups and banter is something many enjoy and those of you who know me, many do, will know that hate of everything Black and White is not an emotion I share. Both sets of supporters have their extreme element but the vast majority are decent people who happen to support different teams and are passionate about their team. We now have a forum were we can continue the banter and the wind ups but it gives us something extra, the freedom to chose how we act and how we behave, a precious freedom in my view. I see deleting and banning fellow football supporters to be the last, not the first resort. To me it should be saved for people who threaten fellow posters or people who simply go from their own forum to another to try and cause offense and trouble, this is a grey area because we all have different views on what is offensive. My choices in moderating on the Sunderland board could be : 1. Ban Newcastle fans that upset me or my fellow Sunderland supporters. That would quickly spoil the one thing many enjoy, the banter and wind ups. 2. Delete comments that upset me of fellow Sunderland fans, same outcome. 3. Ban all swearing, do we want to go back to 606 moderating? 4. Allow a free for all that will chase many. IÃÆÃâÃââÃÆââââ¬à ¡ÃâìÃÆââââ¬à ¾Ãââm not keen on any of these options because they would all, in some way, spoil what we have. My suggestion is, if swearing offends you, use the no swear option. If wind ups and high emotion offends, just ignore the article or the comments that offend. My request is, we act responsibly when posting, general abuse is fine, all Suncastle fans are ****ing deluded idiots. Stay away from personal abuse; you are a ****ing knob head, just trying to give examples. I hope the majority will help me and badger to help keep our forums a place for all. Thanks for reading this.
Not taking your post lightly mate, but to tell us not to call one of them a knob-head when he clearly is one, is a bit much. Threats of personal violence should not be allowed though. On a side note knob-head came up on my spell checker, the only difference it placed a hyphen in.
Not at all Syd. It's a sensible neutral approach to prevent the site from descending into a free for all. Most of us know where the boundaries are, others need to have things explained to them. Well done mate!
No mate and I really am not taking it lightly. You have to find out what the "majority" want. It's just aggravating when I have been defending their rights on here. (Falling out with fellow Mackems in doing so, it seems. Which was never my intention.) They then proceed to move the goalposts, they can't have it both ways.
I'm going to say that I disagree with moderators editing posts to turn around what has been said (did happen once on our board), but the one ban was of a guy who types in block capitals and went through about every thread saying nothing of substance. Oh, and moderation shouldn't be compared to the holocaust and mass genocide either. There's no sort of warning system yet here, for a kind of calm down sort of thing, which is what is really needed. If that's there, then anyone who is going too far can be told not to, in a neutral way. In terms of rules, if both boards could sort of agree on using deletion of threads and banning as a last resort, and to disallow anything designed to cause plain offence (outside of a football context), full nudity and stuff like that, then that'd be great. Perhaps threads could be locked rather than deleted too, I do recall the deleted thread (it was posted on the Sunderland board too) and if people could see it then maybe they wouldn't be generally claiming that it's overzealous moderation, because perhaps it did break down into a mess. (I posted this on both board's threads as a general suggestion for a moderation guideline - I think it's important that both are on the same page!)
Down here in Australia, swearing is a way of life. Calling each other the c-bomb, calling each other D**kheads is how we greet each other - even if it's my best mate who ive known since i was 5 years old doesn't get him out of the fact that when i call him on the phone i'm going to say "what's happening ya dickhead?" Calling each other something like that in a friendly tone i am all for. It's when it is said maliciously that they have crossed the line. As mentioned above, there is a boundary. Some people know where the line is and tread it with a great artform... others need to be reeled and told when to stop. It's people who constantly do this that will need to be moderated and if need be, banned. Other than that, I hope the banter between the decent posters from us and Newcastle can continue to have witty, humorous banter between us without the dregs dragging it down all the time.
