Amen
Nice that at least one local board has rules that try to maintain a civilized discourse.
Threats, insults and intimidation directed at MERB from MERC. How do we stop it?
- Thread starter Techman
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A question for our moderators
I was wondering what would happen if a poster here on MERB was to accuse another poster of being a rapist?
I realize different circumstances may dictate different levels of response, but a "general answer" will do for now. If you want to get more focused, I am sure you know which specific case I am talking about
.
Thank you in advance, and thank you in general for the great job you have been doing of late!
I was wondering what would happen if a poster here on MERB was to accuse another poster of being a rapist?
I realize different circumstances may dictate different levels of response, but a "general answer" will do for now. If you want to get more focused, I am sure you know which specific case I am talking about
.Thank you in advance, and thank you in general for the great job you have been doing of late!
I was wondering what would happen if a poster here on MERB was to accuse another poster of being a rapist?
I realize different circumstances may dictate different levels of response, but a "general answer" will do for now. If you want to get more focused, I am sure you know which specific case I am talking about
Thank you in advance, and thank you in general for the great job you have been doing of late!
A rapist, do tell??.......
Quick, someone pass me the popcorn. I want Orville's Heavy Butter variety...
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Hello again,
A couple of points to address:
1) The purpose of this thread is not simply to "blow off some steam" as you put it, CS. It is mainly to address the unacceptable behavior on merc in regards to MERB, including the possible effect of such behavior on GTs and other events which are held away from the boards. We are allowing MERB members to defend themselves for the first time against the wild accusations that have been directed at them for too long from the security of merc where there appears to be no rules and no control over what their members are permitted to post. As I said in a previous post, if Tom is willing to clean up his board and remove all threads and attacks directed at MERB and our members, this thread will have served it's purpose and the boards can return to their previous state of friendly competition and coexistence. If members believe that a boycott is called for to achieve this goal, we will not stand in their way.
2) To answer Sapman99: if such accusations were to be made on MERB, the poster would be instantly and permanently banned. And when we ban a member permanently for such an offense, it really is a permanent ban. He will not be allowed to return when we require someone to fill out our post count. We do not permit baseless, damaging accusations to be posted in this community. I will remind everyone that all MERB rules apply to members' behavior in the chat room also.
Mod 8
A couple of points to address:
1) The purpose of this thread is not simply to "blow off some steam" as you put it, CS. It is mainly to address the unacceptable behavior on merc in regards to MERB, including the possible effect of such behavior on GTs and other events which are held away from the boards. We are allowing MERB members to defend themselves for the first time against the wild accusations that have been directed at them for too long from the security of merc where there appears to be no rules and no control over what their members are permitted to post. As I said in a previous post, if Tom is willing to clean up his board and remove all threads and attacks directed at MERB and our members, this thread will have served it's purpose and the boards can return to their previous state of friendly competition and coexistence. If members believe that a boycott is called for to achieve this goal, we will not stand in their way.
2) To answer Sapman99: if such accusations were to be made on MERB, the poster would be instantly and permanently banned. And when we ban a member permanently for such an offense, it really is a permanent ban. He will not be allowed to return when we require someone to fill out our post count. We do not permit baseless, damaging accusations to be posted in this community. I will remind everyone that all MERB rules apply to members' behavior in the chat room also.
Mod 8
Is n't that precisely the object of this thread?
I see no point in providing a zillionth proof of unacceptable behavior from their administrators.
I see no point in going there to defend against the silly accusations.
I see no point to respond here to accusations made there.
To put it simply, that is playing their game.
The case against them is very clear. And it has nothing to do with the lies, shills or the psychology of their people. It has to do with open threats, the use of trolls, the protection of cyberstalkers and, most importantly, the gathering of personal information on hobbyists. Some of these activities are criminal.
Do we really have to go through the evidence once again? I think not. The last time I visited their forum, many evidences were there, written in black on white. Like many, I also have evidence in the backchannel, most particularly on the gathering of personal information on hobbyist.
IMHO, the case against their forum has been made. The question is what should be the level of response.
Some people think that convincing Tom is the appropriate solution. I think that is ludicrous considering his personality, his limited capacity to understand and his general consideration for the women of the profession. There is, most probably, ground for civil action. But who would do that considering the costs. There may also be ground for complaint for criminal activities. But we all know that the police is having then and some of there members under surveillance.
