where has it gone?

[wrongkey]

I wonder if something less than pulling the whole thread would have accomplished the desired purpose. I, too, found the direction that the thread had gone to take an unpleasant turn. I was not in the slightest bit offended by the joke that started it off, though, and my political leanings tend to be in favor of those made fun of by it ["tend" and "leanings" being important terms here]. I would hope that we can manage to squelch offensive background noise and side distractions without undermining one's ability to post a satirical joke on the humor section.

I've always thought politicians were fair game, no matter your politics.

But I'm not a moderator, and I'm mindful that the volunteers that do this have a busy task. I dropped by to look at the rec.scuba cesspool today, and I'm thankful that the problems there are not visited in our forum.

That said, my vote would have been for leaving the joke, even though I didn't respond to it that much. If the commentary gets out of hand, yank the commentary. No sense going after a bug with a can of Off and a lighter, when there's a flyswatter handy.

My .02

 

[Dee]

I wasn't the moderator who pulled it but I think if the original post had been left in place, it would have just drawn more of the same responses.

 

[Irishdiver]

'What ever happened to Free Speech, Don't I have a right to express my opinion?

Yes, so long as your statement of opinion is just an opinion, not containing specific facts that can be proved untrue.

What about insults and epithets? are they defamatory?

Generally, no. Usually they are seen as outbursts of emotion, with no real substance, except to show intense dislike.'


FWIW , I checked the FAQs - been threatening to do that since I joined the board, anyway - and the above seems to be all I can find that would relate to this incident. Pulling the thread for any of the reasons suggested in THIS thread doesn't seem to be justifiable according to what's in the FAQs, but then somebody has to make a call on these things, I suppose. Though I'm not sure there was any legal concerns here - just a question of vulgar name calling.

I was enjoying the cut and thrust of such high class political debate on the original thread, but I suppose it was kinda played out by the time it was pulled anyway.

BTW, who moderates the moderators? Is there just one moderator in charge of each forum, or do they have to consult with others before action is taken? And is there any on-going assessment of the wolves who are overseeing the rest of the flock?

 

[clive francis]

i got the clap hands joke about 3 weeks ago, but didn't think it would be received well from a limey.

as for the removed joke, i feel it is a sad day for America as a fallout from the 9/11 not only have you lost your security and liberty, but you have lost your freedom of speech and some seem to have lost their sense of humour ;-0

 

[Spectre]

Irishdiver once bubbled...
FWIW , I checked the FAQs - been threatening to do that since I joined the board, anyway - and the above seems to be all I can find that would relate to this incident.

Give the Terms of Service a try... that's the agreement you accepted when you signed up.

"The owners of Scuba Board have the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason."

 

[Cave Diver]

clive francis once bubbled...
i got the clap hands joke about 3 weeks ago, but didn't think it would be received well from a limey.

as for the removed joke, i feel it is a sad day for America as a fallout from the 9/11 not only have you lost your security and liberty, but you have lost your freedom of speech and some seem to have lost their sense of humour ;-0

I can only speak from my personal observations, but I feel that the reason that the thread was pulled was not because of the content of the joke. It was done so because of the resulting debate which ended with some vulgarity and name calling.

In regards to who moderates the moderators, it is my understanding that before a thread is yanked or any extreme action is taken, it is discussed in a private management forum and no action is taken until a majority agreement is reached.

Since I am not privy to these discussions, that is mostly speculation on my part, so if a moderator chooses to clarify anything, please do.

I would also like to state that I feel, for the most part, the overwhelming majority of the moderators do an excellent job of letting people have their say with out letting things get too far out of hand.

The comments in the referenced thread was one of those times it was getting a little out of hand with the personal attacks and threats IMO and while it's sad the the worthwhile responses of the many were censored because of the childish comments of a few, sometimes that is a necessary evil.

 

[WreckWriter]

Cave Diver once bubbled...
The comments in the referenced thread was one of those times it was getting a little out of hand with the personal attacks and threats IMO and while it's sad the the worthwhile responses of the many were censored because of the childish comments of a few, sometimes that is a necessary evil.

You are correct in why this was pulled. I'm not the one that pulled it but I am the one at fault for it happening.

Yes, I once again lost my temper and let my "mouth" over-ride my head. My apologies to all for that.

On the other hand, the main gist of this thread was a discussion, admitted heated at times, between Clive and myself. I took offense to his joke, he defended his right to say it. Fair enough.

Things started to turn when a couple of people decided to, in my opinion, jump in and personally insult me. OK, you did it in nice language, but it was still an intended personal insult. You even did it again here.

You find it fine to throw your own insults but when they're thrown back, admittedly in not-so-polite terms, then you get your hair up about it. Life's rough, isn't it.

WW

 

[Jonathan]

rest assured there are defintely debates going on behind the scenes.

Who moderates us? Apart from ourselves KN and LD have the final word as I see it....

Jonathan

 

[DannyBurchett]

I am a newbie here and will probably regret sticking my oar in....

I moderate on several message boards, chat servers etc, IMHO if a moderator pulls a message because it is personally offensive rather than because it breaks the rules of the board then I would consider it an abuse of power. As a moderator it is YOUR responsibility to calm things down rather than just sey hey ho, this looks bad on me... Delete.

I have to say although I read the original joke (and laughed!) I did not see any of the ensuing abuse that is being discussed. I only noticed it was gone when I came to get a copy to e-mail a couple of people and noticed it missing.

Feel free to flame at will

Danny

 

[WreckWriter]

DannyBurchett once bubbled...
IMHO if a moderator pulls a message because it is personally offensive rather than because it breaks the rules of the board then I would consider it an abuse of power.

That did not happen.