. The thing is Syd, while I think you have demonstrated over time (on 606) that you're generally going to take a balanced and adult I'm not sure I feel the same about the Newcastle mod... at times he appears to be a decent guy but at other times he shows a real and expressed hatred of all things Sunderland. The fact that he deleted a thread that many of his fellow Mags thought was okay is a bad sign; I don't see much chance of 'fair and equal' treatment coming from him and so I probably would like to see some sort of quid pro quo in effect because otherwise I can see a lot of threads being pulled from the Newcastle forum while our friends in the north are given much more leeway in abusive wumming on here. The reaction to a significant number of the Mags in trying to get banned from the old 606 forum highlights (IMHO) a difference between the two sets of posters. Obviously not all mags are thus inclined, nor are all of the Sunderland posters saints, (as it happens I thought that Stan_Cummins has been particularly unpleasent on the Newcastle board (sorry Stan but I call it as I see it)). I don't envy you this role Syd - I'm glad you are willing to take it on but unless you can get some sort of understanding with the Mags mods I think I would prefer a hard-line taken than one-sided wumming being allowed.
Syd: can we not use the olive branch to try and whack some sense into some of the aformentioned Mags...
Couple of points mate. First we are only a few days in to our new home and all moves take a little settling in, I have every conidence we will get there. Second point is about tit for tat, I see that as defeat. If we go down that line we will end up with lets see who can ban the most. The main point, and its one I cant stress enough, is we are talking about a very small minority who could be a problem. The motivation in this article is simple to come together and stop the minority taking over the majority. I'm quite happy in this role, its someting I did for years in my working life and it gives me a real kick when I see peace break out.
We're all grown ups so we should ( emphasise SHOULD) be able to act responsibly. Asfor swearing well thats simply indicative of a limited vocabulary and our supporters are from all walks of life and at various levels of education so we need to be tolerant. I can spell whenei write but on a keyboard I'm useless and I admit it.
I say give the new forum every chance to be open to all and extend a welcome to true fans of whatever colour. If it begins to sink under the weight of posts from idiots then get tougher and shut them out; including our own.
as far as i see it, excessive swearing is the sign of a poor vocabulary. if i reduce a mag to a couple of dozen asterisks, instead of being offended i just sit back and bask in the glow of my undoubted superior intellect. i always enjoy a bit of banter, but when you get one who's best retort is c**ts, i actually feel sorry for the poor ignorant sod. p.s my typing is carp too (and slow) thank god for the edit button
No. You are doing a crackng job, Syd, and you are consistently hammering home the same message again and again. It needs doing at this point, at least until these boards settle down into some form of normality. That is already happening IMO. No doubt there are a few kinks to be sorted out with the Mags board and I hope that will happen eventually although it is mostly outside your control. This place has become a cracking talking shop already. IMO it rivals SMB for knowledgable posters, with far less of the ****e that goes on over there. Like you say, it's up to us to make it work.
I'm the opposite now on the writing front Mickey. It's years since I actually wrote anything apart from phone numbers and Happy Birthday. Anything longer and my handwriting has become indecipherable.
Well you have managed to get that dig in nearly every post eh? By my recollection someone mentioned Germany and Mississippi as far as I could see trying to make a point about intolerance! In other words certain people have rights and others don't get those same rights. Not going to go trawling back as frankly I can't be arsed.
This is how it should definitely be, once mods start getting too involved deleting topics and censoring opinions and banter things will just turn to **** and it will be worse than 606... I think the only things that should be deleted are things like racism etc... that have no place anywhere especially on here, but most of us know better than to post that sort of ****e anyway.
You placed a very decent post onto the topic, but felt it ok to have as your signature referring to a false accusation of rape against a man which could not only have ruined his career, but his whole life. I'd like to think it was a deliberate piece of 'controversial wit' but i dare say you just don't see the irony in it. Racisms bad, but slandering and tarnishing a mans name by linking him falsely to the most hideous of crimes is a-ok? Extraordinary.
When I saw it Brucey I was going to just hurl abuse at him! Then thought no he will probably take it as a bite. Your post says it all Mind saying that, doesn't alter the fact he is an imbecile of the first order.
