When is a rule not a rule?

When ROYUK was admin, such things were not allowed and Roy took the necessary action ( or a mod) to keep things acceptable to all.

Of course, today, there are less mods than before, for reasons everyone is well aware of, and it seems to me that some mods have the tendency to think that moderating is answering OP's question as fast as possible ( which is nice of course) and administrative work ("cleaning"), etc.. comes in second place.

I believe that's an admin job. Since the only admins now are Vai and shub, good luck getting anything done. Also I think about half the moderators are regularly here these days so maybe you PMd the wrong ones?

I want to know about the name in question, what was it? Also, Pepe Le Mokko had it nailed right in that RoyUK was quick to ban OP with obscene names and we mods at the time followed by his example. However, the mods of today do as good of a job as possible considering the extra crap they have to moderate like the Introductions forum as an example. And, if they don't have a good leader (like RoyUK) as admin then they will not moderate to the standard of that good leader. Who leads now, Arlette? Sorry Arlette but you do not lead your mods well imo and as far as being a liaison between the forum and the "tech team", you are dropping the ball. I say this because the same old problems of last December and on are still problems. I feel bad for the good people that moderate here now. I mean, it's great that you have the title and I know that I liked it but you have far more responsibilities than mods of the past and you have no real support from the owner and his lackies! Because of this, regular members may start looking at the moderation here as suspect and useless, like in this thread.

Don't twist that though, I don't think any of you, except Arlette, are suspect and useless (sorry Arlette but in this free world I live in, I can say exactly how I feel).

---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:58 AM ----------

It's OK, I was pm'd the name in question!

I can't comment with any certainty as to why you got no response but would hazard a guess that perhaps they passed the message on and were hoping for swift feedback and/or resolution from the powers that be before they got back to you. (If they were new mods they might still believe that could happen )

Anyway, perhaps this thread will help to draw attention to the issue.

Hi Gmk,

My primary thought about this is that you need to be more patient. Not receiving a response within 12 hours to a PM sent to five people is not unacceptable in my book, seeing as we're all in different time zones and all have many things to accomplish during our daily lives outside of this forum. Two or more days without a response would be a tad much, of course.

I'm the person who actually added the offensive user name section to Rule #6 of the Forum after being discussed by the Mod team several weeks ago, so it's something we watch for while browsing threads. We (or at least I) don't search the member list for offensive names, but deal with them as issues arise.

6. Common courtesy is the order of the day. Avoid coarse language (meaning any words you didn't hear in Sunday school), provide feedback to suggested solutions, and take the time to thank those who took their time to help you. If you solve a problem yourself before anyone else has responded, please take a moment to describe your solution -- chances are some other member will benefit. Never edit a thread in which someone else has responded.

User names that are deemed offensive or in poor taste are subject to being changed or banned pending discussion between the forum leaders and the user in question.

With regard to O*D*B*, we previously made contact with that user prior to your report and were awaiting his/her reply with a new user name, which the admins have now changed. There are going to be user names and comments that may be in poor taste, and as we come across them we will deal with them individually. This is the same now as it was when Roy was admin. (Although now, as Romper pointed out, we just have to report it to the new admins and let them handle the actual change.)

Based on some behind-the-scenes discussions, there's a good chance we'll be going through the member list and deleting/banning/changing some of the blatantly offensive user names in the near future. We can't just do a mass change, though, else we revisit the Scunthorpe problem.

In the future, I'd also recommend not contacting embassies or branches of law enforcement when something on a public forum offends you. Have you seen the internet lately?

Have a good day!

i agree with you paul
btw there are 302,734 and counting divided by mods/admins --what's the ratio??

two thing
---mods are divided into categories.... who's on user names/new members approval? how about checking user name before approving membership, can we do that in vbulletin?

---comments are handled by mods on their own categories, isn't it? so no problem with that it's the mod's call.


just my thoughts.

Good response Paul! I must say that I chuckled out loud when I saw that gmk reported this to the FBI and whoever else. Sorry gmk but that is a little silly. I say that because the interwebs puts out such things like 2 girls 1 cup so a few bad names are to be expected in a forum like this, like it or not.

I'd be more interested in the official stance of the FBI

Should Vai be concerned that a task force is being set up to investigate cross-border inappropriate forum screen names

Make sure you have a nap while your waiting gmk, it will probably be a while!

Don't seem to have actually done anything though. Would have been so easy to just delete the user/change the name as they are located.

its only a name!
i cannot believe anyone is so easily offended

Yes, it is the admin's job - how hard could it be to delete them as they are located? Of course, (crazy idea alert) life would be simpler if the forum had at least one admin who actually spent time here regularly and knew what they were doing.

