Permanent Bans

The site owners/mods should revisit the forum rules regarding PERMANENT bans.

As with any form of justice, the most draconian of penalties should be reserved for those who commit the ultimate transgression of the rules.

Thing is, in this country we no longer carry out executions, and a life sentence when given, doesn't actually mean a life sentence at all. Why so on Exeweb ?

The site owners have access to personal email/IP addresses of all forum users. A serious breach of the rules e.g the inciting of violence, or issues of legality, could always be used in evidence. The perpetrator should be made aware of transgression, the hows, whys and wherefores in writing, and issued with a seriously lengthy ban. e.g 1 year. Retain all records, obviously.

Persistent temporary ban offenders, usually those of a lesser discriminatory or offensive nature, be issued with escalating temporary bans (e.g 1 month, 3 months 6 months, 1 year, 5 year).

There is the facility available for forum users to ignore the posts of any particular poster they choose, nobody has to suffer another unduly.

The site is suffering due to the issuance of permanent bans to certain posters, nay all the posters. The people who push their luck, the boundaries, are often the lifeblood of a vibrant forum and to ban them permanently is counter productive.

I actually think we take a very light touch towards moderating this site personally.

There is in place a "3 strikes and you're out" rule to remind transgressors that their behaviour is not acceptable, they have a chance to reform and stay within the forum guidelines. There is debate, then there is abuse, then there are further transgressions that go beyond the pale. It's not that hard to do, I've been a poster on this site (in all its guises) since the late 1990s, I've been engaged in "healthy debate" of varying degrees of animosity, I've undergone quite severe provocation at times (I vividly recall a poster accusing me of being a Nazi sympathiser, for example, which would have been news to my Jewish wife!). Yet in all that time (admittedly I've now been a moderator on here for going on for 10 years I believe), I haven't received so much as a friendly warning from the moderators, let alone any infractions. I post on various forums across different subjects, again not once have I ever incurred any sort of infraction.

This is not a criminal court, the justice system as meted out is a carefully thought out process agreed by all of those who administer / moderate the site. The infraction system itself is a warning system, get points (which are eradicated pretty quickly) and you quickly realise you have behaved inappropriately and should perhaps wind it in a bit. Don't wind it in, get a ban. Fail to wind it in, get another, fail again, get a third ban, which is *usually* permanent. A permanent ban isn't a death sentence, which is where your analogy falls down. Life carries on - I know and am on friendly terms with one permanently banned member of the site, they carry no animosity towards me for what happened (or at least they don't show it!).

Exeweb as a public domain forum is bound by the laws of the land - contravene those and it can be a very costly exercise that could ultimately see the site taken down permanently. We have to be judge, jury and executioner, like it or not. Think of it not like the justice system you've painted it as, rather a members' club - go to a members' club and start hurling abuse and threatening violence at them and see how long it takes before your membership is revoked.

I don't agree that the site is suffering due to posters receiving permanent bans, the fact people are able to engage in healthy debate without resorting to abuse (or more pertinently being abused) is welcome - I can, however, speak of a large number of people, good posters at that, who have told me personally that they gave up bothering to visit and to post because the site had become overrun with boorish individuals whose only aim appeared to be to chuck abuse at all and sundry.

I remember in recent times some excellent debate about the financing of the club, the club/Trust structure, the redevelopment and others - there are dissenting opinions on all of these, but it's generally done in a calm and measured way. Back in 2003 when Exeweb played a major role in bringing about the downfall of R****** and L****, it was this sort of measured debate that helped immensely. I don't think we could have achieved the same sort of revolution had it been needed in around 2011-13 due to the atmosphere on Exeweb.

The site is in the gift of the owners, it is therefore their decision who they allow to post, and there is always the thought that if people don't like the rules, they are free to go and set up their own site.

I was disappointed that wemissmoxey and Grecian Jay was banned but don't know the reasons so can't say the mods are in the wrong.

As for wemisscuro,realistic ECFC fan and Paul Tisdale my lord I think they have it spot on. He could have quite easily stayed within the rules in the first place so only has himself to blame. He choose to come back and it was obvious straightaway who he was and it was only a matter of time.

It is true that I was arguing with him a lot but that's because of his opinions being stated as fact. I have no problem if he pro the manager but the way he posted was just irritating.

Jason H said:

Exeweb as a public domain forum is bound by the laws of the land - contravene those and it can be a very costly exercise that could ultimately see the site taken down permanently. We have to be judge, jury and executioner, like it or not. Think of it not like the justice system you've painted it as, rather a members' club - go to a members' club and start hurling abuse and threatening violence at them and see how long it takes before your membership is revoked.

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richard_portland said:

It is true that I was arguing with him a lot but that's because of his opinions being stated as fact. I have no problem if he pro the manager but the way he posted was just irritating.

Click to expand...

Fully agree with both of the above points. I hadn't even realised that he was a reincarnation of a previously banned user (the others may be from before I joined Exeweb) but he was certainly very confrontational and annoying.

Thanks for the comprehensive response, Jase.

Re your analogy of the member's club, although likening real world in your face threats of violence or abuse to keyboard virtual threats and abuse is stretching it a tad, I do take your point. Likewise, my analogy to a life sentence was meant in the 'virtual' sense.

Re 'boorish' posters, then as I said before, the ignore facility is available.

The OP wasn't intended as a criticism of mods or owners, or the fact the site has rules to be observed. I'm a strong supporter of both.

You don't happen to agree the site is suffering as a result of permanent banning, fair enough, as that was the only reason for my posting.

What a positively nasty piece of work AREF/WMC/PTML is.

He is now posting all over the E&E site about boycotting the site, and how we are actively trying to cut off his positive voice.

His original offence warranted a permanent ban, and was an offence of the magnitute I have only seen on one other occasion on this forum, thankfully.

You play by the mods rules or get banned. It's as simple as that really. If i disliked exeweb as much as he claims i wouldn't come on here. Plus theres a pretty even share of positive and negative posts, the same as any football forum in the land.

The posts on the E&E website are so funny, especially that he put the same post on about four different articles including twice on one of them. Then coincidentally someone posts a link on wows to it just to make sure it is spotted. The reference to North korea just tops it off (rofl)

Any links to this chaps?

If you go to latest Exeter City articles on E&E website all the comments are the same one repeated by him.