Moderators

[neil69cyclist]

I am not sure if there are any moderators on these forums but I just think that the amount of frankly slanderous comments on here from a few contributors is just out of hand ( I even put my hands up to a couple of comments, but I no more it is ridiculous) !!

If this was going to be a forum of genuine contribution like the old cycling plus forums/new Bike Radar then it needs some more input from moderators who can genuinely give input.

I am dissapointed with the new web site (Bikeradar lite) the old simple version , with it's daily updates gave a block of information that covered 5 or 6 stories, now you get each of these individually and are repeated in the old style blocks and the race results links are just odd !!

 

[EricBikeCO]

Boy, you got that right. As BigBoat (and others) continually shows with every post, Future Publishing should have someone removing these pieces of slanderous idiocy. It is not a stretch of reality that any one of these riders sues and shuts down this whole site.

I have read the forum here and there for a long time. I usually find myself screaming expletives at my computer and leaving the room because of the massive amount of pure stupidity. A couple days ago, there was something that I just finally had to post about. Now 17 posts later I am done with this **** hole.

In those 17 posts, 15 of them had to have been summarized by:
1) LeMond is no angel and should shut up and prove his point(s) better
2) Armstrong is not evil incarnate, focus on something else jackass
3) stop ****ing on every rider who once had <insert supposedly convicted doper> fart in their presence.

Once I see an intelligent thread on this thing that doesn't immediately go form "can I run a SRAM gizmo with a Shimano gizmo" to "Armstrong doped in the 200_ TdF inside of 4 replies, I might allow all of you the insight of my 20 years cycling and following cycling.

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH.

 

[neil69cyclist]

I am a troll (only found out today what it was ) so it seems as I keep winding them up but it is fun, the amount of bitterness is quite scary !!

 

[Anonymous]

ah moderation.. the hot topic on forums all over the world...

i agree this forum could do with more moderation, however before doing so, much broader and stricter guidelines would need to be laid down covering what was acceptable and what wasnt.. you cant simply moderate without guidelines...

On this board, if i was a mod, are there things i would remove, god yes, would it be to the benefit of the forum.. probably not, people see moderation as censorship and simple leave, usually after causing a massive fuss...

Things are getting better, there is not much wrong if you simply choose to put the people who annoy you on ignore..

Bigboat, as his name has come up, yes frankly im bored at the constant copy and pasting of his obviously standardised response about everyone being jacked to the eyeballs, i think maybe its just something that a quiet word in his ear from someone with a bit of standing.. some of what he has to say is well informed and interesting, the constant jacking comments which are probably 90% of what he says are boring.. but there is an answer.. ignore him if you dont want to listen...

there is definately room for moderation, but i prefer to see moderation as housekeeping rather than censorship...

first though, like i say, guidelines, but also the forum needs massive work with more sections or subsections.. one general road forum simply isnt enough.. and we still have no general chat section or coffee shop whatever you want to call it for things like discussion on cycling books, cycling videos etc.. ..

 

[Amsterhammer]

Agree with the comments here. Stricter rules are necessary to prevent the handful of usual suspects from dragging every single topic down to their dope-obsessed, LA hating level.

When I joined up just a few days ago, I was hoping to find a place to share the love of the sport with like-minded posters from around the world, and to enjoy the Tour. I was (and am) appalled by what is allowed to go on here in the way of sweeping accusations that are backed up by nothing more than the poster's blind hatred.

I wrote to a mod and said as much. This is part of the reply I received -

"We try to take a light-handed approach to moderating. Frankly I think a lot of what is written is possibly actionable, but I also know that Future has a good legal department, and I hope that they keep an eye on things here."

So, we need to "hope" that the legal dept. is keeping an eye out. In my humble opinion, and speaking as someone who spent years as both mod and admin on several football forums, there are a number of posters here who urgently need to be put on a final warning before they are banned.

