Forum Rules / Code of Conduct

[rasorinc]

wiped out my post???? why

[Jeff]

Rasorinc -- which post?

[masrapido]

Originally Posted by Jeff

It is always a balancing act, and I do tend to give more latitude for off-topic posts to those who contribute more on topic content. I think it's important to point out that the positive reputation Sean has built here is likely the result of the interesting posts, sketches, and ideas he has contributed to the commuinity, e.g. http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/sh.../1/ppuser/3673

So, it is okay to post offensive and personally insulting messages, heck even threads, for as long as you are a "positive" contributor to the "community"?

Sean himself is surprised he didn't get banned from the forum for his posts and his behaviour in recent year or so.

Sorry, but I see that as double standards, not a balancing act. Maybe there is a fine line between the two, but after the moralistic tirade in tis very thread on this very topic, the fine line has disappeared completely. I cannot see the balancing here when a user starts swearing and insulting other users. That too becomes a part of user's portfolio of contributions.

Yes, I know, it is your site and what you want goes. But what you seem to want here is not in line with your own rules.

[ratrace2]

Jeff:
You have no appellate process.

[masalai]

He owns, it and you agreed to the rules, (didnt you tick the little box that said you did agree to abide by the rules?)

[ratrace2]

There are no rules......just personal preference

[Jeff]

The recent situation where two active members were banned because of threats stemming from a single argument is very atypical for our site.

Over the history of the forums here with 28,357 members currently having registered, there are 243 usernames on the banned list. Of those, less than 10 have made more than 20 posts in total. 99% of the 243 banned usernames are one-time signups to spamvertise and an appeals process would not be productive for those. An active member would only be banned because of attacks, threats, illegal activity, or when there is no hope of resolving the situation less drastically. It pains me greatly to have to ban anyone who has contributed to the forum, and as such, I will never do it if I do not believe it is necessary to insure the health of the forum community as a whole. In the rare situation where we have two members who have both contributed to the forum but who are equally explosive when in contact with eachother, very rarely but sometimes you have to cut something loose to not lose everything.

[Guest62110524]

Originally Posted by Jeff

The recent situation where two active members were banned because of threats stemming from a single argument is very atypical for our site.

Over the history of the forums here with 28,357 members currently having registered, there are 243 usernames on the banned list. Of those, less than 10 have made more than 20 posts in total. 99% of the 243 banned usernames are one-time signups to spamvertise and an appeals process would not be productive for those. An active member would only be banned because of attacks, threats, illegal activity, or when there is no hope of resolving the situation less drastically. It pains me greatly to have to ban anyone who has contributed to the forum, and as such, I will never do it if I do not believe it is necessary to insure the health of the forum community as a whole. In the rare situation where we have two members who have both contributed to the forum but who are equally explosive when in contact with eachother, very rarely but sometimes you have to cut something loose to not lose everything.

i have it from a reliable source that you banned lazey because of not what he said to another, but because he exposed your reading reading pm,s and giving him negative feedback anon, which he exposed
So lets be honest here
Of cousre you have a following of rather spineless people who purported to be friends of mean beanz and lazejack, but when it came to crunch, were too afraid of speaking out
Are you proud of the way YOU ACTED; ESP YOUR NEG FEED ANON?
would it be fair to say that he did this site favour, buy finally driving you to stop the negative feed bit?

[Guest62110524]

Originally Posted by Willallison

Bloody Hell! Haven't you blokes got anything better to do than worry about where Welly is?
And leave poor old 5554X alone - so what if he is Welly - I certainly haven't seen anything he's written that's upset me.

second that, god what a pack of whimps, do any of you actually make boats?

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by whoosh

i have it from a reliable source that you banned lazey because of not what he said to another, but because he exposed your reading reading pm,s and giving him negative feedback anon, which he exposed
So lets be honest here
Of cousre you have a following of rather spineless people who purported to be friends of mean beanz and lazejack, but when it came to crunch, were too afraid of speaking out
Are you proud of the way YOU ACTED; ESP YOUR NEG FEED ANON?
would it be fair to say that he did this site favour, buy finally driving you to stop the negative feed bit?

I do not know where your information has come from, but it simply is not correct. When asked, I answered honestly and truthfully what my capabilities and common practices are as moderator. (again, as moderator I do have the capability to scan the private message database if necessary, but this is extremely rare and not something that I want to spend my time doing unless there is a severe problem. It would not be wise to send trade secrets or illegal activity via either PM or regular non-encrypted email using any ISP's email/webmail system IMO) I also stand by the specific feedback I gave him for a post that was way off. I'm not especially happy about losing him, but I felt it had to be done to keep the attacks from becoming a distraction from our core focus.

[ratrace2]

Originally Posted by whoosh

i have it from a reliable source that you banned lazey because of not what he said to another, but because he exposed your reading reading pm,s and giving him negative feedback anon, which he exposed
So lets be honest here
Of cousre you have a following of rather spineless people who purported to be friends of mean beanz and lazejack, but when it came to crunch, were too afraid of speaking out
Are you proud of the way YOU ACTED; ESP YOUR NEG FEED ANON?
would it be fair to say that he did this site favour, buy finally driving you to stop the negative feed bit?

Whoosh,
In my humble opinion, we must be careful when we use the pharase "I have it from reliable sources". This sort of language spacks of innuendo and does a disservice to those accused and those making the accusation.

In all fairness, we must understand Jeff's role as moderator and keep in imparcial eye towards his actions. After, and only after, there is some dispute that we can place in concrete terms with concrete names can we bring forth a dispute on particular actions.

In addition, everyone has to understand that this is a public forum with access to PM's by the moderator and FBI and other governmental agencies. In the event that some issue gets the attention of such an agency then BoatDesign.net forum infomation is subject to subpeona.

With this in mind, it would be irresponsible of Jeff to allow certain types of information to remain, or be furthered by this forum.

Understand, this is not an effort to take sides or dismiss the actions that have taken place over the last several months, it is an effort to help produce a mediation of the disputes.

Regards, Ratrace2

[masalai]

Thank you ratrace, reasonably put.... Sometimes we can agree to agree

[ancient kayaker]

Jeff: the forum rules and code of conduct are a miracle of brevity and I hesitate to suggest an addition, but they do not cover the ethical use of quotes.

Quotes are a great tool and some have to be trimmed for focus but it is also possible to add or change text to attribute a statement to another writer falsely.

The text within a quote should be verbatim.