Goodbye everybody

[Gruntboy]

Allow me to translate Astafas for all you people who don't speak Mongolian ( )...

"Miss Elegans, I find you very attractive and hope that your upset over the homosexual incident is short-lived. I do desire that you come back to Gamebanshee so that we can make many beautiful babies together. PS You can come see my pet Zebra if you wish (its actually a donkey with black and white stripes painted on, ho-ho."

[Xandax]

@GB: close enough

[Darkpoet]

CE, I sorry to see you leave. I very much enjoyed your input on the threads. It's too bad immaturity had to rear it's ugly head. You will be missed. Please reconsider.

[Astafas]

@Xandax:

This is SYM. Anything goes as long as it is polite, right? I'm no newbie and well familiar with the internationality of this board. My words were addressed to C Elegance (therefor the @) and I believe an exception from the rule could have been overlooked this once. However, if you feel offended because I excluded you, I humbly apologize.

@Gruntboy:

Ever the joker, aren't you... Keep it up!

[KidD01]

A very sad day indeed, for SYM board to see such a gifted Doctor leaves

Au revoir !

K' / KidD01

[Craig]

Bye, i'm sure you will always be missed(plz comre back!!!!)

Hmmm, lots of replies to this thread before I even have the chance to address it. This situation has definitely upset some people and for that I'm not proud of. However, as I stated in a private message to you C Elegans, nobody's perfect - including the GB moderators and myself, the administrator. I handled the situation as best I could and have learned from the experience.

Originally posted by C Elegans:
<STRONG>As I see it, this is letting intolerant and prejudiced people influence the board too much, as they have the power to get a topic closed just by behaving badly.

</STRONG>
The last thing I want is to keep people from being able to post topics because they're fearful of what might be posted in reply. But should I leave a topic open to ridicule, then ban every member who may post something insulting? Then we have the reverse effect - people won't post something for fear of being banned because it might be insulting to someone else.

I sincerely hope you don't leave the board over this. This is a problem that we need to address and find a reasonable solution to. Your feedback is valuable and leaving the board will only make matters worse.

[vixen]

Originally posted by Buck Satan:
[QBThe last thing I want is to keep people from being able to post topics because they're fearful of what might be posted in reply. But should I leave a topic open to ridicule, then ban every member who may post something insulting? Then we have the reverse effect - people won't post something for fear of being banned because it might be insulting to someone else.

[/QB]

I rarely disagree with you to such an extent to post, Buck, but to be perfectly honest, I don't think that Lee's thread was 'open to ridicule' as you described it. I think it was a worthwhile point, albeit abused by some mindless posters. For that reason, I do not think that the thread should have been closed. Yes, by all means, close and delete threads when something that is deemed offensive to many groups of people is posted, as you did (later), but it doesn't seem fair to people to close threads when a fair point is being debated.

As for people being afraid to post, I sincerely doubt that that would become an issue. I think that if those who posted insults in reply to Lee's original comments thought about their replies, they would know that their posts were not of the type that is acceptable by GB standards. I think most GB members would not have made such comments, and therefore would not be afraid to post in the future.

Originally posted by vixen:
<STRONG>Yes, by all means, close and delete threads when something that is deemed offensive to many groups of people is posted, as you did (later), but it doesn't seem fair to people to close threads when a fair point is being debated.</STRONG>

If Lee had posted his topic and all replies were completely legitimite non-insulting posts, I wouldn't have touched the thread. The only reason it was closed was due to the direction it was beginning to head towards. It wasn't necessarily "open to ridicule", but unfortunately some people posted replies that nobody wants to see, and it was only going to get worse.

I only hope that in the future, should Lee or another member decide to post something similar, that people handle it differently. I would hate to have to ban some of the more frequent members for not respecting someone else's post.

I know people disagree with my decision. Instead of expressing what you felt I did wrong, instead give me feedback on what to do in the future. How *should* this type of situation be handled? It's not easy, and it's my opinion that any way you deal with it, you're bound to make someone unhappy.

[Waverly]

Good to see your member rating back up to 5 Buck. You didn’t edit that did you? j/k I was simply going to leave my comments on the subject as ‘I’m sad’… which I am because I believe C. Elegans was an intelligent and witty personality. But now I think I’d be remiss if allowed those that have posted their opinion to wonder if they are all alone or if anybody supports their views.

You do an excellent job, and provide a wonderful site for all of us free of charge, so I don’t want you to feel I would second-guess you when you have been put in a difficult position. However, I do think you should consider the net effect of the way you handled the situation. Lee, who as far as I could tell has done nothing wrong, had his topic closed. He was in effect silenced. Those that were mocking and piling on learned nothing aside from the fact they can use immaturity to get their way. Just something to consider…

Waverly

Edit: as to what to do in the future: Granted, I have had the luxury of thinking about it, but simply posting inside Lee's topic that you would not tolerate further ridicule of that type may have put the topic back on course.

[ 05-16-2001: Message edited by: Waverly ]

[vixen]

Originally posted by Buck Satan:
[QB
I know people disagree with my decision. Instead of expressing what you felt I did wrong, instead give me feedback on what to do in the future. How *should* this type of situation be handled? It's not easy, and it's my opinion that any way you deal with it, you're bound to make someone unhappy.[/QB]

Let me just reiterate the fact that I am not criticising your actions. I'm just expressing my views on the particular decision you took, which I don't think is necessarily wrong.

How should the situation be handled? To be honest, I don't know. As you rightly pointed out, people are going to be offended whichever course of action you choose to pursue. I would just hope that the regular posters would never feel the need to be so negative and vindictive against other people.

BTW- is there any way you could delete individual posts as opposed to closing an entire thread? Just a thought..

Originally posted by Waverly:
<STRONG>Good to see your member rating back up to 5 Buck. You didn’t edit that did you?</STRONG>

Believe it or not, Administrators cannot alter user ratings, not even their own =(.

Originally posted by Waverly:
<STRONG>Lee, who as far as I could tell has done nothing wrong, had his topic closed. He was in effect silenced. Those that were mocking and piling on learned nothing aside from the fact they can use immaturity to get their way.</STRONG>

I'm not happy about "silencing" Lee, and I sincerely hope he continues to post anything that he wishes. Those who posted insulting replies did in fact learn something. When I closed the topic, I emailed each person individually issuing a warning to them and that I would ban them should they post something similar in the future. I do this whenever I dislike something and am forced to close/delete a topic. I'm sure a few members reading this can attest to that...

In retrospect, I probably should have posted something publically as a warning rather than close the topic. But remember, I have a fulltime job aside from GameBanshee and I'm not here except for in the evenings. If more vicious posts were made, they would have probably sat there until the following evening until I could delete them, which I definitely did not want.

[Xandax]

Originally posted by Astafas:
<STRONG>@Xandax:

This is SYM. Anything goes as long as it is polite, right? I'm no newbie and well familiar with the internationality of this board. My words were addressed to C Elegance (therefor the @) and I believe an exception from the rule could have been overlooked this once. However, if you feel offended because I excluded you, I humbly apologize.

@Gruntboy:

Ever the joker, aren't you... Keep it up!</STRONG>

Well actually I could read it, I just don't feel it belongs, even when adressed to only one person. I fear that if one person post in a local language, then others will see that person do it, and start to post in their language - and before we know it a lot of people will do it.
(IMO)