Moderation

[Rackham]

I haven't exactly seen people get banned for discussing the implications. There's several threads in the PRR section that do discuss the implications for races and teams.

Some posts are getting deleted, others are left intact. It's disappointing and makes knowing when we can opine or not extremely difficult.

 

[Red Rick]

Some posts are getting deleted, others are left intact. It's disappointing and makes knowing when we can opine or not extremely difficult.

In my guesstimate the line is quite clear and people are just really poor at following it, only to come here to complain when the inevitable happens.

Tis the story of this thread.

 

[Sciatic]

Some posts are getting deleted, others are left intact. It's disappointing and makes knowing when we can opine or not extremely difficult.

Sure, I think it is disappointing and (a bit) difficult. In my professional career I've sometimes had trouble keeping a lid on some of my ideas and problem solving when it was best left to a pause in the discussion or save it for later. Hard to keep my mouth shut when I've got a lot to say. As a physical cue, I started carrying a roll of duct tape to our own staff meetings or taping a piece of duct tape on my hand for meetings that included clients. It was the best I could do to remind myself to keep my mouth shut.

 

[Rackham]

In my guesstimate the line is quite clear and people are just really poor at following it, only to come here to complain when the inevitable happens.

Tis the story of this thread.

I'll say it as delicately as possible: I have the handbreak on when I'm about to post a comment that appraises IPT's situation from a realpolitik perspective. I'm not even talking about defending Israel here, I'm talking about adding caveats regarding "why" it's not a slam-dunk situation with an easy political solution like kicking them out.

But I'm not seeing the same from those who post about expelling IPT and punishing them. Those political comments seem to be spreading here like confetti. Including that Cycling Weekly article posted a few posts ago.

 

[Sciatic]

I'll say it as delicately as possible: I have the handbreak on when I'm about to post a comment that appraises IPT's situation from a realpolitik perspective. I'm not even talking about defending Israel here, I'm talking about adding caveats regarding "why" it's not a slam-dunk situation with an easy political solution like kicking them out.

But I'm not seeing the same from those who post about expelling IPT and punishing them. Those political comments seem to be spreading here like confetti. Including that Cycling Weekly article posted a few posts ago.

You're right, that's a very ambiguous line. It's kind of ironic though, for the 5 previous years the vast majority of discussions re: IPT involved sarcastic comments about Froome's contract.

 

[titan31]

I think if you can't discuss the biggest story in cycling (like you basically can't address the UCI statement yesterday or Bilbao's comments today), what's the point of the forum?

Hell, Bilbao and UCI would probably have been banned here as their statements contradict the forum rules.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Sure, I think it is disappointing and (a bit) difficult. In my professional career I've sometimes had trouble keeping a lid on some of my ideas and problem solving when it was best left to a pause in the discussion or save it for later. Hard to keep my mouth shut when I've got a lot to say. As a physical cue, I started carrying a roll of duct tape to our own staff meetings or taping a piece of duct tape on my hand for meetings that included clients. It was the best I could do to remind myself to keep my mouth shut.

I got worried reading that that you were going to say that you put the duct tape over your mouth, or possibly even that of others at the meeting, or at least that you physically stuck your hand to the table to avoid raising it (or hitting anyone with it).

 

[Red Rick]

I think if you can't discuss the biggest story in cycling (like you basically can't address the UCI statement yesterday or Bilbao's comments today), what's the point of the forum?

Discussing actual races?

There's a thousand and one things about cycling one could want to discuss on here. If we substract one topic that still leaves a thousand topics.

 

[Sciatic]

I think if you can't discuss the biggest story in cycling (like you basically can't address the UCI statement yesterday or Bilbao's comments today), what's the point of the forum?

Hell, Bilbao and UCI would probably have been banned here as their statements contradict the forum rules.

Have you ever worked in a place where some very serious bad sh--- is going down and has to be dealt with? My first career was in mental health work--psychiatric hospitals, community clinics, and also a stint doing child abuse evaluations in children's hospital emergency room. Terrible, awful stuff. Do you think as staff we didn't choose to keep those discussions to one place, and then talk about sports, films, weekend plans, etc. in another place?
Even in my second career, in a calm, non-stress profession, our Friday afternoon gathering for beers had only one rule: no work talk. It really is possible to separate where and when we choose to talk about things.

 

[Sciatic]

I think if you can't discuss the biggest story in cycling (like you basically can't address the UCI statement yesterday or Bilbao's comments today), what's the point of the forum?

Hell, Bilbao and UCI would probably have been banned here as their statements contradict the forum rules.

Keep in mind, that's the biggest story in cycling (apparently) for you. It's not for me and may not be for other people.

 

[titan31]

Keep in mind, that's the biggest story in cycling (apparently) for you. It's not for me and may not be for other people.

I mean some people are calling for the end of the Vuelta and races in Spain. This has probably been the biggest story in cycling since the doping affairs imo. The winner of the second stage of the Tour of Poyang Lake really isn't in the same ballpark(only race I can see today)

 

[Sciatic]

I mean some people are calling for the end of the Vuelta and races in Spain. This has probably been the biggest story in cycling since the doping affairs imo. The winner of the second stage of the Tour of Poyang Lake really isn't in the same ballpark(only race I can see today)

If you mean biggest story in the media where you are, I'll take your word for it. But we all get to decide what's biggest (most relevant) for ourselves.

