Why was my post re: Lance Armstrong and France deleted?

[drbill]

I've experienced some interesting censorship on this site... some deserved and some definitely not so if one expects people to play on a level field.

Yesterday I posted in the thread on Lance Armstrong's Tour de France win being nullified by the French. I felt I was careful not to make it a political post, but an historical one. That post is no longer in that thread.

I'd like to know why it was pulled and how the moderator(s) who did so can justify such action? Several posts in the thread make fun of France and the French, and they deserved what I felt was an appropriate response. It appears that the worst of the anti-French sentiment was also removed.

As far as I'm concerned, I see no valid reason for the removal of my post. The over zealousness of some moderators on this board has me questioning whether I wish to participate further. They allow obvious political posts of a "positive" nature (French bashing is acceptable?), but delete posts which may state other opinions. I have already written why I think this is quite inappropriate.

In this case I did not see my post as a political one... and still don't.

Answers please... via PM is fine.

Dr. Bill

 

[fishnchips]

I've experienced some interesting censorship on this site... some deserved and some definitely not so if one expects people to play on a level field.

Yesterday I posted in the thread on Lance Armstrong's Tour de France win being nullified by the French. I felt I was careful not to make it a political post, but an historical one. That post is no longer in that thread.

I'd like to know why it was pulled and how the moderator(s) who did so can justify such action? Several posts in the thread make fun of France and the French, and they deserved what I felt was an appropriate response. It appears that the worst of the anti-French sentiment was also removed.

As far as I'm concerned, I see no valid reason for the removal of my post. The over zealousness of some moderators on this board has me questioning whether I wish to participate further. They allow obvious political posts of a "positive" nature (French bashing is acceptable?), but delete posts which may state other opinions. I have already written why I think this is quite inappropriate.

In this case I did not see my post as a political one... and still don't.

Answers please... via PM is fine.

Dr. Bill

drbill,

I can understand your point of view. There is definitelly bias when it comes to who can post and who cannot post an issue. A while ago I came across a post on Scuba humor that bashing CHinese restaurants. Posting a song that claims Chinese restaurants serve cats! It was funny and I enjoyed it. But I don't think it is very nice to the Asian population, and the comments from the mod were shoking! Till I realized who actually post the first racial joke on that thread......

You have a lot of good knowledge to share, and I really enjoy reading your post. Please don't leave this community just because some airhead mod delete your post. It's not worth it. A lot of us here would be disappointed if you leave. Please don't go.

 

[crpntr133]

It's not worth getting mad about and leaving. You are just cutting yourself off from the best dive board around. BTW I thought that it was funny. I would post more but figure that I would be kicked out of here.

 

[HammerNoMore]

Yesterday I posted in the thread on Lance Armstrong's Tour de France win being nullified by the French. I felt I was careful not to make it a political post, but an historical one. That post is no longer in that thread.

A couple of comments on this:

1. The entire thread was pulled. It's funny, IMPO, but it is offensive to the French and doesn't belong here.
2. I have looked at the thread and can find no evidence of any posts being removed from the thread. When posts are deleted, the mods can still see them and all moderator actions are logged to the thread itself. The only action taken was to move the entire thread, nothing was done to any individual posts.

I suppose that some of the higher mods *might* have the ability to do somthing so that I cannot tell it was done, but I don't see any reason for them to do so. Is it possible that somehow the post never got made in the first place? Like maybe you typed it in, but had an internet hiccup when you hit submit or somthing?

James

 

[The Chairman]

Drbill,

your post was not singled out. In fact, the entire thread was moved by me... as the initial post was intended only to humiliate the French. In such a case we PM the originator of the thread but do not feel the need (or have the time) to PM everyone who responded to it. We try to catch these early on so as not to upset a bunch of people. I sincerely apologise that this was not the case with this thread.

While we love humor, we do not allow jokes that use ethnic groups or countries in it. They can only cause harsh feelings on this global board. However, there does come a time when we become way too "politically correct" by eliminating to many areas. Jokes about blondes, French Poodles, Canadian Bacon and even Chineese Restaurants are usually fine as long as they don't target their respective namesakes for humiliation.

It is a fine line and we are commited to keeping it as fair as is humanly possible. We will never please everyone and so we humbly try to do what is best for the board. Some appreciate our efforts, and some feel we fall way short. I guess that puts us about in the middle.

 

[SueMermaid]

I didn't see your post, Bill, but was frankly a little bit shocked when I saw the content of that thread.
I'd hate to see you leave under these circumstances, I think you are an extremely valuable contributor to this forum.

 

[The Chairman]

Well,

I guess we know who types faster!

For clarification, only supervisors and above can physically delete posts. All others merely hide them from public view. This enables us to avoid "He said/She said" types of arguments as all mods have access as to what was posted.

An entire thread will seem to disappear when we move it to our "archive" section. We sometimes discuss the relative merits of a thread and it may get "put back" if/when we reach a concensus. More often the thread stays there in it's entirety so we can refer to it if needed.

I would also like to point out that NONE of the moderators benefit materially from their volunteer work here. They do this for our collective benefit and they do it rather well. There would be NO BOARD without them.

 

[The Kraken]

It was a cute joke about 3 "reasons" the French found to possibly strip Lance's 6th Tour de France title.

Following the removal of that particular joke, I am desirous that the moderators remove any joke, jokes or comments that possibly may be found to be offensive by any ethnic, religious, national, physical, demographic or territorial group, ie "redneck" jokes, "blonde" jokes, etc. . . .

 

[Boatlawyer]

Bill-

I read your response to the same post on singledivers.com. Did you post it here as well? If I recall, you made a reference to how we should be grateful to the french for helping us out in the revolutionary war.

I thought the joke was silly, but no worse than ubiquitous lawyer jokes.

Theresa :dazzler1:

I've experienced some interesting censorship on this site... some deserved and some definitely not so if one expects people to play on a level field.

Yesterday I posted in the thread on Lance Armstrong's Tour de France win being nullified by the French. I felt I was careful not to make it a political post, but an historical one. That post is no longer in that thread.

I'd like to know why it was pulled and how the moderator(s) who did so can justify such action? Several posts in the thread make fun of France and the French, and they deserved what I felt was an appropriate response. It appears that the worst of the anti-French sentiment was also removed.

As far as I'm concerned, I see no valid reason for the removal of my post. The over zealousness of some moderators on this board has me questioning whether I wish to participate further. They allow obvious political posts of a "positive" nature (French bashing is acceptable?), but delete posts which may state other opinions. I have already written why I think this is quite inappropriate.

In this case I did not see my post as a political one... and still don't.

Answers please... via PM is fine.

Dr. Bill

 

[drbill]

Holy mackerel batman... you mean the same joke was on SingleDivers.com? That may solve this issue then... I know I posted a reply, and thought it was on SB but BoatLawyer may have correctly solved this by pointing out my post on SD. I guess we all know what "goes" second as a man ages (some may feel it is never there!).

Thanks for the clarification. Now I can continue to spend time here instead of diving! Sorry for taking up everyone's time and appreciate the nice replies.

Dr. Bill

PS- I prefer our threads bash no one or culture, although I am guilty of a few "humorous" posts re: blondes (and redheads on SD).