Chit chat

Well that was good, an hour on the phone with the guy who took my posts down, David Aspinal the General Secretary of the TSSC. Seems the issue was not solely down to what I had said but also down to what Tim Scrivens, ex-Council of Membership had said in his posts, I think David will take that up with Tim.

David feels that a discussion about trade advertising should not be had on the message board, he feels it's "not about Triumphs" - I disagree. I think it's very much about Triumphs and the club that supports them - very much about what the message board is for. We agreed to differ on that.

David said that the minutes were erroneously typed and that it was never the CoMs intention to ban traders from advertising on the web if they were not advertising in the courier. The intention was to favour traders who advertise in the Courier with first call on web advertising space, this is to encourage web advertising and thus generate increased revenue for the club. In my opinion a laudable aim but not a good method - again we agreed to differ.

I was banned because I wouldn't stop posting, although of course no one asked me to and I was therefore unaware I should. David and I had an amicable discussion about this. I don't accept that my treatment was the best way to sort the issue out and it would have been just as easy to send me an email or call me as to ban me. My contact details are printed every month in the Courier. David's actions made me angry, frustrated and I dare say encouraged a few others to feel likewise.

I believe that the message board should be used to discuss things pertaining to the club and it's aims amongst it's members. If things are said that the Club Management don't agree with, their recourse should not be to remove them but to answer them and discuss things before banning anyone. Posts of an "illegal" nature can be removed but the posters or participants should be told why immediately.

Whilst I don't agree with David's reasons and actions, he has offered to reinstate my posting rights on the board. I have asked him to post an explanation and he's agreed to do this tomorrow. I'll be back on there tomorrow, if I get the time to post.

It's taken me all night to read the messages on the board and the emails concerning all this - I'm really quite touched by messages of support and encouragement - thank you all.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Removing "off topic" posts is not considered within the remit of a moderator - correct form should have been to do a follow-up post to tell you the "error" of your ways.

It is generally accepted that message removal should only be used as a weapon of last resort - for messages containing abusive language; libel; slander and other legally-sensitive content.

This kind of draconian editing occurs when the moderators have little experience of netiquette - an internet forum is by definition fairly open; otherwise we'd all still be using the photocopier in the local scout hall to make edited newsletters ;)
Thursday, April 06, 2006 8:22:00 am
Bill Davies said…
"David said that the minutes were erroneously typed and that it was never the CoMs intention to ban traders from advertising on the web if they were not advertising in the courier."

Members of the Triumph trade were certainly under the impression that this was about to happen. Funny how it took a couple of days for that proposal to be sucked into the TSSC memory hole. I wish they had the balls to admit that they mis-judged the views held by the membership, rather than pretending it was all some dreadful mistake.
Cheers,
Bill.
Thursday, April 06, 2006 11:53:00 am
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