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Politics and Moderation

17K views 161 replies 61 participants last post by  tdw 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi Everyone,

I am speaking on behalf of all the moderators here.

We have really tried to keep Sailnet an open and friendly place to discuss sailing related things. We have also tried to maintain a separate Off Topic forum where members can go to discuss things that are not sailing related or may be too political for the mainstream sailing board. In general, we do not want to play the role of censors and allow as much 'free speech' as possible.

However, if or when the politics begin to seep into the mainstream forum, we have to make some judgment calls. Our decisions do not come easy and are generally debated (or overly debated!!) before we act. We want to be seen as fair and moderate to all the members, and this can at times be difficult as we may have strong opinions on the matters and we know the members have strong opinions. Complicating this is that some discussions which are sailing related are inherently political in nature and bring out strong reactions from those with opposing views.

So we would like to ask all the members to be understanding if we request you to modify your postings or signatures. It is difficult for us to ask this because it is important that everyone sees us as never taking sides, either way. But it is even more important that everyone sees us as trying to keep the board as friendly and inviting as possible to the majority population. If we do reach out and ask you to tone it down or change your signature, please understand we do it reluctantly and out of necessity for all those who participate here. Another favor: If your signature could be interpreted as political in nature, please consider removing it so we don't have to ask or you don't offend others.

We're all friends here.

Brian and the Mod Squad
 
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#142 ·
why does Canucksailorguy get to post Commie Propaganda (i.e. Cuba - Forbiden Paradise) when Cuba is FAR from paradise and has more political prisoners than any other country in the western hemisphere?
Or is this okay just because Canada is investing heavily in Cuba?
I honestly don't know whether to answer this, or suggest it goes to OT/Pol. I will say that there is nothing political in either the url for my blog or facebook name. I try to make a point - don't always succeed - in not mixing politics in discussions I have about Cuba here on SN but, whenever possible, try to correct misinformation - of which there is a great deal, most of it coming from those who have never been there, quixotically enough. If you go to the links referenced, you'll also notice there is very very little that is political on those pages. Just information about Cuba, and sailing there.
'Paradise' is simply a term, and there is much that is lovely about Cuba - especially its people, and the sailing there is fabulous.
If SD 1953 wants to continue this line of posting, it likely belongs in another thread where I may (or may not) choose to join in. However, I suspect I've tried the mods' patience enough lately so I'll desist here.
 
This post has been deleted
#159 · (Edited by Moderator)
But since you've brought up my character, Removed quoted version of a personal attack in violation of forum rules- Jeff_H SailNet.
Wow - I don't know or care what all the facts are...but unless you were directly involved in this...throwing something like this out in a public forum is seriously skanky on your part, Jeff.

Why on earth would this woman be sending you information like this? I can totally see her doing so with the SN mods, but you? What's that all about?

I will tell you this - aggressive entrepreneurship or no, the above is out of line. It is about as personal an attack as I've seen in these threads.

It's obvious you, Nuck, and whoever this Chuck guy is have a serious issue with each other. Fine. But as a recently joined member of Active Captain myself, I can honestly tell you I'm not liking what I see out of its "aggressive entrepreneur".

How do I cancel my membership?
 
#143 ·
So, my question was to the moderators. I.e. where is the line?
I offer the URL's below to make my point:
Cuba
Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba | A non profit dedicated to supporting Cuban civil society and human rights activists in their fight for democracy
Cuba | Amnesty International
The political regime in Havana is a brutal, capricious dictatorship. It violates human rights of the residents of the island and those who visit / do business there.
Pretending it is "Paradise" is a political statement. So my question was, where is the line? Why is the US Constitution's Bill of Rights not okay, but promoting a brutal dictatorship is okay?
Thanks for your reply, but I am not arguing the benefits of tyranny with you, I am questioning the moderators.
 
#146 ·
A couple of points in wally's defense;
1. Sailnet is international in scope, so, while you feel his sig is political because of American/Cuban relations at present, the rest of the world has a different relationship with Cuba and it's people, politics notwithstanding. one can hate the game, but not the players, as appears to be the case with Wally's love for Cuba.
2. Have you bothered to actually read the links in the sig in question? Politics rarely enters wally's blather, except as it pertains to canada, in jest and in vain.
 
#144 ·
Yo Jeff, I don't know you and I don't Nuck. But I do know "Personal Attacks" when I see them. I think you need to work on your definition of the PA. I haven't seen it here. You admit you've done a good amount of what Nuck is saying. And you do like to get a bit aggro in you posts. So where exactly is the Personal Attack?
 