 

[neil69cyclist]

Dimspace I have to say I agree with you on much of this but if the people that left were the knobs that post cr*p then would we miss them !

They can just copy over the Bikeradar forum and voila you have exactly what you are talking about, I don't know why they haven't just linked cyclingnews to bikeradar anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

"We try to take a light-handed approach to moderating. Frankly I think a lot of what is written is possibly actionable, but I also know that Future has a good legal department, and I hope that they keep an eye on things here."

i dont think its so much about what is actionable and legal, i think its more about what is boring and repetative..

my main critism is we do need many more sections added, a general coffee shop area, possiby a seperate are for doping, it does warrant it and then you are able to put in the road section "NO DOPING" and any posts in there about doping CAN THEN BE REMOVED, but as long as there isnt a section they cant be.. A lot of things could be done with the forum that would control a lot of it..

if was a mod would i remove all the doping posts, NO, but i would move them all to a doping section so that those who wanted to talk about RACING could do.. simple.. thats just one of many things that could be done..

The forum is badly organised from a layout/catagory point of view.. i think that should be rectified (as we asked months ago), and then worry about the other things.. basically, if there isnt a place to talk crap, people are gonna talk crap somewhere else ie. the road forum..

 

[Amsterhammer]

i dont think its so much about what is actionable and legal, i think its more about what is boring and repetative..

my main critism is we do need many more sections added, a general coffee shop area, possiby a seperate are for doping, it does warrant it and then you are able to put in the road section "NO DOPING" and any posts in there about doping CAN THEN BE REMOVED, but as long as there isnt a section they cant be.. A lot of things could be done with the forum that would control a lot of it..

if was a mod would i remove all the doping posts, NO, but i would move them all to a doping section so that those who wanted to talk about RACING could do.. simple.. thats just one of many things that could be done..

The forum is badly organised from a layout/catagory point of view.. i think that should be rectified (as we asked months ago), and then worry about the other things.. basically, if there isnt a place to talk crap, people are gonna talk crap somewhere else ie. the road forum..

Agree with your comments, particularly with what I have put in bold. Things could improve enormously if the handful of posters who are ruining this place for everyone else had a separate forum where they could obsess about their doping and Lance fixations, with the clear understanding that their posts would be removed if they post on these subjects in the general forum.

edit - as I'm new here, who's the head honcho or admin among the mods?

 

[Anonymous]

edit - as I'm new here, who's the head honcho or admin among the mods?

interesting question.. there are mods, but there arnt..

CN would probably say "our staff pop in from time to time and try and keep an eye on the place..." Susan W seems the most active, but its not her job as such... they are showing the forum off as a big part of the site.. i honestly think that they need to take responsibility and make sure it is controlled..

As for the sections, for obvious reasons it would seem the IT guys are busy, and probably will be for some time sorting out other problems..

to be honest, the forum has been going a while now and it wouldnt take much for CN to allocate mods from some of the members who are responsible and sensible.. but, nobody would mod with the forum laid out like it is now.. like i said, im happy with doping posts, but NOT in the road section, im happy with people spouting off about lance, but if its on a thread that it not relevant to lance the thread needs to be split into two.. then if "someone" repeatedly derails threads in a normal section back to doping, then they can be warned and banned..

as before. housekeeping, not censorship..

 

[BroDeal]

The only poster who it seems posts stuff I would consider libelous in the U.S. is BigBoat, who I am convinced often just makes stuff up including half of his supposed knowledge of doping products and techniques. The other posters reference known facts or knowledge that is common to anyone who closely follows cycling. They will usually give a line of reasoning as to why they believe something. For example, someone might say that with Vande Velde's team history, his placing in the 2008 TdF against the top riders, and the prevalence of doping, they don't trust Garmin-Slipstream. BigBoat on the other hand will flatly state that Vande Velde is blood doping. There is a big difference.

I also find it funny that Amsterhammer is complaining. He has been the worst offender as far as disruption. All he does is call people names. I cannot remember him coming up with a single good line of reasoning to support his beliefs.

 

[craig1985]

I have to agree with you Dimspace, we do need more sub sections anbd more mods (non CN staff). Look the writers do a great job and I love the work they done in revamping the site and putting in a forum, but they have other fish to fry and I wouldn't expect them to a million things at once.

I think we also need to start cleaning up threads and topics. Sure Simon Gerrans got dropped by Cervelo for their TdF roster, but do we need two threads on it? One is enough, and therefore I think it would be in that case the fair thing would be to merge threads and with the mod who did, just to say "threads merged", and the same to apply to the few Contador/Garmin threads, where it would be easier to merge them both (or you just lock them). And nor do we need 100 topics on whether or not Astana are going to go **** up or not. And another example is that we have a thread on TdF line-ups, so is important to have another thread on it (see Columbia)?

Again I would look to cut down on the insults and name calling. It's just a forum, and if it is eating you up, then go for a bike ride somewhere and clear your head.

I think just a lot of little things could improve the forum a whole lot better. As I said I don't expect the writers to have the time to read every post and write content for the front page, so let's have some more people to help them out.

BTW I'm not putting my hand up to be a mod, I don't want to, and nor is it my place to tell somebody what to do. I'm offering some fair feedback to make this place better.

 

[Anonymous]

agree.. housekeeping is needed...

but as the above demonstrates.. plenty of people know what needs doing and know how to do it, but dont want to do it.. lol... therein lies the problem..

 

[Amsterhammer]

I also find it funny that Amsterhammer is complaining. He has been the worst offender as far as disruption. All he does is call people names. I cannot remember him coming up with a single good line of reasoning to support his beliefs.

You people would make me laugh if the state of affairs here wasn't so sad. I joined this board to discover that a small handful of posters, including you Bro, more or less terrorize the place with your domineering, bullying, constant trolling. Every topic (more or less) degenerates into doping bull**** and anti-Lance tirades because you people have been allowed to get away with it. In a properly run forum you would not be allowed to get away with it!

I am not a name caller, but yes, I react to being called a Lance tea-bagger or a little kid, and I react badly to bully boys in a situation where there seems to be no 'law' and no workable structure that prevents this small hardcore of 'bully boys' from inflicting their twisted, obsessive views on everyone else.

As was suggested above, let's by all means discuss doping in the sport, but let's do it in a separate forum or topic, not in every topic that comes up. Those of you who feel the need to express your boundless hatred of Lance should, of course, also have the opportunity to express those views. But not in every ****ing topic and not in the slanderous, offensive terms that some here are accustomed to using!

The way this forum is now abused by a small handful of posters will ensure that it dies, unless something is done to regulate posting behavior.

 

[Anonymous]

Dear Moderator,


These are things one single poster has posted to various people, including me, all in the last 36 hours.


You are so stupid you'd climb over a glass door to see what is on the other side.

Hey dumbass, I have been shooting art photography for well over 20 years.

Stick to what you know, being stupid.

No, I will just call you "DependsTM" from now on.....or even better "Oops I crapped my pants." "Imagine this pitcher of tea is a gallon of your own feces....."

So how does LA's chamois cream smell?

Dang, you don't handle not knowing what the f*&k you are talking about pretty badly.

To me he is as useless as toe jam and I have grown tired of his tiresome sniping

Little hint here dipsh!t, I am involved in the selling of advertising...

No moron,.....

You really are stupid.

OK, that's just stupid. You are either a sock puppet or you just fell off the turnip truck
---------------------------
and then this was in my private message box here

You are an absolute f u c k i n g dumbass. I have shot for long enough to know how to rip that photo to pieces, I just didn't.

The funniest part is how incredibly stupid you are verses what your perception of that is you f u c k i n g moron.

Seriously, you are a f u c k w i t to the nth degree.

-----------

I ask you. I this acceptable? Is this obscene juvenile behavier acceptable?

