Aircooled VW South Africa

Following the (now LOCKED) 'worst thread of the year' (to quote Eben) yesterday, may I remind you of the terms and conditions that YOU agreed to when joining ACVWSA:

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “Aircooled VW South Africa” is hosted or International Law. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, with notification of your Internet Service Provider if deemed required by us. The IP address of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that “Aircooled VW South Africa” have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. Neither “Aircooled VW South Africa” nor phpBB shall be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

Name-calling and abusive comments will NOT be tolerated here. You are scaring other enthusiasts off from what is without doubt the best thing ever to happen to the air cooled VW scene in South Africa. Who are YOU to spoil OUR fun? If the shoe fits, WEAR it!

So streng..... eish !

That "worst thread" was rightly locked, but I don't see how it (or at least the initial post) falls foul of the rules quoted.

Maybe we need to add a prohibition on provocative posts that are clearly designed as flame bait and add no value to the ongoing air-cooled conversation.

And serial flame baiters like the OP should be banned, even if only temporarily.

fig wrote:That "worst thread" was rightly locked, but I don't see how it (or at least the initial post) falls foul of the rules quoted.

Maybe we need to add a prohibition on provocative posts that are clearly designed as flame bait and add no value to the ongoing air-cooled conversation.

And serial flame baiters like the OP should be banned, even if only temporarily.

Agreed 100%

The OP in the mentioned post have already received a warning this morning, as the tone and nature of his initial thread was a clear attempt to provoke negative comments, which it subsequently did. I did notice that the OP have had similiar warnings in the past as well

Guilty as charged, that thread was posted for the sole purpose of stirring.

I'm not going to justify it or whatever, I was out of line. Let's leave it at that.

I received a similar warning when I posted pictures of someone's car taken at a show, on the forum and there was a fuss after that...to the best of my knowledge that is the only other warning which I have received here, unless there are others which I am not aware of

Anyway...moving along now.

---> "I did notice that the OP have had similiar warnings in the past as well"

Well then, why is this even being discussed?
Seriously, the person/s in question have obviously made life unpleasant for us at numerous occasions.
S/He has perpetrated repeatedly. Without indication of even a willingness to alter behaviour.

Get out the Ban-hammer and let rip. I'm back here now, for a while, because I'm hoping that these kinds of individuals
have been eliminated. If they haven't, I'll go back to checking in once every couple of months

Think about it. If people acted like this at your house while having a Braai, would you still have them there?

Because that is what this amounts to. This is a social gathering of like minded individuals, with a common interest.
If the behaviour of the few spoils the gathering, is it worth having them around? Should they be allowed to stay or should
the police be roped in to escort them off your premises?

What people don't seem to understand, is that sites like this belong to someone, specifically the people that run them and pay for the domain as well as hosting.
It's their property, their "house", the rest of the people on that site, are invited to partake in the owner's/maintainer's interests.
Failing civil behaviour is grounds for revoking that invitation. Multiple failures to act in a civil manner, is grounds for banning, permanently.

When an individual is not adding any value to a group, they can be tolerated in as much as the individual is, in all probability, learning from those already adding value.
But when an individual is blatantly causing unpleasantness and disruption... why are they still being allowed a way in?

Even though people here have a common interest - Aircooled VW's, they have all different personalities, and not the same view on everything else, so, arguments will happen, if one starts to ban all kinds of opinions left right and centre, you will be left with an EMPTY forum, and people too afraid to comment especially if its not the same view as the mods, or other members.... If you dont like what someone has to say, dont read his/her posts - simple really, unless you want this place to become a ghost town, or a nazi kamp where someone with the slightest variance in opinion gets banned on a whim.... Live and let live I say.

My 2c hope I dont get banned for saying what I think.

There is a HUGE difference between airing an opinion and a deliberate attack on a specific person in public to provoke negative response, also known as stirring...

Golfmad wrote:Even though people here have a common interest - Aircooled VW's, they have all different personalities, and not the same view on everything else, so, arguments will happen, if one starts to ban all kinds of opinions left right and centre, you will be left with an EMPTY forum, and people too afraid to comment especially if its not the same view as the mods, or other members.... If you dont like what someone has to say, dont read his/her posts - simple really, unless you want this place to become a ghost town, or a nazi kamp where someone with the slightest variance in opinion gets banned on a whim.... Live and let live I say.

My 2c hope I dont get banned for saying what I think.

This reminder isn't about opinions.

Golfmad wrote:Even though people here have a common interest - Aircooled VW's, they have all different personalities, and not the same view on everything else, so, arguments will happen, if one starts to ban all kinds of opinions left right and centre, you will be left with an EMPTY forum, and people too afraid to comment especially if its not the same view as the mods, or other members.... If you dont like what someone has to say, dont read his/her posts - simple really, unless you want this place to become a ghost town, or a nazi kamp where someone with the slightest variance in opinion gets banned on a whim.... Live and let live I say.

My 2c hope I dont get banned for saying what I think.

Golfmad, the difference between what you wrote and the troll OP was that you were airing an opinion for constructive debate, while the OP was just baiting people for his own immature purposes. Your post contributes to the debate, and therefore adds value, while the troll was just stirring kak as Pine said, and thereby destroying value.

Freedom of speech is not absolute in the world out there and there's no reason why it should be allowed here if the site owner doesn't want it. Obviously if the line is drawn too much on the fascist side then the outcome will be as you described. Likewise, if any attention whore is allowed to post whatever garbage they like just to provoke a response, then we'll also see an exodus away from here. We have to strike a balance between anything goes and giving people the freedom to express opinions without making personal attacks on anybody.

This is not an issue of censorship, but of editorial policy. Censorship is saying you can't say it anywhere. Editorial policy is saying you can't say it here.

And, finally, it's also up to everyone not to be so sensitive and have a hissy fit and threaten to go play elsewhere every time someone expresses an opinion they are uncomfortable or disagree with.

Well, I am leaving it to the mods and committee to issue a ban based on the feedback of the rest of the forum users...

If I am to be banned, no hard feelings, I went a bit too extreme this time around and it was totally uncalled and unjustified...

So, over to you guys then

Blitzkrieg wrote:Well, I am leaving it to the mods and committee to issue a ban based on the feedback of the rest of the forum users...

If I am to be banned, no hard feelings, I went a bit too extreme this time around and it was totally uncalled and unjustified...

So, over to you guys then

I vote for 'Apology accepted, so please don't do it again'?

Pine wrote:

Blitzkrieg wrote:Well, I am leaving it to the mods and committee to issue a ban based on the feedback of the rest of the forum users...

If I am to be banned, no hard feelings, I went a bit too extreme this time around and it was totally uncalled and unjustified...

So, over to you guys then

I vote for 'Apology accepted, so please don't do it again'?

Ditto that

Attitude and ethics for a long time have been a issue with this individual, my advice to him would be to do the smart thing, save face and the time of others. Stick your tail between your legs and F-off, use or abuse the advice given.