Deleted Threads

[Tresco]

There was a thread here earlier today, titled Saint John Paul I think. It was deleted and I would like to know why.

I really really don't like it when a thread gets pulled, and I simply do not understand why that one was, whereas, much as I dislike thread/post deletion, I have grudgingly understood it when it happened in past cases.

Without me having to run through the usual stuff about mods, admin, how glad I am....time given freely etc, please can we discuss why the thread was pulled, and why no explanation was given.

tresco

[Tourangelle]

Could it have been me? I posted in it, but I don't think I said anything too terrible. Although one of my points was that the post had nothing to do with France and if the person had a problem they should contact a moderator rather than start a whole thread which just invited what they considered to be unpleasant comments. Perhaps somebody with the right buttons read that and pulled it.... a mystery. Probably best though!

[Tresco]

Yours was the last post i saw Tourangelle, and I saw nothing wrong with it. Someone else must have, but it could have been one of mine that was at fault, far mor than yours. Either way, I wish someone would let us all know.

I agree with your post, now sadly deleted, that someone started a whole new thread separately, when the topic was already being discussed in 'a bad day for charlie?' You raised some points we could have gone on from.

tresco

[Teamedup]

I didn't see the last threads on it, but I don't see why it was pulled either.

[Coco]

Pope John Paul was Polish, Popes live in Italy, not a lot to do with France - if someone made the comment that it didn't have anything to do with France I presume that is why it was deleted.

It doesn't explain, however, why that one was deleted and the Charlie one is still there.  I never really understand why on a French forum there are so many un-French related topics - there are plenty of other chatrooms/forums for general debate.  It is a little strange how eratic these deletions are though and I can't stand inconsistancy, so if the Charles thread is still there and there was nothing particularly offensive in the JP2 thread, then why was one and not the other pulled?

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

Hi peeps

I'm an old Fido member. This was a series of discussion groups, call 'em Forums, which were provided free of charge for people to take part in. The way Fido explained things, the Forum "belonged" to the person who moderated it, and that's that. If they chose to moderate a thread, ban a poster or whatever, they had an absolute right to do so and in fact would often stomp a lot harder on people constesting their decision than they did on the person who'd offended first of all.

I've not seen the thread that was pulled, but I'm afraid I am firmly of the opinion that those of you who didn't feel it should have happened, should contact the moderators by email or PM. This oughn't, IMO, be a matter for public debate in a Forum.

Sorry, but the friendliest and nicest discussions I've ever had were in Fido. I think their policy towards moderation and forum "ownership" were largely responsible for it. Greatly damaged by Internet newsgoups, I really regret it's diminished state.

[Will]

It was removed at the request of the topic's originator. In this case Forum Admin agreed to the request as it could easily have run into problems. Without the original posting, the replies would have been meaningless and most of the discussion was duplicated in the 'Charlie' topic anyway. The last post was made by Boghound - nobody had actually said anything too controversial.

Under normal circumstances the only topics which get deleted without further explanation on the forum are duplicated posts, those which contravene the advertising guidelines, and apparent scams.

[zeb]

[quote]Pope John Paul was Polish , Popes live in Italy , not a lot to do with France - if someone made the comment that it didn't have anything to do with France I presume that is why it was deleted. It...[/quote]

Try telling that to the millions of Catholics in France!

zeb

PS Sorry - don't want to perpetuate a dead thread but had to respond to Coco's comment.

[Iceni]

I own another forum for a totally different subject but we do pass a lot of work between ourselves and I mean a lot of work. Well yesterday someone posted a reply in regard to work posted that I thought was appalling, so I not only deleted the two posts I put the person on moderation. If she does it again after being told not to she is out - she will be the loser as this is a totaly closed group which is hard to get into as it has to be a mutually trusting group due to its nature.

The owner of a forum is legally responsible for each and every post - not necessarily the poster so we need rules and regs. I personally think that this site is far to lax but hey, Caligula Chapman is not always the most forgiving of posters herself.

[Tresco]

If someone had posted saying the thread had been deleted and why that would have been OK.

There was a thread about Foxhunting here not too long ago, I didn't take part in it but I think there were over 100 responses. The thread was deleted. If only 20 of the people who took part pm'd the moderators with specific questions about why it was pulled, surely that would keep the mods very busy. If a thread is pulled would it be better to post and explain the reason why publicly, in a 'read only' format if it's deemed neccessary?.

