Ok, well here's the problem. The mods asked him to change his sig to change "libtards" to liberals. He did that. Then they came back with another request for a change. He could well think that his now banned sig had previously been approved by the mods since he'd made the change they requested. I don't know his view on this but it looks like start by taking an inch, end by taking a mile, or that they are putting words in his mouth.
Again, you said it yourself. His post had his sig in it. Thus he made a political post. You can't pretend the dig doesn't exist.
Read below (multiple mods, multiple times, explained the reason for the red card). Bold is how the mods tried to handle the situation Underline is why/what they did. The above quote is in response to the sig line being the sole reason for the red card
Man, I heard about racists using code words to deliver their message, to avoid getting in trouble. I would not have guessed that there are plenty of terms out there that can get us in trouble. Silly question: is there a list/guide of banned terminology that I could peruse? My concern is that I might be reading posts and agreeing with them, without realizing that the text is mined with code words. I am one of the few people that did not know about the underlying meaning of the term "globalist". Thanks.
Newsflash: Fiosfan has been joined by Riccardo Silva and Aleister Crowley in a lawsuit against bigsoccer.com, alleging that his dismissal was the result of his tacit support for #prorel4usa, so tacit in fact that he had publicly argued against it. Correction: that should be Dennis Crowley, the owner of Kingston Stockade, not Aleister Crowley, prophet of the religion of Thelema and probable inspiration for Twin Peaks.
Okay, lets do this... Take your sentence (which I chose somewhat randomly): Why not just use the standard language filter or a neutral source like Dictionary.com? From there, let's take word "filter." Now, let me see what Dictionary.com says (at this point, I haven't looked it up). http://www.dictionary.com/browse/filter?s=t There are 12 different definitions. So which one applies to the sentence? Let's look at: 1. any substance, as cloth, paper, porous porcelain, or a layer of charcoal or sand, through which liquid or gas is passed to remove suspended impurities or to recover solids. (noun) Were you asking about a substance such as a cloth, paper, etc? No, that does not make sense in your sentence. How about: 4. something that works like a filter, as by removing, blocking, or separating out certain elements: (noun) Blocking or separating elements. Hey, that sounds pretty good. But is there anything clearer? Maybe: 10. to act as a filter for; to slow or partially obstruct the passage of: (verb) To partially obstruct? Possibly, but not grammatically. You used "filter" as a noun with a modifier indicating the type of filter - a "language filter." But even then, what kind of "language filter?" There are many kinds, with many purposes, so we need to look at your sentence further. You said a "standard language filter." Ah, now were getting somewhere. But what is the "standard language filter?" Is it something BS has. Is it something somewhere else? And on message boards, we also have to account for other things such as the possibility that you might have meant "Standard Language Filter" is now a formal name. Why consider that? You said "use the" which could indicate a specific product with a specific name. But then you add "or a neutral source" which indicates your likely intent was not to have be a formal name or product, just a "standard language filter." But, there is still a question at hand, that is resolved by looking at the last word - "Dictionary.com." That indicates that this "standard language filter" is for words written in English, or at least that the context we are considering is that the language of the filter is about the English language. But even then, we don't know the reason why we are discussing a "standard language filter." For that, we need to look at the previous sentence to see "outsource definitions of what's offensive" to understand that what you are talking about is a "standard language filter" or "offensive" language. But none of that was possible to know if we just pulled "filter" from your sentence and talked about it. Heck, I might have even started talking about photography and pictures. What does this have to do with "globalist?" The word, in and of itself is harmless. But it will always have a context, and we need to look at the context in which is was used. (Apologies to all the Grammar Nazis/Alt-Write people who may be offended by at the above post.)
I was under the impression that the #ProRel4USA hashtag and the host of characters therein was the inspiration for Twin Peaks?
That is part of the issue to critical reading. I'm sure I have done this over the years, repped people who I later learned had unsavory messages. It is not necessarily the reps you give, but if you learn later that what you thought was cool, was actually not. There are two examples in this thread - one by @KSbus, and one by me - talking about how we used language we thought was cool, but latter learned we were using it in offense. There is plenty of stuff we learn over time based on what others say. Heck, until my grandmother was in her mid to late 70s, she thought it was okay to say "eeny meeny miny moe, catch a ni**er by the toe." The first time I heard her say that that (along with a couple uncles and aunts) we corrected her, she accepted, and changed. But it was because she had never been introduced to something different. And then she was.
Honestly, do you have zero respect for the mods who have been saying they've been trying over and over to work with this poster and he's only been hostile to them? Do you have zero respect for Ismitje who is neither liberal/Liberal/libtard nor is a knee jerk banner of posters? Have you read Ismitje's posts here? If you have read them and continue posting in this fashion, you either think nothing of what he has said, or are deliberately trying to ignore everything because for whatever reason you don't want to listen. Please stop.
We received new information. As I already said, prior to this kerfuffle I had no idea the term and context were anti-semetic and, therefore, had no reason to request he change that term as well. However, thanks to several of our Jewish community members, I received new information and I brought the new information to the rest of the mods for discussion..
Just to chime in here, I've questioned Fiosfan directly in the News threads about his comments over five years ago. His reply? Quote my post and say "Aaaaahhhh I just love adding to my ignore list" That's been our interaction. I commented, he ignored but still got butthurt by my occasional replies over the years. He's flying to be the first to do the News so people are forced to scan through his drivel at the bottom of his posts but won't interact or discuss his comments. Enough.
