Censorship with no explanation

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beavercreek

beavercreek

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In a recent current thread about the CFR I congratulated Casey Jones on the fine job done with the help of friends.
At the end of my post I said that 'many hands make light work as four Trumps said as they put in a light bulb'.

I have just seen that a moderator (no name given) has edited my post and removed the joke about Trump
Now, there was no profanity, no acrimonious statement, no derogatory remark, just the use of Trump's name.
I was not given the courtesy of a message to explain why the editing happened.

This is exactly one of the reasons that other long standing venerable members of this forum have left and no longer take part. I know this as a fact.
If the moderator loves Trump or not, he/she has shown a completely overreaction to a small inoffensive joke... unless he/she is a Trump lover of course.

Anyone who thinks that they can completely remove politics from life knows nothing about the fact that every part of our lives is affected by politics of some variety.
OR the moderator does not have a sense of humour.
 
beavercreek said:
In a recent current thread about the CFR I congratulated Casey Jones on the fine job done with the help of friends.
At the end of my post I said that 'many hands make light work as four Trumps said as they put in a light bulb'.

I have just seen that a moderator (no name given) has edited my post and removed the joke about Trump
Now, there was no profanity, no acrimonious statement, no derogatory remark, just the use of Trump's name.
I was not given the courtesy of a message to explain why the editing happened.

This is exactly one of the reasons that other long standing venerable members of this forum have left and no longer take part. I know this as a fact.
If the moderator loves Trump or not, he/she has shown a completely overreaction to a small inoffensive joke... unless he/she is a Trump lover of course.

Anyone who thinks that they can completely remove politics from life knows nothing about the fact that every part of our lives is affected by politics of some variety.
OR the moderator does not have a sense of humour.
Click to expand...

There was a thread drift (cannot remember which thread) which was about cars. I added my thoughts about the engine in the car. Next time I visited this site, I was confronted by quite a large list of what I should or should not do. After scrolling and reading I had to acknowledge that I had read it.

It annoyed me - was I the only one to receive the notice? And not everybody has a sense of humour.
 
I could not proceed until I'd acknowledged the rules.
 
I suppose a moderator's job is a hard one and whatever they do will be wrong.

Probably with most of these things, one would like to mull over any decision for a while, but t'internet being what it is, Rome is likely to burn while Nero fiddles.

There's no easy answer, and sometimes things will go the wrong way, but you're never going to please all the people all the time.

Having said that, I can understand how one is likely to feel a but peed off when their post is removed for whatever reason.

So, as usual, I'm sitting on the fence :emo:
 
I was under the impression that we had all had to 'click-through' the acceptable use policy, and it was probably a way for the owners / providers of the site to try to limit their liability for content we had generated?

Perhaps I am too thick-skinned (some might say, just thick) to have realised I had transgressed?

IMHO, there is one Moderator, who seems to have a 'hair-trigger' at times.. - But we are all different, and one man's quip, is another's grave insult.


This is the Internet, and a Garden Railway Forum.. Life is too short to worry overly much, so I (mostly) shrug and let it ride..
 
I personally took the comments as negative and political.

Do either of the posters think a joke about anyone or any group that is the basic "how many <X> does it take to screw in a light bulb" is NOT derogatory?

Clearly a derogatory comment about a sitting president is political.

Are you really saying you do not understand this? Can you really argue to the contrary?

SMFH

Greg

p.s. the comments about "Trump lover" and "removing politics from life are telling". You cannot remove politics from life but you CAN remove them from a Model Train Forum, and successfully, and EVERY model train forum I know of specifically bans politics, harassment, etc. Facebook and political forums are available, go there and post whatever you want.
 
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I'm now 70. If I am to have my allotted 'three score and ten', I am now on borrowed time, life is too short not to have a laugh. Some people just take life and themselves too seriously, I never have and I am convinced I am all the happier for it.

David
 
Though I do not totally disagree with Greg, most things that are lighthearted are usually a play on politics, religion, race or sex, and as such can be described as derogatory, discriminatory, or racist. But where would the fun in life be :)
 
Not to beat it to death, but there's a lot of room for humor that is allowed on this forum. Also, being primarily a train forum, not a humor forum, it should not be a problem to have fun, talk about trains and not violate the forum rules. There's a lot to this hobby, without dragging in a lot of off topic stuff.

I've seen a lot of humorous stuff on this forum that did not violate the rules, and affect people's beliefs or sensibilities. You don't see any train forums in the USA making fun of the Queen.
 
Well, well so was it you Greg who made the complaint?

I have seen 'joking' comments in other posts that have made reference to people from other countries or have made slightly denigratory remarks about other countries culture/practices....BUT they were not removed/edited.

Obviously it is considered bad form to make even slight fun of Trump but okay to do similar with anybody else as long as is not Trump related..... sounds a bit like Trump himself...the resemblance is uncanny.

