Security blackout.....

[sid guttridge]

Hi Guys,

Yesterday I put up a new topic entitled "Unnecesary censorship by moderators?".

Today the security screening of the library terminal I use won't give me access to it for reasons I do not know.

While I am sure this is just coincidence, would somebody be so kind as to put up the replies here so that I know the results?

Many thanks,

Sid.

[Cott Tiger]

Sid,

I think you may have been blocked from that thread due to the use of the p.0.rn word. I have edited that word in the responses below.

Regards,

Andre

Hi Sid! I agree completely with you on your view about why it's important to know why threads have been closed or deleted. However, I am confused somewhat by your point #4 though, are you suggesting that a policy of deletion or closure of threads without suitable explanation exists on Feldpost? If so, please direct me to those threads in question, as that flies against everything that I believe in re thread moderating. Thanks mate!

For the benefit of those whose curiosity is whetted by Sid's protest post, the thread in question featured some neo-Bolsheviks peddling their agendas and some normal people challenging them.

As a deputy administrator on Feldpost, Sid, I would like to reinforce Troy's assurances that no "arbitrary censorship" takes place there. Things are deleted every once in a while but only when there is really no choice or no benefit to anyone in keeping them.

This is never a "solo" decision. Feldpost moderators tend to consult in order to preserve impartiality. If you go there, you will even find unpleasant attacks on management by people. We don't censor. I'm sorry you feel otherwise. Of course, we don't allow the place to be used as a political platform either, which has upset a few people.

Come to think of it, we haven't seen you there for a while.

Regards,

PK

Kunikov is here? I didn't know that, I shall have a look! Is his champion Beppo Schmidt here as well? And Sid, I do miss you mate!

Oh, sorry, I was confusing it with another forum. Still...Bosheviks...Molsheviks...Bullsheviks... They're all interchangeable. Don't know why Sid was unpleasant about our little website! Hey, Sid, we miss you. C'mon back and play...

P

Ah, forgive me guys, but I don't know what Thread was closed. Truth is that we poor moderators have been wrung from pillar to post to close spam and p*rnography threads. Only to say that any closure might have been a mistake.

I, myself, receive nearly a dozen PMs a day to close objectionable Threads, so all of us are being run ragged to ensure the viability of every Thread.

This is no small objective and I beg your consideration that an honest Thread might accidentally be closed by mistake. If so, please contact either myself or another Moderator, but don't fool yourself into believing that anyone is being censored aside from the BAD GUYS who flood us with p*rn and spam!!!

Sorry my friends, but you really don't know what a moderator on Feldgrau has to fight against or the scope of the fight!!

Very Best Regards To All,
David

Some of us do, Dave! Troy, Erik, myself and various others have had to deal with some of these people in our capacity as moderators or referees on other forums. The worst aspect of it is that they are not even funny...

PK

Paddy, I think that you will appreciate that we on Feldgrau are dealing with a mass of spammers that are not only, not funny, but presents us with a factor that threatens our very existence as a viable Forum. God knows that, if all I had to deal with were simply idiots, as opposed to an organized assault on this Forum, I would easily breath better each morning!

Very Best,
David

Porn, pharmaceuticals and more P*rn! I'd rather fight some Nazi idiot than deal with anonymous spam!!!

Life sucks and then you die!--that's the Commissar's motto, but even it must be put aside to deal with spam!!!

Paddy, I know you understand me. To the others, please, please report any Spam to me or the other moderators, so that we can destroy the M.F.'s and keep Feldgrau clean of such filth!!

Very Best,
David

Hi Dave, can't you do what we have to do now, and manually activate any new members, or would that be impractical with your membership numbers? Or do you do that anyway? I remember reporting some porn links here once, couldn't find any mods online at the time, so contacted sniper1shot somewhere else. He told me that he has to spend a lot of time deleting them, as does Tom. If you manually screened new members, could that help stem your spam tide? Do you have access to any screening software that may help?

Dave - if you would STOP using the word Po*n, *harmaceuticals, and *uck on a history forum then the automated worms wouldn't be searching the site out and hitting it so hard!!! At least when the automated spam uses them you get to delete them....but do you ever go back and delete your OWN use of them in a thread???

Hi Sid! I agree completely with you on your view about why it's important to know why threads have been closed or deleted. However, I am confused somewhat by your point #4 though, are you suggesting that a policy of deletion or closure of threads without suitable explanation exists on Feldpost? If so, please direct me to those threads in question, as that flies against everything that I believe in re thread moderating. Thanks mate!

