Censorship

[616fun]

It needs to be said that Scubaboard is a for profit business and will act in a manner that promotes its ability to make revenue. That said, from what I have seen of the board it's one of the less censored types. I was booted off of another board (not dive related) for mentioning a product that didn't sponsor the forum. Literally. If the vendor didn't pay the forum leader then any mention of their name would get you warned/banned.

I did get a point on here by dropping an 'F' bomb once at a moron endangering his kids life, but I deserved it.

 

[ChickenFried]

I don't understand how the moderators could consider reporting a post as being abusive towards another member. Just review the post and either take action or don't. The original author should not even know that the post was reported, so how is that user being abused?

 

[HowardE]

Since you've chosen to have this discussion in public, instead of privately with the moderator with whom you were PM'ing, or following the protocol to email appeals; let's discuss this alleged censorship right here in the forum.

• If ScubaBoard truly was censoring you, wouldn't this thread have been censored? What about the other threads accusing ScubaBoard of censorship? They are also still there for people to see. Why is that? Maybe because ScubaBoard doesn't censor its users.

To be fair to SB. Why don't we throw out there exactly what you're accusing SB of censoring your for.

You were told by a moderator to stop cyber-stalking a certain user. You essentially follow this person around, and report them for everything you see as an infraction. When the moderators inform you that there is no infraction, you get angry and upset. Which apparently causes you to accuse SB of censorship, make mean angry posts in many users general direction. This behavior causes moderators to caution you that you're being mean, and then you get reprimanded. The cycle seems to revolve around your stalking of the user.

Here's our excerpt from the TOS on Cyber Stalking:

ScubaBoard has long been known as one of the most friendly forums on the internet. Here you can find Scuba Divers from novice to expert sharing experiences and helpful hints. We like it like that, and you have our word that we want to keep it that way. Unfortunately, we have recently encountered a growing phenomenon amongst our membership that has marred our happy place. We call it cyber bullying and it comes in many forms. Here are a few ways that have come to light recently:

• Thread Hijacking: Derailing a thread with a lot of off topic banter. We have the Pub for that kind of activity.
• Stalking: Following a member from thread to thread to humiliate, embarrass or otherwise cajole a member in order to make them feel unwelcome.
• Dog Piling: Joining others in such a manner as to make a member feel threatened and unwelcome.

You can be sure that we are working hard in order to resolve this matter. Some of the people involved are long time and valued members and we are perplexed by their behavior. It could be that they don't see how it affects others and are simply doing it to have fun. It could be that they truly resent these few who are targeted and want to see them leave. Really, it doesn't matter why they are doing it, it just needs to stop and stop immediately. So, how are we going to do this? We need your help! If you see any of these patterns don't try to intervene! First, be sure to stay out of the fray. Second, show some compassion and hit the "Report Post" button. Then we can step in and resolve the matter hopefully in a peaceful manner. Finally, please show us some patience. We don't want to lose anyone over this. As I said earlier, most involved just don't realize what they are doing as they are normally friendly people! Hey, thanks for taking the time to read this. Let's commit ourselves to making and keeping this the friendliest forum on the internet. Friendly, and yet oh so relevant.

Oh... By the way. You accused us of favoring this user because of financial contributions and/or supporting member status of this user.

We don't favor members because of sponsorship, or remove negative posts about users whether or not they are sponsors, because that would be censorship... By the way... The user you've accused us of favoring isn't a contributor. They don't advertise, contribute as a business sponsor, or even as a supporting member. So, it would be safe to conclude that this argument is moot.

As others have pointed out. ScubaBoard is a privately held company, and the TOS clearly states that SB has the final say in moderation. With that said, we strongly feel that censoring negativity is in bad form, and while we certainly have the ability to do so, we don't. We do censor foul language, and additionally posts that fall into this category:

Terms of Service Definition: Trolling

Exploiting the weaknesses of human nature or of an on-line community to upset people. ScubaBoard includes POV warriors, cranks, impolite users and disruptive behaviour in this definition.

My advice to you as far as this user that just irks you so much that you must go through so much trouble to show the world how wrong they are, and how wrong we are for allowing them to post unfettered on this public forum site is to just IGNORE them.

Ignore User is a function that you can access via your UserCP - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/profile.php?do=ignorelist

Somehow, I don't expect this to be the end of this, but no response from SB could be perceived as lack of interest.

 

[chrpai]

HowardE,

You seem to somehow imply that I've broken protocol by posting in the feedback forum. The description of this forum (which I quoted in my post) states that this is exactly what this forum is for.

Your assertions are simply false. I didn't go into details but since you did, here are some facts. When Marg PM'd me that the was no problems with the post I reported I didn't even reply to it. I let it go. I didn't get angry and upset. That's simply a flat out lie on someone's part. It wasn't until 2 days later that Marg decided to PM again that my reporting posts was considered a violation of the TOS that I questioned her on it. The rest of your assertion simply isn't true either.

Since you are going there, I am not the only person who has posted that BeaverDivers seems to get favorable treatment around here.

I fail to see how reporting a post is thread jacking, stalking or dog piling.

BTW, since you mentioned dog-piling, I can easily pull up a thread where you were doing that to me. The thread in mind had to be closed by another moderator to stop the attacks that you intentionally stirred up.

 

[HowardE]

HowardE,

You seem to somehow imply that I've broken protocol by posting in the feedback forum. The description of this forum (which I quoted in my post) states that this is exactly what this forum is for.