This is hurting you forum. New people come and get driven off by this person and one other. Accually they tag team attack sometime.
Some people leave and never come back.

You don't want to censor content.

But you seriously need to get behavior under control if you want to grow this forum

The personal insults are unacceptable.

I admit sometimes I retaliate.

They drag people down to their level.

I've seen it many times.

He thinks it's funny i'm sure.

a lot of people here, don't

In my world I do NOT ever let people talk to me that way. There would be consequences.

I won't tolerate it here either.

 

[craig1985]

agree.. housekeeping is needed...

but as the above demonstrates.. plenty of people know what needs doing and know how to do it, but dont want to do it.. lol... therein lies the problem..

Well I'm not going to go around saying in public "I want the job, make me a moderator" now am I? Considering we haven't have had official response yet, who knows what they are thinking or have planned?

 

[Anonymous]

fair point.. lol..

official response.. hmm.. maybe you should hve called the thread something more eyecatching..

 

[Anonymous]

Dear Moderator,


These are things one single poster has posted to various people, including me, all in the last 36 hours.


You are so stupid you'd climb over a glass door to see what is on the other side.

Hey dumbass, I have been shooting art photography for well over 20 years.

Stick to what you know, being stupid.

No, I will just call you "DependsTM" from now on.....or even better "Oops I crapped my pants." "Imagine this pitcher of tea is a gallon of your own feces....."

So how does LA's chamois cream smell?

Dang, you don't handle not knowing what the f*&k you are talking about pretty badly.

To me he is as useless as toe jam and I have grown tired of his tiresome sniping

Little hint here dipsh!t, I am involved in the selling of advertising...

No moron,.....

You really are stupid.

OK, that's just stupid. You are either a sock puppet or you just fell off the turnip truck
---------------------------
and then this was in my private message box here

You are an absolute f u c k i n g dumbass. I have shot for long enough to know how to rip that photo to pieces, I just didn't.

The funniest part is how incredibly stupid you are verses what your perception of that is you f u c k i n g moron.

Seriously, you are a f u c k w i t to the nth degree.

-----------

I ask you. I this acceptable? Is this obscene juvenile behavier acceptable?

This is hurting you forum. New people come and get driven off by this person and one other. Accually they tag team attack sometime.
Some people leave and never come back.

You don't want to censor content.

But you seriously need to get behavior under control if you want to grow this forum

The personal insults are unacceptable.

I admit sometimes I retaliate.

They drag people down to their level.

I've seen it many times.

He thinks it's funny i'm sure.

a lot of people here, don't

In my world I do NOT ever let people talk to me that way. There would be consequences.

I won't tolerate it here either.

must be one of the people ive got on iggy..

 

[Amsterhammer]

This topic has been up for three days now and we've not heard from any mod or admin yet. That is a truly shocking state of affairs.

I agree entirely with jackhammer about that particular 'senior poster', who really should and would have been banned from any other forum I have ever come across. His behavior is far beyond the pale. Since jack brought 'him' up, I'll leave it to him to name and shame the person concerned, though anyone who reads here will know who it is.

Message to CN - if you are not willing to devote the time necessary to properly run a forum, you may as well close this place down. If you want to have a working, pleasant, attractive forum for cycling lovers, then you're going to have to work at it and not close your eyes to what's going on!

 

[Anonymous]

ok, a suggestion then....

Firstly.. forum layout....

1)The Feedback section renamed GENERAL
And a subforum added "Coffee Shop" or similar for general chat, chat about cycling books, dvd's, etc etc that may cover several disciplines, road, track etc rather than being one discipline specific..

(this would immdiately clean up the road section a bit which is used for a variety of topics that arnt road specific, but also give somewhere for general chat on the forum...)

2)The Road Section....
two more sections added, MAJOR RACES, and DOPING & "FITNESS" section.... so that the countless doping related posts have somewhere to go..

