Irate Ian - Life Ban!

[The Flying Scotsman]

Reason given:

You have been banned for the following reason:
For continued trouble making.

Date the ban will be lifted: Never

 

[Mad Cyril]

With billions of PCs connected to the web no one is ever truly banned from an online forum. All the administrators do is lock the account and possibly block an IP address.

All banned posters have to do is re-register with different credentials.

Of course the loss of their online persona and all that precious rep may be too much for some peoples ego to take.

 

[class]

Ian knows where I stand, and I'm making no comment here.

:tumbleweed:

 

[OldBlueLady]

Ok, being as some of you seem to have a serious problem with me saying nothing - and I'd have thought you'd actually be pleased about that - I'm going to explain.

Have spoken with Ian at length many, many times in the last couple of weeks about issues which you can probably all guess at. I refuse to be drawn into a situation where things are being said which I consider to be no business of mine, which is what I have explained to Ian and why I made the comment I did.

As seems to be the case with another recent ban, if a poster has a personal problem with a particular owner, then I consider that to be between them, and them only.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Ok, being as some of you seem to have a serious problem with me saying nothing - and I'd have thought you'd actually be pleased about that - I'm going to explain.

Have spoken with Ian at length many, many times in the last couple of weeks about issues which you can probably all guess at. I refuse to be drawn into a situation where things are being said which I consider to be no business of mine, which is what I have explained to Ian and why I made the comment I did.

As seems to be the case with another recent ban, if a poster has a personal problem with a particular owner, then I consider that to be between them, and them only.

Unfortunately, with Ian, he has a problem with someone, but has PM'd other people about it, trying to draw them in...that was his downfall I think!

 

[OldBlueLady]

I actually made the original comment because I mistakenly thought some people would have expected me to say something in his defence after having posted some stuff for him recently. Seems I was wrong, and the fact I was trying to be reasonable (imo) has flown way above some people's heads.

 

[steveo]

Ok, being as some of you seem to have a serious problem with me saying nothing - and I'd have thought you'd actually be pleased about that .

Would it have been easier to just errrmm, say nothing then.

 

[Lord Football]

Any chance we could all return to the real world.

It's the INTERNET and it's an INTERNET BOARD. Reality grip.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

I always thought he was a self important nobody anyway .. i doubt he'll be greatly missed

 

[The Flying Scotsman]

I actually made the original comment because I mistakenly thought some people would have expected me to say something in his defence after having posted some stuff for him recently. Seems I was wrong, and the fact I was trying to be reasonable (imo) has flown way above some people's heads.

OBL is truely a rose between two thorns.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Would it have been easier to just errrmm, say nothing then.

See subsequent post steveo. Can't do the right thing for doing wrong sometimes.

 

[Einstein]

Ok, being as some of you seem to have a serious problem with me saying nothing.

Kay, I don't think anyone has a serious problem with you not saying "anything", however there was absolutely no point in your original post. If everyone posted "I have nothing to say" on every thread it would result in 700 odd posts on every thread and this forum would get unreadable!

If you are not going to say anything, then there shouldn't even be a need to post. If there's nothing you have to say on a subject, then you simply ignore. I think that's fair enough.

Let's not divert this thread though.

 

[steveo]

See subsequent post steveo. Can't do the right thing for doing wrong sometimes.

Lol, sometimes best to just do nothing then OBL.

 

[Einstein]

Lots of things are let go here by the mods (racism, personal insults etc) yet it is Ian has been kicked off. I feel we should be told the reason that this decision has been taken and why seemingly such a harsh penalty enforced.

Having been on the other side of the fence, I do understand the position the Owners sometimes have to take.

However, the points above quite clear here. Unless I missed something Ian did not ever become abusive. He merely had a gripe with the way Ron runs our club. (Rightly or wrongly - everyones entitled to their an opinion).

Let's be honest, the real issue here was that Cricko doesn't like anything bad being said against Ron. Well neither do I. I think Ron has been fantastic for this club, and I really hope he can lead us to greater glory.

However, why not just ignore Ian if he annoys you that much? That is what SZ always tell other posters (i.e. OBL / Pubey) if views are always clash. Why should this situation be any different? Taking someones right away to post and air their views (when they have stayed within the rules of the board) goes against everything this website has stood for since it's existence in 2001. However, if Ian did resort to abusive insults against one of the Owners then that's his downfall.