 

[Sciatic]

I got worried reading that that you were going to say that you put the duct tape over your mouth, or possibly even that of others at the meeting, or at least that you physically stuck your hand to the table to avoid raising it (or hitting anyone with it).

Well that was the idea . . . except metaphorically

 

[RedheadDane]

I got worried reading that that you were going to say that you put the duct tape over your mouth, or possibly even that of others at the meeting, or at least that you physically stuck your hand to the table to avoid raising it (or hitting anyone with it).

TBF, I just read your reply at first without reading the previous post (yes... I know...) and thought it was about conduct here.
Like... how is putting duct tape over your mouth gonna help in a forum-setting?

 

[Cookster15]

Have you ever worked in a place where some very serious bad sh--- is going down and has to be dealt with? My first career was in mental health work--psychiatric hospitals, community clinics, and also a stint doing child abuse evaluations in children's hospital emergency room. Terrible, awful stuff. Do you think as staff we didn't choose to keep those discussions to one place, and then talk about sports, films, weekend plans, etc. in another place?
Even in my second career, in a calm, non-stress profession, our Friday afternoon gathering for beers had only one rule: no work talk. It really is possible to separate where and when we choose to talk about things.

Very good point. I believe this is known in psychology as compartmentalization. A skill that more members should make themselves aware of:-

the act of separating something into parts and not allowing those parts to mix together

Like separating the politics (not allowed) from the cycling (why we come here). As mentioned ad nauseam, current events can elicit strong feelings but we cannot allow politics to be posted in this forum - anywhere.

 

[red_flanders]

I find it quite irritating to do all I can to NOT talk about politics, per understandable forum rules, while others continue on with it constantly.

To then have that stance correlated with a political position, to be called a fascist, suggesting I want people beaten when I’ve said nothing of the sort…well, those kinds of things haven’t been great for me. It’s left me with a lot of negative feelings about some folks on the forum.

Avoiding THAT kind of member disharmony is exactly why the rule exists.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I find it quite irritating to do all I can to NOT talk about politics, per understandable forum rules, while others continue on with it constantly.

To then have that stance correlated with a political position, to be called a fascist, suggesting I want people beaten when I’ve said nothing of the sort…well, those kinds of things haven’t been great for me. It’s left me with a lot of negative feelings about some folks on the forum.

Avoiding THAT kind of member disharmony is exactly why the rule exists.

Please do report such posts.

 

[red_flanders]

Please do report such posts.

Well the first example is in this thread.

it very soon became apparent that opinions about the line that authorities should take in relation to protestors correlated so strongly to the same posters' opinions on the issue in Gaza that the issue became a proxy argument for the wider one.

I find that a pretty amazing stance for a moderator to take, let alone declare publicly. I'm fairly sure you don't have any insight into my views on the "issue in Gaza".

For the others I mentioned, both mods were active participants in the thread where they happened, which was eventually closed. I'm not asking for mod intervention on those particular incidents. I'm simply stating that letting it things run as far as they did, while some people (almost all of them former mods) tried to hold the line on politics, felt...annoying.

Not the end of the world. A tough balance to deal with as a mod. But I thought it worth mentioning all the same, amidst the calls for allowing politics, and the declarations that the forum is pointless if discussing this situation is not allowed.

My intent was to suggest to those folks that there is and was a price to be paid when we descend into contentious issues, and that price is some fairly poor opinions of one another, which may or may not be warranted. That's not good for the forum community. In my view it's untenable.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Please do report such posts.

Just out of curiosity, how does the reporting system work? Do moderators get to see who the reporter is or is it anonymous? Does the reporter have to state a reason for reporting?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Just out of curiosity, how does the reporting system work? Do moderators get to see who the reporter is or is it anonymous? Does the reporter have to state a reason for reporting?

Yes, it does carry the name of the person reporting.

There is a box to explain what you think is problematic. I suppose we can look at it if there wasn't a reason given, I don't think it's ever happened, nor can I imagine why someone would feel a need to.

Feel free to report this post if you want to test out the system.

 

[RedheadDane]

There is a box to explain what you think is problematic. I suppose we can look at it if there wasn't a reason given, I don't think it's ever happened, nor can I imagine why someone would feel a need to.

Sometimes, the reason is pretty obvious.
Like when the "post" is just a wall of text - not necessarily using Latin letters - with a bunch of links.

 

[Red Rick]

Sometimes, the reason is pretty obvious.
Like when the "post" is just a wall of text - not necessarily using Latin letters - with a bunch of links.

Yeah but if you're taking the time to even hit report, typing in 'spam' isn't much of an effort is it.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yeah but if you're taking the time to even hit report, typing in 'spam' isn't much of an effort is it.

Of course not. And I will admit that I might have sometimes been a little sarcastic in my wording.
Hope the mods - including you when you were one - always understood that the sarcasm was aimed at the spam-bot, not the mods.

Though, I am glad AC explained that you can just report the spam-bot, instead of having to report every... single... post...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sometimes, the reason is pretty obvious.
Like when the "post" is just a wall of text - not necessarily using Latin letters - with a bunch of links.

Damn, I must get more posts reported than I realised!

 

[RedheadDane]

Damn, I must get more posts reported than I realised!

Your posts actually contain sentences.
You also tend to use Latin letters.