Also I have been on this forum for many years so I am quite up to speed with the T&Cs.. But I am, while being a member on American forums, also aware that our Brit sense of humour can be lost on the, sometimes, sensitive ears of our friends across the pond.
 
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Greg Elmassian said:
I've seen a lot of humorous stuff on this forum that did not violate the rules, and affect people's beliefs or sensibilities. You don't see any train forums in the USA making fun of the Queen.
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You know Greg, us colonist could start!! :rofl:
Hey Greg, How many Queens does it take to... wait.. NO! Stop! :lipssealed: :giggle:

To substantively add to the conversation for a moment - T&C's or not... I too have experienced "censorship" on the board. I agree, I read and accepted the "rules" - but without any advice or an explanation to those that ran afoul of said rules, which seems to be one the points of the OP, folks are gonna be slow on the uptake.

I will say - I work my as...er... uh... rear off for my posts here. The model building is, in fact, the easy bit. The photos, the editing of the photos, the narrative - with research of products used including names and part numbers - honestly I spend my time 3:1 writing my build updates for this site to the time I spend doing the actual build.

I firmly appreciate the time and effort the unpaid volunteers/moderators spend on this forum, but lets not overlook the time and effort others spend creating the content for the same forum. If I can take the time to thoughtfully craft my posts, with concise data and actionable information/photos, I don't believe it's too much to ask that a moderator take a moment to explain why my post warranted editing.**

** And that means more than just a "You broke the rules!" note. A simple message of "Sorry mate, whilst funny to some, I've had to edit your post as it's not in keeping with the T&Cs pertaining to political speech." Or, you know, I guess I could just vomit up some fuzzy photos onto this site of my "build" and say something akin to "Oy! I sprayed some paint - not sure what brand it was - no, I don't have photos of steps 3, 4, 5, 13-65 or 67-78. Don't ask me any questions of how I did it... You getz whatz you get!" :D

I mean, I could... but that wouldn't make me a very good forum participate... effort goes both ways. I'm sure the mods here do a huge heap of work we never see, and I am most thankful for it... but I too was so put off by my last interaction with them I honestly debated ever posting anything more of my work here again. I can see now, my experience wasn't an isolated one and thus, feel it's fair to speak up in defense of the issue being raised - that is:

beavercreek said:
I was not given the courtesy of a message to explain why the editing happened.
Click to expand...


Just my two cents... YMMV
 
I've never gotten an explanation of why a derogatory joke about the President of the United States is not political, Beaver. You are clearly more interested in finding out who blew the whistle and defending your statement as ok.

It's not ok if the rules are no politics.... they don't say just a little politics, or a smidgen of politics.

And why is it always NO in forums for religion, racism, politics, etc. Because some people insist in pushing the limits and finding their OWN gray area.

I moderate quite a few forums. I "own" several. As an owner and moderator, adults are not having issues of the definition of the words, it's a refusal to accept the rules, that they have their own interpretation of the rules as clearly evidenced in your last post.

Didn't the previous incarnation of this forum get out of control because people lost courtesy? Is your continued mockery of our president essential to everyone's enjoyment of this forum?

I don't think so, and pushing the moderators and owners like this is a great way to get banned, at least in the groups I am familiar with.
 
Greg Elmassian said:
And why is it always NO in forums for religion, racism, politics, etc. Because some people insist in pushing the limits and finding their OWN gray area.
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Greg, again though I appreciate your point, there are comments, not just humour, on this forum that mention the above that are not censored. No religion, politics, racism etc should mean none at all, it’s either black and white or not.
 
Fair points Greg, but let's enforce the roles evenly then? This has been up for hours... (literally as this discussion about said issues has been going):



I dare you to go up and use the forum search tool and put in the word "Trump" - eye opening results in my opinion.

I stay the hell away from politics on these boards... trains are my escape from such nonsense in the world - but clearly Beaver is not the only one to add a little Trump "humor" to posts... I think it's fair for him to have his concern as express in the original post.

This is absolutely about courtesy. I think we all can be better at exercising it.

Now... were't we discussing making fun of her majesty? Where'd we leave off on that? :rofl:
 
I can't believe this censorship happens very often. Can we move on and talk about trains please?
 
Ask David about the sheep... Honestly.. Now that's funny...
 
Well I believe in fun so let's continue with trains but to finish off...
Please do the forum search for 'T***p', Greg, it will enlighten you , and will also ..maybe.. stop the singling out of my posts to vent your disapproval...or do you want to control this forum like the ones that you 'own' or are a member of in the US?
You can't be right all of the time Greg.
 
I have now locked this thread as its run its course and will only descend into arguments.

Please no political crap on here, enough to worry about without name calling and politician bashing. The people elected them to do a job, they do he job they think right, if we dont agree we elect another lot next time round.

Move on.
 
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