One of the main reasons we wanted to bring the Politics forum back was to stop political talk spreading to other areas of the forum. When I created it I set out a state of basic rules everyone can understand and adhere to. During its infancy on its return to the forum things seemed to go pretty well but over the past six months or so things are getting worse with a lot more infighting, name calling and personal abuse aimed at certain members due to disagreements on points of view. We seem to be getting a large increase in reported posts, and @HappyHornet24 has even added a polite notice in the rules section. We do let a few small things slide, but every report is looked into and actioned in accordance to the rules of the forum which were implemented when the forum was designed. It's politics, yes people are going to disagree and have heated views on many things. Please, for our sanity and yours, can we please keep the infighting off this forum. We have stated time and time again you have an 'Ignore' button which hides all posts from a member you do not wish to read. Please use it. Have debates, explain your sides, this is fine. But personal insults/attacking other members is not going to be tolerated anymore. If these actions continue, we will have no choice but to delete the entire sub forum (which we do not want to do), which of course would nullify the entire premise of keeping such views out of other areas of the forum. I know you are mature and reasonable people. All we ask is that the rules implemented on this sub forum and the rules of WFC Forums be followed. If you have any personal questions about this, please send one of the moderating team a PM. I will leave this thread open for any discussion on how we can move forward. Thank you for reading this and understanding our concerns. WFC Forums Staff
I’ve made it very clear that I will when that is necessary. I don’t see a problem with that. That’s the forum’s mechanism. But I haven’t done so over the few weeks, so someone else is clearly unhappy.
Thing is one can use the ignore button if there is one individual that is just full of £&@£ in your opinion (and I do have one on my ignore list) but that doesn’t help those who suffer when getting abuse in a pack mentality style I disagree in the politics section with far more people than I concur with but haven’t encountered the pack abuse that I witnessed the other day
In all honesty I don't think there's an easy solution, as if there was it would have come to light years ago. I don't criticise the moderators for this but if you're going to be permissive and let everything run, it's going to occasionally bubble over. Either you allow politics (and non-football) chat or you don't. You either act on reports or you don't. You either ban people or you don't. All are valid choices. The risk of course is you guys clearly don't want to be reading the pages of drivel we collectively produce here to unpick who said or what or why, and who went first, and if it was remotely justified. Even I don't know or care half the time. And there's so much water under the bridge anyone coming to it afresh probably wouldn't get it. Ultimately though, as it has for about 5 years now, this debate revolves around one user. There's really no getting away from that. Maybe it's time to have a rule that to participate here you have to be an active user on the football side of the forum? After all, that's why it exists.
I think you've conducted yourself brilliantly on the Israel/Hamas thread. You've been insightful, I've definitely learned stuff and even in the face of some strongly opposing views you've been patient and fair. In return I think the tone of the debate has stayed pretty calm. It's how this section should work.
The ignore button isn’t enough though. I have ignored one individual for months but all my posts are then targeted by that person. I mean hundreds. You need to be able to fully block, like on Twitter (X) so the person you are ignoring can’t read yours. This is a community and ultimately that’s about respect. 99% can manage that.
I resent implication that I should be interested in football. It’s bad enough having to go fortnightly.
I didn’t realise that’s not how it worked. The person I have on ignore I presumed couldn’t read my posts like I can’t read his. That makes much more sense and one for the mods to consider. Ignore means no interaction at all (at least you now know it’s not you )
Dont know why people are getting upset about the role playing section of the forum anyway, or is this thread part of the role play too?
Or you could stop insulting poster without provocation, as you did the other day. The issue the foum is having is not my behaviour, but behaviour you displayed. And you want to get rid of me, because I made you do it? Perhaps we just go with the existing rules, and not abuse other posters just because they disagree with you. You know that if you don't insult me, I will not insult you. My history with the club goes back to being a babe in arms, I shared a bottle of wine with Graham Taylor a few weeks before he died, I regularly get together with people who were integral to the Club in the eighties and nineties, and I am frequently asked for anecdotes and stories about the Club, for publications, during the time I was there. Create your childish rule if you can't handle spirited debate, but remember that this all started when I criticised a poster for using racially abusive language regarding a minority group, and Moose got upset after I criticised him for defending the poster. Perhaps it is guilt or shame that makes you lot feel the way you do.
How so cyan? Can you give an example of me insulting someone that did not insult me first? Of course not. So you will just continue to abuse me until I give up and go away, or insult you back so Moose can report me.
Keighley. Do you have any reasoning behind your dislike of me? The worst spat I remember having with you was when I put you right after you referred to there being laws of English language. Not still sore about that are you? No. Catching you out like that would probably amount to a banning offence to you
Moose. You are the most abusive bullying member of the site. What you used to do to poor old ZZ was horrible. I consider myself to have been given an easy ride in comparison.
