Swarm

[jester]

I realize people are selected by Tom to moderate this board and they do a good job. But why is it that swarm is always the target of banning? He has arguably the best and longest thread anywhere on this board, everybody loves to read about the happenings in his fed. look at the views the numbers don't lie. He is rude, crude and most of the time over the top but that sells. Anyone who knows him personally can "TESTIFY" what a great person he is. This constant banning seems to be a personnel issue by one of the moderators. This is America and we do have freedom of speech last time I checked, so if you don't like his views or what he says well here's a novel idea DON'T READ IT. You have that choice. This is ridiculous, let Swarm be and do his thing, he's not hurting anyone. Tom seems to trust him a great deal, so cut the guy break and leave him alone.

BRING BACK!!!!
THE GREATEST FED IN THE GALAXY

[Splattercat]

The Swarm thing I'm unable to comment on, being not a moderator...From what I've read however, the GFITG issue pretty much revolves around page 45 post 11 (and similar)...It's both hard to miss, and easy to see why the locking...It's also very easy to fix, and I imagine Swarm's fed will be back as soon as he is...

Just my thoughts...

[Darth Turkish]

I agree for the most part, but this message board is privately owned and operated, so no, we do not have free speech on this board.

[Pete]

I tend to agree that Swarm seems to be posting with a target on his back, and that the board is better off with him than without him.

However, I also agree that Mr. Ingersoll has the right to run the board any which way he chooses--whether that includes banning profanity or banning political discussion or banning of the discussion of illegal ninja movies from the government. His board, he makes the rules.

The "Code of Discussion" is pinned to the top of every section of the board and the "no masked profanity" thing is spelled out rather explicitly in the post.

If a post is in violation of the rules--and I think a certain 7-letter word in 20-point font with a "C" replaced by a "<" qualifies--then action has to be taken on it. If he was actually banned for it, that's probably over the top, but locking the thread with the intention of unlocking it after editing seems like a perfectly reasonable move to me.

[GalactiKing]

Have a feeling this thread will be moved if nothing else, anyways...Rob/Swarm can be very good and very fun and creative, but on the other hand, he's also good at causing a lot of trouble/arguements on this board. It's up to Chris and the other mods to decide if/when he crosses the line.

[gatekeeper]

I'm not gonna get into this debate too much (I think you all know where I stand ). But, the profanity rule in your own thread seems a little unnecessary.

I know Chris can run his board how he wants but I knew every swear word there was by the time I was in about 2nd grade. Why, you ask? People have older brothers and sisters, and 99.99999999% have sworn at least once in their life.

I don't see why this is such a big deal. I'm not sure why the famous "7 Word You Can't Say on TV" (made famous by George Carlin) are said with regularity on TV now (with the exceptions of 2 - the ones starting with "s" and "f.")

Everyone's heard them, everyone knows them. If you're trying to protect kids from that...............mmmmmm OK I guess, but if they watch wrestling, chances are, these words aren't foreign to them.

I agree with Turkish, this board is not America, unfortunately we do not have free speech.

[jester]

WOW.....................
Not what I expected...........
Forget this I'm outta here.............You guys........
Nevermind

[Matt]

gatekeeper said:

I know Chris can run his board how he wants but I knew every swear word there was by the time I was in about 2nd grade. Why, you ask? People have older brothers and sisters, and 99.99999999% have sworn at least once in their life.

Everyone's heard them, everyone knows them. If you're trying to protect kids from that...............mmmmmm OK I guess, but if they watch wrestling, chances are, these words aren't foreign to them.

Precisely.

And isn't it a little difficult to clean up the thread if you're banned?

[Splattercat]

It's true, however, I'm not going to speculate as to why he was suspended...The Code of Discussion IS however posted above the Fed Forum, and the "No Bypassing the Swear Filter" rule does include the Fed Forum (as it says in the CoD)...From what's been said, I believe Swarm posted his violation AFTER the CoD was revised to include this...

