Are you bored with pedantry and personal petty feuds?

Johnnyg · Post by **Johnnyg** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:38 pm

I do not come onto this site very often. I sometimes pop back and realise, very quickly, why I don't habitually contribute. This post is in itself boring, but also IMHO entirely necessary.

dailywaffle · Post by **dailywaffle** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:59 pm

Johnnyg, my advice would be to come back in September. During the off-season the lack of decent rugby posts tends to highlight the other tosh to which you refer.

Crumby · Post by **Crumby** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:03 pm

Putting it quite simply YES.
It puts off serious posters who could make a meaningful contribution.

tigergirl · Post by **tigergirl** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 4:24 pm

In a word YES! I am quite a regular contributor and have recently come back from holiday. Naturally one of the first things I did on my return was to browse the forum for all the latest news on transfers, injuries etc. (I particularly wanted views on Hougaard) I'm afraid that I very quickly gave up as every thread seemed to degenerate into a squabble between a very small number of very small-minded people. Dailywaffle I do hope you're right about September, but I don't hold out too much hope as the people involved are very regular contributors and seem to have got themselves into very entrenched positions. We don't all sit on here all day every day and need to be able to cut through the cr*p.

Waggy · Post by **Waggy** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 4:38 pm

Yep, life is to short. Get out and get a life

Easty · Post by **Easty** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 6:00 pm

Absolutely, there is nothing worse than getting into a really good debate (and sorry Daily but I am reffering to within the season) to find that by the 3rd page we're into the usual squabble, with several posts in a row being between 2 or 3 individuals who have gone so far off subject you just give up.

If only there was an equivalent to Yellow & Red cards on here.

dailywaffle · Post by **dailywaffle** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 6:49 pm

Easty wrote:Absolutely, there is nothing worse than getting into a really good debate (and sorry Daily but I am reffering to within the season) to find that by the 3rd page we're into the usual squabble, with several posts in a row being between 2 or 3 individuals who have gone so far off subject you just give up.

If only there was an equivalent to Yellow & Red cards on here.

There is. Its just that the moderators choose not to fully exercise their powers.

Perhaps I should clarify my earlier post. There will always be tedious tosh on this forum, but during the season it is somewhat less noticeable due to the majority of posts being rugby related. During the off-season there is no 'balance', hence the forum looks particularly bad at the moment.

Of course, if September fails to see an upturn in fortunes then many will drift away.

Jerry Hat-trick · Post by **Jerry Hat-trick** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:24 pm

I have to agree with the original poster.

Just as well I don't live in here otherwise I would have to move out.

Alatoruk · Post by **Alatoruk** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:51 pm

i agree. i posted similar recently, asking why the moderators werent dealing with it. but i got a load of "dont pick on the moderators" and "if you dont like it dont read it" replies, so dont expect anything to change.

Tigerbeat · Post by **Tigerbeat** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:24 pm

The Moderators cant win........when they do something - people complain.

And when we dont do anything that users think we should - people complain.

A no-win situation.

Users to the forum should be able to express their thoughts and views without feeling threatened. All opinions should be respected even if you disagree. The forum is no place to have personal snipes at other users.

We want this forum to have good discussion and debate and welcome all users. The forum is there for you to use but it has to be used responsibly. Keep the threads on the topic and remove any personal disagreements from the forum and there will be no problems.

Should you have any queries, please drop Rizzo or myself a PM and we will get back to you.

Please remember that Rizzo and myself do have weekday jobs and are not online 24 hours a day.

Rizzo · Post by **Rizzo** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:47 pm

Agreeing with Tigerbeat's post above.

In the light of the comment "the moderators choose not to use them" would you prefer we ban people out of hand? In my view banning is a last resort, warnings can be given via PM and often are - but during the season, there are far more subjects to discuss and hence less nit picking, bickering and feuding. As Tigerbeat says, if we act firmly to quell things, we get complaints galore (including the usual threats to report us to the club...)and comments about freedom of speech and censorship etc. If we try to keep things under control without threats and bans, we also get complaints.

It isn't a glory job, as some may think, we get no benefit from doing this, nor a power trip as has been said recently.

I've been posting on many different messageboards on different subjects for years, and in my experience, if someone makes what you perceive as an attack on you, insult or similar, the best thing is to reply by PM only and not bring it on to open forum. Or better still, think "it's only a messageboard, does it really matter?" , decline to respond, and ignore it.

Lea · Post by **Lea** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:00 pm

Its always been part of this forum. I have criticised others on here for certain posts and even poked some amusing comments towards certain people.

If there is petty bickering them on several occaisions mods have told the guilty parties to keep it to private conversations...what else can the mods do?

Either accept it or not because it wont go away

POSTIGER · Post by **POSTIGER** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 12:32 am

I think the mods generally do a good job - I think the finger has to be pointed at the people who deliberately make their job a difficult one. I have started a few threads recently and each team the thread has gone off on some ridiculous tangent and the whole point is lost.

I think we should all try and stick to the subject being discussed in each thread and for god's sake enjoy the debate! If everyone saw everything the same way there would be no forum!

Iain · Post by **Iain** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:51 am

I don't think it would be a bad idea at all to temporarily ban people if they step out of line. Other forums do it. If they kick off about it when they return, they get banned again. If people criticise the moderators for the job they do, then that should also be a ban.

I would politely suggest that sometimes our moderators are too nice and it doesn't always help them.

Regarding the current state of the forum, I have made my feelings known on a couple of other threads as to who I feel the finger should be pointed at. It is getting to the point now whereby if you don't see me posting any more, don't be too surprised.

This forum has MASSIVELY deteriorated in quality over the last year or so.

Rizzo · Post by **Rizzo** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:12 pm

Thanks for the vote of support (?) Iain - one thing I have never been accused of is being "too nice"!

So how about this as a proposal?

1) things go off topic - moderators post requesting everyone bring it back on topic, if it doesn't, it gets locked. No one complains about locked posts (as if!).
2) Any posts that are not discussing the topic and are simply personal abuse, bickering or accusations will be removed. (no one complains about censorship - again, as if!)
3) People discuss RUGBY on the fans forum, and not bad English, grammar, who does or doesn't have inside information and how they get it, and so on. Anything not discussing rugby gets moved to chit chat. (no one complains that their post has been moved)
4) Everyone, of every nationality, race, creed, colour and sex, gets equal respect on their postings and anything considered by the moderators to be racist or offensive gets edited out. (see censorship comment)

Oh, and whilst we enforce all the above and warn persistent offenders they may be banned for a week, we also try and keep the place friendly, open, welcoming and fairly light-hearted.....

Anything else you think should be added?