Anyway, it's a general discussion forum, this section. If we can't ask about and discuss why a thread has gone it seems a bit stange to me, stranger than discussing English Telly, or other topics which people say are not relevant to this forum.

tresco

[SaligoBay]

The Pope's death is relevant enough in France to be taking up a bit of TV airspace.   Not only the footage of millions of people fighting their way through to have a skwizz at the corpse, but there was an article last night about - darn it, can't remember the details was it the Hotel de Ville in Marseille?   Employees are getting a half-day congé for the funeral, I think.  Anyway a range of little street interviewettes followed.....

"I'm a Catholic, not a practising one, but I think time off is a good idea".

"I don't believe in anything, so I'm going to work as normal".

"It's not fair that Catholics get to override the rules ....."

And so on.  Take your pick from those and many others! 

[Mistral]

was it the Hotel de Ville in Marseille?   Employees are getting a half-day congé for the funeral

Yes, that was marseilles, dear old Gaudin. I liked the interview with the creche directrice who now has three days to find out who is taking the hoilday and find replacements. The journalist did mention that only people who had a genuine reason (i.e. they were going to watch the funeral) could have the time off, but added that mauvaises langues were saying that the mairie de marseille was going to have a lot of catholics between now and Friday

[Boghound]

[quote]If someone had posted saying the thread had been deleted and why that would have been OK. There was a thread about Foxhunting here not too long ago, I didn't take part in it but I think there were o...[/quote]

Good reply Tresco but it will fall on deaf ears as regard to the "hierarchy" controlling this forum. They operate on a completely hidden agenda and interpretation of the rules...according to whims of fancy....depending who the poster is...and whether the post displeases them.

 

[Tresco]

Dunno about that Boghound. Doesn't sound like the kind of place I'd want to hang out in. Mind you, I was once treated very leniently following an appalling lapse in judgement, what does that tell us?

tresco

[Quillan]

Firstly, as has already been stated, the thread was pulled because of a complaint by the originator followed by their request to pull their original post. Unfortunately this software does not allow us to do this without removing everything below it. If the post is in any other position within the thread we can pull the individual post. This seems logical to me as without the original all others become irrelevant, bit like deleting the question but leaving the answer, it wouldn't make sense.

I personally, having read the thread, don't see much wrong with it BUT I can see that some people would be extremely offended by some of the comments as indeed the originator and one or two others were.

I can assure people that we do not have a two tier system, i.e. we don't have favourites. We have been known to leave a persons post which we feel if posted by another would normally be removed. The reason why we do this is because the general consensus of the moderators and Forum Admin has been that the poster concerned has really shown themselves to be rather stupid on that occasion and by leaving the post others see the poster for what they are and don't bother to answer hence the thread dies a natural death. By deleting the post we would open another 'can of worms' and it would just drag on and on and on. This we have learnt from previous occasions when things have got so bad that the forum has nearly been closed down.

None of the moderators have 'secret agendas' and any member who has a complaint about a particular moderator can always send a PM or email to Forum Admin.

With regards to C of C's interpretations. If somebody clearly breaks the C of C the post is deleted and a PM/email sent to the person concerned. If a moderator is not sure then the post is moved to a holding area and guidance is sought from the other moderators (effectively a poll is taken). If they cannot agree then Forum Admin is asked for guidance. Again when we do this we pm/email the originator to let them know what is happening and then again when we have made a decision.

We have, when the construction of the post allows, edited a post but have left a comment to say so. This is usually done when the rest of said post has some really interesting information from which others may benefit.

To be devious takes a lot of thought and time and to be honest most if not all of the moderators just don't have the time to hatch conspiracies or whatever. We have no hidden agenda and simply do the best we can when we can. We all have other lives; jobs etc and do this purely on a voluntary basis. I personally do it because I found this forum extremely useful prior to and during my move to France and was horrified that without help the forum would close. I think my fellow moderators probably felt the same but I can't answer for them.

Finally, in this instance, a post was not put in the threads place because of the sensitivity of the subject and that others would either want to know what the content was or to complain about freedom of speech (which does not exist in any free society anyway) and may also repost their comments which would start the whole thing of again.

[Boghound]

"

"Finally, in this instance, a post was not put in the threads place because of the sensitivity of the subject and that others would either want to know what the content was or to complain about freedom of speech (which does not exist in any free society anyway) and may also repost their comments which would start the whole thing of again."

Good reply Chris....especially the "freedom of speech" part....certainly true on this forum and in this society.