I think Sid's talking about real Feldpost from landsers which, of course, was heavily censored, rather than your forum, Troy. I may, of course, be wrong... and frequently am.

I've been watching a right ding-dong on AHF ostensibly about the History Channel being sh*te which has turned into a barney over the Soviet justice system. If I'd been a mod I'd have pulled the plug on that one a long time ago...

Still, the level of debate here is way above many fora out there. Just read the comments on the Daily Express and Daily Mail websites. Now their contributors are real muppets...

Hi Sid! I agree completely with you on your view about why it's important to know why threads have been closed or deleted. However, I am confused somewhat by your point #4 though, are you suggesting that a policy of deletion or closure of threads without suitable explanation exists on Feldpost? If so, please direct me to those threads in question, as that flies against everything that I believe in re thread moderating. Thanks mate!

I think Sid's talking about real Feldpost from landsers which, of course, was heavily censored, rather than your forum, Troy. I may, of course, be wrong... and frequently am.

That's how I read it also Halder.

Apparently, the Feldpost.tv forum has had a few bumps recently and they are perhaps a little bit jittery and defensive.

Regards,

Andre

[Cott Tiger]

PS: Out of interest, which original thread are you referring to as being cut and locked?

Regards,

Andre

[Tom Houlihan]

Odd, I recently finished reading that thread with no problems. Sid, I know you often use a library computer. Might it be security settings there?

[sid guttridge]

Hi Tom,

Yes, I am sure it is the security setting here and not at the Feldgrau end. It has happened before on this and other forums I use. Normally I let it slide, but as I had initiated the thread in question, on this occasion I felt the need to follow it up.

Feldgrau is now much more accessible than it was a few months ago, when it was sometimes impossible to log on at all. Congratulations to whoever sorted that out

Cheers,

Sid.

[sid guttridge]

Hi CT,

Thanks.

I was referring to the "Soviet Torture of German POWs thread". However, I don't want to reopen that particular can of worms. I was rather trying to make a general point of principle regarding the closure of any thread.

I still can't get access to page 1 of the thread I started, but that no longer matters as you have put up most or all of it here and page 2 is accessible.

Many thanks,

Sid.

[sid guttridge]

Hi GderPT,

I would happily direct you to some of the threads concerned on Feldpost, but mysteriously I can no longer gain access there. It can't be a banning, as I broke none of the Forum rules!

Unfortunately, on signing up (as PJ) I had given my word to the administrator, Troy, to leave the site without protest if there was any problem with my presence. I therefore haven't been able to discover why this occurred.

It is sad, because the site had some promise and I made some effort to give it a kick start. Unfortunately Troy seems to have lost control of the forum to others who have made a practice of themselves getting banned from other forums!

Cheers,

Sid.

[sid guttridge]

Hi Paddy,

I am delighted to receive your support for my return to Feldpost. If you could contact Troy on my behalf to obtain his blessing for my readmission I would be most grateful. I gave him my word to leave Feldpost without a squeek if my presence was a problem, and so do not feel I can approach him directly on his forum.

As you are, by your own confession, a man of principle against censorship, and no hypocrite, I feel confident of your support in this matter.

It is a great relief to know I wasn't banned. It always seemed unlikely, as I didn't break any of the forum rules and apparently arbitrary censorship outside them doesn't occur there. It must have been a technical or administrative error, I suppose.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Paddy Keating]

You were temporarily suspended along with some other people. Our next website will have plenty of arbitrary censorship and authoritarian attitude though. By the way, I gather that you are upset because I published your e-mail address here on Feldgrau, or so I was specifically accused of doing yesterday. Could you direct to where I published/posted it? Not trying to provoke anything but I am deeply concerned by this as there is clearly some mistake. You're a man of principle and you would never accuse a chap of something he didn't actually do, would you?

PK

[sid guttridge]

Hi Paddy,

Really? I accused you of publishing my email address here on Feldgrau?

Not so.

However, I did accuse you here of publishing my email address on Feldpost.

There you were a moderator with access to confidential information given by members.

Some might think that a position of trust, but apparently not you! You went ahead and publicly published my email address there.

That was no great loss to me, because I prudently only had that email address for the express purpose of joining Feldpost.

However, it was a devastating blow to the reputation of Feldpost and you have quite rightly been hauled over the coals for it. You are no longer a moderator and Feldpost has a chance to rebuild its reputation.

However, your reputation for integrity, such as it was, is shot.

Theft of an internet site indeed!

Whatever next?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Tom Houlihan]

This has strayed from the original query into areas we aren't going to visit. Keep the personal strife off the main boards, if you please.