I don’t think we have any effective means of response there. That is why I have proposed a boycott of their sponsers. And if this is to work, it will have to appeal to the personal discipline of many hobbyists, and, I would suggest, to a contribution of merb administrators (that would take the form of a statement giving the reasons why they do not object to the publication of a boycott proposition here). After witnessing what I saw on EQ, I am quite sure that they would also participate in this.
I disagree totally. That is playing the trolls's game. You agree with the presence of trolls on the blue board (if otherwise, you would atttack DT for being one and Tom for accepting, in fact using, him)? I don't think you will get any favorable answer to your proposition from merb administrators. They refuse the troll game.
Finally, an effective pleading for a boycott with some logic behind it. Still not convinced of the ability to be effective, but at least a more logical case finally being presented. It's my observation that MERC's post count appears to be tanking, possibly in light of this thread??
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GTs and Other Meetings
Lost in the thread is a more important issue - the positive value of GTs and other face to face meetings. Seems that a high percentage of the protagonists have met yet the results show few if any positives.
Opposite of the results on scientific, interest or community boards.
Lost in the thread is a more important issue - the positive value of GTs and other face to face meetings. Seems that a high percentage of the protagonists have met yet the results show few if any positives.
Opposite of the results on scientific, interest or community boards.
Noted that since Celine pushed these thing back in the day, there's been a deterioration on both boards. GT's actually serve as negative influences.
Roland, you just don't get it. There's no moderation over there. None. Can't really expect anything more than that because there really aren't any rules there either. There's no list of banned members so nothing for members to use as a reference for their behaviour either. Members vanish along with their posts when Tom decides he doesn't like what they're posting. You won't find the last post I made on the board which is the one I was banned for. You won't find any reason or notice posted when I was banned either. Merc is a farce. It's run by the whims of whatever mood Tom happens to be in at the time he looks at the board. I belong to a bunch of message boards dealing with topics like Blu-ray discs, computers, guitars, music, movies, you name it, and I've never come across a board as poorly run as merc is. Ths crap that is allowed to be posted there is just unbelievable and would never be accepted on any other board on the net.
And no matter how pitiful the moderators are, it's all Tom's responsiblity for the state of affairs over there. He is the one that makes the decisions, he is the one who declares certain posters to be untouchable. Remember the committee? I was told in no uncertain terms to leave Oliver alone when I was going after his posts on the board. When I brought up the topic in committee threads I was shut down. But Tony and Eastender conspire against merc and only Eastender gets banned 'for life', which on merc means until Tom needs some posters, and Tony only got a slap on the wrist. But that's understandable because I doubt that Tom could keep Tony off the board because he won't let his mods have any control.
And as far as merc mods are concerned...they must have no self respect at all. How could anyone be a moderator on a board and have to sit back and let the kind of crap that is posted there go on without resigning?
Now you expect the mods here to allow cross board fights on a regular basis? To what end? Only merc has something to gain by that kind of thing, why should we lower ourselves to their level? How about asking Tom to open his board to real discussion instead? How about he lifts the bans he imposed and let us defend ourselves there against his Internet trolls? But no, he doesn't have the balls.
And I will say something to the 'banned for life' members who willingly went back when Tom lifted their bans. You are hypocrites for ignoring the reasons you were banned in the first place and for going back like well trained dogs. Have a bit of respect for yourselves instead of being Tom's lap dogs.
Techman
And no matter how pitiful the moderators are, it's all Tom's responsiblity for the state of affairs over there. He is the one that makes the decisions, he is the one who declares certain posters to be untouchable. Remember the committee? I was told in no uncertain terms to leave Oliver alone when I was going after his posts on the board. When I brought up the topic in committee threads I was shut down. But Tony and Eastender conspire against merc and only Eastender gets banned 'for life', which on merc means until Tom needs some posters, and Tony only got a slap on the wrist. But that's understandable because I doubt that Tom could keep Tony off the board because he won't let his mods have any control.
And as far as merc mods are concerned...they must have no self respect at all. How could anyone be a moderator on a board and have to sit back and let the kind of crap that is posted there go on without resigning?
Now you expect the mods here to allow cross board fights on a regular basis? To what end? Only merc has something to gain by that kind of thing, why should we lower ourselves to their level? How about asking Tom to open his board to real discussion instead? How about he lifts the bans he imposed and let us defend ourselves there against his Internet trolls? But no, he doesn't have the balls.
And I will say something to the 'banned for life' members who willingly went back when Tom lifted their bans. You are hypocrites for ignoring the reasons you were banned in the first place and for going back like well trained dogs. Have a bit of respect for yourselves instead of being Tom's lap dogs.
