sletti
New member
I feel the need to tell you chaps that I resigned as UK moderator on Fchat. You can be now totally sure that I am not working as a double agent. :grin:
Below is my resignation letter, and for those who questioned the apparent "quietness" of the UK mods during both crises, I hope this goes some way towards explaing.
Rob
Please accept this as my official resignation as moderator of the UK forum. Now that the UK forum is being appropriately moderated, I feel the time has come to step down. Please forgive me the public nature of this resignation, but I need to underline from my perspective what went wrong so that perhaps we can all learn something from it.
The toll of the last few weeks have been considerable, and quite frankly, I’m tired of arguing with you on matters concerning the UK section. I no longer have the will to battle with you on a daily basis; if you were capable of getting the points I have been trying to get across, then you have done so by now, but I see that the core of our respective beliefs on the right\wrong application of the rules puts us at an impasse as you are now for some reason asking me to post authoritarian issues at your behest.
The rules of Ferrarichat.com are a fine set of rules and, as we all know, every user agrees to be bound by them when they initially activate their accounts. The issues that I find myself at odds with are all concerning the application and enforcement of these rules.
The recent situation is a secondary escalation of the problems we had earlier in the year, when you banned Stimmers for an avatar that you thought offensive. You perceived nudity when there was none, and for this you banned Chris. To this day you cannot see that the appropriate application of the rules suggests that a PM warning to Chris would have been the most prudent. My stating this is not without president as we have had much discussion in the moderators forum about whether an avatar is inappropriate, and the soft approach generally appears to be the route taken when it is decided that it is not so.
Rather than capitulate and admit that you made a mistake, you went on the offensive, and unfortunately, you cooked your goose with the UK contingent by breaking many of our [Ferrarichat.com’s] rules. You were offensive (assholes, stupid, idiots, drunk, barbarians, etc) and, whilst doubtlessly well intended, you became a defacto “troll” spreading bizarre levels of disharmony, before leaving the UK moderators to restore order.
With regards to the current situation, I understand that you felt that you needed to take issue with the post that SteveF made in the OT section, there was no possible way that it was acceptable to give him a two month ban, and it was inconceivable that it could be considered fair to use this as an excuse to “clean up” the UK section. You had no right under the rules to make an edict that it could only be discussed in your thread under threat of a ban. It amounts to expecting the membership of the site to agree to a set of rules, allowing you the flexibility to change those rules to suit your needs, but at the same time, being inflexible about how users behave. You banned six users without just reason.
Okay, I’ll admit that Chris’s insulting post to you was unacceptable, but it was not posted on an open forum, you should have kept it to yourself. Chris obviously does not like you, but it’s not right to use a personal communication as a weapon on an open forum. The crowning dog-turd was posting his personal information in the open forum; this is so wrong that it beggars belief. I should not have been put into the position of having to moderate your posts as you have stated in the past that you are the top level mod and your word is final.
I applaud the exchange that you and SteveF openly had in the UK section. It was tidy, salient and never resorted to a war. But this should have been the case from the outset, and your “react in haste, repent at leisure” approach of conflict negotiation has cost the UK section dearly. Quote time; “You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” Nuff said!
If you are agreeable I would like to continue to use and support Ferrarichat (I can’t see anything that I have said or done justifies any ban, but “your forum, your rules”), and will always stick to the rules as they were laid when I agreed to be bound by them. I also hope you will permit the new UK moderator(s) to dispense discipline and wisdom in an appropriately controlled fashion, in order to prevent an escalation of this nature again.
A stronger person may have continued with the diatribe we have had, but frankly, I find myself poorly motivated, and need to hand over the reins to someone who is more in synch with your own viewpoint. I bear you no ill will, and I wish you well for the future.
I’ll end this with one more quote; “If you want to build a ship, then don't drum up men to gather wood, give orders, and divide the work. Rather, teach them to yearn for the far and endless sea.”
