Four reasons why I won't be emailing Daniel Benson

[Granville57]

1)

ebandit has been reading the clinic and active as of today, but it looks like he has not posted since July

(How is it anyone's business as to where and when any forum member is spending their own time behind the scenes?)



2)

Your not Irish? Your IP suggested otherwise but who cares anyway?

(Ah, the classic abuse of insider knowledge.)



3) The above quotes are examples of the most egregious and irresponsible abuse of mod powers, and they should be open to public discussion.



4) Nobody, but NOBDOY, joins a "forum" to be pen pals with Dan Benson (sorry to break the news to you).


Now reopen the damn Mod thread and stop behaving like insolent grade-school principals.

 

[pedaling squares]

The whole concept is ridiculous. Email me with your complaints or issues that go unresolved, but I'm closing the thread where issues are raised and discussed. So how do we attempt to resolve the issues now - via PM where only two perspectives are involved, by derailing existing threads, or by creating new threads for every issue? The moderator thread existed as a place for debates and a place to vent for a couple of years, until some mods acted like children, inflamed the debate, and ran to Dad when the flames grew too big. This forum blows.

 

[Scott SoCal]

The whole concept is ridiculous. Email me with your complaints or issues that go unresolved, but I'm closing the thread where issues are raised and discussed. So how do we attempt to resolve the issues now - via PM where only two perspectives are involved, by derailing existing threads, or by creating new threads for every issue? The moderator thread existed as a place for debates and a place to vent for a couple of years, until some mods acted like children, inflamed the debate, and ran to Dad when the flames grew too big. This forum blows.

Did the lawyer types ever get back to the suits regarding the Papp episode? Hope they aren't paid by the hour.

There used to be a "forum blows" thread. BroDeal, I think.

Ah, the good ol' days.

 

[Granville57]

Did the lawyer types ever get back to the suits regarding the Papp episode?

I tried to get to the bottom of that nearly a year ago, but before I had a cha...[Edited by mod]
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=19789

 

[TexPat]

Go easy on Daniel Benson, guys. He's very sensitive. Not at all like the thicker-skinned nitwits of the journalism field.

 

[BroDeal]

Oh, yeah. The Papp incident, where management decided keeping a scumbag around was more important that keeping a bunch of members who contributed a lot of the content that made the forum worthwhile. Of course they could not simply be honest about it; they had to stonewall the issue, hoping everyone would forget about it.

The old mods did a decent job of keeping the trolling in check. The new mods, not so much. After a whirlwind of trolling that caused people to leave or radically cut back their posting, the even newer mods decided there was a new sheriff in town and this one horse town needed to be cleaned up. The result: The one horse left town for greener pastures.

 

[Hugh Januss]

1) (How is it anyone's business as to where and when any forum member is spending their own time behind the scenes?)



2) (Ah, the classic abuse of insider knowledge.)



3) The above quotes are examples of the most egregious and irresponsible abuse of mod powers, and they should be open to public discussion.



4) Nobody, but NOBDOY, joins a "forum" to be pen pals with Dan Benson (sorry to break the news to you).


Now reopen the damn Mod thread and stop behaving like insolent grade-school principals.

Hah, good one, and a big +1

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

1) (How is it anyone's business as to where and when any forum member is spending their own time behind the scenes?)



2) (Ah, the classic abuse of insider knowledge.)



3) The above quotes are examples of the most egregious and irresponsible abuse of mod powers, and they should be open to public discussion.



4) Nobody, but NOBDOY, joins a "forum" to be pen pals with Dan Benson (sorry to break the news to you).


Now reopen the damn Mod thread and stop behaving like insolent grade-school principals.

I think 1) Is open to the public.

For instance if I go to your profile

Click on Activity and under General Information will show you the last time you were on (I think that is what it means).

And, you can just click on

Find all posts by Granville57

which will show your posts by order. So the top one will be your most recent.

 

[Hugh Januss]

I think 1) Is open to the public.

For instance if I go to your profile

Click on Activity and under General Information will show you the last time you were on (I think that is what it means).

And, you can just click on

Find all posts by Granville57

which will show your posts by order. So the top one will be your most recent.

Ahh, so answer the easiest one , and you said what?
Which mod are you a sockpuppet of?

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Ahh, so answer the easiest one , and you said what?
Which mod are you a sockpuppet of?

What are you babbling on about?

