[scratchpaddy]

Part of the moderators' job is to keep the site organized. They don't mind silly threads in General Talk, but they want to keep serious discussion about cameras and how to use them in the DSLR Discussion section. Plenty of users make funny/nonsense posts without getting in trouble even in the "serious" sections, too. The Mods just don't want entire threads dedicated to that in the main forums. Heck, even Parallax jokes around. He's a funny guy. But I guess several entire threads is too much.

I see this thread's been moved to Genera Talk. You can have fun here. Just watch out for Otis and his Army of Squirrels.

[DavidSKAF3]

Like you said, some people "get away with it," including in many instances the moderator.

I'm gonna drop it now. But I'm not pleased with the outcome. In effect, the threads in question have been kicked to the curb, along with my defense of them. Oh well!

I'm grateful to those of you who spoke up.

So! Anyone interested in a lightly used nearly new K-5 kit? Looks like I'm gonna have to move on. Kinda been liking that new OM-D EM-1. Maybe the Oly folks will take me in, jokes and all, since like me their cameras aren't all that serious.

[Eric Auer]

Well youre a photographer right?

So why give a about a camera brand.

Looking forward to your next show. Right?

[stormtech]

So you are going to sell your Pentax gear simply because you don't like a forum on the internet?

[rbefly]

Hello David,
Well, I certainly don't mind a bit of silliness now and then on the forum, and have even participated in a few such discussions myself, including your 'Final Answer?" thread, which is still on the SLR Lens forum, even though it's discussing a mythical lens.
And I'm surely no stranger to using sarcasm and irony to make a point, needling and rattling the pompous, ego-driven or overly serious whenever possible.
But, you have taken an issue that should have been handled privately and posted it openly.
Once you got a PM from the moderator, it became a difference of opinion between you and the staff and should have stayed there. But you chose to go 'public' and in a most immature manner, comparing your 'plight' (desire, actually) to free speech issues (you do know this is a photography forum, right? You signed off on the terms of use?), free-spirited artistic minds vs technos, lack of understanding of YOUR humor and pretty much anything else that might help your case.
All the while threatening to stamp your foot, get a refund (REALLY?!) sell your gear and go somewhere else where your 'rights' wouldn't be so terribly violated and your imagination, sense of humor and wit, would be properly appreciated.
Does any of that sound like a rational response?
No.
If all you've suffered here is so horrible that you're driven to sell your camera gear and move on, feel free.
But your ego, sense of self-importance and unseemly demand for respect is causing the problem, not the site.
JMO,
Ron

[DavidSKAF3]

I guess it's maybe only me and a handful of silent members, but when people are posting comments because they're worried about getting an "infraction" I think a little more transparency is in order. Some people are actually "afraid" around here!

And yes there is a difference between feeling like you can express yourself freely and claiming a violation of Freedom of Speech rights.

Since what I mean to say isn't getting across so well, I will re-phrase it.

In other words, there is a difference between the way it is when you're at a party with your friends, and another way it is at a party at the office at work.

I am saying the former.

I am not claiming a violation of my rights.

I am saying I feel less comfortable now.

And that is a let down.

So because of all this I have little choice but to sell my house and give up my citizenship. I am even talking to Richard Branson about leaving the planet altogether on one of those new Virgin spaceships.

That's how permeated I am over this disappointing but now clearly implacable pasteurization.

[DavidSKAF3]

Hello David,
Well, I certainly don't mind a bit of silliness now and then on the forum, and have even participated in a few such discussions myself, including your 'Final Answer?" thread, which is still on the SLR Lens forum, even though it's discussing a mythical lens.
And I'm surely no stranger to using sarcasm and irony to make a point, needling and rattling the pompous, ego-driven or overly serious whenever possible.
But, you have taken an issue that should have been handled privately and posted it openly.
Once you got a PM from the moderator, it became a difference of opinion between you and the staff and should have stayed there. But you chose to go 'public' and in a most immature manner, comparing your 'plight' (desire, actually) to free speech issues (you do know this is a photography forum, right? You signed off on the terms of use?), free-spirited artistic minds vs technos, lack of understanding of YOUR humor and pretty much anything else that might help your case.
All the while threatening to stamp your foot, get a refund (REALLY?!) sell your gear and go somewhere else where your 'rights' wouldn't be so terribly violated and your imagination, sense of humor and wit, would be properly appreciated.
Does any of that sound like a rational response?
No.
If all you've suffered here is so horrible that you're driven to sell your camera gear and move on, feel free.
But your ego, sense of self-importance and unseemly demand for respect is causing the problem, not the site.
JMO,
Ron

Thanks for your thoughts, Ron. Seriously.

And with that being said, I gotta say that while I don't know exactly where I'll be a hundred years from now, I'm betting I probably won't smell too good. That's why I'm developing a new cologne called "Composure" for corpses. Because I've already embarrassed myself enough in this life.

---

Last edited by DavidSKAF3; 01-05-2014 at 12:14 PM.

[DavidSKAF3]

So you are going to sell your Pentax gear simply because you don't like a forum on the internet?