Originally Posted by romperstomper

life would be simpler if the forum had at least one admin who actually spent time here regularly and knew what they were doing.

Ah the good ol days.

Thanks for your input, gmk.

We are working on it along with the tech team. Should have a resolution to it shortly.

Hi,

As soon as you PMd me with the problem I contacted admin

We have been discussing this and the way forward on the mods forum since, and I understand the tech team are now in the process of removing not only these names but also the many hundreds of names with zero posts. So your PM was not ignored.

If I erred it was in not replying immediately to you. I was waiting for more concrete information (which you now have) before doing so.

i think they are often funny and should be allowed wet blankets the lot of you ,daily mail reading Mary white house descendants

Originally Posted by arlu1201

Thanks for your input, gmk.

We are working on it along with the tech team. Should have a resolution to it shortly.

Why is that your standard reply for everything?

Dave,

I am working in liaison with the tech team, so til they action it, i cannot do anything from my side.

Can I have dibs on TMS please?

Originally Posted by JapanDave

Why is that your standard reply for everything?

It's a standard response that means "we'll look at this issue eventually".

Originally Posted by gmk

Not heard that in years. Takes me back to penny sherbets and the Hotspur!

... and don't forget Wilson of the Wizard and The Rovers comic Alf Tupper the 'tough of the track' - who worked in the welding shop by day, had a fish and chips tea on the way to the athletic meeting in the evening and lapped the toffs of the Greystone Harriers opposition in a 440 yard race. (I made the last bit up).

Apposite thread given the need for an Alf Tupper in British athletics in London in the days to come

...sorry.... this thread is drifting.

and don't forget Wilson

that's my dad

There's a simple way round this. Anyone using such names is not being funny , clever or sophisticated but downright childish & offensive.

BAN THEM, which any mod can do immediately. GMK took the time to report this name, I've never experienced a PM sticking in th Sent items (another one for the Tech Team to sort out), but instead of replying she should have banned the user & then PM'd a reply saying that the user was no more!

Arlette seems to act as team leader for the mods having Vai's ear at least & should get this done. There's no problem with names that are not used from years back, they would only be found if someone searched for them, so stop making excuses and creating work and get on with moderating if that is what you mods accepted the title for, if it's just ego then resign. I still see mods answering questions that should have been moderated.

Originally Posted by Pepe Le Mokko

When ROYUK was admin, such things were not allowed and Roy took the necessary action ( or a mod) to keep things acceptable to all.

Andre,

Are you 100% sure about this? Right now, i can provide you a list of about 400 user ids dating back to 2007 which are obscene and unacceptable in a clean forum like this, which we mods are going to be banning and getting them deleted from the system within the next few days.

Am I the only one that thinks this going a bit overboard. There are 300,00+ usernames and several million posts on the forum. If someone picks a problem then report it and take it from there, but to go through each and every name and make sure it doesn't offend anyone is really a waste of time. Has the tech team finished fixing all the other issues on the forum? Obviously not since I still see double and triple postings? Have the moderators reviewed all the posts, again the answer is clear. So to summarize, can we get our priorities straight. Just because there is one or two 'questionable' screen names doesn't mean everything else stops until we do a cavity search of every member on the forum.

Originally Posted by abousetta

Am I the only one that thinks this going a bit overboard.

No..........

Only 1 or 2 names were brought to our notice but there have been loads of names in the system all along which didnt get banned.

But the moderators can get back to moderating the forum since the tech team will be banning and deleting the bad names from the backend directly. We do not have to spend our time on that activity and can prioritize our work.

Originally Posted by arlu1201

the tech team will be banning and deleting the bad names from the backend directly

So the tech team will not be working on the other more important activities like keeping the forum running, but rather sifting through 300,000 names to see if they are offensive or not. So next time the server is down, I will understand because I am sure the tech team was doing something more important like cleansing the system of username of individuals who have never posted on the forum. I can sleep much better at night now.

Abousetta,

They do not need to go thru all the user ids. The list has already been provided to them. Its just a matter of an hour or so to complete the task.

what about in the future. If I created a new username with an obscene meaning... who is going to catch it and block me. Is the tech team now responsible for screening new names, or the mods or who. If someone picks it up then they should report it and take up the issue from there, but to expect that every name will be screened it a real waste of time that should be spent on other more important problems with the forum.

Originally Posted by arlu1201

Andre,

Are you 100% sure about this? Right now, i can provide you a list of about 400 user ids dating back to 2007 which are obscene and unacceptable in a clean forum like this, which we mods are going to be banning and getting them deleted from the system within the next few days.