All in all, I'm an outsider in this discussion, I'm just telling you my perceptions...For the record, I've also been suspended for a profanity filter violation, soo....Anyway, the point is, Swarm will be back, we'll all (myself included) welcome him, and then he'll undoubtedly alter the infraction in question, and re-open his fed....

[Vidtek]

He got himself banned AGAIN! Wow, wish I could be shocked...
I'm sure the difrences between myself and Swarm on these boards are known. We have had our ups and downs, but for crying out loud how many times can a guy break the rules and come back? He's a great guy and everything but if you can read this, dude time to cut back some maybe...just a thought.
Big Time

[Vidtek]

Also, sorry Jester but this is the Internet, not America. Yes it is true that most of us might live in the good old US of A, but some of us don't. And some of the people who read this board and don't post may not be either. So the "freedom of speach" thing only goes so far. You have to be able to have some contorl in order to apease at least some of the things universally thought of as "bad taste," i.e. swearing and such. Think about it.
Big Time

[Knapik]

This is Chris's board. Chris sets up the rules. The rules were broken. I like Swarm, but it's pretty clear cut. Swarm mentioned on another thread about this being a free country and people have a right to run their businesses how they want (including excluding people based on the color of their skin.) When then would he object to Chris's freedom to run his board how he likes? I don't think he would. Can't wait for TGFITG to be back, but Payback's fed is pretty much neck-and-neck IMO. We need double the card output, Payback!

[Wildfire]

Whether or not you agree about the profanity issue, there was a debate about it a couple months back, where Chris specifically told Swarm that if he posted stuff like that, he'd take action.

Well, Swarm didn't change, and Chris took the promised action.
I'm actualyl glad Chris stuck to his rules, its makes the forum a better place when there are rules and they are followed IMO.

If Swarm feels so strongly on this issue, he should start up a yahoo group for his fed results or something, where he can decide on the content.

Or, if he doesn't like the rule, he can start a thread to debate the rule. (although I think that's been done). its sorta silly IMO to just continue to break the rules and then be surpised when their enforced (maybe he wasn't surprised, I suppose, but still)

[jester]

You're right this is the FED FORUMS and not America per say but this is ridiculous and just plain stupid. If you don't think this is not personal than you're all blind. Let me ask you something, would you let your kid or little brother or sister go into an adult bookstore? Absolutely NOT !!!!! And why not, because you know what's in there . So don't go into TGFITG and you won't be offended. Yes he broke a few rules but why does everyone read it so much? DANG him (is that okay) let's stone the S.O.B.... Get real, who's he hurting??? Except violating one persons views of what's acceptable and what's not..... Get over it and get on with it. Personally I can care less who I offend and if you don't agree with my views because I'm outta here and I will not post again SO DON'T BOTHER BANNING ME. Because I really don't wanna be where one person has all the power to say who stays who goes what's right and what's wrong. I thought we won that war in 1944...

Peace

[Wildfire]

Jester -

I understand stand where you're coming from, but the fact is that the forum is meant to be family friendly, which is well known by all who post.

If that makes you not want to post anymore, that's your choice, but really I don't think its that big a deal...

especially at this point, Swarm could change the name of his Big CARD to ANYTHING, and I'm sure y'all would still read (I really don't see the appeal myself, but clearly I'm in the minority)

If you're upset that 1 person (or 4 or 5 people, since there are several moderators) is in charge, you ought to say off the internet all together, there aren't too many unmoderated forums out there.. and those that exist are pretty crappy, IMO.

Its not about freedom of speech, its about keeping this a family friendly enviorment, I think... if you can be creative without profanity, you're not that creative, IMO.

[fredkc6cfb]

As someone who has administrated and been a staffer on many, many 'Net board communities like this one, I understand that rules must be followed in order to maintain control. And, some board hosts (my only experiences have been with IF) enforce a no profanity rule on pain of board deletion. So the no swearing policy may not be the personal preference of the person that operates this fan forums.

