Banned... No good deed goes unpunished

I just got banned by a pissy mod because I posted that I am sick of hearing about all these awards that the raspberry pi keeps winning when a lot of people are still waiting to get theirs from that other company.

he called me a troll and a whiner

I just got banned by a pissy mod because I posted that I am sick of hearing about all these awards that the raspberry pi keeps winning when a lot of people are still waiting to get theirs from that other company.

Interesting to see that many of the awards are product of begging to the fanbois and cult members to vote for them.

So Billy (if that is actually your name),

after all this rant in multiple installments, what is your point ?

Haven't got anything in particular mate. Just don't like to see the bad mouthing of a *successful* charity going on here, when they don't deserve it, and I reckon some of the people doing it here need to be taught a short sharp lesson. Just because you get banned from somewhere for doing something wrong (persistently in many cases I reckon), doesnt mean that somewhere is being run badly, you may think so, but you don't run the Raspberry Pi foundation, and you don't run the Raspberry Pi Foundation forum. Now, you may not like the way its run, but that nothing to do with you. Looking at it - they are pretty successful, winning awards, selling hundreds of thousands of devices and have a succesfull forum, and yet all you people here do is whinge at them for 'doing it wrong'. I'm thinking, maybe they are not the ones doing it wrong.

It's actually William, but I prefer Bill. That was until Billy Bob Thornton came on the scene, which rather urinated on my fireworks and imediately got  me a new nickname. Hence BillyBob.

@Dinova. You a mod here then? Or just run the place? You don't treat the Raspberry Pi foundation with respect. Why should I treat you any different?

Good for you, point taken, and I'm not your "mate."

You can go now and teach your lesson across the universe if that makes you happy, it will not change my opinion about the Raspberry Pi Foundation, some of its members and its forum. If you don't like what you see here, just leave, you have not contributed anything significant and I'm pretty sure that nobody will miss you, at least I won't.

Billy Thornton wrote:

 

@Dinova. You a mod here then? Or just run the place?

Please don't personalize this.  I just quoted from an Element 14 admin's explanatory post and you're attacking the messenger.  We can have a perfectly rational discussion about the behavior of RPF "moderation" without attacking fellow members here.

Billy Thornton wrote:

 

You don't treat the Raspberry Pi foundation with respect. Why should I treat you any different?

We describe accurately the banning and name-calling and harrassment of people who express valid concerns over there, and it is not a matter of dispute because it's in the forum history.  It is not disrespectful to describe accurately what is happening, it is simply factual.

If an accurate description of their actions is not to their liking and they cannot ban it, perhaps they should stop doing what they're doing.  Alternatively, if they take pride in acting as they do, then our reporting it accurately should be to their liking.

You describe nothing accurately as far as I can tell! What you do is take what's happened, emphasise the bits that make you look good and ignore the bits that make you look bad. That's not describing thing accurately in my book.

As far as I can tell, any forum is alowed to remove post or people that critisize them or make them look bad (whether deserved or not - I'm thinking, judging by commenters here they were right in at least some of the bans). That because its their forum and they need to maintain their brnad. It's why Apple contunally remove critical posts from their website. If you critisize Element14 here, in the way you have been critical over there, I would expect you to get banned from here as well. And you should not be surprised! That goes for most of the people complaining about banning! That what I don't get people - why are you surprised when being continually critical on their own website gets you banned from it?

Billy Thornton wrote:

I don't care whether people like my contributions or not, but something has to be said about the people here and their continual bad mouthing of the moderators there, which as far as I can tell is just sour grapes. 'Over there' is a much more succesful forum than over here, with more users, better technical advice and all better information, and no bad mouthing (because the moderators ban people like that, unlike here).

So, you're still here because...

Billy Thornton wrote:

 

Haven't got anything in particular mate. Just don't like to see the bad mouthing of a *successful* charity going on here, when they don't deserve it, and I reckon some of the people doing it here need to be taught a short sharp lesson

If you haven't got anything in particular to say, why say it?

