Outcast...castout?

[Weedon]

I have noticed recently that there are no more postings from Outcast and today I read on here that he has had his registration removed.

That is a pity because surely there is room for different points of view no matter how direct or badly put they are. 

I remember recently that somebody else remarked there are fewer postings and not much "spark" particularly in The Post Bag,  maybe those that like to call a spade a spade are gradually being discouraged to contribute with the result of a less lively forum.

Maybe we should remember that there are those on here who seem always to suck up to others and feel it personally when criticised, and there are some that say things with a PC they wouldn't have the courage to do so face to face.  Whatever category we fit into, is there not room for all.

weedon

[Quillan]

Firstly I am not answering this with regards to the peson you have mentioned, I am only answering the general comments you raised.

The forum welcomes anybody BUT like eveerything else in life there are rules. In joining the forum you are presented with these rules or more to the point the forums 'Code of Conduct (C of C)'. You are given the opertunity to read these before completing your registration.

If you break the C of C's and/or a person complains about your behaviour there will be an investigation and if guilty a warning will be given. The forum operates a '3 stricks and you are out' system so anyone breaking the C of C for a 3rd time may well find themselves removed from the forum. I should add that this can only be done with approval from Living France.

As a moderator I feel I let people get away with quite a bit. This is because, like the other moderators, I can't sit in front of a screen all day and not every infingement is deliberate or nasty.

[Furry Knickers]

I have noticed that everyone that posts on this forum appear to be the same person! They are all so much alike Mr Weedon (are you Burt on the guitar?) they might even be robots!

Can you imagine what it must feel like to have the power of a moderator? I imagine it every time I have fried lettuce and peas! If I were a moderator I would make it legal to import secondhand Otters from the outer Hebrides.

Anyway I am pleased to say that Las Vegas (my Beaver) is pregnant, I am going to be a dad again! I never even knew she was a woman beaver untill she started going into terrible moods and demanding chocolate rabbits and was wetting everywhere (typical female)

Beaver Las Vegas (as Elvis once said)

[opas]

OK,he had his registration removed.....but no reason given apart from somebody complained that his postings over several months were not to their liking.

perhaps when an instance occurs like this , the poster should be informed and the offending posts highlighted to them and a chance to respond.

Mrs O

[RobS]

I wondered why he turned up on Total France. In his only post he abused a member and as he had already been banned by Admin (whilst posting under other names) he received short shrift from them and was promptly booted off again. Does he not see a pattern? Abuse posters and get banned, it not difficult to perceive.

[opas]

Hey ,just hang on a cotton pickin`minite....this is getting rediculous! Have you never heard of Identity theft? There are that many trolls go through this forum,don`t know about TF,only grazed through once about 18 months ago and didn`t like the format., you Come on here and start kettle calling without a thread of evidence, ever thought someone actually had a whacky sence of humour and thought they would muddy the waters?! Mrs O

[Mpprh]

Hi

Anyone can make a mistake with their first posting ?

But he is still listed here : http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3193

Stnad buy four moor !

Peter

 

[letrangere]

over several months

I have enormous respect for Mrs O's posts but I think it's only fair to say that hubby has been winding some people up for quite a bit longer than several months.  My memory is long and I'd say it's more like a couple of years, and in that time there have been some undeniable nasty ones.  I've always felt the best approach is to simply ignore him but now we don't have his illiterate rantings I rather miss them. 

More importantly though is what has he done with CJB?  It's not school holidays yet, is it?   (sorry Chris...)  M

[Cjb]

I'm still here! The holidays aren't for another 4 weeks!!

I'm rather sad to see Outie go. We had a few disagreements but I never felt it necessary to complain about any of his posts as I've been faced with the same arguments in everyday life and understand only too well that not everyone is a great lover of the teaching profession; their whinging even annoys me on a fairly regular basis!!

I'm sure he'll be back... watch this space!!

[Russethouse]

No Albi, they were not 'just a little bit different' they broke the code of conduct, not just once but at least 3 times, as Quillan has already said that's the rule - 3 strikes and you are out.

[Miki]

".....The protests are already beginning, Perpignan burns. Where next? !

Slough ? best keep yer eyes peeled then Albi !!

[Quillan]

I actually favour a months protest of no posting.

If you feel that Outies ban is unfair you can always PM or email Forum Admin. It is totally improper for the moderators to discuss individual 'cases' in open forum. I will however say this which I think is well known amoungst the older members, this person was banned before for the same type of offence but rejoined under a different name and after more than 3 warning action was finally taken. So I would find it difficult to say that we didn't give this person a fair crack of the whip as it were. Anyway that all us moderators have to say on the matter. I look forward to at least one quiet week or if the Outie supports take up my sugestion a month.

[IAN_S]

I look at this forum every day and whilst I have seen some ridiculous statements from him, which we all make from time to time, I can't remember seeing anything just recently that would cause this banning. So can someone tell me what the thread was so I can have a look, or has it already been removed?

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Good morning.

Outcast? Good riddance.

And don't anyone dare tell me I'm being PC. I'm founder (and only) member of the PIP.

Outcast made a point of being offensive whenever he could be. I won't miss him. In any case, as I've said before, when any of us actually PAY towards running these forums, we have reasonable cause to dispute. If you have (serious, rather than wishy washy "there's room for all opinions" which is perfectly true, but entirely beside the point.) issue with the moderators, take it up with PMs, don't put them in the invidious position of having to defend themselves in public. To do so, they would have to accuse someone who can't defend themselves, and that's not cricket. It's not even football.