I'd like to see the list. No regular posters that i saw or were reported when I was admin were ignored. I know which admin team would get points for stretching the truth & it's not the old one.

This forum would not be where it is today but for the former mods, certainly not the efforts of tech team & Arlette

This has just brightened my Monday no end.

English Gent - "Hi is that the FBI?"

FBI Agent - "Yessiree, how can I help you sir."

English Gent - "I've just found a naughty word on the internet!"

FBI Agent - "Rest assured I will take the internet down immediately and Berners Lee with be scheduled for extreme rendition to somewhere really horrible. Probably Scunthorpe!"

PMSL

Dom

for what its worth, i just noticed another 1 (not that it offends me, just fyi) that would possibly fall into the category of this discussion, the mods can pm me for the name, but it ends in sh&ts lol

Originally Posted by day92

Is it just me or does anyone else think we are getting way too worked up over a name.

No, what is wrong is the ridiculous suggestion to search for for all such names & delete them. If they are that old no-one will find them without looking & being there prevents anyone else using them. New ones seen or reported should be banned

Yes, thats what the mods are going to do. The list that i consolidated (405 obscene names) have already been banned and deleted from the system. Any new ones can be reported in and we will take care of them.

@Roy: what you said makes sense. Is there any way that new naughty names can be banned and HIDDEN, somehow? Then the original user couldn't use it, no-one else could see it and no-one else could use it?

is there a list of "naughty" names ? i could do with a laugh

Maybe:

http://dirtysounding.com/

ah that's Barts list for Moe's excellent!
mind you
Ricardo Cabeza isn't an unlikely real name

FWIW

http://www.excelforum.com/excel-prog...34#post2851534

Sorry for my ignorance Russel Dawson but what does that link have to do with bad names? Is it because he goes by the name OlDirtyBastard on Ozgrid? Can I say Ozgrid here?

---------- Post added at 09:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 AM ----------

Originally Posted by martindwilson

is there a list of "naughty" names ? i could do with a laugh

Me too! It's always nice to have a good laugh once in a while!

Mordred - I should have explained.

This was a thread that was in the original potentially offensive name and has been changed subsequently.

Just wondered why the mod failed to notice/act at the time.

Just wondered why the mod failed to notice/act at the time.

The mod was the one acting on it at the time. The change request was going on at the same time the thread was proceeding further. See post 7 of that thread.

there are no offensive names just small minds

That was the OP speaking and I was not prepared to take their word for it. In the reply by you a few minutes later you don't mention it so I came to the obvious conclusion.

Originally Posted by martindwilson

there are no offensive names just small minds

the small minds belong to those creating the offensive names

my mistake ,i meant narrow minded

Originally Posted by arlu1201

Yes, thats what the mods are going to do. The list that i consolidated (405 obscene names) have already been banned and deleted from the system. Any new ones can be reported in and we will take care of them.

So you are saying that the tech team have spent time that could be used to improve the problems that are still be reporting to hunt down old "obscene" names. I don't know what's most amazing - they actually succeeded or that someone considered that job as top priority.

Originally Posted by arlu1201

Yes, thats what the mods are going to do. The list that i consolidated (405 obscene names) have already been banned and deleted from the system. Any new ones can be reported in and we will take care of them.

The mods shouldn't need to do it, besides, all you'd need to do is create a mysql query to loop through an array of offensive words using the LIKE operand and either delete all those users (by query) or move them to the banned group (by query) there's enough for mods to do without having to do this, the tech team could take care of this in 5 minutes!

Originally Posted by TMShucks

@Roy: what you said makes sense. Is there any way that new naughty names can be banned and HIDDEN, somehow? Then the original user couldn't use it, no-one else could see it and no-one else could use it?

TMS, you can easily make a usergroup invisible in vbulletin and even easier, you can just set vbulletins settings correctly to prevent use of certain names, all the tech team need do is compile a list and put it in the proper place in the settings!

Easy fix and no work for anyone

They did take about 5 mins to do the work. The mods didnt have to do anything as it was entirely taken care of by the tech team. I dont have details of what steps they took but they did do it fast.

Just because I like to pipe into the opposing viewpoint here and there, I'd say everyone likes to slip in some "quick wins" here and there.

As a project manager dealing with TODO lists that never end and mostly filled with things that just take time... I will allow a simple, low priority item to slip to the top of the list because it feels good sometimes to start and finish something...

...then back to the long projects and jeers from the crowd.

it's the two minute rule