There's not an awful lot of "bad mouthing" the charity, just some of the people who they have designated as moderators without checking to see if they are appropriate for the job.

This is notwithstanding the "scam" comments, which I agree went too far, and the criticism of RS when the order hasn't been received when it's pretty easy to cancel the order and switch suppliers.

In any case, I'm not sure that your comments are teaching anyone a short sharp lesson. "Stop moaning" isn't much of a lesson.

Billy Thornton wrote:

 

That what I don't get people - why are you surprised when being continually critical on their own website gets you banned from it?

I think, amazingly, you've hit the nail on the head there, Bill.

The problem is there's no real way of knowing what will be taken as a criticism and what will be taken as fair comment. For instance, I suggested that they shouldn't ignore calls for a response to the RS situation from a journalist. Doesn't sound like a criticism, but apparently it was enough that they locked the thread and banned me. They could have PMd me and told me they were removing the post, they could have replied and just said "We will respond to it" or they could have replied in a sarcastic, unprofessional manner. They chose the latter, didn't like the answer they got in response and banned me. Fair enough, but the only guidance they provide is "Be nice to each other." The original post was 'nice' enough, their response to it (not the ban, the sarcasm) less so.

I'd previously posted about the unclear situation with regards to the Pi being a "beta" release. Liz took exception to that one and locked the thread, again with the sarcasm in her response. A PM and deletion of the post is far more appropriate. This is Wordpress and low-maintenance forums we're talking about - it's not that difficult to do.

If I remember correctly, their guidance/T&C about not criticizing the Pi or the Foundation in any way was changed so that it was just a 'be nice to one another'. I'm happy to 'be nice', tend to be in fact, and expect the same in return. They don't deliver on the idea of a friendly community, simple as that. I have no problem with the amount of technical knowledge over there (except a slight reliance on "It must be the power supply") it's just that every other post from a mod or admin is to do with moderating the forum rather than contributing to it. And these are smart guys - most of them have large amounts of technical knowledge that they are bypassing in order to keep everyone in line.

As for commenting about Element 14/Farnell - I think the only criticism I have of them is that they have two websites with two sets of stock and two sets of stock levels. I would have ordered from Farnell if they had Pi stock, but they didn't. I hadn't realised that CPC is a different part and that _they_ had stock. Bad way to run stock control, but not the end of the world. Their website is sufficiently easy to use that that kind of thing doesn't ruin the overall experience.

Turned into a long post after all that.

Billy Thornton wrote:

 

You describe nothing accurately as far as I can tell!

Please point to any innaccuracy in what we have described.  In the absence of that, you are merely arguing for effect, and that holds no sway here.  So far you have not singled out a single innaccuracy.

As far as I can tell, any forum is alowed to remove post or people that critisize them or make them look bad

They're "allowed" to do so in the sense that there is nothing to stop them, but that doesn't make it right.  If they acted like moderators then they would moderate, and seek a balance among many shades of opinion while allowing polite discourse to proceed.  That they do not do.  They "moderate" by exterminating one side.

Since you support what they do, I recommend that you go back there among your people.  I doubt that you read the post that I linked from Sagar Jethani about Terms of Use here, because if you had, you would know that this forum does not operate by the methods that you and RPF espouse.

Morgaine.

Billy Thornton wrote:

 

You describe nothing accurately as far as I can tell!

Please point to any innaccuracy in what we have described.  In the absence of that, you are merely arguing for effect, and that holds no sway here.  So far you have not singled out a single innaccuracy.

As far as I can tell, any forum is alowed to remove post or people that critisize them or make them look bad

They're "allowed" to do so in the sense that there is nothing to stop them, but that doesn't make it right.  If they acted like moderators then they would moderate, and seek a balance among many shades of opinion while allowing polite discourse to proceed.  That they do not do.  They "moderate" by exterminating one side.

Since you support what they do, I recommend that you go back there among your people.  I doubt that you read the post that I linked from Sagar Jethani about Terms of Use here, because if you had, you would know that this forum does not operate by the methods that you and RPF espouse.

Morgaine.