Again.. achieves several things. Makes the forum less cluttered especially during the tour when there will be multiple tour related threads going on.. It also gives somewhere for the countless doping related threads to go rather than the main section for people hat dont want to read them.. Then also, if a thread that is non doping related then the thread can be split and the doping related bits moved to the relevant forum..

this immediately combats a lot of the de-railing, and resentment that is being built up on the forum...

3)Thirdly, at the foot of the forum a "troll hole" section.. where posts that are simply offensive, etc, can be moved to, so they are not deleted, but moved to a seperate section of the forum (this works very well on other forums)

4) Terms and conditions reviewed and if needed updated, incorporating the areas that state that posts about doping etc in the main road forum will be moved to the doping thread, a review of the expectations of members regarding any information that is or is likely to be, discriminatory, hateful, false, inaccurate, threatening, defamatory, abusive, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, harassing, profane, sexually oriented, invasive of a person's privacy, liable to incite racial hatred, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, or which may cause annoyance or inconvenience or otherwise be a breach of the law. and being courtious to other users and members etc.. The t&c's popping up on the next visit by members and them re-aggreeing to them...

5) Guidelines for each section, regarding what is acceptable, what should be posted there, and what is not acceptable, stickied at the top of each section

6) non CN news mods appointed with limited powers..
the ability to: Merge threads, Split Threads, and Move threads to a more relevant section.. Not the ability to delete, or do anything else.. purely housekeeping tasks..

I think the above would upset nobody and keep an awful lot of people happy.. the forum would be cleaner, sections would be more relevant, people who didnt want to discuss doping endlessly would be able to, threads would be easier to find, the addition of a coffee shop area would help people who maybe want to get to know each other, ride in similar areas and want to meat up, are travelling to races and want to meet up etc...

CN have said the forum is an important part of the site.. its not going to be if it continues the way it is going..

i will probably get slated by certain people for saying this, but i dont care really, i come here to discuss cycling.. sometimes there are interesting discussions regarding lance, or doping, but i am bored with every single thread turning into being about lance or doping..

 

[Anonymous]

just a refresh of what daniel benson said when the forum was started...

We'll also be improving the look and feel of the forums over the coming weeks as we move towards a total redesign of the site but we really want to take this exciting opportunity to allow you to post your feedback as and when things happen.

So let us know what sections or sub sections you want to see in the Forum, and stop by our About the website folder to see what's coming up in the future. For an extensive run down on features such as private message, avatars and profiling please click here.

But before you all run off to sign up, here are some tips on how you can help this community flourish in its pioneering first steps:

Think before you post: We all have different views and opinions but please be tolerant of others. Think of the forums like a big bar or pub ; there's room for everyone to get along.

Don't slam: Some beginners and might not be clued in on forum etiquette and standards. Show them patience.

Don't hijack: If a user has started a thread don't try and hijack it and take it off topic. There's plenty of room for your thread too.

Be respectful: Moderators have the ability to warn, ban and potentially remove member from the forums if they're acting in an inappropriate manner. Please don't make us push the button.

General moderation: CN will not be actively vetting each post or thread but we will be on hand to take action on anything our users flag up. If anything concerns you and appears to be either offensive or libellous please notify us by clicking on the red and white triangle above each post. We're also on the look out for moderators from our community so if you think you're up to the task drop us a line.

hmm... that worked then..

 

[Anonymous]

Awwe, did someone's feewings gwet hwort?

jackhammer complaining about getting insulted. Now that's rich.

 

[Anonymous]

Agree with the comments here. Stricter rules are necessary to prevent the handful of usual suspects from dragging every single topic down to their dope-obsessed, LA hating level.

When I joined up just a few days ago, I was hoping to find a place to share the love of the sport with like-minded posters from around the world, and to enjoy the Tour. I was (and am) appalled by what is allowed to go on here in the way of sweeping accusations that are backed up by nothing more than the poster's blind hatred.

