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TIME TO LEAVE THE FORUM


Guest DAYTONA-BILL

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I have to agree with Strowager.

Neil decided to leave the forum he was not banned or but it was pointed out that a couple of his his posts could be cause offence. I am sad that any member of the forum feels the need to leave rather than take time out and maybe start posting when their angst has died down; I hope Neil will review his decision and in doing so take heed of what has been pointed out by the moderating team.

In my view you are better taking a minute or two to review what you are about to post before hitting the submit button rather than posting in haste and repenting at leisure.

This forum is very lightly moderated with interjection rarely; in this case one was thought to be required (which I agree with). Without boundaries much like those that were the subject of the thread things can get out of hand.

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I can only say that, having met Neil and Karen a few times this year, that they are one of the nicest couples you would want to invite to your home (which we did). So generous with their time and friendly too.

I have always taken some of Neil's more thought-provoking statements with a pinch of the proverbial and am sorry that some see this in the way that they do.

That having been said I ask Neil to reconsider his decision; the mods do have a job to do and I believe they do it fairly, consistently and considerately to all.

This is the best forum we belong to and long may it continue to be. :clap:clap:clap

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I do admit to not being a big fan of the PC brigade, I do not think they have moved our country or the world forward but rather disadvantaged the majority for the benefit of the few. That said I would also not wish to cause offence to any individual through race, sexuality or for that matter any other reason.

I have enjoyed many of Neil's posts and, with the hope that he is still checking in, ask him to reconsider his stance but to post with the knowledge that this forum not just might but does comprise of a broad cross section of people, by posting comments that are of a homophobic or racist they are not going to be taken as just an opinion but as a personal attack. Not that it makes comments that may be considered defamatory right, but after meeting Neil I am sure he would temper his comments if he was aware that they referred to members personal situations.

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I do admit to not being a big fan of the PC brigade, I do not think they have moved our country or the world forward but rather disadvantaged the majority for the benefit of the few. That said I would also not wish to cause offence to any individual through race, sexuality or for that matter any other reason.

I have enjoyed many of Neil's posts and, with the hope that he is still checking in, ask him to reconsider his stance but to post with the knowledge that this forum not just might but does comprise of a broad cross section of people, by posting comments that are of a homophobic or racist they are not going to be taken as just an opinion but as a personal attack. Not that it makes comments that may be considered defamatory right, but after meeting Neil I am sure he would temper his comments if he was aware that they referred to members personal situations.

The solution to this is those that accuse Neil being a Bigot is to apologise as they are no better then him, Neil was only expression his views the same. My views are quite strong at times but none of my black friends think am a Bigot.

Graeme

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I can only say that, having met Neil and Karen a few times this year, that they are one of the nicest couples you would want to invite to your home (which we did). So generous with their time and friendly too.

I have always taken some of Neil's more thought-provoking statements with a pinch of the proverbial and am sorry that some see this in the way that they do.

That having been said I ask Neil to reconsider his decision; the mods do have a job to do and I believe they do it fairly, consistently and considerately to all.

This is the best forum we belong to and long may it continue to be. :clap:clap:clap

Well said John.

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Has anybody considered this, Neil himself believed the comment he made to be unacceptable on this forum so its odd that he even bothered to post them, read the post he made. He said that he expected it to be moderated, it was not, instead there were those, myself included who made a rebuttal of those views and pointed out that such comments were unacceptable on this forum. Neil may well be a decent bloke, he has not been banned from here and I hope that he will return but the fact remains those kinds of phrases are not acceptable, end of. There are often well over a hundred visitors viewing this forum (just look at the counter some evening) is this the impression we want to give.

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Dan said

"Unfortunately on the basis of, and light of such postings I would say you undoubtedly hold bigotted views",

If this is not a accusation,please enlighten me,

What I was trying to say, which hopefully if you re-visit the post and look at again you might be able to take in the context it was intended to come accross as was that if the comments are not reflective of your opinions and thoughts then why post them.

After reflecting I feel both myself and David were wrong in mentioning we thought they were bigotted views, something I was going to mention in team once the dust had settled because it was un-necessary & inappropriate on reflection, but we are human, we do not always do things the absolutely best way possible. I am not too fussed if people have strong views, I have plenty myself, but some have to be kept off the forum and thats why forum owners normally need a few people to check or delete things that cannot be encouraged or allowed.

It was hoped that a little steer in the form of a request for a bit of extra thought before clicking on reply which is what we/I did first might be enough to make Neil rein in the posts that were falling outside what is permittable and what has to be moderated.

We'll try and do things differently next time, and I would think in a similiar situation the post will get pulled/deleted and a pm sent. This is what we used to do, but like I have said before as this also often saw people getting angry, offended & leaving and did not work particularly smoothly we tried a light request on thread this time and things continued and escalated from there as that did not work either! :?

All the best

Dan.

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im really pleased that peeps are comming forward and voicing their views.

im sure you can see w44nty that which ever way we had handled it, some one would have been upset so thats just the

way our cookie crumbles.

weres the marterdom emo :lol:

jill :teddy::love:River Police

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Dan said"After reflecting I feel both myself and David were wrong in mentioning we thought they were bigotted views,"

Thanks Dan for being so honest.