Your assertions are simply false. I didn't go into details but since you did, here are some facts. When Marg PM'd me that the was no problems with the post I reported I didn't even reply to it. I let it go. I didn't get angry and upset. That's simply a flat out lie on someone's part. It wasn't until 2 days later that Marg decided to PM again that my reporting posts was considered a violation of the TOS that I questioned her on it. The rest of your assertion simply isn't true either.

Since you are going there, I am not the only person who has posted that BeaverDivers seems to get favorable treatment around here.

I fail to see how reporting a post is thread jacking, stalking or dog piling.

BTW, since you mentioned dog-piling, I can easily pull up a thread where you were doing that to me. The thread in mind had to be closed by another moderator to stop the attacks that you intentionally stirred up.

Someone reported a post that you made as an attack of their character. It was not BeaverDivers. You were responded to in private. You replied by starting this thread.

You are welcome to comment on the state of ScubaBoard as a forum, however... as members have pointed out. Your accusations are unfounded. Your accusations of censorship are merely a response to you being moderated. There is no censorship nor is there favoritism.

ScubaBoard favors the innocent and polite over those whom are rude. This is true. For this, we should be shunned.

When users report a post, that doesn't necessarily mean action will be taken.

Enough said by me.

Have a nice day.

 

[chrpai]

So let's see, BeaverDivers accuses me (publically) of "working for Edge" and if I report that post (privately ) I'm stalking. Someone reports me for something ( I don't know what it is as it wasn't quoted to me ) and I get slapped as being abusive?

I see that as a double standard. You seem to see that as delusional. You say there's no censorship but taken on a whole it's clear to me that the message is watch what you say about BeaverDivers.

 

[AussiePro]

I have experienced something quite similar to chrpai. I read a thread in the Australian section about a particular dive site. Someone (not the thread starter) had made ridiculous generalisations about spear fishermen and casting aspersions on their character. Being an avid spear fishermen myself, I responded to his comments in a logical manner and rebutted each of the comments he had made. Of course the other poster responded and we went back and forward a few times. I made sure to keep my posting professional and argue only logically, however, unfortunately the other poster degraded his arguments to the point where he was using the death of a spear fisherman for point scoring.
Sometime after this the thread was “moderated” and most of the posts were removed, except for the other posters original post which inflamed the debate. I was told that my posts were off topic. I considered this to be quite ridiculous because they were on topic as a reply to the other poster and if the moderator considered for them to be off topic, his post should have been removed also. I tried to discuss this with the moderator but they refused to talk about it. I found their attitude to be very poor and shows a lack of accountability for their decisions. The moderator then informed me that I could appeal the decision.
I decided that I would appeal the decision and I sent an email to the requested address. This was some time ago and I still have not heard a word back as to the status of my appeal.

 

[HowardE]

I have experienced something quite similar to chrpai. I read a thread in the Australian section about a particular dive site. Someone (not the thread starter) had made ridiculous generalisations about spear fishermen and casting aspersions on their character. Being an avid spear fishermen myself, I responded to his comments in a logical manner and rebutted each of the comments he had made. Of course the other poster responded and we went back and forward a few times. I made sure to keep my posting professional and argue only logically, however, unfortunately the other poster degraded his arguments to the point where he was using the death of a spear fisherman for point scoring.
Sometime after this the thread was “moderated” and most of the posts were removed, except for the other posters original post which inflamed the debate. I was told that my posts were off topic. I considered this to be quite ridiculous because they were on topic as a reply to the other poster and if the moderator considered for them to be off topic, his post should have been removed also. I tried to discuss this with the moderator but they refused to talk about it. I found their attitude to be very poor and shows a lack of accountability for their decisions. The moderator then informed me that I could appeal the decision.
I decided that I would appeal the decision and I sent an email to the requested address. This was some time ago and I still have not heard a word back as to the status of my appeal.

I will check with the person who receives the abuse@scubaboard.com email address and let you know one way or the other the outcome.

You should know that the moderators are free to moderate as they see fit. They interpret the TOS as they see, and sometimes there is discussion among the mods, and other times, they just act if they feel it's clearly a violation.

While this may cause some occasional inconsistencies with the moderation, in the end, we feel that the site is quite fair with its judgement on argumentative topics.

Once again... I will look into your issue.

Thanks.

 

[Wookie]

Relief. The feeling you get when you stop beating your head against the wall. You know who you are.....

 

[Cave Diver]

Chrpai,

Just out of idle curiosity, since I'm not familiar with this particular issue, I went back and reviewed recently reported posts involving you. In the past several months there are over 30 posts that have been reported either by you, or about you. Going back a bit further that number tops 80. Not surprisingly after reading this thread, I found that a good number of those threads also involve one other member with whom you seem to be having a personality conflict with.

I have neither the time, nor the inclination at this point to go back and review each and every one of them to decide who is right and who is wrong, but just based off of the posts I have observed you make, sometimes you just don't know when to let things go.

My advice to you, put that other user on ignore and quit worrying about what they post. If it's really that far out of line, someone else will report it and it will get taken care of. If that's not happening, odds are that you're the only one who is seeing the problem.

There is no conspiracy about supporting member favoritism or the like. In fact, as far as I can ascertain the member you're concerned about has made no financial contributions whatsoever. And I can think of several supporting members who have been moderated repeatedly. The only thing a supporting membership means, is that when you get moderated you're paying for the privilege.

Relax. It's the internet. It really ain't that serious.