I wrote to a mod and said as much. This is part of the reply I received -

"We try to take a light-handed approach to moderating. Frankly I think a lot of what is written is possibly actionable, but I also know that Future has a good legal department, and I hope that they keep an eye on things here."

So, we need to "hope" that the legal dept. is keeping an eye out. In my humble opinion, and speaking as someone who spent years as both mod and admin on several football forums, there are a number of posters here who urgently need to be put on a final warning before they are banned.

Really, because one of your first posts (I believe it was your actual first post) ripped into someone who didn't like your hero. Funny, you don't seem to be able to stay on topic. The majority of your posts involve ripping into the posts of others with whom you do not agree.

Pot, meet kettle.

 

[Anonymous]

i dont think its so much about what is actionable and legal, i think its more about what is boring and repetative..

my main critism is we do need many more sections added, a general coffee shop area, possiby a seperate are for doping, it does warrant it and then you are able to put in the road section "NO DOPING" and any posts in there about doping CAN THEN BE REMOVED, but as long as there isnt a section they cant be.. A lot of things could be done with the forum that would control a lot of it..

if was a mod would i remove all the doping posts, NO, but i would move them all to a doping section so that those who wanted to talk about RACING could do.. simple.. thats just one of many things that could be done..

The forum is badly organised from a layout/catagory point of view.. i think that should be rectified (as we asked months ago), and then worry about the other things.. basically, if there isnt a place to talk crap, people are gonna talk crap somewhere else ie. the road forum..

OK, that is reasonable.

There is a place like that if you want, it is called dailypeloton forums. It is exactly what you are all looking for.

 

[Amsterhammer]

Dimspace, I agree with most of your suggested improvements, with the following comments.

Dumping offensive or abusive posts into another 'forum' is a non-starter. These should be deleted (or edited, depending on circumstance) as soon as they're spotted and the offender warned. Repeat offenders should be banned for a period of time, depending on the 'gravity' of the transgression. If they then re-offend after returning, they get banned for good and their IP address noted.

This presupposes that mods have the necessary rights to edit or delete, not just to move posts from a. to b. A forum like this needs at least 3-4 mods, preferably from different time zones, who are prepared to spend some time every day keeping an eye on things. Looking in once a week, if at all, is not enough.

Signatures should be either removed entirely, or limited to at most two lines. Big Boat is the perfect example of why many forums remove signatures altogether. It is not the intention of signatures to function as an extended statement of your beliefs - in his case, the subject of doping is constantly thrust in every reader's face.

Politics and religion should basically be taboo, unless you are prepared to have an all-purpose 'off topics' forum where everything else could be discussed. This is an option used in many forums.

Rules need to be enforced.

 

[Anonymous]

Dimspace, I agree with most of your suggested improvements, with the following comments.

Dumping offensive or abusive posts into another 'forum' is a non-starter. These should be deleted (or edited, depending on circumstance) as soon as they're spotted and the offender warned. Repeat offenders should be banned for a period of time, depending on the 'gravity' of the transgression. If they then re-offend after returning, they get banned for good and their IP address noted.

This presupposes that mods have the necessary rights to edit or delete, not just to move posts from a. to b. A forum like this needs at least 3-4 mods, preferably from different time zones, who are prepared to spend some time every day keeping an eye on things. Looking in once a week, if at all, is not enough.

Signatures should be either removed entirely, or limited to at most two lines. Big Boat is the perfect example of why many forums remove signatures altogether. It is not the intention of signatures to function as an extended statement of your beliefs - in his case, the subject of doping is constantly thrust in every reader's face.

Politics and religion should basically be taboo, unless you are prepared to have an all-purpose 'off topics' forum where everything else could be discussed. This is an option used in many forums.

Rules need to be enforced.

deleting im not a great fan off.. again fine line between censorship and housekeeping.. im not a great fan of censorship really.. to be honest a troll holl where the junk is dumped is somewhere for the trolls to feed..

Agree with the signature bit... good point..