Of course not. I am a slow reader, and I can now see that the signature was inappropriate because of phrasing/context, not just 1 word. Then, the ban followed after a history of interaction with the mods. My concern is the following: I found myself confused when the whole incident started, because, and please correct me if I am wrong, the initial complaint reported a code word in his signature. At that time, I could not see why would someone be so offended for a descriptor of global trade advocates. Even when someone indicated that it was an anti-Semitic term, I thought that some witch hunt was about to start because the guy had a political statement in his signature, not a discriminatory statement. See, I do not want to find myself agreeing with covert propaganda, by being ignorant of code words. I might have chosen to defend the guy, thinking that he was being bullied for having a dislike of global trade advocacy. That is why I thought the moderators had a guide/list of bad terms to confirm improper behavior. But it sounds like a review process was done to discuss his signature. I admit that I gave his signature some slack (he was baiting easily-offended advocates of global trade, let him be...), due to his daily labor with news articles which I found informative. I guess that is why he enjoys some support in the forum. How does a ban help someone who tried to be productive to the community, despite his political stance? I guess sometimes you just gotta let a person go his own way.
You know what, I'm all out of patience on this one. I know you're a fellow mod, but you're being ridiculous. I'd have more respect for you if you simply admitted that you don't like the fact that a conservative opinion was censored. And now you're scrambling to find any reason, whether it makes sense or not, to back up your feelings. Because the fact that you continue to cling to this distinction that it was in his signature instead of the body of a post is absurd. A user's signature is content. Period. Let me explain it to you this way. If there was a guy walking down the street, just doing normal everyday stuff. He smiled at everyone he interacted with, and was sunny and pleasant. "Hi, how are you today?" "Have a good one." Every time he chatted with someone, it was polite and cordial. The weather. The news of the day. The local sports teams. Basic stuff. He walks into a Starbucks, orders coffee, and makes small talk with the lady behind the counter, and the other customers. Not a single word he says anywhere to anyone can be considered in any way out of line. Now picture that the whole time he was doing all of this, for the entire day, while interacting with all of these other people, he was wearing one of those great big sandwich board signs, and on both front and back, it said "F*** Jesus." When people inevitably start flipping out on him, he could mount the exact same dumbass defense you're trying to apply to this situation. "Why is everyone focusing on the sign? Why pay attention to that, when I'm going out of my way to be respectful and kind? How can you accuse me of hating Christians when I haven't said a single disrespectful word to you?" Because that's exactly what Fiosfan was doing here. He crafted a great big sign with an offensive message and then wore it everywhere he went. He deliberately customized his account so that every time he posted anything, that crap showed up, and was in people's faces. The fact that he only typed it once doesn't impress me in the least. POd, this argument that you keep trying to make that it somehow matters whether or not the content showed up in the signature rather than the actual posts is so preposterous on its face that you should be embarrassed for yourself for even trotting it out in the first place.
I used to referee. I worked with a guy who told us during his pre-game instructions that as a crew, anytime there was an incident that could be questionable or difficult to get to the bottom of, we should get together and discuss it to make sure we figured it out. Now, as any referee can tell you, there are situations where merely discussing an incident can make players on the field believe you're being influenced by the other team's complaining. If it's a truly match-changing incident, someone is going to be pissed off, because the fact that you had the conversation in the first place indicated some level of doubt, regardless of which way you decide. I'll never forget what the guy said to me: "Our job as a crew is to get it right FIRST, and look good in the process second." That's the way I view our moderating responsibilities. Our job is to do what's best for BigSoccer. And in this case, it was to keep something that was already bad from getting worse. Not to wait for an avalanche and then come behind it with a dustbuster. Saying we should have waited for hundreds, or thousands of potential users of the site to read something truly horrific before banning someone is like saying a referee shouldn't send someone off for dissent and should wait for the guy to break a leg.
Well you sound like a reasonable person and if someone said - hey this is often used as a code word - I suspect you would say - oh I didn't know that, I'll be mindful of that going forward. I was taken to task in this forum for not realizing that Squ@w is an offensive term - my poor education probably - but I certainly know it now and I've learned from the exchange. Yeah, you might defend something that has bigoted undertones without realizing it but once you discovered that fact, you probably would apologize to those you may have offended, or at least been more careful with the term. I personally wouldn't accuse Fiosfan of being anti-Semitic - I have no idea what he or anyone else here really thinks - and that's not really the point. To answer your last question - does providing a benefit mean you should be above the rules of the forum - the most basic of which is that you need to listen to and be respectful to the mods? These are moderated forums and that's the way we like them. It means you don't get the awful back and forth that you find in lots of comments sections of the internet. We live in incredibly dividing times - which is why it's really important that we keep our politics out of the soccer boards. We are all equal in our fandom. And for the record, we are big believers in second chances - apologies, working with mods, agreeing to stop the behaviors - all are great ways to avoid this kind of action or reverse it. It's not surprising that this thread exists rather than a quiet apology.
So because he says he's not something then that must be true? This is ridiculous. Perhaps we should set our criminal justice system up to operate on this basis. Judge: "You were seen by hundreds of people beating that guy up. It was recorded, too. You have a record of 40 similar prior convictions. Did you do this?". Defendant: "No". Judge: "OK, you're free to go. Sorry for the trouble."