Once upon a time (back at the old site) we had a 3 strikes policy. But then we realized we had to keep track of how many strikes :shock: 3 isn’t a large number, granted, but a 1 strike policy sounds a lot more attractive if moderating forums isn’t what you do for a living.
Following that same train of thought – I realized that a zero strike policy was even better But then I found the Yellow Card system (which actually gives you a whopping 10 strikes)
The moderators are a pretty laid back group yet are responsible and open-minded. If one is going to bother to post a complaint about a member, then IMO things are obviously too far gone. I’m still surprised that we (the star chamber over here) even bother to discuss things
So you have 10 strikes before you get bounced, and there are about a dozen people who can issue you strikes. But if you’re posts invite internal discussion, the splitting of threads, and cutting and pasting… screw that – you’re history! I couldn’t ask this level of dedication of volunteers (how can you?)
Since when was running a website a democracy? Did you vote us into office?
Dude, you yourself are “way too lazy” to research the problem – how can you expect us to take the time to debate whether someone “deserves” posting rights? What’s the payoff?
Besides, registration is free! You can go right back in and create a whole knew identity! Ok, you start back at Cai Niao – i.e. zero credibility – that’s tough, but we aren’t flippant about banning either
That said, people have been unbanned or have prevented others from being banned because they did present a case. If it’s temporary insanity or “having a bad day” that led you to act like a jackass to a “peer” then drop a line to admin@segue.com.tw
On a number of occasions, I have noticed that moderators take it upon themselves to change what someone else has written. I don’t mean things like cleaning up foul language–I mean actual changes to the meaning. This is noxious. Are you so full of yourselves that you believe your editorial twistings are more desirable or beneficial than your posters’ original words?
One example would be the apparently automatic practice of converting all Chinese phonetics into mainland Chinese pinyin. If you favor pinyin, fine, but don’t force your viewpoint on everybody else. I don’t buy the “it’s my website and I can run it like an asshole” argument." You’re still an asshole.
It’s alright for a moderator to offend any member of this group, but it’s prohibited for an ordinary member to offend a moderator or a moderator’s buddies. Everybody watch out for potential derriere-kissing culture in the making!
No, although some people felt strongly about the direction of his posts.
IMO, if one realizes that what they are going to write is going to be moderated yet continues to post here, then they are “asking for it” – “it” being a warning or being outright banned. In this case, he actually invited the banning. So I simply complied.
No, although some people felt strongly about the direction of his posts … In this case, he actually invited the banning. So I simply complied.[/quote]
Reminds me of Judge Pickles’ comments along the lines of “She was wearing a short skirt. … she was asking for it.”
And who are “some people,” Gus? Let’s have some specifics here. I do feel a bit peeved that this original thread – which I engineered to tackle a very specific issue – has been diluted and turned into a very non-specific “how are we doing chaps?”
It’s pretty obvious there are some good moderators here and some pretty incompetent ones.
As for the poll, you can’t edit the ballot cards after the people have voted. That’s just ludicrous! :shock: Maybe you could forward your ideas on democracy to Saddam’s Ba’ath party.
[quote=“Mr. Science”]On a number of occasions, I have noticed that moderators take it upon themselves to change what someone else has written. I don’t mean things like cleaning up foul language–I mean actual changes to the meaning. This is noxious. Are you so full of yourselves that you believe your editorial twistings are more desirable or beneficial than your posters’ original words?
One example would be the apparently automatic practice of converting all Chinese phonetics into mainland Chinese pinyin. If you favor pinyin, fine, but don’t force your viewpoint on everybody else.[/quote]
I don’t know if this is true. If it is I agree with your disagreement.
I do buy this argument. Don’t let free registration trick you into thinking this is some kind of public forum where people can say whatever they want. The people that run this site DO get to decide what’s “good” and “bad”, and that’s that.
I’m not saying that I like/dislike it. It’s like this everywhere you surf. And everywhere you go.
The easiest solution is to add sites that one doesn’t like to one’s list of site’s that suck, and not go back.
I guess I wasn’t clear enough. He’s banned because he would have been “virtually” banned anyway. Some of the moderators indicated that they would remove his posts if he ever posted in their forums.
I weigh the moderators’ posts and time to be more valuable than those of regular members. Moderators are volunteers who have dedicated some their time to be at this website. For me, that’s big. Real big. Far bigger than the time and sentiments of members who choose to use logins to slam others views and opinions.
Noted.
