Pongo's appalling moderation

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Pongo's appalling moderation
« on: January 15, 2015, 10:48:42 AM »
Posting this here because if I reply in the Q&A thread Pongo will use it as an excuse to slap a ban on me.

Dinosaur Neil: The Q&A forum is still not a debate forum.  If you aren't asking or answering a question then you probably shouldn't be posting.

Googleotomy: The same goes for you.  People don't post questions here to hear round-earthers make snide comments about flat-earth theory.

Right... so, what you're saying is that in this scenario:
Person 1 posts a question
Person 2 posts something which is clearly an incorrect answer and can be demonstrated to be so
...then Person 1 is just supposed to accept the answer and pass no further comment?

You're a bad mod and you don't do the job well enough. Now, go and tell Rooster off for posting a disingenuous answer, which you yourself have forbidden from the Q&A forum.
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Pongo

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2015, 11:27:49 AM »
That's mostly correct.  If you want to debate what someone says in Q&A, you're welcome to start a thread about it in FEDebate.  If you read the Q&A rules things may become more clear for you:

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=61846.0#.VLgSmtLF-Gc

For the record, I'm actually against the hard-line Q's and A's only in Q&A and I voiced my concern about the change before it went live, but alas, thems the rules and I enforce 'em.  The ironic part is that I rarely ban people and thus, may be considered a bad mod in that regard.  I'm usually content in giving posters that habitually break the rules countless warnings.  Notice the stress on the word "still" in the quote you posted?  How many time have I alone warned you to not debate there?  Surely enough to warrant a short ban.

Perhaps I should moderate better...


On a side note, I don't think that tfes.org has anywhere near as strict rules in their Q&A forum (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and we will be inheriting their rules after the merger.  So if you can wait just a bit longer, you should be able to debate to your heart's content in Q&A.

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Lemmiwinks

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2015, 11:33:44 AM »
I don't mind yah Pongo, but I do have a question.

Say the Question is asked.

Person 1 answers it, its wrong.
Person 2 gives the answer they think is right, citing the wrong answer from person 1 as the reason for their post.

Is that ok? I don't mind the hardline QA format as long as if I feel someone is completely wrong I can present an alternate answer without being slapped down. If not then it is kind of pointless as a fora since it becomes who can answer first and if that person says the planet is made out of yogurt then oh well, too bad.
I have 13 [academic qualifications] actually. I'll leave it up to you to guess which, or simply call me a  liar. Either is fine.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur

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Pongo

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2015, 11:49:17 AM »
I don't mind yah Pongo, but I do have a question.

Say the Question is asked.

Person 1 answers it, its wrong.
Person 2 gives the answer they think is right, citing the wrong answer from person 1 as the reason for their post.

Is that ok? I don't mind the hardline QA format as long as if I feel someone is completely wrong I can present an alternate answer without being slapped down. If not then it is kind of pointless as a fora since it becomes who can answer first and if that person says the planet is made out of yogurt then oh well, too bad.

It really depends on what you mean by answers wrong.  Let me give an example.

Q: What shape is the earth.
A: Its flat

If you responded to this answer that the earth is really round because of reason X, Y, and Z, then you would be debating in Q&A.

If you responded by saying that the grammar and punctuation of answer is all wrong then you'll probably be slapped with a derailing or low-content warning.

If you responded by saying that you think it's flat but clarify by saying that of course there are mountains and valleys that don't' make it perfectly flat, then you'll be fine.



Here is another example:

Q: How do radio waves work on a flat-earth?
A: Radio waves are really just invisible unicorns.

Now, if that were the literal answer someone gave, then we would warn them for low-content posting.  But lets assume that the invisible unicorn theory (IUT) is a respected flat-earth theory to explain radio waves with data and reasoning to back it up.  If you start arguing that's not how radio waves work (remember that we are pretending that IUT is a genuine theory) then you will be debating in Q&A.  This is so people can get earnest flat-earth responses without the clutter of people saying "You'll not get an answer to this," or, "Flat-earther's will say it's from turtle flatulence," or lengthily debates on small aspects of an answer.

However, you are more than welcome to at anytime start a new thread in FE Debate to discuss IUT.

Does that clear things up?

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Pongo

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2015, 11:52:37 AM »
Here's an example you can work on yourself. 

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=62596.msg1651662#new

In this thread Dinosaur Neil posted a valid question that I gave a flat-earth response to.  Can you identify which of the posts after my response are debates in Q&A?

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Lemmiwinks

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2015, 11:55:21 AM »
I don't mind yah Pongo, but I do have a question.

