Ben Thatcher's Elbow

[NoflopsHomer]

Colemanballs Quote of the Year:

"Ben is distraught. I can assure everybody, this has hit the player very hard" - Stuart Pearce, referring to the elbow Thatcher.

[matt674]

Was announced yesterday that Man City had handed Thatcher a 6 game ban and fined him 6 weeks wages. They were saying that the length of the ban reflected the severity of the incident.......

But what they failed to say at the press conference was that 2 of the 6 games would be suspended and a further 2 of the 6 games would be suspended pending future conduct - so in effect the ban is only for 2 games and of course he's already served one of those two games by missing out of the game vs Arsenal.

Just hope the FA steps in and gives a proper punishment on the 12th September!!

[Indestructable]

The full details were in the paper, but a good headline spin.

[yt]

sigh .... 

blonde has a reputation for always being honest with the members, and always will be.

The comment that caused the offence was discussed by the Mods and it was decided that the member who made the post would have his account suspended for 2 weeks. He was also issued a final warning in that any repeat of such offensive matter would lead to a permanant ban from blonde.

The comment AND the replies that quoted it were removed to stop other people from having the same shock and outrage at the comment as those that posted a reply.

Im sure you can understand that if you reacted so strongly against his comment because you found it so offensive, why should we leave it on the board to offend other people ?

wether you agree or not, a decision was made to remove the post and issue a 2 week suspension.

I made that offending comment and subsequently got banned.
Clearly I didn't think before posting. I spent all of a second posting that and didn't think anything of it at the time. My comment was directed at the severity of the Thatcher incident and my dislike of the man. It was not meant to mean anything else.
I also left the office immediately after posting so had no chance to apologise before the ban kicked in.
I will not be posting here anymore as I don't trust myself not offend people anymore however unintentionally and would like to be able to continue reading the forum (oh yes you can't even read the forum when banned).
I have apologised on email to those who felt strongly enough to write to me.
Sorry.
No new posts asking about it please. This is for those who were upset at the time and this is my first chance to reply.

[MrMoves]

Well done for apologising, yt. 

Personally I thought your ban was ridiculous and that you should have had the chance to apologise/retract it.  Inconsistency, just like with Premiership refs, reigns supreme.

I hope you keep posting.

[Acidmouse]

Everyone makes the odd mistake, no need to stop posting

[TightEnd]

thanks for the apology yt

as for the ban being "ridiculous" what the poster does not realise is that yt had already received a formal warning (after several seperate PM exchanges over various threads)  about previous posts in which he was warned that there would be a temporary ban if offensive posts were repeated.

In addition moderators cannot be expected to second guess a member's non response to comments objecting to the statement that people found offensive.

I know yt personally and like him. He's a nice guy. However we will follow through on the process we have for keeping blonde the type of forum that so many of us enjoy.

As far as we are concerned he is welcome to post in the future. If anyone is unsure of the content they are posting, they are welcome to contact one of the mods first for clarification

[yt]

Tightend is right. In the past I have posted Jokes and "funny" pictures which have caused offence. The ban was not for the one issue and followed other warnings.

I just seem to post the wrong thing. When I saw the ban on my email that evening I was sure it was a mistake as I didn't think I done or said anything of issue. I do tend to say the first thing that comes to mind which causes problems. I will only post about poker from now on.

[MrMoves]

Indeed I didn't realise he was on a warning.  The original post stating the ban never mentioned a "history".

I'm curious as to why a two week ban?  Is there an official guideline for warnings & bans that moderators need to follow in regards to offensive remarks?

[MrMoves]

I just seem to post the wrong thing.

Welcome to my world.

[TightEnd]

It was a one week ban as it turned out. Much happens behind the scenes to keep a lot of the problems we encounter away from the public forums. There's no reason any history needed to be mentioned until you suggested the ban was "ridiculous", at which point I wanted to disabuse that notion.

We follow a procedure that has developed through time that goes...

PMs informing the member of a deletion and the reason why,

then only after repeated problems a formal warning,

then a temporary ban if the formal warning is "breached" (duration discussed on a case by case basis)

then a complete ban if all else fails


For cases of extreme severity stages in this process can be skipped.

In addition there is a quicker process allowing for bans of "spammers" making no other contribution to the forum



I'm happy to discuss with with anyone by PM, but don't intend to prolong this on this thread from here on.

[MrMoves]

OK, I have more questions so I'll send a PM rather than detract further from Thatcher's elbow.

[byronkincaid]

Indeed I didn't realise he was on a warning.  The original post stating the ban never mentioned a "history".

I'm curious as to why a two week ban?  Is there an official guideline for warnings & bans that moderators need to follow in regards to offensive remarks?

Official Guidelines

Hoping that somebody dies of....

Old Age - no ban
Run over by a bus - 1 day ban
Charged by an angry Hippo - 3 day ban
Struck by lightening while out having a nice round of golf - 1 week
Struck by Ben Thatcher while playing football - 10 days
Crushed while being made love to by Colchester Kev - 1 month ban

[MrMoves]

Indeed I didn't realise he was on a warning.  The original post stating the ban never mentioned a "history".

I'm curious as to why a two week ban?  Is there an official guideline for warnings & bans that moderators need to follow in regards to offensive remarks?

Official Guidelines

Hoping that somebody dies of....

Old Age - no ban
Run over by a bus - 1 day ban
Charged by an angry Hippo - 3 day ban
Struck by lightening while out having a nice round of golf - 1 week
Struck by Ben Thatcher while playing football - 10 days
Crushed while being made love to by Colchester Kev - 1 month ban