Stig Winslet
Diplomat, philosopher and ex-UK moderator.
Below is my resignation letter, and for those who questioned the apparent "quietness" of the UK mods during both crises, I hope this goes some way towards explaing.
Rob
Please accept this as my official resignation as moderator of the UK forum. Now that the UK forum is being appropriately moderated, I feel the time has come to step down. Please forgive me the public nature of this resignation, but I need to underline from my perspective what went wrong so that perhaps we can all learn something from it.
The toll of the last few weeks have been considerable, and quite frankly, I’m tired of arguing with you on matters concerning the UK section. I no longer have the will to battle with you on a daily basis; if you were capable of getting the points I have been trying to get across, then you have done so by now, but I see that the core of our respective beliefs on the right\wrong application of the rules puts us at an impasse as you are now for some reason asking me to post authoritarian issues at your behest.
The rules of Ferrarichat.com are a fine set of rules and, as we all know, every user agrees to be bound by them when they initially activate their accounts. The issues that I find myself at odds with are all concerning the application and enforcement of these rules.
The recent situation is a secondary escalation of the problems we had earlier in the year, when you banned Stimmers for an avatar that you thought offensive. You perceived nudity when there was none, and for this you banned Chris. To this day you cannot see that the appropriate application of the rules suggests that a PM warning to Chris would have been the most prudent. My stating this is not without president as we have had much discussion in the moderators forum about whether an avatar is inappropriate, and the soft approach generally appears to be the route taken when it is decided that it is not so.
Rather than capitulate and admit that you made a mistake, you went on the offensive, and unfortunately, you cooked your goose with the UK contingent by breaking many of our [Ferrarichat.com’s] rules. You were offensive (assholes, stupid, idiots, drunk, barbarians, etc) and, whilst doubtlessly well intended, you became a defacto “troll” spreading bizarre levels of disharmony, before leaving the UK moderators to restore order.
With regards to the current situation, I understand that you felt that you needed to take issue with the post that SteveF made in the OT section, there was no possible way that it was acceptable to give him a two month ban, and it was inconceivable that it could be considered fair to use this as an excuse to “clean up” the UK section. You had no right under the rules to make an edict that it could only be discussed in your thread under threat of a ban. It amounts to expecting the membership of the site to agree to a set of rules, allowing you the flexibility to change those rules to suit your needs, but at the same time, being inflexible about how users behave. You banned six users without just reason.
Okay, I’ll admit that Chris’s insulting post to you was unacceptable, but it was not posted on an open forum, you should have kept it to yourself. Chris obviously does not like you, but it’s not right to use a personal communication as a weapon on an open forum. The crowning dog-turd was posting his personal information in the open forum; this is so wrong that it beggars belief. I should not have been put into the position of having to moderate your posts as you have stated in the past that you are the top level mod and your word is final.
I applaud the exchange that you and SteveF openly had in the UK section. It was tidy, salient and never resorted to a war. But this should have been the case from the outset, and your “react in haste, repent at leisure” approach of conflict negotiation has cost the UK section dearly. Quote time; “You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” Nuff said!
If you are agreeable I would like to continue to use and support Ferrarichat (I can’t see anything that I have said or done justifies any ban, but “your forum, your rules”), and will always stick to the rules as they were laid when I agreed to be bound by them. I also hope you will permit the new UK moderator(s) to dispense discipline and wisdom in an appropriately controlled fashion, in order to prevent an escalation of this nature again.
A stronger person may have continued with the diatribe we have had, but frankly, I find myself poorly motivated, and need to hand over the reins to someone who is more in synch with your own viewpoint. I bear you no ill will, and I wish you well for the future.
I’ll end this with one more quote; “If you want to build a ship, then don't drum up men to gather wood, give orders, and divide the work. Rather, teach them to yearn for the far and endless sea.”
Stig Winslet
Diplomat, philosopher and ex-UK moderator.