I have now had my say and I shall not comment any further

Lets hope Neil returns and we can all get back to normality.

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Neil may well be a decent person, I have never personally met him, and therefore can only form my impressions of him, by his posts and the word of those who have met him. He also has the right to freedom of speech the same as the rest of us. However when he made that post he knew he was being provacative. Look at the post before and the one that actually caused offence and it is obvious that he knew he was lighting the blue touchpaper, because he predicted it would be modded. He also must have thought that in some way he was about to contravene the TOS, and yet he still posted it. Why? Not only did he light the touchpaper, but he has now stood back and let the forum descend into tit for tat reprisals. If you play with fire, expect to get burnt. Neil may not be a racist or homophobic, but if you make comments that appear to be racist or homophobic or phrase them in such a way that they can be easily interpretated that way, then you need to be able to robustly defend your comments, or maybe consider an apology. It has often been quoted that along with the right to freedom of speech, comes the responsibilty for that right. The responsibility to use that right correctly and not to alienate or cause offence to others.

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Kfurbank: well said.

It should be remembered that this is a public forum open to viewing worldwide.

Comments made on here will remain in the public domain registered to your user, and this forum.

It may be worth considering that those who have jumped to defend the rights of the member concerned may be considered to sympathise with the views he expressed.

Personally when members decide to leave I generally ...... well just don't care. It is after all up to them. What keeps a forum vibrant is the coming and going of members.

A forum with a static membership would soon become very stale.

Perhaps if sites like "twitter" and "facebook" were better moderated governments worldwide would not be seeking ways to muzzle them. Inciting lawlassness and hatred is the most poisoness form of brainwashing.

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We'll try and do things differently next time, and I would think in a similiar situation the post will get pulled/deleted and a pm sent. This is what we used to do, All the best

Dan.

I think this might be a better way to go although undoubtedly you will be criticed for doing things behind closed doors. People generally don't like to be critised publicly however continued abuse should be publically discouraged ...... it sets an example to others of what will and will not be tollerated.

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It may be worth considering that those who have jumped to defend the rights of the member concerned may be considered to sympathise with the views he expressed.

Personal views aside I think the right to hold a view, rather than follow what we are told to think, is far more important. This should also be tempered with the humanity to realise that in expressing that view we have the potential to cause offence, in my mind that is not something that in general, and I hope in Neil's case, the members of this forum would choose to do.

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If this is deleted I rest my case!

I've only just got round to reading this thread and one thing above all else stands out to me!

He also has the right to freedom of speech the same as the rest of us.

No, he does not!

There is no such thing as Free speech! It just does NOT exist in the UK any more...we are not free to speak as we find, because the PC Idiot Brigade, (they'll be knocking on my door to arrest me now for having written that), are now a darker stronger force than the Enemy this country faced in 1914 and again in 1939.

Both wars were fought with the loss of many millions of innocents in the name of Freedom....Freedom from what?

Whatever freedom was gained, it has now been very sadly eroded and WE all are to blame for allowing it to happen!

You won't be able to mention the word "Broads" for much longer, as I'm sure they'll be along anytime now with a stupid clause in the law to prevent us speaking the word" Broad" or "Broads" as it may "offend" some pathetic little person!

Whoops, that will be converted to at least Ten years in jail for me..as I supposedly already have "Form" from another forum...well, at least that's what I'm told!

Having said that, I have not read what Neil posted and I doubt I will, but if he wrote something to offend someone personally and with malice,( which I doubt very much he did!), then he should have been reprimanded with a PM !

End of !!

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Another person soundbiting one of my posts. Later on in the post, I said that along with freedom of speech comes responsibility for that freedom.

Strange choice to pick up on this thread before actually researching the background to this situation. :o:roll:

To put this all back into context, Neil was not modded, therefore he used his freedom of speech to say what he wanted to. Other members of the forum chose to use their freedom of speech to comment on what Neil had posted leading to him throwing his toys out of the pram and leaving the forum of his own accord. To the best of my knowledge he is still free at any stage to continue posting.

Off course to a small degree we are all bound by what we can say on this forum, because we are all invited guests of the owner of the forum, who has published their own terms of service. By joining this forum you accept those terms, or you have the free option not to accept those terms and not join. Simples really.

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There is no such thing as Free speech! It just does NOT exist in the UK any more...we are not free to speak as we find, because the PC Idiot Brigade, (they'll be knocking on my door to arrest me now for having written that), are now a darker stronger force than the Enemy this country faced in 1914 and again in 1939.

Both wars were fought with the loss of many millions of innocents in the name of Freedom....Freedom from what?

I get fed up when those that find it objectionable to spout poisonous, racist comments get accused of political correctness.

If I remember correctly the last world war was fought to stop the spread of a regime whose policy was to adopt such views and many people committed abhorrent acts in support of this regime either willingly or more often as a result of coersion.

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