There's plenty of room and space for vigorous disagreement about any issues, without the level of deliberate offensiveness that we've seen from (since I've been here) two members who have both been banned (quite rightly IMO).

[Catalpa]

another approach...

allow (for the sake of an example) Outcast back... but then **ban anyone that replies** to their "only made to be contentious or offensive" posts. This gives us the best of both worlds - the opportunity to enjoy off the wall comments from the Outies of this world (for those that do) but no subsequent degeneration of threads to the point that they have to be pulled or heavily edited.

We all see posts (not just OC's) that are clearly made only for their wind-up value. The poster succeeds as the targets (or those who perceive themselves as the targets) do get throughly wound up and either defensive, aggressive or both. While this sometime leads to a very entertaining tit for tat exchange, the fact remains that if those posters who come out to play only when they can say something unpleasant or unhelpful were ignored, they'd find a new playground.

Oh... that'd be me then!

[Tresco]

'**ban anyone that replies** to their "only made to be contentious or offensive" posts'

Catalpa, I hold my hands up. Under this regime I would have been banned 30 times over

(tesco!!!!!)

[Russethouse]

catalpa - the flaw in that is that many threads that contain posts that break the T&C also contain valuable information, yes, in theory we can 'edit' but that makes an awful lot of work and also leaves the mods open to accusations of censorship.

Quillan is correct, the T&C are there for all and it should be perfectly possible to have a quite heated debate without infringing them.

[Catalpa]

No flaw, Gay - except in my assuming it would be obvious that under my (very tongue in cheek ) regime suggestion: anything contravening the participation T&Cs would still be an automatic candidate for removal, warnings and / or the poster being banned.

The real point of my post was - as Tresco identified! - don't reply to the windup merchants - who are being contrary for effect, to get a reaction. They aren't looking for rational discussion, they're looking to take the pi**. I didn't get particularly perturbed by (to use the convenient example again) anything I ever saw from Outcast. But I'd never have wasted time responding either.

[opas]

I would like to say a few words on behalf of Sactout (you have to say this with a scotish accent)

A big thank you to all my fans and in the words of a non fois gras loving senator from California   `I`ll be back`

Mrs O

[JohnM]

Although I made of ignoring Outcasts posts (yes, I read them but couldn’t be faffed to comment), I am sorry he’s gone. Not that I necessarily agreed with what he had to say and certainly not that I agreed with the way in which he expressed himself, but, I really hoped that eventually he would just see the light and moderate his manner. Everyone is entitled to opinions, but if we wish to share them and this world, with others, I do think we should show some consideration for others when we express them and offer opinion as opinion and not fact. It wouldn’t have taken much effort for Outcast to have complied with the rules and tempered his “enthusiasm” enough to make a point but without rubbing people up the wrong way.

 

I’m sure many of us sometimes post out of devilment

I’m sure many of us post something in the heat of a moment and do not word it quite as well as we would have done if we had put our Brain in gear before putting our finger to the keyboard.

I’m sure that many of us ought to respond better to criticisms and maybe even ”climb down” more readily than we do when shown to be in the wrong.

But the operative word is “sometimes”, I think with Outcast it was more of a “most times” and that was his downfall.

 

Outcast, if you are still reading even though you can’t post, there is no shame in being in the wrong (I know some teachers seemed to enjoy humiliating pupils who were wrong, may be you had one or two of them, but they were and are, the exception) so be prepared to learn from your mistakes. If you are permitted to return in another guise, think a bit more about exactly what point you want to make before you even put finger to keyboard, then reread it before pressing “post”, just to make sure that nobody can misunderstand what you mean, or take offence at the way you’ve worded it. Finally and most important, if you are criticised (and it happens to all of us, especially if somebody misinterprets something that should have been amusing), don’t go all defensive and fight back, calm down, think about what people have written with an open mind and then, if you agree they have got a good point… apologise, it’s good for the soul.

 

I’m supposed to be able to write for my work, but I’ve mulled over this comment for 3 days to try to get it right and I still think that somebody will call me arrogant, tell me I’m wrong or something, but if I don’t post now the moment will have passed, so here it is (Warts and all).

 

[Alexis]

I'm not so sure that Outcast has gone.  Look at the recent posts

You don't have to read his comments if you don't want to but they were often good for a laugh.  If you could stand his punctuation, that is.  Not a pedant but I'm a stickler certainly and it drove me wild.

Live and let live.  Until he annoys me again!

[GRT17]

I'm not so sure that Outcast has gone.  Look at the recent posts

Alexis, I agree!

I have a hunch that he has reincarnated himself and now goes under the pseudonym of "Padraig"

Gill

[Val_2]

Gill we have had the same thoughts. Padraig has had me in stitches with his postings as they are exactly how we would see an Irish tinker with nothing but his caravan to his name joining the rush to the "better life in the sun" and how the image has been continued down through the decades with the tarmac laying,poaching,odd-jobbing and dole cheating etc. Before anyone jumps on me about racism and all that old fanny,have a look and see what we mean,reminds me of Ballykissangel and the characters on there.

[opas]

I`m affraid that you are not even warm!

`outcast` was controversial and as you all know he`s here in France!

Mrs O

[SaligoBay]

`outcast` was controversial and as you all know he`s here in France!

Don't you mean "he,s here in France"?

Let him out of that cage à billes at once, Mrs O!   You're being very selfish there, you should learn to share more.