> The main trouble is the lack of a Mod.
> TB needs another one, one who has time to read a whole thread without just picking up a comments from certain users.

I wouldn't disagree.


> Banning Simon for 3 months is a very bad cop out, and does a great diservice to these forums.

This wasn't intended to ease moderation in the short term.. If anything I suspect it will make things worse from that point of view.

seb

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This wasn't intended to ease moderation in the short term.. If anything I suspect it will make things worse from that point of view.

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I doubt it, you have left things so far up in the air that most "antis" as you choose to call us won't post for fear of falling foul of your, "I should have banned him at the outset" style of moderation

One trouble is a so called "anti" will raise a question, then a "fanboy" will ask why the question was asked, what does another ISP say etc without having any clue about the question, this leads the the "personal attacks" as questions that can help PN users get missed.

So in the intrest of fairness will the "fanboys" that do this get a 3 month ban?

I think it was best plusnet didn't get involved in the discuss to be honest. Its purely a TBB action, Plusnet making a comment either way would have caused more trouble than it was worth to them and this forum.

I'm a plusnet customer but not a fanboy. I liked most of PR100's post until a few weeks ago, certainly agreed with some of it, but recently I personally thought he had lost the plot. The forum that had gone quiet in recent weeks, he appeared to be more frustrated because of that. I'm not up on the history of PR100 and Plusnet, but if I read his post for the first time in the last few weeks I would had thought he held a grunge rather than wanted plusnet to be better which I believe is close to the truth.

At the weekend I decided not to read his posts for a while, so I'm not shocked about the ban, although 3 months is perhaps to long

>I'm hesitant to curb discussion about our moderation policies as I believe they are fair game, but equally the point of this exercise is to get the forum to move on, not to end up in a personal debate against an individual.

If moderation and peace is such a priority then surely the sniping, insults and personal pursuit of other posters should have been high on the list. And yet, despite bringing this to the attention of those responsible, the very same people are here on a regular basis, without any input to the discussion, posting freely attacking posters not the subject or opinion.

>Absolutely. I have *no* doubt about this (maybe he'll be a guest on your blog).. But equally this forum has problems which need to be worked through. We feel at this point in time the previous approach was not working.

Maybe he will, I don't know and nor have I asked anyone to do so. That is not the point. The fact is that you have taken a step to calm this forum for the wrong reasons and especially when it was already winding down recently all by itself. You might not agree with an opinion, you might not like the poster and you might not like what they say but those things have nothing to do with an independent forum as long as the poster is courteous, specific and/or debating an issue.

Independent until limited by discretion is limited, irrespective how one words it. I see no reason why anyone should be banned from the forum for airing an opinion and not even to 'give breathing room'. Yes, this forum is yours to do as you please and we all want somewhere to be able to post in a good atmosphere, but posters like Simon have not been the cause of most of the problems on this forum. The problem is that those that have are not dealt with. If you want a fair system that is what should have been addressed instead.

With a sad heart I will also refrain from posting here as much (albeit I have been doing so in any case and voluntarily so over the last week). Not just out of principle but because I make statements that although are researched and backed up go against what you seem to want from this forum.

I think its a disgrace that one person has been singled out then named and shamed and used as a scapegoat to "improve" this forum"

a very sad day for this site :-(

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I doubt it, you have left things so far up in the air that most "antis" as you choose to call us won't post for fear of falling foul of your, "I should have banned him at the outset" style of moderation

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Somehow I disagree.. I have no doubt those "antis" will say what they want at any cost and become a "martyr" to use someone else's words if you will.. I'm actually not sure if some hardlined individuals will change their position at all.. How do we solve that?

I really don't want people here to feel they can only make pro PN comments.. but I think there is a problem with the "closed" attitude I think some people here have.. and I do believe this does exist on the pro-PN side too.. Some people jump in to defend PN too quickly without the right information..

Where did I say "I should have banned him at the outset" btw? I don't recall ever saying that.. I think PN needed a kick up the backside last year and it truly got it.. pr100 was one of those who helped give it that.

seb

> I think its a disgrace that one person has been singled out then named and shamed and used as a scapegoat to "improve" this forum"

Can I make this very clear... We are not attributing all the problems in this forum to one individual or one side/group.. But we have to start somewhere. I need to say this in case someone else thinks by your statement that we are.

seb

Don't bank on it.

Perhaps TBB should just close the whole forum for a while. It appears to be turning into a school playground (if schools still have them!) 'Anti' vs 'Fanboy'....... Some, like me, are currently happy with the service I pay for but sometimes I feel the pressure to move on because being made to feel like an idiot for staying with this isp. That pressure makes me (blindly sometimes) defend plusnet and fuel the fire.

There are people with big chips on both sides, I've started to wonder what value the forum actually is anymore.........it appears to be just bash and defend, defend and bash now. I've notice that problems posted here are sometimes answered with 'you should move isp' rather than help a poster get to the bottom of the problem