When someone called East African Asians C***ish on this forum, I was tha ONLY PERSON that called them out for it, and faced the direct criticism of four posters for doing so, because they agreed with him politically. Only one of those people retracted what they said, another I met up with in a pub, after he threatened to punch me (it was Cley, and to be fair, he threatened to puch everyone at some time or other), and we had a reasonable chat about it all, and got on Ok. And now you are trying to hound me out, because Moose winds you all up, and, barring Clive, theres not a single one of you that can deal with someone disagreeing with you, let alone when they point out you are talking rubbish. Its like getting the bus from 'Dream Team' to work each day. Problem is, I enjoy it. I am sorry. You make me laugh. I genuinely love every one of you. Come on Cyan. Cheer me up...
HH - don’t take it so seriously. If entering the politics section I fully understand that the vast majority on this board lean to the left. Some are left of Corbyn, some are left of centre. I’m not. My view on politics will never ever agree with the majority of the posters some causes I’m very happy to discuss, normally ones I’m passionate about. Other causes I will leave to others If you feel you’re getting “insulted” and it affects you then turn off your computer and walk away.
I don't feel insulted. I have lived with and loved chronic narsissits all my life. If you can deal with that, then dealining with Moose and the rest is simple. They play to a formula, and I irritate them because I am fully aware of it. I use the technigue in real life, socially and professionally, and it is incredibly effective, and I am frequently called on to defuse situations or mediate. It works face to face, but not so well when the other person isn't able to look you in the eye. I enjoy the back and forth, though it is a nause when they get into campaign mode, like now. But how did it start? UEA got abusive, totally out of the blue, I responded to him with a similar level of a dig, then someone got the mods to delete my post and warn the forum. It is childish stupidity, and I don't take it seriously. But I do take racism seriously, and anti-Semitism. But I have heard plenty of it on here from people who otherwise virtue signal about their purity and morality. From casual unthinking comments, to defence of old fashioned bigoted terminology (such as Third World and the use of 'black and brown people' to describe minorities), and to the utterence of the most disgusting racial insults and multiple people defending them. A lot of those things don't happen so much now, because I have made people more accountable for what they say. Like it or not. And they don't. Then you have the beauty of arguments on here, like the one in my signature, where people will argue with universally accepted laws and conventions because they just can't deal with the reality. Challenging such views, whilst futile on the face of it, because they are not going to admit to it if they did change their view, but I usually come away thinking, at least, that they are less likely to make such an argument in the real world.
I Maybe reread how you phrase things. I’ve had many disagreements with Moose but never ever found it personal and fully accept its just because we view life through different lenses. you may also want to tone down how much change you think you can personally affect on others. I have one person on this board down as purely AS. I may be right I may be wrong. I don’t know him personally but I don’t like his exchanges. So he goes on ignore. I have no skin in the game here. But I would say that most times you exchange with others it ends up being personal. It can’t always be others fault
I don’t want to get rid of you. It’s factually correct to say this all revolves around you though. Every conflict, every time the Politics sections blows up and, often, every closed thread. You could simply moderate your own actions but no, you refuse to as your chosen character here is to be the antagonist. Which again bears highlighting, is the role you’ve self-selected. By opting out of the vast majority of the forum you also make a choice that means everyone’s interaction with you is only through the lens of politics. Even your take on the ‘insult’ in the Ukraine thread (which no doubt you’re going to bang on about until time ends) doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. A short jokey back and forth about the conflict falling out of the news between some other users and you quote reply over a week later with a poker straight response which very quickly spirals into a bizarre soliloquy all about you. And you’re accusing others of narcissism? So far as I can see you wrote an attention seeking post and got attention. I had no issue with your response either, by the way. I certainly wasn’t insulted.
Hmm. Not sure that anyone reading your previous posts would take much of that seriously. I appreciate your admission that it is the presence of my opposing views that cause such consternation on the forum. I find it peculiar, from a human social point of view, though not surprising for this thread, that when it was an unprovoked abusive post by yourself that started this, followed by a another member selectively reporting my response, you choose to attack me as the cause. You know I am not bothered by it, and you know I will give it back. But you also know the type of reaction it gets from other posters encouraging them to do the same, and you know the mods don't like it and it is against the forum rules. Now you also know that if I do give it back to you, I will get my post deleted and the mods will have to warn us all again. I accused no one of narcissism, though the accusation has been levelled at me in the past, presumably causeing you no concern at the time. I explained that having dealt with and loved narcissists all my life, I find the behaviour on this forum easy to deal with. It is nothing in comparisson.
How about this as a suggested rule: If two adults on here are having a discussion that involves some consensual abusive language (inflammatory banter let's say), that, provided it is not generally offensive (racism, bigotry, poor taste), a third member complaining about it be prohibited from having it deleted. That is, a member may not have a post deleted for offense unless they were its target. That way complaints can't be selectively weaponised, whilst posters are still able to report abuse they are uncomfortable with. I guess there is a chance that the person who got the post deleted was their local village's idiot, in which case I am very, very sorry.
how about this as a suggested rule…learn this isn’t real life. Your family is all that’s important. This is a way of whiling away a few hours. So if people start abusing you, ignore, walk away, go give your kids/wife/inflatable doll a cuddle and re engage with the forum at a later date