 

[sittingbison]

1)

ebandit has been reading the clinic and active as of today, but it looks like he has not posted since July

(How is it anyone's business as to where and when any forum member is spending their own time behind the scenes?

I think 1) Is open to the public....

pedro is correct. And is certainly no sockpuppet of mine.

I answered a question from another member lamenting ebandit leaving the forum, when he had not done so.

Onya Granville57. How is that disrespecting a members privacy or whatever it is you are insinuating?

 

[Granville57]

ebandit has been reading the clinic and active as of today...

1) (How is it anyone's business as to where and when any forum member is spending their own time behind the scenes?)

I think 1) Is open to the public.

pedro is correct.

Nope. You both seem to have missed the bolded part (and I'm disappointed because I tend to enjoy Pedro's sense of humor and was hoping for something witty and entertaining from him. That alone rules him out as being any mod sockpuppet to me).

I've been around long enough to fully understand User Profiles, Last Date of Activity, etc. Nowhere in the User Profile does it alert anyone else as to what sub-forums a member is reading. If ebandit hadn't "posted since July", then how would a mod know where he had been spending his time in October (the original date of Bison's post)?


I wait, with bated breath, for the circular discussion that will likely ensue of this subtle point.

 

[ebandit]

your reply from danny

gone

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Nope. You both seem to have missed the bolded part (and I'm disappointed because I tend to enjoy Pedro's sense of humor and was hoping for something witty and entertaining from him. That alone rules him out as being any mod sockpuppet to me).

I knew there was someone on these boards. It took 3 and a bit years but I finally found you...

Nowhere in the User Profile does it alert anyone else as to what sub-forums a member is reading. If ebandit hadn't "posted since July", then how would a mod know where he had been spending his time in October (the original date of Bison's post)?
[/SIZE]

If someone is currently online (Go to the forum index and at the bottom there is Currently Active Users to find who is). If you click on anyone on that list and go to their profile and statistics. You can see Current Activity which shows what they are looking at. Apologies if this is still missing what you are after.

 

[Christian]

Hello, the one about ebandit is my bad, I was the one who started it! Instead of posting about him, I should have contacted him directly and we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. I apologize for that

 

[ebandit]

no way

Hello, the one about ebandit is my bad, I was the one who started it! Instead of posting about him, I should have contacted him directly and we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. I apologize for that

no it were my bad for not posting anything of worth

Mark L

ps now if everyone cared as much as yourself christian the world would be

a better place

 

[Hugh Januss]

What are you babbling on about?

Apologies, I totally misread the point you were trying to make. In my defense it seems I was not the only one.

 

[Granville57]

If someone is currently online (Go to the forum index and at the bottom there is Currently Active Users to find who is). If you click on anyone on that list and go to their profile and statistics. You can see Current Activity which shows what they are looking at.

Hmmm. That's new to me. I see you have to jump through one more hoop of clicking on the Location tab. But when I view it, almost the entire list reads:
Viewing Index
CyclingNews Forum

There is only one member for whom there is a designated sub-forum that they are "viewing." Everyone else is apparently fascinated by only the Index (it does make for quite the compelling read).

A bit creepy, if you ask me. But thanks for the info.

 

[python]

@granville:

i agree with 80+ % of your points...particularly the main one - a british web news site - its forum included - regardless of the news profile MUST respect the elementary democratic value of the reading public having the right to critique the owners !

the cn forums clearly departed the all-important democratic principle. benson's 'e-mail me if you are critical' is, frankly speaking, an intentional deflection, an attempt to divert the discontent and muxzle it.

in stead of facing the uncomfortable yet important questions from many loyal and concerned members PUBLICLY, we are fed with red herring from the head honcho that challenge our intelligence. this is beyond disappointing.

that said, granville, you need not take pedro's explanations too adversely. he,imo was addressing the same points i, as any experienced surfer, would derive from a PUBLIC info. i am not sure of the minute script but pedro seemed genuine to me...

the same i felt about the sitting bison mod response you chose to criticize. (btw bison seems a reasonable chap). again, bison set himself for the misunderstanding (though he was driven by a good intention) by jumping to answering a random question... in an earlier post, i warned him and the other new guy-mods that NOT every question/doubt/hint need a response ! exactly because NOT EVERYONE would appreciate it. yet the consequences would be unpleasant for a mod who jumped. your critique of bison seems a case in point.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Apologies, I totally misread the point you were trying to make. In my defense it seems I was not the only one.