But let’s get something straight – the poll results STILL reflect the sentiments of those who voted. I did not twist the question and answers and create something new. Your original poll basically was a “thumbs up/thumbs down” on the decision to ban a member. I’ve preserved the spirit of this. In fact, you indicated you originally wanted to ADD a poll to my original “official” thread – so I’ve obliged you (the merge threads function doesn’t allow us to place posts wherever we want – so posts are recorded in the time-order they were posted. So the merge seems to have occurred surprisingly well – meaningwise, that is)
This is a moderated bulletin board. There are other places (such as news://soc.culture.taiwan) which are unmoderated. The complaints seem to be regarding over-moderation. If enough people complain about over-moderation, then I’m sure the complaints will be considered. In the JGeer case, the decision was taken on the basis of complaints (blue card post reports) received, rather than out of spite or some kind of puritanical zeal.
What is happening is that Pinyin (by the way, the accepted international standard for Romanization of Mandarin Chinese) is being inserted in brackets following Chinese words that are not Romanized using that system. This is to provide a uniform standard for all, so that people who do not have Chinese systems and cannot display Chinese characters (if such are added as well) can determine what word is being discussed.
This happens to be standard practice in many professional circles which handle Chinese on a routine basis (c.f. US Government standards, etc.). Even in the case of prominent figures from Taiwan who use a somewhat “personalized” spelling of their names, US Government translators must insert standard Hanyu Pinyin in brackets following the name.
I see nothing offensive about this practice. If you feel that Hanyu Pinyin in and of itself is offensive, that is of course your prerogative, although it would seem to me that there are far more important issues to get steamed up about. I know and can use at least five different systems for representing the sounds of Mandarin Chinese, but we have decided to adopt Hanyu Pinyin for this board, and that’s that. If you want, you are of course welcome to start a board that uses any Romanization system you like. It’s a free universe, but we decide how this particular corner of it is Romanized.
Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been watching this site for a while and I think segue moderators seem too fair.
Why should they put up with the likes of complaining members who continuously post their beefs? Tealit certainly gives no explanation as to why they’ve changed their posts, deleted them, or banned members. In fact, Tealit erases all posts that they feel like erasing.
If I were a moderator at segue, I would have banned several of the whiners a while ago, erased this thread entirely, and banned those who started it. Try posting on other forums and see how far you people with nothing better to do with your time get.
And, I’d say, if you don’t like it here.
GET OUT!
I’ll never understand why people waste so much time complaining and still keep rearing their ugly heads.
I would ban the following: monkey (for being unnecessarily inflammatory toward the taipei times and segue) wolf_reinhard (for being a prick) and this new chap hot_bini (who sounds like someone with short dick syndrome or the freak mai long dong back from the dead).
If you are banned, go somewhere else. Evidentally your bile isn’t worthy of this community site.
[quote=“hot_dini”][quote=“sandman”]See the little blue button on the top right of each post, Hot_Dini? That’s used by posters who want to report a post to a moderator.
When we recieve enough of these reports, we THEN decide what steps to take with posts that are offensive TO OTHER SEGUE USERS.
Just so you know.[/quote]
I believe in “freedom of speech”…and in all my years I’ve never seen ANYTHING I thought should be banned. If I don’t like it, I ignore it. I’m an adult and I don’t need a “little blue button” nor do I need someone at Segue to decide what I can or cannot read.[/quote]
I think you’re missing the point. Whoever sets up and maintains a website will decide what, if anything, strangers are allowed to post there, in the same way that the owner of a newspaper decides what gets printed. I understand your dislike of censorship, but can’t you see it from the point of view of the guy who pays the hosting fees, writes the code, and maintains the site. The usenet group soc.culture.taiwan is uncensored, but is almost unusable for people who want to find out reliable information about things relevant to them in Taiwan. Segue is not a generalist bulletin board. Somewhere a line has to be drawn in the sand, or it runs the risk of becoming full of white noise. If Segue was to become full of adolescent ranting it would be of no interest to the people who pay for it and maintain it and it would be closed. I am not sure that the majority of members would want that. Perhaps I’m wrong, and perhaps the majority of members would like to see an experiment undertaken where moderation was reduced with the proviso that if things got out of control it could be stepped up a gear. I dunno.
There will always be members who are taken more seriously be other members or moderators. That is life. We are not communists. Given that any one can register without qualification, and that some of us have been registered from the very start, the relationships in Segue model the relationships in life. I would be less inclined to recommend banning someone who had been posting helpful information for years and suddenly took a rush of blood to the head, than someone who came out all guns blazing from the start.
Another point is that moderators are still members. We don’t just suddenly stop being interested in entering into discussions here because we also help out a bit in our spare time. If a moderator feels strongly about an issue, should he or she not be able to express those feelings as would any “regular” member ?
But then I found the Yellow Card system (which actually gives you a whopping 10 strikes)
to a “peer” then drop a line to 
[/quote]
