Is this how this forum is run?

[Selkie]

PM from Sooty, never argue with admin or a mod on this site or you are off, well ok, I am off

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Join Date: Aug 2007
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Thank you for sharing your definition of a troll but after three years as a moderator here and on other sites I think I've seen enough of them to know one when I see one. Blondie has been around a long time here I doubt too many people would call her a troll.

It is such a shame that I have to get involved, as you put it, but as Site Administrator that is my job. All I will say is that there has now been three warnings about personal attacks there will not be a fourth.

You are quite correct not getting into an argument about this especially with the mods or admin as you cannot win. We are laid back here, probably more so these days, but even we have limits.
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Beauty:

If you're attractive enough on the outside, people will forgive you for being irritating to the core.

[Escafeldia]

Hmmmm - has someone shaken the cage?

[Sooty]

It is of course your choice Selkie.

As a rule I don't discuss the contents of Private messages in the threads but since you have chosen to make the contents of a private message public (as I suspected you would) I leave my comments so that they can be seen in the light I intended them i.e an answer to you question and a statement that after three public postings about personal attacks (one by me two by Adam) there would be no more.

[madEvie]

What a shame selkie, i'm miffed i haven't been around the last few days, i could have reassured you blondie is no troll, she's a lovely lass, who even i have had run ins with in the past but that's just because we diden't agree on whatever we were talking about, that's the point of a forum isn't it, maybe you'll see sooty was just dong his emm unpaid job and you'll come back, good luck whatever you do.

[Sweet Pea]

It's the "we are the mods and you can't win" bit that is perhaps worrying. I hope it was not a reflection of the pervailing attitude since one of the things that is nice about this forum is that the mods get into conversation with we mere mortals and we get to know them as (cyber)people. I assume that they do their best to be impartial...but not everyone is perfect...not even mods.

[Discovery]

Most mods and admin do try to remain impartial on forums. They normally do allow some flexibility in discussions but once the limit is reached, they have to act. There is usually some formal warnings given for acts against the forum rules. If the warnings are not heeded, then a ban from the forum is the final step. In most situations, a formal warning is all that is required.

It can be a thankless task being an admin or a moderator. It's also an unpaid position on the majority of forums.

[Sooty]

For context purposes I will copy the source of all this to this thread

I think you might find it is blondie making the personal attacks.......not getting into an argument with anyone regarding this but on one hand you say to behave on another thread and this one your involving yourself???? a troll is someone who continues to post threads that have been known to cause some agro on a forum, sometimes when you see this happen repeatedly it is best to leave these types of subjects, a troll will continue with the same time of threads knowing it will cause animosity,

I think you will find that it wasn't Blondie who first used the description 'Troll' and that is IMO constituted a personal attack. What a Troll isn't is somebody with strong point of view who is prepared to argue it no matter how vociferously opposed it is your own.

The argument was a simple one, and it has nothing to do with the way this forum is run (after all I could have deleted your thread and nobody would have known but that's not how things are done here), is Blondie a Troll? IMO no, nor in the opinion of the other Mods. No mater how many times you posted with inferences to the contrary it wasn't going to change. That was the argument you couldn't win.

Hopefully that clears up any 'spin' which maybe being applied to my PM.


Disco

Most mods and admin do try to remain impartial on forums. They normally do allow some flexibility in discussions but once the limit is reached, they have to act. There is usually some formal warnings given for acts against the forum rules. If the warnings are not heeded, then a ban from the forum is the final step. In most situations, a formal warning is all that is required.

It can be a thankless task being an admin or a moderator. It's also an unpaid position on the majority of forums

Thanks for that I sometimes wonder why anybody accepts the position.

[Selkie]

I put it to you Sooty that your PM was more to do with the rep points thread where you stated I talk nonsense because you disagreed with something I said, I have not interacted with Blondie for over a week, the post you have referred to was in fact posted a while back and only now have you chosen to use it, the last time I spoke to Blondie was to say that esc was not personally attacking her to try to calm the situation, I had a couple of shall we say disagreements with Blondie over nothing and I have since said no more to her as to not get into an argument, I never called her a troll, I agreed with someone else that she might be in more of a jest way, warnings have continued but not at me as I have kept out of her keeping coming back with her little comments of no meaning, YOU Sooty are miffed as you personally attacked me and i said so, not me anyone else, this is just a petty excuse, all of you need to read back and see Sooty is making this into something that was not even there and he knows it, ban me if you wish, Sooty but this is looking like a poor show indeed

[Sweet Pea]

I will fess up and say that it was me who originally suspected that she is a troll...or at least that she was behaving in a troll like way, in thee Dogs or Wolves thread she started in which she originally asked for information which Esca and I spent some time trying to provide, after which she posted this:

"Thanks guts, but I wasn't asking for the answers, I know what i think, I was asking for opinions!!! "

Now this was out of the blue. Why didn't she ask for opinions in the first place? There were absolutely no thanks on her part for our efforts in offering detailed information she had asked for. In addition, Blondie made it perfectly clear that she wasn't actually looking for information...that she was looking for disagreement so that she could offer her opinion...which is clearly counter to everyone else's, including PhD's and researchers. Now that may seem like a strong opinion to you, Sooty, but to me that looks like a deliberate attempt to stir up discord. I put out a short troll alert in order to prevent an argument.
After that, Blondie has been sarcastic to me personally as when I said I was taking the dogs out, she commented "lucky LUCKY dogs" and remarked that I didn't understand them. However you must have missed that ad hominem attack...I just ignored it.
Adam asked me to stop personally attacking B. and I did so and apologised for losing my temper...and have had nothing to say to B. after that.
Now I don't understand why it has taken you a week or so to bring all this up. AFAIAA the whole thing was history. But if you want to take a pop at someone, it's me you should be threatening, not Selkie. However I prefer that you do it without threatening me or throwing your weight about. I too used to moderate a fairly large list and always found that diplomacy works beettere than strutting your stuff.

[Verbena]

And I thought this was a nice place to be..............