Nw.

I am slightly confused as to why people think these posts are not genuine? All I am pointing out is that there are features available that might explain how people can monitor other posters (As appear on about the other billion forums on the Interweb.

I am not agreeing with either the "critique" thread being deleted (I posted complaints as well). Nor am I not saying that some mods appear to abuse their powers.

And, in theory, Bison would be my Sockpuppet account since I was here first.

 

[darwin553]

@granville:

i agree with 80+ % of your points...particularly the main one - a british web news site - its forum included - regardless of the news profile MUST respect the elementary democratic value of the reading public having the right to critique the owners !

It is the part of the site that really impressed me when I first joined in June of this year.

I had posted a lot on this other forum solely before joining this one and what troubled me with that site is that they immediately closed down any threads that looked to either provide suggestions to improve the site or threads which provided criticism of existing aspects of it which included the ways in which it was being moderated. Similar to here in that they insisted that all criticisms had to be aired via PM to moderators or the owner instead.

But I feel in both instances that it is just a measure to sweep all grievances members have under the carpet

 

[Afrank]

It is the part of the site that really impressed me when I first joined in June of this year.

I had posted a lot on this other forum solely before joining this one and what troubled me with that site is that they immediately closed down any threads that looked to either provide suggestions to improve the site or threads which provided criticism of existing aspects of it which included the ways in which it was being moderated. Similar to here in that they insisted that all criticisms had to be aired via PM to moderators or the owner instead.

But I feel in both instances that it is just a measure to sweep all grievances members have under the carpet

Agree, especially with the bolded. Criticism is not a bad thing, it is a good means through which the forum can be improved upon. People just need to be open to that criticism and not take it as an insult to how they do something (which is really not that hard a thing to do). The moderator thread was good for this. It provided an easy way to both give and receive that criticism. Closing down such a thread doesn't fix the forums problems in any way. It, as darwin rightly points out, sweeps those problem under the rug. And it just makes people frustrated.

And saying PM a mod if you have a problem doesn't solve anything IMO. If I personally had an issue with something or someone on the forum, I'd be much more likely to tell a moderator through a thread then PMing them personally.

 

[darwin553]

And saying PM a mod if you have a problem doesn't solve anything IMO. If I personally had an issue with something or someone on the forum, I'd be much more likely to tell a moderator through a thread then PMing them personally.

Also, with all due respect to the moderators (current and former), but there is no surprise that we have seen some howlers in modern times in terms of decisions to suspend members or delete certain parts of posts and what adds to that suspicion that PMs to moderators/owner/s to resolve problems as a preferred avenue of resolution does not work is the fact that they all come on these sorts of feedback/suggestion/criticism threads to come up with argument as to why the original decision of a certain mod was right.

Now that is all well and good if we the members also are provided a forum to discuss and debate the merits of their argument but if it is just through a PM well then it tends to be the be all and end all of arguments that the mod's position was right when it may not be.

 

[hiero2]

. . .

The old mods did a decent job of keeping the trolling in check. The new mods, not so much. After a whirlwind of trolling that caused people to leave or radically cut back their posting, the even newer mods decided there was a new sheriff in town and this one horse town needed to be cleaned up. The result: The one horse left town for greener pastures.

Ya know, Bro, I've heard that b4. I honestly think two things, and I still believe them - there is too much trolling going on here. And, that many of our long time "residents" are as guilty, sometimes more, than many of those who get snapped for it.

I think y'all have noticed, but I quit the mod squad. This is my official announcement of same. We disagreed about both management goals and forum goals. Not a good situation for anyone, and I'm not one to hang around when my hanging around would cause more heartache, not less. 'Nuff said on that.

I did leave the forums' mods better off than when I started. They now have a history of mod decisions and comments gathered in one location - that is - in one location that is a little more concise and readable than cruising the whole forum looking for stuff. I did the looking and digging through history for them. I also made a couple of small "how-to's" for some basic modding activities (how to do them in vBulletin). And, although I have to give final credit to Dan for the new rules, I did provide the examples from other forums that these were based on. I know not everyone agrees, but they ARE now better written, a little more clear, and more up-to-date. The old rules were not written by one person - but a series of people (as near as I could tell) - and showed it. I think the new set is more clearly defined.

Cheers to all, and thanks for the opportunity to try and help for a while.

 

[Cyivel]

Thank You for your work hiero2 brother.