#147 ·
So where exactly is the Personal Attack?
It was mainly in the previous thread that I mentioned. Wally's posting was removed within a few hours. As a result of that, the entire thread was removed. His posting was a total personal attack having little to do with the content of the thread. The discussion here had turned to that thread and Wally's posting in that previous thread was an obvious and direct personal attack by anyone's definition. I'd welcome the moderators to re-publish that posting here since it is under the microscope.

it was Seigel's own words that created the unpleasant atmosphere.
I believe the mods handled this well given that they were unaware of what he was up to, and I trust that Seigel has been cautioned about his behaviour in here.
He's heading in the same direction here. The mods didn't remove any of my posts - they directly removed Wally's. Then with bruhaha led by chef2sail, they removed the entire thread. I never responded after Wally's rant.

For what it's worth, that previous thread wasn't started by me and took 3 pages before enough spiders told me that there was a discussion about ActiveCaptain. There were questions about what I wrote and I answered all of them. There was no attempted fight to gain new users. I simply discussed the newsletter piece - I don't believe I even gave a URL to it. The moderators did contact me to ask me to put my website links in my signature. I thought that was on the advertising side so I hadn't but as of that moment, I changed by signature.

I'd like to also point out that I didn't say that forums like SailNet are bad or need to be replaced. In fact, quoting directly from the newsletter segment, "Don't misunderstand this. There are good uses for the other forums."

The really ironic (perhaps even funny) thing is that the previous thread proved all the problems that I think existing forums have. There's actually a good discussion there if it could ever be done without the attacks.
 
#148 ·
@bljones; Since Canucksailorguy is Canadian, Cuba is NOT "forbidden" to him. And in the view of international human rights groups is sure as hell isn't paradise. (See links I provided earlier.)
So, since his signature is clearly aimed at those of us in the USA, and it seems to want to convince me that the Cuban embargo the US enacted is wrong, it is by definition political.
Cuba is a beautiful island (if the photos and descriptions can be believed - I have no reason to doubt them). The Cuban people are just like folks everywhere else ... mostly good. I live in South Florida, I have Cuban-American friends. I know we got Cuba's best when Fidel ran everyone out of the island. I see and read about people still fleeing "paradise" in little rickety boats. For the Bill of Rights here in the USA.
My question remains to the moderators, where is this line you want us to observe? Why is it okay to prop up a brutal dictatorship, but not the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution?
 
#151 · (Edited)
@blowin; The original post by the "Best looking Male Moderator" was an explanation by the mods over a couple of signatures that were requested to be removed by the moderators as they were "political" in nature. This drug politics into every thread where they posted.
I read the thread, but as I don't often discuss politics here - like you I come for the sailing - I didn't have any strong feelings about the thread nor did I make any posts myself. Then after many pages of posts I saw one that contains a signature that promotes Cuba as a "Forbidden Paradise". It is not. The poster, self-identifies as a Canadian. Cuba is not forbidden to him. Cuba is not paradise. I posted links to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to make my point.
My question is not to my fellow (Canadian) SNer, it is to the moderators.
Why does promoting Cuba get a pass and the poster who extoled the virtues of the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution get told to take his down.
That's not hard to understand, is it?

(MY house suddenly smells like banana bread!)
 
#160 · (Edited)
@blowin; My question is not to my fellow (Canadian) SNer, it is to the moderators.
Why does promoting Cuba get a pass and the poster who extoled the virtues of the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution get told to take his down.
That's not hard to understand, is it?

(MY house suddenly smells like banana bread!)
This forum contains members who do not live in the USA.

For these members a discussion on Cuba is no more political than a discussion of any other potential cruising destination. It is a sailing related discussion.

Fiji is also being run by a dictatorship. Other interesting potential cruising destinations have governments with questions to answer.

It is simple, If you want to discuss the politics of Cuba go do it in OT.
 
#152 · (Edited by Moderator)
Sir I have to say this is way out of line and basically supports everything that has been said. You reopened this on purpose in another thread and I beleive you should be banned from Sailnet. The first time I have ever asked for that

All posts were removed from that thread and it was eliminated in fairness to all sides

This site has no place for the personal crap. You continued something which was put to rest and handled. You appear to like to cause trouble in other people's intellectual property to draw attention to yourself and yes you product. Good marketing ploy.

Moderators....please have this man desist......make him go away.....he can't really be a sailor and do this on a sailing site in front of other sailors and then call himself one of us.

I hadn't really taken any side till I saw this violation of TOS after the mods already evenhandedly removed everyone's comments by removing the other thread.

Dude you just lost me.

Dave
 
#157 ·
CanuckSailorGuy, Jeffrey Siegel, Hear ye Hear Ye.

Ok ..... both of you .... cease and desist. You will deploy the IGNORE button. If you do not it will be deployed for you.

All further posts that relate to the two of you by either of you will be binned and if this BS continues one or both of you will end up taking a bloody long holiday.

Andrew B
 
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