Say the Question is asked.

Person 1 answers it, its wrong.
Person 2 gives the answer they think is right, citing the wrong answer from person 1 as the reason for their post.

Is that ok? I don't mind the hardline QA format as long as if I feel someone is completely wrong I can present an alternate answer without being slapped down. If not then it is kind of pointless as a fora since it becomes who can answer first and if that person says the planet is made out of yogurt then oh well, too bad.

It really depends on what you mean by answers wrong.  Let me give an example.

Q: What shape is the earth.
A: Its flat

If you responded to this answer that the earth is really round because of reason X, Y, and Z, then you would be debating in Q&A.

If you responded by saying that the grammar and punctuation of answer is all wrong then you'll probably be slapped with a derailing or low-content warning.

If you responded by saying that you think it's flat but clarify by saying that of course there are mountains and valleys that don't' make it perfectly flat, then you'll be fine.



Here is another example:

Q: How do radio waves work on a flat-earth?
A: Radio waves are really just invisible unicorns.

Now, if that were the literal answer someone gave, then we would warn them for low-content posting.  But lets assume that the invisible unicorn theory (IUT) is a respected flat-earth theory to explain radio waves with data and reasoning to back it up.  If you start arguing that's not how radio waves work (remember that we are pretending that IUT is a genuine theory) then you will be debating in Q&A.  This is so people can get earnest flat-earth responses without the clutter of people saying "You'll not get an answer to this," or, "Flat-earther's will say it's from turtle flatulence," or lengthily debates on small aspects of an answer.

However, you are more than welcome to at anytime start a new thread in FE Debate to discuss IUT.

Does that clear things up?

What if its:

Q: What shape is the earth.
A: Its flat
A2: Its round

I mean its a fine line I know, but it just seems to make the QA fora a "who can answer first" thing
I have 13 [academic qualifications] actually. I'll leave it up to you to guess which, or simply call me a  liar. Either is fine.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur

Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2015, 11:59:21 AM »
Here's an example you can work on yourself. 

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=62596.msg1651662#new

In this thread Dinosaur Neil posted a valid question that I gave a flat-earth response to.  Can you identify which of the posts after my response are debates in Q&A?

Your response fell into the category of saying "the question is incorrect" and as such, was not an answer to what I asked. You total meatball.
My following response was, effectively, a re-statement of my question with clarified wording, which is permissible because my question had not actually been answered.

An equivalent would be if I had posted a thread asking "Why do flat earthers think the sky is blue?" and your response was "They don't, they think it's green". That is not an answer. To answer my question by claiming my surmise is wrong is debating and inappropriate for the thread. If you can't answer without debating the validity of the surmise, you should not be posting an answer.
Live by Pongo's rules, die by Pongo's rules.  ;D
Founder member of the League Of Scientific Gentlemen and Mademoiselles des Connaissances.
I am pompous, self-righteous, thin skinned, and smug.

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Pongo

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2015, 12:02:43 PM »
What if its:

Q: What shape is the earth.
A: Its flat
A2: Its round

I mean its a fine line I know, but it just seems to make the QA fora a "who can answer first" thing

The purpose of Q&A is so people can ask flat-earthers questions.  They can go on almost any other message board on the internet and get round earth answers.

That being said, if someone asks about Antarctica, one flat-earther may answer that it's the rim of the world while another comes along later and says that it's a continent on its own and the ice wall is something different.  So in some sense, there can be debate among the types of flat-earth answers, but even that's a stretch.  A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself "Is this a question or a flat-earth response to a question?"  If it's not, then it's likely that you should be posting in FE Debate.

But if someone asks what is the shape of the earth and someone says, "round," then they really aren't getting a flat-earth answer are they?

Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2015, 12:05:41 PM »
What if its:

Q: What shape is the earth.
A: Its flat
A2: Its round

I mean its a fine line I know, but it just seems to make the QA fora a "who can answer first" thing

The purpose of Q&A is so people can ask flat-earthers questions.  They can go on almost any other message board on the internet and get round earth answers.

That being said, if someone asks about Antarctica, one flat-earther may answer that it's the rim of the world while another comes along later and says that it's a continent on its own and the ice wall is something different.  So in some sense, there can be debate among the types of flat-earth answers, but even that's a stretch.  A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself "Is this a question or a flat-earth response to a question?"  If it's not, then it's likely that you should be posting in FE Debate.

But if someone asks what is the shape of the earth and someone says, "round," then they really aren't getting a flat-earth answer are they?

