Suggestion Scuba Board and "Censorship"

[Scuba]

The "DM's fault or mine thread" was removed. The thread here asking why access was denied was closed. What's Up?

While a contentious thread, I thought it had some very good information, particularly about communication and assumption issues, that I have not seen receive too much in depth attention on other threads.

Curious, why was the thread not only closed but removed?

Suggestion. In such an event, out of consideration for those following it, please leave a note stating what took place and the reason the decision was made. And preferably, please accept comments and keep an open mind about bringing it back if there is enough interest, even if its an edited version, or limited in scope of discussion.

The current policy is not ScubaBoard member friendly in my opinion.

Regards

 

[dlndavid]

Maybe it is being discussed in a "back room".

 

[Ted S]

When a thread violates the ScubaBoard Terms of Service it is generally moved to a private forum for discussion and review by the moderator team. Depending on the extent of the violations the thread is either cleaned up and moved back, closed and moved back or held permanently. Please understand that it may take some time to preform this process, especially if there have been a good deal of abusive posts.

At times closing a thread is enough but closing a thread does not remove the whatever inappropriate content occurred. Closing a thread with numerous insults for example does not stop the issue as users can continue to see those insults and attacks. Again, in these cases a thread may be moved for a short period to clean it up, if a clean up is possible.

The current policy is designed entirely for the benefit of the users to keep threads respectful, insult free and workplace friendly. ScubaBoard is not a place for personal attacks, vulgar or offensive language or any similar type of content.

I did not move your thread in particular so I can not comment on why it was moved but as a general rule the thread starter is contacted in this type of event. I will follow up with the moderators to make sure this occurred.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Folks,

As a staff member who was involved in the staff discussion about the thread in question, I can tell you that a majority of the staff felt that the thread had become a platform for abusive and aggressive posts.

When the whole tone of a thread begins to violate not just the basic directives of the TOS, but the spirit of the Board as well, then that thread has reached the end of its useful life-span. In cases such as this, there just is not time enough in the day to sift through such an extended thread for the few "nuggets" to be gleaned, and then to edit, merge, and re-post to another thread. Our apologies, but that is reality.

Communication between divers, and between instructor/divemaster staff and divers, is always difficult. It is a worthy subject of discussion. Likewise, figuring out how to make sure that divers are on the same "page" of the script mentally, and avoiding incorrect assumptions, is also a worthy topic.

These topics can, and should, be discussed in a friendly and helpful manner by interested parties. If done in that manner, it fits the spirit of this Board, and helps all of our members, and we encourage all posters to keep those goals in mind.

R. Davie
Scuba Board Staff
A very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah to all!!! :luxhello:

 

[Scuba]

Thank you for the reply Tech Admin.

Your comments and policy make sense. I definitely think that thread is salvageable, so I'll be looking out for it. What about the issue of informing those members following and posting to a thread regarding any actions, including if it returns. Simply making it disappear does not reflect well.

The other thread I'm referring to is not mine, it is "no permission to access page" right below this thread, which was closed for no apparent reason. A little sensitive perhaps.

 

[Scuba]

BigJetDrive69,

Thank you for the update. I respect whatever decision you guys make, as much as I disagree with it. Having followed that thread, I can say it definitely got out of hand. By the same token, it is readily apparent to me that simply deleting the last 250 or so posts would preserve and result in a useful and informative thread. Obviously, some dive pro's in particular have an aversion for a certain subject. That was evident, and I suspect it "may have possibly" tainted the decision, since there is a conflict of interest in moderators being mostly pro's. I state this based on seeing many other, much more contentious threads with similar content remain intact.

As I said, I disagree, but respect your decision.

 

[DiverBuoy]

I remember those backroom discussions, not always received popularly. Frankly some people just don't ever want to be told what to do. Then you have the repeat offenders who leave or are booted and try to sneak back under a different name. They'll find you if you do that and it's also against the rules as well.

 

[Ted S]

Scuba,
Your opinion always counts and I am glad to hear it. As for your other thread being closed, that thread was also being taken off-topic. There's no problem with people (like yourself) starting a new thread on the issue, but Site Support is intended to be very focused.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Scuba,

Just as a note, there were a number of Mods discussing the decision, but the majority of them at the time were not professionals, i.e. not divemaster or above. I really don't think it would have made much of a difference in this particular case. It just seems that, when a thread really sinks below a certain "friendliness" level it is almost impossible to push it back "up-hill"!

Cheers!

 

[dherbman]

I've a fair amount of board modding experience and would have attempted to guide a thread using PM's and editing or removing key posts. I've never had to delete an entire thread.
Having participated in the DM thread and having had a post deleted from that thread in addition to being contacted by a mod about that post, I'd say reasonable effort was extended by staff to stop the train wreck it became. There was good info there, but you had to wade through so much crap to find it, you needed a shower by the time you were done. I like that in thread!
Personaly, I'd have locked it at some point and let it remain as an example of what not to do when participating in a thread.