Moderators or dictators?
 

Since when do discussion boards have to be rah rah, feel good, meeting places.

If I am a cycnical and sarcastic poster I feel that to be my right of expression. But every time that I express myself in this manner I am banned. Why is there this over-riding need to give pat on the back and say better luck next time, when what is really called for is a kick in the butt and a suck it up loser?

This is a board dedicated to a sport. And as in all sports there has to be a loser and sometimes that is all the motivation that is required to step it up. So just leave me the H*LL alone. I am just expressing myself.

I agree with you......but I am sorry you are now banned. LOL!!! just kidding.

Speak it as you see fit, provided you do not slander or disrespect others.

Welcome to the forum.

it's a privately owned and operated forum

free speech "rights" do not apply here.

every forum sets its own level of decorum, if you knowingly violate that...you will probably not be welcome anymore

if the moderation becomes stifling or is too overbearing, people will lose interest and go elsewhere

if you want to "voice" your opinion freely, spend your own money and start your own place.

Ok....you are banned also!!

the forum guidelines are pretty clear about slander and being respectful. when you use these forums you are agreeing to abide by those rules, which i think are very fair. you have to look at yourself in the mirror and ask why you were banned in the first place. look deep into your eyes (some say they are the gateway to the soul) and try to determine what it is about you that makes people not want you around. there must be something. ;)

WELL SAID, especially the last part.

I agree with the above statement, however, I have observed on other message boards, people being banned for just having a different opinion on a matter and they were not being slanderous or disresepectful. Sometimes the moderators do not follow their own guidelines as indicated above and will improperly ban people.

With an attitude like this it's no wonder you get banned,mate

Life's to short for all the hate & discontent you are spewing.

I'm just glad they haven't banned my drunken self yet :)

Well, then think of Joe as the writer of the rulebook and the moderators as referees. And since you were banned I don't know what that makes you, but it might rhyme with user :). I don't know why you were banned, but sometimes it's better to not say the thinks you want to say (maybe I should've done that this time..).

/Csson

Ewitz3 (soon to be Ewitz4?)

How many warnings were you given before you were banned?
were they for disagreeing with other members or for something
else (like vulgarity, harrasement, obscentity or the various other things
that prompt warnings?).

I've been on boards where a different point of view gets you banned. But, I feels it's there problem for being so pig-headed about it. This forum is pretty lax. It's probably the great people known as Cyclists that make it very civil. :)

An equally important task of the moderator's is to move off topic posts to the areas they belong. I don't think this should be in the "General Cycling" area of the forum. "Foo" would be be a better place but that is giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Just change your political affiliation and you will be re-instated.

Nah, I'm a Republican, evidently a small minority here, and I haven't been banned! :D

I have to agree with a lot of what has been said here. It is a private forum. There are set Guidelines and what's acceptable that you agreed to when joining (that's pretty much a standard fare for any private forum). And because it's private, free speech doesn't apply. If the mods think that you have overstepped that magical line then they can toast you.

That said, no one is forcing you to go here. You don't like it, use the door and leave. There are a lot of bicycling oriented forums and newsgroups. And, as has been suggested, you can start your own (it's pretty easy and can be cheap with some of the options out there).

So suck it up and deal with it. :D

really, the key is to not develop too much of a negative rating. I've been in both restrictively moderated and practically unmoderated boards, and this one isnt bad at all....maybe a bit lock-happy sometimes, but often there's no doubt in what was about to break out...sometimes stopping it before the flamewars helps keep thngs in order.

For example, I know any board I go into, some folks will like me, some won't care, and some will put me on ignore. Really that doesn't bother me, I'm past worrying about that. The key is wording. If your going to be harsh let them know prior and to use a good selection of words.

If you think someone is an effing moron....why not just call him on his words and not resort to namecalling...a simple "umm, it doesnt work that way, you can't blah blah on part X, because blah blah" will suffice. And sometimes, an emoticon is all it takes to change the entire tone of a post. It's the little things that can totally skew a post....try it sometime.

If you wanted to see how bad an under moderated board gets, I participate in one, and it's pretty bad...I often make sure nobodies around when I go there for fear of offending hte entire human race...that board is like a train wreck....just cnat stop watching it happen...and really nothing ever gets done, just a bunch of e-penis-measuring contests, and the most antisocial behavior i have ever seen....people literally post there just to try to become the most offensive person there...be glad this board has mods that try to do as well as they can. Sometimes a person will get ran over that didnt need to, but that's why the warning system exists, to give them some chances.

Now for over moderated....one board I was to, the owner of it was also the owner of a company that made products realting to the hobby the board was around....he had a tendancy to ban anyone who was even the slightest bit critical of his product. a simple "this cable didnt fit my reciever" would get you a ban. If you were tearing into his product (and his products were in all truth pretty bad), he IP bans you and reports you to your ISP. He also banned anyone who tried to use science to compare audio products... THAT is a dictator. Big difference.

Whatever you got banned for, best hting you can do if your not IP banned yet is to learn why you got banned and try to not do it again. Your idea of blunt may not be blunt but just crude...You have to remember crude is in the eyes of the reader.

I've been very critical of other posts and some forum users, but I've never been censored. People have been equally critical of some of my posts. You must have really gone overboard to get banned. There have been a lot of free-wheeling discussions on this board, but I haven't seen any thread get closed until it degenerated into name-calling. Even then, the name calling remained on the forum. The thread was simply closed. The moderators even allow repeated threads criticizing their sponsors.

If you repeatedly crossed the line, this forum is better off without you. Go start your own web page and insult people to your heart's content.

[QUOTE=timmhaan] you have to look at yourself in the mirror and ask why you were banned in the first place. look deep into your eyes (some say they are the gateway to the soul) and try to determine what it is about ..QUOTE]


Deep thoughts..

If you take a look inside yourself,..deep,...way deeper than you've ever looked before..
You'll find,.. that from the inside out,...






























....the light from the room outside,..coming in from the hole in your butt,


...looks just like a star.


;)

Actually free speech rights do apply here, just as they apply everywhere you go. But one thing people all to often do not know, for what ever reason or simply do not care about is that free speech is not an absolute. It was never meant to be.

An example of that is this: I have the right to say I do not like a person, & the right to express my reasons behind my dislike or contempt of said person. And I can do so with out getting in to any kind of legal trouble over saying these things. But I do not have the right to say because I hate a perosn I am going to kill or harm that person & expect to get away with uttering such a threat with out getting in to some kind of trouble by the law.

There seem to be even fewer fiscally-libertarian social conservatives here. I'm getting by. :) :fight:

Dictonary.com: The right to express any opinion in public without censorship or restraint by the government. The first amendment protects you from the government, not from bikeforums.net moderators.

The first thing you read when registering is: The following six categories of online conduct are unacceptable at BikeForums and constitute a violation of our Community Standards which may result in warning, suspension or loss of membership.. In order to continue with the registration process, you must agree to our guidelines. In this case, I think what we did was fair, a user broke the guidelines, and we took the action that we said we would, as outlined in the guidelines.

Well said Mr. Gardner.
If you have a problem ewitz perhaps you should contact the mods and directly, I'm sure you'd have much better luck that way instead of igniting a flame war.