I received the following email from the Administrator on 11/21
(Monday) -
'From vpFREE Rules and Policies:
"7. Negative personal comments or personal attacks, as perceived by
the Administrator and regardless of circumstances, aren't tolerated on
vpFREE. Violators are subject to having their posting privileges
revoked for some appropriate period of time. If you disagree with
someone, be objective, polite and impersonal in any reply. Don't
belittle anyone or what they have written or do any name-calling. Use
FREEvpFREE for any negative personal comment posts."
Your vpFREE posting privileges are revoked for 4 weeks, because
your latest vpFREE post (and earlier ones) violates the Rules and
Policies.
vpFREE Administrator'
The verbatum posting of a private email without the permission
of the author is a serious breach of etiquette and normal practices.
I wasn't asked for my permission, and didn't give it in this instance.
I've requested that the Administrator post the email above on
vpFREE - this request has been refused.
My reply to jw776655:
Personal attacks, deserved or not, accurate or not, aren't
appropriate or tolerated on vpFREE. I'm not interested in
facilitating the wishes of anyone who has such an agenda.
I am currently aware of several other people who have had their
vpFREE posting privileges removed for 5 weeks and/or have been
placed on "moderated" status (their posts have to be read and
approved first by the Administrator - which I assume he'll be doing to
mine, should I choose to post on vpFREE in the future [I have no
plans to do so, other than perhaps an occasional question]. None of
these acts of censorship have been made public by the Administrator.
I believe that this vpFREE censorship should be made public - at the
very least if the person being censored requests such.
You weren't censored. You were disciplined for violating the rules.
Your personal attack posts weren't censored ... they were moved to
FREEvpFREE, which is the appropriate vpFREE forum for posts
that violate the rules of the main forum.
Violations of the rules are sometimes handled publicly and
sometimes privately, as the Administrator decides. The
wishes of the violator aren't a very important factor.
I have posted and lurked on many gaming forums, and have found
varying degrees of liberality and conservatism regarding posting
rules.
But I've never been barred from any before, and have never found one
with the extreme subjective censorship which the Administrator
imposes on this site.
Did you make personal attacks on these sites as you have
on vpFREE?
The rules of vpFREE prohibit personal attacks and Negative
Personal Comment posts, neither of which is a necessary
ingredient in the discussion and exchange of information about
video poker, which is vpFREE's primary purpose.
See my censorship comments above.
A few years ago I used to read a forum which had the rule
"You cannot call someone a fool.
You can call someone's ideas foolish."
I believe this is a reasonable rule. It leads to interesting
discussions of ideas, without attacking the person.
My last post regarding the math of Dancer's penalty card system may have
made Dancer look foolish. But Dancer's position is foolish. I tried very
hard to not violate the vpFREE rules. There is only so much I could
do.
You could have refrained from making personal attacks.
If someone came into the forum and seriously posted that the Earth is
flat, discussing that person's ideas would make that person appear
foolish. But that is because that person's ideas are foolish. (By
extension that person is therefore a fool - but the ideas are being
discussed).
The Administrator has accused me in an email of having an agenda.
My agenda is this - It is disturbing to me to see a worthless
gambling system being peddled (directly and indirectly).
I feel that worthless gambling systems should be exposed.
Bob Dancer is peddling a worthless gambling system.
Agendas which include personal attacks won't be tolerated
on vpFREE.
vpFREE Administrator
ยทยทยท
On 23 Nov 2005 at 4:50, jw776655 wrote: