http://flavorwire.files.wordpress.co.../10/psycho.jpg

The forum has been turned into a Terry-free zone, which I think has been an abuse of power by the mods.

Forgive me. It feels like the mods have allowed some strong intolerant views to win and the effect resembles bullying. Sorry for that word, which always looks too extreme. I've tried hard to come up with an alternative since the threads were merged.

If Mark is Wickham, Terry's persona is silly talkative Miss Bates.

Badly done, mods. Badly done

So flooding the boards with inane and shouty threads, bumping your own threads and deliberate wind up style of commenting is acceptable?

Sorry but many of us have got fed up of his deliberate skating to the very edge of forum rules over several years. It is NOT bullying.

The mods decided how to deal with the situation. Terry is not prevented from posting and comments from Terry are more than welcome wherever he may wish to post.

But how hard is it to click past a thread? I never found that difficult. He posted without spite. He was garrulous and urbane and he was a tad subversive, but I don't see why any of that should especially hurt any one.

I never managed, I feel, to get at the 'real' Terry but the persona at least was harmless! I liked him as far as I knew 'him'. Though liking is beside the point, to be honest. I hope if I didn't like a poster, I would still defend their right to post (so long as not racist, homophobic, Tory -- just messing -- or any of the other bad -ists).

Yoking together all his disparate threads and throwing them into a bin called 'Terry' is a radical and pointedly personal solution. Merged threads are generally repeat-subjects. To me it's a bad and uncomfortable step for the mods to take

ETA I'm not saying anyone has been a bully... but the whole response goes close to it

One? Dead easy. Ten? Irritating.


When did urbane get redefined? Otherwise I've rarely seen a word so misapplied.

In support of the moderation: there was a problem, the problem appears to have refused to moderate itself over a long period - though it could have done so very simply because apparently it could modify the behaviour elsewhere on the site - so the moderators took a simple approach that did not exclude anyone. The poster can still post - anywhere - but needs to post in the same format as everyone else. Where can the bully word be applied to that?

As an exercise in lateral thinking, the solution is admirable.

Exactly. Terry is an intelligent poster as can be seen from many of his posts outside this particular board. Unfortunately, people fell for the silly persona he used only on this board & so it continued. You have to be smart to skate so close to the edge for so long before finally getting knocked off.

its like an episode of star trek in here...

...the hive mind is rounding on anyone who isn't capering about crowing over a few threads being merged - cos clearly they just don't understand a) how dreadful terry is and b) how welcome he is to post.

resistance is futile, and all that.

Of course the individual behind the persona is intelligent. I don't understand why intelligence should be an issue. Whether a stupid or an intelligent person is denied equal posting rights is immaterial.

The reactive moderation on this board gives a like-minded group of posters power to remove individuals, if they're dogged enough; if they are sufficiently vigilant. I've seen it happen, and have tried (and failed) to prevent it from happening. Terry has managed to avoid that fate for many years, whilst flirting with it like a good 'un. Good for him. It takes some doing. Just for the power of resistance I've got to applaud him. For doing it whilst harming no one, I am decisively on his side. I wonder if I'll get banned now?

He is many things but urbane is not one of them. Rampant and reptetive would be more accurate.

Mods moderate. To suggest they bully is pushing it. It IS up to them how they deal with this forum. It was time. They acted. I applaud them!

Exactly so!

Absolutely. I have posted far more on here in the past week than I have all series and indeed previous series because I have found the poster's threads a massive irritant.

^^^^^^^

I've only been a member since October and almost immediately wondered how this eejit was getting away with his posting MO. Long overdue

Well said.


The mods DID deal with it - TWICE. They responded to two separate threads from two FMs who made threads about him (which is against the rules) and told them that Terry hasn't broken any rules and that they should just ignore the threads. Ten minutes later this thread happened... despite the mods acknowledging of no rule break, and like someone said above, a merge usually means a discussion on the same topic - not limiting posters to keep their own threads in one thread.

The reason why the mods eventually reacted isn't because of anything Terry did, it was the reaction of others... and that doesn't sit well with me at all.

Let's hope your not the next one to be singled out - after all, you clearly don't need to break any rules for it to happen, you just have to piss off a few posters despite the fact your posts aren't offensive in any way.

Being offensive wasn't the rule he broke.

Of interest from Wikipedia on the subject of Moderators:-

"Forum trolls are users that repeatedly and deliberately breach the netiquette of an established online community, posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages to bait or excite users into responding or to test the forum rules and policies, and with that the patience of the forum staff. Their provocative behaviour may potentially start flame wars or other disturbances. Responding to a troll's provocations is commonly known as 'feeding the troll' and is generally discouraged, as it can encourage their disruptive behaviour."

Tolerance

Very thin on the ground in here.

Is that his full name which he shortens to Terry?

And yes, he hasn't posted as much

I much prefer all his threads to be in one place. I have nothing against him but had no interest in the sort of thing he posted about yet some days I'd log in and his threads were dominating the front page. It was a bit rude of him to do that.

Much better now as he can still post his stuff but not annoy the rest of us.

I see from your joining date you have only noticed a year of Terry's posts. Many of us have been here for a long time and have despaired of his style. There have been many threads bemoaning his posting style over the years (last year, the year before and the year before that etc, etc). This year was obviously the final straw for the mods.

So please be aware this is not the first year he has antagonised posters. Indeed, many interesting and knowledgable posters have been driven away by his seemingly teflon style.

Teflon Terry and The Pineapple Chunks............taking over from Dave Arch

I never ever posted in any Terry thread - except this one. In fact soon after I joined DS a couple or years ago I put him on "ignore" deciding he was a "prat" but not rude..

None of his posts elsewhere demonstrated the slightest bit of rudeness. Never malicious. He did not show signs of being embittered. Never a single ad hominem comment - the closest was his persistent Brenden (sic) . So I un-ignored him.

People somehow have an inability to spot all those very long thread title littered with CAPITALS and move on.

This year and last I didn't notice the threads. "It's a Terry thread so move on." I said to myself. Some say he bumped his threads. I never read his thread titles spotting them by the CAPITALS so didn't notice the bumping.

But now I don't have the right to ignore a Terry thread with its long tongue twisting title replete with CAPITALS. I have to read a pack of Pixie threads. And there's been a rush of Ringah threads. Before it was much easier to ignore the rubbish.

Oh well he now has the ultimate tribute. A never ending thread that his rabid haters are incapable of ignoring like I did with Terry's own threads.

So here is a polite request.

Would people creating rubbish threads make the titles very long and have a few of the words in the title in BLOCK CAPITALS. That would make it much easier to walk on by.

I've been here for quite a long time too and Terry's threads have never antagonised me as I only read the ones that I thought migh tinterest me - as Henry so eloquently puts it - so easy to walk on by. And as I said before - such a lack of tolerance in here.

But YOU did.



So rude and you have the cheek to complain about Terry.

And yet the many who have put up with things for years are now being blamed for the mods decision to create this thread.

As I and others have pointed out, the poster in question can still post. Odd that they don't respond on any threads at all on the SCD board. Why not? Why are multiple inane shouty threads OK when they are apparently not botherered about making a genuine contribution?