No, Stan. I'm not.

That would be extreme, wouldn't it?

But I do actually like that Olympus MILC. Might replace my NEX7 with it!


Thanks!

[DavidSKAF3]

Part of the moderators' job is to keep the site organized. They don't mind silly threads in General Talk, but they want to keep serious discussion about cameras and how to use them in the DSLR Discussion section. Plenty of users make funny/nonsense posts without getting in trouble even in the "serious" sections, too. The Mods just don't want entire threads dedicated to that in the main forums. Heck, even Parallax jokes around. He's a funny guy. But I guess several entire threads is too much.

I see this thread's been moved to Genera Talk. You can have fun here. Just watch out for Otis and his Army of Squirrels.

Thanks for your reply.

From what I understand, there is a shortage of bandwidth, and everything needs to be micro-managed, or we'll all be held in contempt of the Saskatoon Protocols of 2009.

That's why this has been going on.

But I'm all straightened out now.

Fortunately it has nothing to do with the idiosyncrasies of some entrenched clique, or anything like that.


Dave


"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."


-Ralph Waldo Emerson

[DavidSKAF3]

Well youre a photographer right?

So why give a about a camera brand.

Looking forward to your next show. Right?

"Mihi ignosce. Cum homine de cane debeo congredi"


So, who's the dog, and where must you meet?

[Rupert]

I see this thread's been moved to Genera Talk. You can have fun here. Just watch out for Otis and his Army of Squirrels.

I haven't see your thread, won't look for it, and have no idea what you said or didn't say. You may be right or you may be wrong....and so may the Mods, it does happen both ways at times, no place is perfect and certainly none of us are either.
You speak of fun and good times.......I can't imagine not having a good time here, or any reasonable Mod not allowing a reasonable photography related good time. Otis and his Army of Squirrels run free here and have the best of fun and good times, but they do have boundaries and do try to relate as much through photos as they do with their comments. Some here love Otis...and some think he is ridiculous.....a Mod here once complained to me that squirrels can't really talk (they can and do!) and then he went on to complain of something "Otis said"! So I understand that Mods don't always make a damn lick of sense, but they are the Mods and they have a tough job, we need to respect that.

Bottom line is this is a fun place and a serious place...some are here for one or the other, some for both. I don't think you need to leave here to find happiness at a place like DPR, where hardly any fun or good times are ever allowed. I think you just need to relax and recalibrate your messages to have a better and broader appeal. If we are not all friends here, we should be, you can never get too many friends.

Maybe whatever you said was just corny, but even corny stuff will get by here if presented properly.




Best Regards!

[Tom S.]

I've been MIA for a while, but I believe it's time a mod weighed in on this thread.

Perhaps a Rules Refresher is in order.

• Please do not post meaningless threads, or nonsensical (or one-word) replies.

and:

• While our rules cover typical forum situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Thus we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure our website and forum is not disrupted or abused in any way.

Please note the "we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate" part of this rule, as it applies to the rule above it.

Next we have:

• Several moderators are present on our site to maintain an orderly, friendly forum and to help members adhere to the rules. Moderators attempt to remove any objectionable content posted on site as quickly as possible, and deal with any conflicts between forum members.

and:

• Any objection to a moderator's punitive course of action or conflicts with other staff members are handled by an appeal process to the site administration. To file an appeal, please fill out this form and describe or quote the action/comments which you believe to be unfair. Your request will then be evaluated by a panel of moderators and a decision will be reached which may or may not override the original course of action. Decisions reached through the appeal process are final.

The above paragraphs spell out some of the mods duties, as well as specify the exact process to file an appeal. Nowhere in either paragraph does it suggest or imply that it is OK to openly post an appeal, and I am amazed you didn't get penalized for doing so.

Beyond the rules, reflect back on some of the replies your 'appeal' has garnered. I fail to see any that support you, which is, in its self, telling.

If I were you, I would drop the matter now - before it results in more self-inflected punishment.

PS: Under normal circumstances, I would never have posted this in public, as we prize our member's privacy and feel interactions between them and moderators are best kept private. However your starting this thread and posting what was sent to you confidentially has nullified that.

[hks_kansei]

It just seems polite to me that when dealing with a person you respond directly to that person.

A while back I recieved a low level infraction from a moderator, I didn't agree with the infraction (or their interpretation of the forum rules) so I just sent a private message to them (can't remember if individually, or to the moderator team as a whole?)

The result, both parties knew each other's opinion. And I accepted the Moderators decision because in a way the forum is their house, and their rules.

[Wheatfield]

As someone who has spent much time under the thumb of one moderator or another on this forum, I have found that any time I raised the attention or ire of a moderator was when it was well deserved.

[Venturi]

FWIW in my opinion the forum was a lot more lively, with much richer conversations when it wasn't so preoccupied with categorizing everything. To my mind there are about 50 too many sub-forums and way too much moderation. For a forum celebrating a camera manufacturer whose motto is/was "Be Different" this place has really become a "my way or the highway" sort of joint.