Techman
Well, before Mod 11 permanently bands me, let me totally endorse your thoughts here. But, then I may soon be calling Blue home.
I've met Tony and Tom at GTs in the past. Both of them sit in a corner and hardly say a word to anyone. A far cry from their tough personas on the boards. Every GT I've attended, and there's been quite a few, have been very pleasant gatherings of like minded people looking for nothing more that a night out with people they can share their secret 'hobby' with. Before the trolls started suggesting that people were taking pictures and that LE were going to be there watching to see who showed up and other bullshit claims, we had fantastic times. I never witnessed any problems or trouble and everyone got along well. But now that some people know they aren't welcome, they want to start shit to ruin it for everyone. That's behaviour suited to children, not the adults that these boards are supposed to be made up of.
Deterioration on the boards, CAUSED by GT's?!? When was the last time you even showed up at a GT, CS? I've been going for the last 4 to 5 years and I don't remember ever seeing you there...To the contrary, I and many other members tend to get along just fine both on AND off the board, with very, VERY few exceptions.
I don't know how you made such a giant leap in logic with this statement...
And BTW, CS...please, please, PLEASE start spelling Hypocrisy the correct way, and not
as you've been doing. It just makes my teeth gnash each time...CS Martin said:
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All of this is true and the proposed boycott is the alternative to playing along, defending against silly accusations, and the like. The silliest of all was published today and I'm not going to dignify it by replying to it. What was his purpose? To put an exclamation point to the obvious fact that he's a clown, a fop, a caricature? A sad, pathetic little troll with a keyboard? Was his purpose to see just how far he could go without getting banned? I really don't know. It really doesn't matter any more than he matters.
I agree with an awful lot that's been said this evening, with the sole exception of Roland. There is no need for any communication between the boards. Once we've put an end to their sniping, slanders, lies, and jealousy, we can, as the moderators have said, go back to ignoring them as they will, hopefully, ignore us.
Hello Roland,
Here on MERB we list every person who is suspended or banned along with the reason for such. I am unaware of any permanent ban ever being rescinded. General Gonad was banned first for one year, which was reduced to time served, following with a 2 year ban which has now expired. If GG wishes, he is welcome to return at any time. As far as Tony is concerned, if we were to list all the handles used by him that have been banned, most of which did not last long enough for him to make a single post, it would require a thread of it's own. We no longer list his banned handles as it only serves to give him the attention that he craves.
MERB members have no say whether a ban will be lifted or not. This is not a democracy. We do not ban members permanently without valid reason.
As far as merc is concerned, we have in the past cooperated on a number of occasions with their mods. Any request they made was always handled with respect and we gave whatever help we could offer at the time. When things began to get out of hand over there, I communicated with Tom asking him respectfully to get things under control in regards to rampant accusations being made against MERB and it's members and moderators. No cooperation was forthcoming. Fred Zed also got in touch with Tom on a number of occasions asking for cooperation. None was given. This was most disheartening as we had always cooperated with their requests, even going as far as removing a series of attack posts directed at Tom by Ziggy Montana for which Ziggy was banned permanently on merc. Recently, when this topic began to be discussed in the GT thread, Tom had the nerve to email Fred asking that the posts be removed and the thread closed. While he has been willing to do nothing at all in respect to the constant attack posts on merc directed at MERB, he immediately asked for it to be stopped here.
That is the absolute height of hypocrisy and one of the reasons for my permitting the continued existence of this thread. If you wish to have any part to play in this discussion, I suggest you communicate with Tom and persuade him to get his act in order. As far as we are concerned, he is a man without honor who will permit any kind of post to be made on his board in the goal of increasing his declining post count.
This is the man you are so steadfastly defending.
Mod 8
Here on MERB we list every person who is suspended or banned along with the reason for such. I am unaware of any permanent ban ever being rescinded. General Gonad was banned first for one year, which was reduced to time served, following with a 2 year ban which has now expired. If GG wishes, he is welcome to return at any time. As far as Tony is concerned, if we were to list all the handles used by him that have been banned, most of which did not last long enough for him to make a single post, it would require a thread of it's own. We no longer list his banned handles as it only serves to give him the attention that he craves.
MERB members have no say whether a ban will be lifted or not. This is not a democracy. We do not ban members permanently without valid reason.