My own personal style is to allow members as much leeway as possible, including allowing them to clean-up their own posts if violations occur (and only then, if they refuse to do so, am I forced to discipline them). But this Isn't my board and I'm not going to nitpick another admin's style.

From what I gather from reading these posts, this Swarm fellow has been banned multiple times in the past. That tells me, without even needing to review past posts, that he simply had to have been doing something wrong in order to have been punished. And not just once, but over and over again. Such a poster on any of my old boards would have been permanently booted. So if he is allowed back, then this site's Admin isn't that bad a guy. And he certainly has far more patience than me.

[offspring515]

1. Wrong folder.

2. Comparing Swarm being banned to WW2, Chris to Hitler, or anything like that is just stupidity. This is a message board about a wrestling game....let's keep that in mind before making comparisons to a world war.

3. I like Swarm, I like his fed. That said, the rules are clear. I'm sure he'll be back...and I'm sure he'll be banned again. That seems to be the cycle.

[BDS]

Message boards are little dictatorships. I'm not implying that the yellow names act like dictators, but just referencing the fact that they alone are responsible for making and enforcing the rules, not the rest of us. This is a message board, not America, and the people charged with running it can do what they want, and our only real recourse if we don't like it is to stop visiting.

I'd like to see Swarm back. I don't necessarily agree with a lot of what he posts, nor do I much care for his posting style a majority of the time, but he's a big part of the community. He also sparks a lot of conversation, one way or the other, and this is a "discussion" board, after all.

Rules are rules, though, and I can't fault the mods for enforcing them. I think these are pretty quality boards under their watch, so I'm not going to complain. I just hope that everything's done with an even and consistent hand.

[Splattercat]

Wildfire's right...Swarm obviously knew what he was getting into when he created the Big F*****g show, and you can't tell me he didn't post it in those HUGE glowy letters to hide it from the mods...Let's be serious now...

Aside from that...Jester, really, it's not even your fed...And I'm also with Wildfire in saying it's not the be all end all of feds on here in my opinion...You guys may think it's the best thing on the 'net, but I don't...He runs a great fed, and it draws lots of views (lots meaning more than any other probably ever will), but that doesn't make it the best read on here for me...If it's the only one you read, I'm afraid you're missing out my friend....

And I really hope you're not going to pack up and leave because of this...What would you tell me if I said "Knapik's** Fed is locked because he violated the Code of Discussion..?? That's BS..!! He has the best fed on here, of course he's allowed to use profanity..!! Everyone should expect it when you go in..!! Screw you Nazi mods..!! I'm outta here..!!" Honestly, what would you say..?

So, what I suggest is to just take a breather, let Swarm handle his issue with the mod/s, and give him a big "Welcome Back!!!" when he returns...I doubt starting a war on his behalf is going to help him...

Really...As far as I can see he has to change like, a few words...it's NOT that big of a fix...

**Name chosen at random ;D

[butters]

fredkc6cfb said:

As someone who has administrated and been a staffer on many, many 'Net board communities like this one, I understand that rules must be followed in order to maintain control. And, some board hosts (my only experiences have been with IF) enforce a no profanity rule on pain of board deletion. So the no swearing policy may not be the personal preference of the person that operates this fan forums.

My own personal style is to allow members as much leeway as possible, including allowing them to clean-up their own posts if violations occur (and only then, if they refuse to do so, am I forced to discipline them). But this Isn't my board and I'm not going to nitpick another admin's style.

From what I gather from reading these posts, this Swarm fellow has been banned multiple times in the past. That tells me, without even needing to review past posts, that he simply had to have been doing something wrong in order to have been punished. And not just once, but over and over again. Such a poster on any of my old boards would have been permanently booted. So if he is allowed back, then this site's Admin isn't that bad a guy. And he certainly has far more patience than me.

This was the best post I've seen in a really long time. Thank you.