What's Going On? II

[GIMH]

So I had a bit of a rant in the match thread before but I don't want to make that thread about the inadequate moderation, and there is more going on here than just GingerFurball being banned.

During the World Cup, it was felt by some, self included, that the moderation was, consciously or otherwise, biased towards India or Indian posters. You'll probably remember buffoongate, perhaps topped by the sheer ludicrousness of a poster being infracted for saying, "Tendy is a buffoon," but it's okay because we were told by the mods that that was for 'trolling' and NOTHING to do with it being a slight on Tendulkar. And you know what? The mods who told us that, they really did believe it. Or at least some of them did.

Fast forward six months and it's pretty damning. This site wants to crack the Asian market (fair enough) and in doing so, it WILL bend to the whims of some people from that market. And this isn't an attack on those people, we have some great posters from the subcontinent, or of subcontinent origin. But there's no doubt in my mind that there are double standards at play.

Don't believe me? Tell me this. How many times have you seen Stuart Broad called 'Ladyboy' or other such nicknames? And consequently, how many times have you seen the mods step in to stop this? I can't remember any - and rightly so.

Now go ask centurymaker if he's been asked to stop using the term 'chokedulkar' lately. Now you might think it's ridiculous to call Tendulkar a choke artist, but last time I checked this was a cricket forum and he's certainly entitled to an opinion - and we can all ridicule him for it. But if he wants to call a player by a joke nickname, so what? AND HE SUPPORTS INDIA!!

Jesus, I remember during the 2009 Ashes, laughing all the way to Headingley about the nicknames Burgey had posted for each of our players in the match thread that morning. Maybe he should have actually been banned for not liking these players though?

Which conveniently links me to my next point. I made a drunk thread about this a few weeks back which was quickly shut down.

Burgey was infracted for the following comment:

Originally Posted by Burgey

Yes. Rightly so too.

If only his countrymen extended the courtesy to the greats from visiting countries.

Now I will let you draw your own conclusions, suffice to say that the moderation (as a collective) now deem posting an opinion which may offend India fans as trolling. I don't believe he'd have been infracted if certain posters hadn't responded the way they did. We are infracted or warned for posting legitimate opinions if they are likely to upset some of the India fans, but you can guarantee that if these same opinions were directed elsewhere, there'd be no mod action because the fans of other teams act like adults and take a joke for what it is. I was warned for referring to the Indian bowlers as 'clowns' (and what a great job they've done of proving me long these last two weeks) and vic_orthdox (who I have a lot of time for) implied that the reason I can't say such things without censure is because certain posters (I'll name no names, you know who they are) will turn the thread into a trainwreck with their responses.

Now I understand that cultural sensitivity is important, and in a way I've asked for it myself in the past. But the way you react to your players being called **** isn't a cultural thing, it's just being a think-skinned little girl, really.

And I'm at pains to express here that it is certainly not every poster who supports India who reacts unfavourably, nor is it most. And I blame the moderation policy for this anyway.

Now let's move on to GingerFurball's ban, because I think some of the posts that he was given his 20 infraction points highlight my point further. In the interest of fairness, I will quote the lot.

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

Why are you here? India aren't winning.

This was in reply to Turbinator. I'm not going to discuss individual posters and how accurate Furball's quotation was. But even if it hadn't been a reasonable post, it's hardly offensive or a breach of forum atmosphere.

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

You're a ****ing moron.

This was to Cevno. There is no doubt that Cevno's posting, whilst not malicious, can at times hint of someone who doesn't know when he should stop. In a highly charged situation, it can be provocative. Nonetheless, we all know the rules and the mods are always going to infract that sort of post

BUT WAIT

They didn't! Spark moderates the match threads very well, handled the situation well, and we all moved on. Makes a mockery of things really.

Nonetheless, we'll let them have it.

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

SS is a retard though.

