- I was the sock-puppet of a banned member
- I created an offsite blog in collaboration with neoConfederate banned members in order to nitpick the work of others
- I constantly attack people who disagree with me
- I was dragging threads off-topic
- I am not the sock-puppet of a banned member
- None of the three contributors to this blog were banned, and none (to my knowledge) are neoConfederates
- We confirmed with Ian the Admin that it was acceptable to create this blog before creating it
- In a year on the site I had a single kick, received just under a month ago.
- Since that kick, I had not spoken to the member who felt that I was being unduly harsh to them. I have also pre-emptively disengaged from many other members with whom I am well aware that I disagree.
- I did not think that my contributions were particularly off-topic given that the posts before mine had been discussing Woodrow Wilson's presidency and the motivations behind unrestricted submarine warfare.
I don't intend to make this a long, self-justifying screed, but I do feel the need to respond to one point made in the thread after my departure. Galveston Bay claimed that ' It would not be hard for me to find numerous examples of sarcastic mean spirited posts directed specifically at me and others in any thread on this topic going back at least 3 years made by him.' I suspect it would be remarkably difficult to find three years of such posts, as I only joined the site on 6 June 2016. My join date appears in the header of every single post I have made, so I struggle to explain his confusion on this point.
Unfortunately, there isn't any advice I can give to those who wish to avoid my fate (other than 'don't talk about the Trent Affair'). I do, however, wish you all the best of luck in your continued interactions on the board. Normal service will now be resumed.
My commiserations. Some of the keyboard warriors play the man, not the game.
ReplyDeleteI'm still amused that BKW calls me a neo-confederate for advocating full reconstruction of the South post-war....
Apparently Saphroneth got a warning for quoting the post that was seemingly used as the excuse for your Banning!?
ReplyDelete(I'm not suggesting that we all should report the Moderator in question, but it might not be a bad idea)
I wouldn't advise doing anything that might possibly upset the moderators. I'm not even sure if comments in my support are helping or hindering, though I do very much appreciate those who have said kind things about my contributions.
DeleteI'm very sympathetic towards the continual problem the moderators have keeping the lid on all of this. That said, if you end your post with 'since you have a previously banned account, I can just ban you outright' and the person turns out not to have a previously banned account, I'm not sure how you can legitimately leave the outright ban in place.
Still, had the ban been revoked it would have felt like continually treading on eggshells. I will miss the opportunities to contribute, but it's not the end of the world: all the material I've found and posted will remain accessible for others; there's still a hell of a lot wrong with BROS to point out; and if people want my assistance with a particular topic then they know where to find me.
If you do want to appeal the ban, I suggest you use the 'contact us' link (hidden far down the bottom right of the main AH.com page) to get hold of Ian directly.
DeleteI suspect just leaving BKW's onward referral of the ban sit will at best just lengthen wait times (Ian doesn't check in that often) and at worst will suggest you're not interested in coming back (of cause, no idea if that's the case or not).
I wasn't aware of that: thanks for pointing it out. At the moment, most of what I'm interested in is acknowledgement that the ban was unfair and its maintenance is illogical.
DeleteAfter the first kick, I started to overlook discussions I was interested in because of these accusations of monomania (e.g. 'Food in an Anglo-American conflict,' or a couple of times I wanted to drop in links to the Official Records in the McClellan discussion). If I have to participate in discussions to which I have little to offer in order to 'unlock' ones where I do, it makes a hobby a little too much like work.
Of course, I'll probably change my mind if I do get reinstated- so thanks again for the advice.
Hello from Galveston Bay
ReplyDeleteFor the record. I have defended both you and Saph from accusations of being sock puppets, pointing out that all three of you (67 Tigers included) have posted in the CivWar Talk forum and have different styles.
I also believe that the moderator in question jumped the gun, failed to give you a well thought out reason for your ban, and it should be reversed.
I still don't like you. But that has nothing to do with the above. I also still think this blog is a cheap shot at a work of unfinished fiction that will certainly fade away and all you are doing is calling attention to something you dislike.
But my views about that are on the record in the Alt History Forum.
Sincerely, Galveston Bay
Leaving all our personal differences aside, thank you for your support.
Deleteinitial comment deleted because I could not edit a sentence but otherwise said everything above
ReplyDeleteAs to the '3 years comment' I too initially thought you were someone else (who was banned and is the person you were accused of being)
ReplyDeleteThis is the bit I find hard to understand. When TFSmith tried to evade his ban as 'CVFTownshend,' he lasted a day before being picked up. If you look at the posts, it's obvious it's the same person. But compare my posts to those of frlmerrin: they're nothing like one another.
DeleteWhen I first joined the boards I was accused of being frlmerrin (and/or 67th Tigers) by Spengler. Nobody took the accusation seriously. Yet a moderator, who presumably has access to IP logging tools and the like, bans me over a year later for something that had already been dismissed as nonsense.
I've been doing some research and I am getting very suspicious and concerned, to quote a comment I made to Galveston Bay.
ReplyDelete"Who is this Burton K Wheeler and how did they get the job, I don't recall a single post from them before they suddenly appeared and starting Banning, Kicking and Warning posters. Their earliest post I can find is from 24 June 2017, yet they claim to have joined on 11 June 2006, Eleven years without a post? And from the DOB they give they would also apparently have been 11 themselves when they joined. Something does not add up here, Is such a thing as a Sockpuppet Moderator even possible?"
Bear in mind the search function on the boards is very limited. If you're looking for posts from a particular user, it'll only search within a certain timeframe unless you click a specific option which for the moment escapes me.
DeleteAs for the DOB, nobody's obliged to tell the truth in their online profile. There are far more insidious reasons to pose as a 22-year old female on the internet than moderating an online history forum!
It might be wise to row back on some of these comments, or amend the language to make them sound a little less accusatory. The last thing I want is other people getting warned (or worse) as a result of this. We're not entitled to know anything about the moderators or how they're selected, even if we can highlight where we think they've been heavy-handed.
I'd just delete this now.
DeleteBKW is a (very) long-term member but has been through several extended periods of not posting and a number of name changes (previously went as the Bald Imposter). The whole age and reversed gender thing is the side effect of a stupid running joke from almost a decade back (his natter with another poster made someone say they sounded like a pair of 14 year olds and it spun into a running joke)... not sure why he keeps the dregs of it in his profile.
DeleteNot sure why the search function isn't showing his older posts.
Well done on the unbanning.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who were unaware of it Saphroneth has been banned AH.com now.
ReplyDelete(The grounds seem to be very dubious)
Does anyone have any advice for him?
There's several options available before him, such as:
DeleteSufficientVelocity
OtherHistory
Althistoria
Me and him are on civilwartalk.com
ReplyDeleteThe grounds were largely the same as my banning. Point out, for example, pointing that after emancipation (and the transition of the black population to effective serfdom) the life expectancy of the african-american population dropped 10% would be twisted to "you're saying the blacks were better off as slaves" and you'd be banned for "slavery apologism". It is however, true.