Am I allowed to say it's a torus? You get shirty whenever I speak of that, another example of your crappy modding.
Founder member of the League Of Scientific Gentlemen and Mademoiselles des Connaissances.
I am pompous, self-righteous, thin skinned, and smug.

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Pongo

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2015, 12:11:12 PM »
That's because this is the Flat Earth Society, not the Torus Earth Society.  Again, people come here to get flat-earth information.  Answering questions with torus-earth responses is not the same as answering questions with flat-earth responses.

Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2015, 12:13:04 PM »
That's because this is the Flat Earth Society, not the Torus Earth Society.  Again, people come here to get flat-earth information.  Answering questions with torus-earth responses is not the same as answering questions with flat-earth responses.

It is my genuine belief of the shape of the earth. Just because I don't think it's a sphere doesn't mean I can't accuse FET of being lame bullshite.
Founder member of the League Of Scientific Gentlemen and Mademoiselles des Connaissances.
I am pompous, self-righteous, thin skinned, and smug.

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Pongo

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2015, 12:26:47 PM »
Okay, let me try a different route.  Let's say you want to learn about Greek Myths.  So you go to a message board titled The Greek Myth Society.  You ask some questions, but Romans keep answering with Roman answers or say things like, "The Greek Myth people will say <insert incorrect statement>."  Well, you haven't gotten any answers that you wanted about Greek myths!  However, luckily for you, a moderator on the Greek Myth Society forums discourages the Romans from ruining all the Q&A forums with their Roman drivel.  BUT, then someone comes along expounding the ideals of the Norse Pantheon.  Well, that person may mean well and may really believe in the Norse gods, but the point is that they are still not Greek myth answers.

Do you see?  We respect that you believe in a torus-earth, but this isn't the Alternative Earth Society, it's very specifically the Flat Earth Society.

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hoppy

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #12 on: January 15, 2015, 12:28:12 PM »
Pongo, you don't have answer to those guys. You are the man and they may have to answer to you. You are being overly sensitive. They should fear you, not like you.
God is real.                                         
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Lemmiwinks

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #13 on: January 15, 2015, 12:33:59 PM »
Pongo, you don't have answer to those guys. You are the man and they may have to answer to you. You are being overly sensitive. They should fear you, not like you.

He's not a dictator he's a moderator.
I have 13 [academic qualifications] actually. I'll leave it up to you to guess which, or simply call me a  liar. Either is fine.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur

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Pongo

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #14 on: January 15, 2015, 12:40:23 PM »
Everyone is entitled to fair and reasonable responses to their concerns.  Plus, if they are not being willfully contrary then these responses may lead to a better understanding of the forums and thus posts that are more inline with the rules.

Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2015, 01:40:13 PM »
Okay, let me try a different route.  Let's say you want to learn about Greek Myths.  So you go to a message board titled The Greek Myth Society.  You ask some questions, but Romans keep answering with Roman answers or say things like, "The Greek Myth people will say <insert incorrect statement>."  Well, you haven't gotten any answers that you wanted about Greek myths!  However, luckily for you, a moderator on the Greek Myth Society forums discourages the Romans from ruining all the Q&A forums with their Roman drivel.  BUT, then someone comes along expounding the ideals of the Norse Pantheon.  Well, that person may mean well and may really believe in the Norse gods, but the point is that they are still not Greek myth answers.

Do you see?  We respect that you believe in a torus-earth, but this isn't the Alternative Earth Society, it's very specifically the Flat Earth Society.

You whinge wherever I mention it, not just the Q&A section. Your example may hold true for that, but not for the entirety of the rest of the forum.
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I am pompous, self-righteous, thin skinned, and smug.

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Pongo

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2015, 05:21:29 AM »
I whinged, as you will, because all those posts were off-topic and you were persistently plastering your torus-earth theory everywhere.  In addition, it's obviously a lie/troll as you're a self-described round-earther as seen in this quote from you from just yesterday.


FE'ers call the RE'ers spoon-fed in their beliefs, and accepting sheep - why, there's no better example of not questioning a puzzling phenomenon than right here in your posts.
And we get sick of it, and the low content begins to filter in.

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guv

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2015, 05:29:27 AM »
Pongo you are more biased than the output valves in a B Class amplifier. Let's go 32 volts negative.

Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #18 on: January 16, 2015, 10:22:55 AM »
I whinged, as you will, because all those posts were off-topic and you were persistently plastering your torus-earth theory everywhere.  In addition, it's obviously a lie/troll as you're a self-described round-earther as seen in this quote from you from just yesterday.