Now I don't know if SS took offence to this, but I'd be surprised, given that he never seems to get offended by anything. He did say 'why the hostility ' - but this post was a jestful dig. The tone of it, IMO, makes it obvious. Furball doesn't mince his words or hold back and the whole context of this makes it clear it wasn't a full-on insult.

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

Just another example of Tendulkar failing when the pressure was really on him.

benchmark suggested he was either trolling or an idiot for this post. I've never known people to get infracted for questionable cricketing opinons before, in all honesty, and Furball isn't the only guy who thinks Tendulkar isn't a great pressure player. But there you go.

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

Yeah, you can go onto the ignore list.

edit: my daughter is blowing raspberries at the computer screen, pretty much sums things up.

The irony here is that the mods' pissweak suggestion when a poster is annoying the whole forum is always to use the ignore list. Borderline at best.

Now look, whether you think those posts cross the line or not, if GingerFurball is detrimental to forum atmosphere, then I can name you a nice list of people who cause far more. Hey, point me to a thread where it was Furball V about 20 people and they were all tearing their hair out. Same goes for me, Burgey, and anyone else they want to throw the forum atmosphere tag at. I'm not going to call anyone out directly. But I'd say someone who constantly comes and digs up all posts from a situation that died down two days earlier is probably worse. I'd say someone who constantly actually trolls, while being a multi of at least two other current posters, in addition to at least one that is no longer banned but hasn't been posted with since the ban ended, is obviously far more detrimental to forum atmosphere. But let's say these hypothetical examples supported India? That wouldn't be why they aren't treated with this stick would it?

You know what, I've only hit the tip of the iceberg here. If you just lock this I will laugh, heartily.

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Disclaimer

Some of you will no doubt remember last time I made a thread called 'What's Going On?' in Site Discussion and that Furball was one of the subjects of my ire, for some of his actions as a moderator. Before anyone tries to prove I'm a hypocrite for that, it isn't even remotely relevant.

And what I've tried to do differently here is not call people out, and by the same token I've not really named any mods, at least not to directly criticise. I would like to point out, though, that there has been one moderator who has reached out to discuss things with me on messenger, and I've just not managed to get online at the same time as him, and another one who is often open to discuss my grievances in a constructive manner. Unfortunately, as a collective, the communication is poor and usually results in a circular response of 'we're not overturning it because we think it's right because we said it's right and therefore it's right'

Thanks for reading / tl;dr

[Smudge]

tldr

In before close, to say that I was reporting centurymaker for his chokedulkar comment - that was only ever going to create a bad "forum atmosphere". And if that's not baiting, I don't know what is. Looking back through GF's recent posts, I am surprised by the ban (if his last infraction came from very recent posts), but que sera sera. If you sail close to the wind, you're going to get capsized every so often...

[GIMH]

Originally Posted by Voltman

tldr

In before close, to say that I was reporting centurymaker for his chokedulkar comment - that was only ever going to create a bad "forum atmosphere". And if that's not baiting, I don't know what is. Looking back through GF's recent posts, I am surprised by the ban (if his last infraction came from very recent posts), but que sera sera. If you sail close to the wind, you're going to get capsized every so often...

Voltman - I like that you're always frank and never hold back your opinion. So fair enough if you found the chokedulkar stuff was going to create bad forum atmosphere, and I think this is fairly consistent with how you've commented on other posting in the past (like mine in the Ashes for example, fair's fair). However, I don't for a second believe that it is a policy the mods would apply consistently, so I don't think it makes the point any less valid.

As for the sailing close to the wind bit - yeah sure - but giving someone 20 infraction points, just for the hell of it, and slapping them with a 3 month ban, is not the same as someone getting the odd 7-dayer.

I mean I thought Got_Spin's ban was a joke too but I'd already rambled on enough by that point.

[four_or_six]

The reasons for the infraction given has been made clear, we're not getting into a drawn out debate on it on here. If anyone has any comments they would like to make to moderators, please do it directly rather than creating threads.