Just be buddy buddy though and do something for the Zone, and you'll be fine though. You can be as abusive as you like to longstanding members of SZ with no hint of being banned!

 

[number11]

Surely though, ultimately, we have to remember we have no rights on this board other than those the owners deem to give us. If they got fed up with it all and pulled the plug we would all turn up to work one morning and there be no site here, .....and they have every right to do that. It is not an official site, and it is not a site that we pay for , therefore we have no god given right to be treated in any way other than the owners deem fit. The owners are just a group of fans, who have maintainted such a good website that people now take it as part of their lives. (Perhaps this is part of the problem, that this site is so succesful, diverse and informative that people take it too seriously and cant now seperate reality from a website....if it was just a run of the mill forum then people would dip in and out, have their spats etc without really caring).

Conversely the owners have to make decisions that are appropriate to keep membership high to get their sponsorship and paypal donations etc to keep this running. If the owners acted like complete dictators people would leave and through lack of posters it wouldnt be worth running this site.

I just dont buy into complaints that the owners treat people badly as being some kind of breach of civil rights. I dont agree with many decisions by the owners but know my place and know they are entitled to make those decisions. It's not like they are making decisions for the sheer hell of it or for personal gain, they do so (As far as I can tell) out of goodwill to keep this running to the best of their ability. Surely if people dont like the way things are run they can just look elsewhere for a site they prefer.

Incidentally, I wonder how many of those who moan about the owners or this site have made contributions through paypal for the running of the site? I will be honest and admit that I have never donated despite following this site since the day it went online. Not really sure of the reason for that, like many things I just have never got round to it, but certainly, without making such a contribution, I feel even less inclined to criticise the owners who do put their hand in their pocket to keep this site running.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Having been on the other side of the fence, I do understand the position the Owners sometimes have to take.

However, the points above quite clear here. Unless I missed something Ian did not ever become abusive. He merely had a gripe with the way Ron runs our club. (Rightly or wrongly - everyones entitled to their an opinion).

Let's be honest, the real issue here was that Cricko doesn't like anything bad being said against Ron. Well neither do I. I think Ron has been fantastic for this club, and I really hope he can lead us to greater glory.

However, why not just ignore Ian if he annoys you that much? That is what SZ always tell other posters (i.e. OBL / Pubey) if views are always clash. Why should this situation be any different? Taking someones right away to post and air their views (when they have stayed within the rules of the board) goes against everything this website has stood for since it's existence in 2001. However, if Ian did resort to abusive insults against one of the Owners then that's his downfall.

Just be buddy buddy though and do something for the Zone, and you'll be fine though. You can be as abusive as you like to longstanding members of SZ with no hint of being banned!

Ian stated that Cricko was corrupt...slander maybe or something of that ilk??

 

[Napster]

Incidentally, I wonder how many of those who moan about the owners or this site have made contributions through paypal for the running of the site? I will be honest and admit that I have never donated despite following this site since the day it went online. Not really sure of the reason for that, like many things I just have never got round to it, but certainly, without making such a contribution, I feel even less inclined to criticise the owners who do put their hand in their pocket to keep this site running.

I paid for the website for over a year, and so I have every right to criticize. I think this is heavy-handed and have told the owners so. I have also resigned my moderating duties, given that this was something I do not agree with and in fact advised against.

 

[Yer Blues]

A potential return for bluetonic as the zone is now lacking a protagonist?

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

A potential return for bluetonic as the zone is now lacking a protagonist?

Trading in Irate Ian and getting Tonic in return would be akin to exchanging McCormack for Kaka.

 

[Yer Blues]

Trading in Irate Ian and getting Tonic in return would be akin to exchanging McCormack for Kaka.

to return to the issue in hand:

whilst i appreciate in the beginning Ian's motives and behaviour on the board were good intentioned and mild mannered, his posts in recent weeks have just made him look a bit silly.

i think its fair to say Ian is a grown man, but a grown man who took something that doesn't even physically exist (the zone) far to seriously.
Ian's behaviour with regard to Cricko was unacceptable. if i had a legitimate beef with ANYONE on here id go to them directly rather than drag everyone in to the soap opera of it all.

in closing, the ban? not really a big deal is it? open a window, there's a whole world out there.