Newcastle v Sunderland an olive branch

I’m 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.

I’m 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.

 

****ing knob head.

I think Leazes may have been a bit overzealous removing an article yesterday (the one about Harrods), I was enjoying the banter on it and disappointed to see it removed. He might not have pulled it mind, but it did disappear fairly quick.

 

Entirely reasonable. I just hope it wasn't solely motivated by the complaint from Stan Cummins' tash about being banned from the NUFC board. I'm sure if you'd read his posts you would have agreed they were beyond the pale and I would have banned him as well. He insisted on everything being in block capitals and putting 'FTM' at the end of most of his childish 'sentences'. Having said that, I know we have our own fair share of idiots.

I just hope, like you, this doesn't escalate into a tit-for-tat banning war.

 

No, just a feel and I may well be over reacting. Their will be no tit for tat and my motivation is simple. I realy like this forum and want it to be a good place for us all. On 606 I had many good debates with Newcastle fans and lots of laughs.

 

Users should be banned from a team's forum if their intentions are purely to be an idiot, regardless of their team. Like that Liverpool fan who was going through the forum.

I assume that all the posts on the topic are about the caps lock guy: http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/28106-Banned

 

The problem i Hedder, many dont intend to be idiots, they just are mate.

 

cyprus

Aye sounds good...There's definitely a grey area that's purely subjective and how can you regulate opinion?

As it is though I think the forum has started pretty well and the only **** bits have been the tedious/cliched banter between fans...There's been some genuinely funny posts from either side to balance out the crap ones!

Of course there'll be one or two articles that are removed despite not being THAT bad, or posters who get blocked even though they don't see they're doing anything wrong...But it's inevitable when it's self regulated, and everyone needs to keep in mind that you and Badger are only human and doing this job as a favour!

Keep it up lads, other than the odd forgivable slip up I reckon you've done a quality job so far!

 

Slip up, what ****ing slip up......sorry, see it happens to the best of us..

 

Sounds good Cyprus

 

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!)

 

There are fans who take the piss (in a constructive manner) and then there are fans who simply can't help but shout malicious abuse at the opposing arguer (I believe it's called ad hominen).

My stance is that some point between the two is okay. As soon as people start insulting other members in a fashion similar to bullying, that's when things have gone too far and a moderator should intervene.

 

They can be locked hedder. I think I have locked two to stop them becoming a problem. On the Sunderland board that is.

 

Spot on cyprus

 

Yeah, it may be better than deleting an entire thread when it needs to be done. Stops moderators having to justify their actions as much.

 

"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)"

That was amusing though.

 

This may be a little molly-coddly, but what about between you and Leazes, having a system so that if a certain fan becomes TOO annoying on the opposing page, the relevant MOD can have a word, i.e. send a message of warning.

So for example, if I was being a dick on your boards, one of your fans send Leazes the message and he can then pass it on (probably heavily rephrased) to me, letting me know that if if continues I'll simply be blocked and have no excuse...

By doing this it means the relevant Mod can also gauge the level of WUMery going on.

Bit extra work for you two like, but it could work?

 

Well yeah, but perhaps a misuse of powers

The size of this board now, it may be worth looking to nominate a second moderator, especially seeing as the current one can't be online 24/7.

 

Theres a tit masquerading as a Geordie going round all the different teams site trying to WUM.

This guy needs naming and shaming and disassociating from us.

INBRED GEORDIE go get a ****ing life

 

Point taken mate

 

I don't do this often for Mackems so you should feel privileged but a round of and a big for cyprus