New Members

[francois]

Francois. If you can't see the difference then you're in the wrong place. I honestly don't know why you come here other than to moan. The other two forums are far closer to what you want.

Obviously your request for input is another joke! I gave you a valid opinion and, as usual,I get shit upon once again. I am not moaning, only giving you my thoughts, which you can take or leave. I have been with this forum for over 10 years and I intend to remain until you ban me for trying to be a voice of reason. End of discussion, this is not about me, it is about this forum.

[arsenal]

I didn't ask for opinions Francois. I asked for workable ideas regarding preventing new members writing filth. I'd still like some of you have any. I cannot imagine any circumstances whatsoever that would lead to you being banned.

[joe552]

francois, I still don't know what you want from the board. Jokes, banter and the occasional argument make it a fun place to visit. What would your board be like?

[bkkguy]

Recently this board has been subjected to new members joining and mistaking the jokes, banter or shit thrown as being a license to post absolutely anything they choose to. ... This board cannot be an open door for every crackpot, drug user or psycho to just pitch up and start posting vile insults because they feel like it. ... So I would be interested in the opinions of everyone else here.

the fact that a moderator is making such a post for open discussion in the forum highlights a serious problem with the site, and it is a top down problem

the current owners/managers of the site in the past made decisions about how to drive more traffic to the site and thus the forum eg from twitter and facebook - the current owners/managers need to decide if this is the source of these problem new users and do these decisions need to be reviewed? or is the source of the problem users more organic and different control mechanisms are required?

the current owners/managers need to make a decision as to exactly how much "shit throwing" by new and existing posters should be allowed to go live and what resources and tools they are willing to commit to achieve that and put the appropriate forum rules, software moderator tools and moderators in place and monitor performance

of course if the current owners/managers are not capable of making a decision about what the forum should be like and the current moderators "have a life" and "better things to do" and are as likely to be throwing shit as anyone else then what is the point of trying to start a "serious" discussion on how to "fix" the problem with advice from general forum members?

bkkguy

[Moses]

bkkguy, thank you for analyze...

but first post is about another thing:

Just workable ideas.......please.

[Jellybean]

Normally when I am back in the United Kingdom, I very rarely post on the forum and prefer to post only when I am in Thailand, where I usually spend half the year. But, I do drop in once or twice a week and catch up on the various topics. Therefore, a few weeks ago when I read that Moses had appointed arsenal, a447 and ChristianPFC as moderators I was surprised and even more surprised when all three of them accepted the positions. I was surprised because all three members are, in my view, major players on the forum. They add immense value to the forum and create a considerable number of interesting topics and all have a huge number of posts to their credit, some of which can, I believe, be legitimately described as being controversial on occasions.

But, in my opinion, a moderator cannot be a major player

[Jellybean]

Apologies, for some reason, use of apostrophes?, my post was cut off in its prime. I shall try again to publish the remainder of my post minus apostrophes:

But, in my opinion, a moderator cannot be a major player in the game and a referee at the same time. There is too much of a conflict in my opinion.

Being a moderator means, in my view, moderating your own behaviour, meaning you should be accepted by the membership as being impartial, fair and reasonable in your application of the forum rules. Therefore, again in my view, you lose the freedom to abuse or use abusive or intemperate language towards other members because, if you do, then you cease to become impartial. You also cannot use derogatory avatar names or profanity when referring to other members. To quote one example, arsenal, you continued to refer to Mickp as, BogsvilleMick after you became a moderator. That

[arsenal]

You are right in that respect Jellybean. There will therefore be very few posts from me until my tenure as moderator ends on Dec 31.

[Moses]

Apologies, for some reason, use of apostrophes?

Yes, After Apple updated iOS keyboard at iPhones few weeks ago, apostrophes become problem... Try to avoid them and substitute to quota " or another sign like * until developers will make fix for this problem.

[Jellybean]

Again I apologise to members. I have not posted for some time and appear to be falling foul of a problem with punctuation marks. I shall try one more time:

Thats fair game as an ordinary member, but not as a moderator.

If however you are not prepared to lose the freedom to post as you choose, within the rules of the forum of course, then members should not, again in my view, accept the moderator role.

Turning now to the exchange of posts between samebb and newalaan2. To begin with, the language on both sides was less than parliamentary, but moderators gave likes to one party to the argument, showing they were not impartial. Then when things got really out of hand, with unsubstantiated and unacceptable references to under-age sex, they should have been immediately deleted and a note left to say why the offensive comments had been deleted. A request to the member not to repeat the comments should have also been left along with a request for all members to moderate their language and to calm down.

When it comes to posts, which break the rules of the forum, I also believe that the offending post should either be, wholly or partially deleted, but, importantly, a note to that effect should be left by the moderator explaining his actions and saying under what rule the post has been deleted, or partially deleted, so that members can follow what has happened.

By way of background information, I was a civil servant, a tax official, for most of my working life. My job was to enforce the Taxes Acts in the UK. It is a job that requires the holder of the office to carry out his/her work impartially, justly, reasonably and without fear or favour. If we did not behave as I have described, we all knew that our actions could be challenged on appeal before tribunals, in the courts, or by complaint to an ombudsman or the taxpayer s elected representative. I therefore fully understand that being neutral, being fair and impartial to all sides on a forum like ours is not especially easy and certainly not for the faint hearted. The role of moderator was not described as a poisoned chalice, on more than one occasion, for nothing! Lol!

But, yet again, I say if you are a major player on this forum who holds strong opinions and likes to express those opinions, uses intemperate language and is not prepared to moderate your behaviour/language during your period of office as a moderator, then the job of moderator is not, in my opinion, for you.

And lastly, while I am here, may I say what a pleasure it is to see Joe552 back posting again. I hope all goes well Joe, during your trip to Thailand next year. Right, I think I have said way too much and will resume posting again when I return to Thailand in mid-January.