Mod Decisions and Discussion

[Guburnor]

In the interests of consistent and transparent modding we are going to try and keep the mod discussion via PM to an absolute minimum. Please use this forum to discuss any mod decision or interaction.

Start threads on:

- If you receive a warning or a ban that you think is unfair and wish to discuss it further, start a thread here.
- Equally if you have reported a post and no action was taken, and you wish to discuss it further, start a thread here.

Don't start threads to:

- Report posts - use the report post function and explain the problem there.
- Make a general commentary on a particular poster or issue.

Short explanation of gubu modding system:

All things lead back to the forum rules - No racism or hate speech. Attack the post not the poster. Don't be a dick.

Don't be a dick is pretty wide ranging but basically means post with due consideration to others. You might be right but if you post it in a style that is inconsiderate, then you may be modded. That works both ways: also read and react to posts with due consideration to others.

Please be aware that don't be a dick applies in this forum as well. You might come and post here with valid point about a warning but if you start effin' and blinding and being a dick about it you may end up getting modded for that.

There is no points system here. Action depends on the circumstances. If you're being a dick you'll be given the benefit of the doubt and asked to stop, and if you don't you might find that stronger action is taken without warning. Spamming viagra pills etc will get an instant site ban.

In most cases there will be an on thread comment - 'Please do this, please don't do that etc", followed by a warning with which you'll receive a boiler plate PM, followed by thread ban, followed by site ban.

If you want to discuss a warning, or thread ban, please do it here - mods won't discuss it via PM.

[Memento Mori]

This seems most reasonable and transparant.

One immediate issue I can foresee is how "hate speech" is defined. Perhaps it might be a good idea to preempt this? This is an annoying conversation I know, and it does escape exact definition, but claims of "hate speech" have been used in recent years to decry utterances across a wide spectrum.

[Guburnor]

This seems most reasonable and transparant.

One immediate issue I can foresee is how "hate speech" is defined. Perhaps it might be a good idea to preempt this? This is an annoying conversation I know, and it does escape exact definition, but claims of "hate speech" have been used in recent years to decry utterances across a wide spectrum.

As you say we cannot exactly define "hate speech" but from a modding point of view it would be closely linked to don't be a dick, i.e don't be gratuitously offensive and I see "hate speech" as being particularly offensive just for the sake of it. If somebody is modded for hate speech I suspect it will be pretty clear cut.

[knownunknown]

Thinking conservatives today tend to support free speech as reinforcing existing social institutions: in this case the practice in English society that people should say what they think and then work out for themselves where truth seems to lie. Discomfort to others is a bit of a side issue: speech should generally be curtailed only if it threatens the fundamentals of society itself, for example by directly fomenting violence.

For liberals, by contrast, looking at individuals in a more abstract way, hurt to others has been seen as central. There is moreover nothing extra-special about speech: if speech causes harm, that is a reason to ban it in the same way as one would ban anything else. Of course the idea of freedom of speech might counter this; but this is a much less powerful version of free speech as an abstract value, connected with such matters as dignity, often viewed through the mirror of human rights theory, and to be weighed in the balance with other values.

With liberals in the ascendant, the result hitherto has been creeping limits on what we are allowed to say, with conservative arguments being dismissed as irrelevant or beside the point.

As a result it is now a crime, [...] to say anything indecent or grossly offensive, whatever that means, anywhere at all on the internet. In the last few years it has seen one man heavily fined for a Youtube video showing his dog doing a Hitler salute, a feminist penalised for being rude on social media to a trans activist, and another campaigner threatened with a criminal record for the heinous crime of misgendering another trans activist

-Andrew Tettenborn

This Law Commission report came out last month on an issue crucial to free conversation and debate: how far we ought to criminalise harmful or hurtful communications.

It recommends [..] substituting a much narrower and simpler offence. Criminalisation should, it says, be limited to cases of communications likely and actually intended to cause serious distress to a probable audience. Intent would be essential, and even then the sender would have to have acted without any reasonable excuse. News media, moreover, would have a blanket exemption

[isha]

In my opinion this is a tad over the top as a response to two mild put downs of a hyperbolic post. If people can't be responded to with some level of sardonic observation, such as are used in normal real life interactions to check peer behaviour, then the line defining what is acceptable or not is too hard to decipher. Just my view. It's not something I am going to worry about. But a bit of cut and thrust is what works in real life to temper hyperbole. Or bad faith argumentation.

[Guburnor]

In my opinion this is a tad over the top as a response to two mild put downs of a hyperbolic post. If people can't be responded to with some level of sardonic observation, such as are used in normal real life interactions to check peer behaviour, then the line defining what is acceptable or not is too hard to decipher. Just my view. It's not something I am going to worry about. But a bit of cut and thrust is what works in real life to temper hyperbole. Or bad faith argumentation.

I take your point, but it was a pre-emptive strike. I had no intention of modding what went before as I agree it's a bit of cut and thrust.

But as sure as night follows day it was likely to lead to a number tiresome exchanges that get increasingly insulting, which is what I was trying to avoid.

For instance see Avey's:

You think that poster should be killed? You need to take a good, long look in the mirror. You are disgusting.

And then Woke will log in and let rip on Avey, and so on and so forth.

And then it is out of control.

I was politely trying to avoid that with the "please could everyone not let this spat get out of control"

[isha]

I get it.

[Happy Days]

I take your point, but it was a pre-emptive strike. I had no intention of modding what went before as I agree it's a bit of cut and thrust.

But as sure as night follows day it was likely to lead to a number tiresome exchanges that get increasingly insulting, which is what I was trying to avoid.

For instance see Avey's:



And then Woke will log in and let rip on Avey, and so on and so forth.

And then it is out of control.

I was politely trying to avoid that with the "please could everyone not let this spat get out of control"

I appreciate and enjoy the light touch moderation on Gubu. But personally I think one poster wishing another poster is put down is a comment beyond the pale and no just a bit of cut and trust

[Avey Terrible]

I take your point, but it was a pre-emptive strike. I had no intention of modding what went before as I agree it's a bit of cut and thrust.

But as sure as night follows day it was likely to lead to a number tiresome exchanges that get increasingly insulting, which is what I was trying to avoid.

For instance see Avey's:



And then Woke will log in and let rip on Avey, and so on and so forth.

And then it is out of control.

I was politely trying to avoid that with the "please could everyone not let this spat get out of control"

Apologies, I understand that. It's just that what he said was so horrible that I felt the need to respond.