FE'ers call the RE'ers spoon-fed in their beliefs, and accepting sheep - why, there's no better example of not questioning a puzzling phenomenon than right here in your posts.
And we get sick of it, and the low content begins to filter in.

What that says is that I, and the round earthers, get sick of you calling the round earthers spoon fed. The sentence construct does not unambiguously label me a round earther. You insult me, sir. Just because I do not share their mistaken belief that the earth is round does not mean I approve of your disgusting bias against them. Furthermore, I respect round earthers, even though I believe them to be wrong, because they are mostly in tune with the methods of science and do not claim outrageous theories with no observable evidence. You could learn from their scientific rigour.
Founder member of the League Of Scientific Gentlemen and Mademoiselles des Connaissances.
I am pompous, self-righteous, thin skinned, and smug.

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robintex

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #19 on: January 16, 2015, 11:04:10 AM »
I whinged, as you will, because all those posts were off-topic and you were persistently plastering your torus-earth theory everywhere.  In addition, it's obviously a lie/troll as you're a self-described round-earther as seen in this quote from you from just yesterday.


FE'ers call the RE'ers spoon-fed in their beliefs, and accepting sheep - why, there's no better example of not questioning a puzzling phenomenon than right here in your posts.
And we get sick of it, and the low content begins to filter in.

What that says is that I, and the round earthers, get sick of you calling the round earthers spoon fed. The sentence construct does not unambiguously label me a round earther. You insult me, sir. Just because I do not share their mistaken belief that the earth is round does not mean I approve of your disgusting bias against them. Furthermore, I respect round earthers, even though I believe them to be wrong, because they are mostly in tune with the methods of science and do not claim outrageous theories with no observable evidence. You could learn from their scientific rigour.

I've noticed that if I post some fact about the real world or make some comment about one of the flat earth fantasies I am going to get a warning. It is just something that you have to live with . And I repeat it is all evidence that this website, at least from the flat earth standpoint is truly "One big hoax or one big joke." From a round earth standpoint it is a good place to post facts and evidence about how ridiculous a flat earth idea really is and how things are really the way the way the real world is..

And if it wasnt' for "Round Earthers" very few things on the earth wouldn't work.
Stick close , very close , to your P.C.and never go to sea
And you all may be Rulers of The Flat Earth Society

Look out your window , see what you shall see
And you all may be Rulers of The Flat Earth Society

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ausGeoff

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #20 on: January 20, 2015, 10:09:14 AM »
As a generalised comment, I'd just like to say that the "moderation" on this site's forums is abysmal in comparison to the moderation on numerous other forums of which I'm a member.

It varies here from being totally non-existent, to ignoring FE breaches, to unjustly targetting RE comments, to being overly authoritative.  In other words, completely lacking in any impartiality or consistency.

Perversely, many of the forums' rules of netiquette are repeatedly ignored and/or broken by several moderators themselves—the very people who should be setting the forums' standards.  In my humble opinion, these forums need a total revamp as far as its moderators and their standards of moderation are concerned.  It'd then more likely prove to visitors that the site has a genuine purpose in expounding and promoting flat earth theory, and that its members are capable of carrying on a meaningful, eloquent, and mature debate—without the continued crude language, personal insults, meandering off topic homilies, religious diatribes, and page after page of inapplicable copypasta.

Just sayin'...  :P

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hoppy

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Re: Pongo's appalling moderation
« Reply #21 on: January 20, 2015, 02:45:51 PM »
As a generalised comment, I'd just like to say that the "moderation" on this site's forums is abysmal in comparison to the moderation on numerous other forums of which I'm a member.

It varies here from being totally non-existent, to ignoring FE breaches, to unjustly targetting RE comments, to being overly authoritative.  In other words, completely lacking in any impartiality or consistency.

Perversely, many of the forums' rules of netiquette are repeatedly ignored and/or broken by several moderators themselves—the very people who should be setting the forums' standards.  In my humble opinion, these forums need a total revamp as far as its moderators and their standards of moderation are concerned.  It'd then more likely prove to visitors that the site has a genuine purpose in expounding and promoting flat earth theory, and that its members are capable of carrying on a meaningful, eloquent, and mature debate—without the continued crude language, personal insults, meandering off topic homilies, religious diatribes, and page after page of inapplicable copypasta.

Just sayin'...  :P
May I suggest you stay on the forums whose moderation you judge superior.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 02:48:10 PM by hoppy »
God is real.                                         
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9665708/Flat-Earth-Bible-02-of-10-The-Flat-Earth