As far as merc is concerned, we have in the past cooperated on a number of occasions with their mods. Any request they made was always handled with respect and we gave whatever help we could offer at the time. When things began to get out of hand over there, I communicated with Tom asking him respectfully to get things under control in regards to rampant accusations being made against MERB and it's members and moderators. No cooperation was forthcoming. Fred Zed also got in touch with Tom on a number of occasions asking for cooperation. None was given. This was most disheartening as we had always cooperated with their requests, even going as far as removing a series of attack posts directed at Tom by Ziggy Montana for which Ziggy was banned permanently on merc. Recently, when this topic began to be discussed in the GT thread, Tom had the nerve to email Fred asking that the posts be removed and the thread closed. While he has been willing to do nothing at all in respect to the constant attack posts on merc directed at MERB, he immediately asked for it to be stopped here.
That is the absolute height of hypocrisy and one of the reasons for my permitting the continued existence of this thread. If you wish to have any part to play in this discussion, I suggest you communicate with Tom and persuade him to get his act in order. As far as we are concerned, he is a man without honor who will permit any kind of post to be made on his board in the goal of increasing his declining post count.
This is the man you are so steadfastly defending.
Mod 8
Techman,
You are wasting your time with Roland. He is the protoypical cruise ship entertainment director purely focused on making everyone have fun, deliberately and happily unconscious of any crisis among passengers. If he had been on the Titanic his granite hard smile would be sitting there on the bottom of the sea still denying the disaster.
At least Eastender paid. But as I have said here before, it's not Tony who should pay. It's the one who had made possible and promoted Tony...TOM who should pay!
Cheers,
Merlot
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Good evening.
How's the girlcott working so far?
Mods I think it's time to let all the proboycotters make a few more posts each, don't let those with opposing views post and then close the thread. Pretty well everything that can be said has been said; couple of the board's favorite folks have made fools of themselves; and frankly I wasn't aware of any rape allegation until I learned about it here... shut it down so innocents aren't hurt.
Matthew 5:9
Blessed [are] the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
May Gawd bless and keep you all,
Dee
How's the girlcott working so far?
Mods I think it's time to let all the proboycotters make a few more posts each, don't let those with opposing views post and then close the thread. Pretty well everything that can be said has been said; couple of the board's favorite folks have made fools of themselves; and frankly I wasn't aware of any rape allegation until I learned about it here... shut it down so innocents aren't hurt.
Matthew 5:9
Blessed [are] the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
May Gawd bless and keep you all,
Dee
Techman,
At the last GT I was at , Tom was very busy with everyone.
You were there at that one too.
Another one Tony was having a grand time pretending to be Josee.
I thought he was funny.
Your other post is too long for me to answer....but I do understand some of your concerns. I won't agree with a lot of them, but I guess that you are still angry about some stuff.
Picture taker guy was from this board. I did exchange a few words with him at the time and made it clear that we would deal with him. He didn't show.
As for permanent bannings...both boards do the same.Nothing new there.
If you even remember a while back after Tony was permanently banned there was a vote on the blue board. I think his handle was Flabio then, or something like that.The whole thing was crazy , but members still allowed him back in. Even here, Mod 5 had a truce for a while, but Tony started misbehaving..again.
Even GG was reinstated here, and may have visited a few times -under cover.
I have no business here..really. My only error was to answer a phone call from a member. I do my sports and don't have any time for this stuff at all.
I put in a suggestion, that is all. From a gracious pm I received after, it wasn't just my idea.Maybe I even heard it before or read it somewhere....that's good too.
Roland
I remember that GT, Roland. I think you were there for about 20 minutes total. That was the GT where Tom, probably thinking I was a mod here, admitted to my face that he has to allow shill posts on his board because that;s the cost of doing business, every board does it according to him, and that I must be able to understand that part of things.
I also remember the first time I met Tony at Cleo's, he introduced himself as Eager Beaver. Yeah...a real comic. Unless he's pulling the same crap with escorts like he seems to have done with sapman. Really nice guy you have there.
If you think the shit going on over there is funny, you have a lousy sense of humour.
Still haven't learned how to read, have you Dee? Maybe Ziggy should've posted the word RAPIST in highlighted and bold extra large type for you to see it. Why are you even posting here? No one cares about your feeble posts trying to ask us to make peace with a gang of misogynists. The only ones making fools of themselves here are you and Roland. You try to call me a paedophile but you defend a board belonging to a guy who was actually investigated on complaints of running minors. Some standards you have there, Dee.
Ok 2 more for Techman....all others have 3 unrespondable posts to go.
Dee
Mud thrown is ground lost.
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