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On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:53 am
by MegBot3000
White Swirl wishes to be clear with all of our members that harassment of other members via White Swirl will be met with zero tolerance at the discretion of the moderators. We strive to be a community where people are treated fairly and with respect.

As many of you are aware, recent events (specifically, a dispute between the members Stl_ben and nickboat) have resulted in some rather serious allegations of harassment. With respect to the events that transpired on the forum, we have administered appropriate bans and warnings regarding future activities on the forum, should there be any.

With respect to the disturbing allegations of harassment off the forum (phone calls/messages/contact through other websites), we wish to be clear that we strongly condemn this kind of activity. Should any member ever feel that they are being harassed in a manner that might jeopardize your safety, we encourage you to contact authorities and take all necessary action where appropriate. White Swirl simply can not take action based on activities that take place off the forum, we do not have the means to make these kinds of judgements, nor should we, but we will help you any way we can. Please do not hesitate to contact a moderator whenever necessary.

We wish to apologize for the time it has taken to deal with the current issue. The timing of this incident resulted in an unusually long process which we would have preferred to handle more quickly, but nonetheless we do apologize as we realize our members come here for good-natured fun and information, not a day-time soap opera.

Best regards,

the White Swirl Team

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:26 pm
by kalv04
"disturbing allegations of harrassment"???? I did'nt see or hear anything disturbing...maybe immature, but not disturbing. From now on when you see a member constantly harrassing other members of this board you should do something about that so it does'nt go "off the forum". This is a classic example of one person who is fed the fuck up with another persons harrassment. I'm not saying nickboat was right for what he did, but it was justified. Personally, I would have met with Ben face to face at the next event. That is all....have a wonderful day!

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:38 pm
by Grimtale
Well said and I think it was a very fair response.

I do think Ben's actions were allowed to go on for about a year or two longer than they should have but that's just my personal opinion. I'm really surprised something of this nature didn't happen sooner. It bound to be tough to police actions like his as it's a fine line when someone is just a PITA but not really doing anything illegal, unethical, or directly against board rules, to determine if actions should be taken or not. Maybe a new board rule that is wide and generic that could be used in cases like this called "No pricks, douches, or dicks allowed (flying or not)". (that was a joke btw)

If the current mods don't have enough bandwidth to address such issues in a timely manner, there are others around here who would love to help serve (not me!) and that spend a lot of waking hours posting positive things on these forums. Shouldn't be too hard to find someone. Just another $.02 worth...

Again, well said post. Glad to see this thing somewhat behind us all.
Grim

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:09 pm
by 7th_son
Whether something is disturbing or not is a matter of opinion and this statement reflects our collective opinion. That sentiment has been echoed by many members here and to me personally in recent days and as a result we have certainly lost a few members here.

We have consistently tried to let the community be moderated as little as possible and to allow members to be accountable to the whole. This situation has opened our eyes to the realities of what can precipitate from persistent aggravation.

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:25 pm
by rsimms3
At the end of the day we are all responsible for each other, no matter if we are a moderator or just a member. Everyone has the power to bring items to the attention of moderators through use of the report (!) button. As someone who recently crossed over to the dark side, I can honestly say that I did not report as many things as I should have as a member. Mods can't do it all on their own and members can't either. I think members have actively taken a role in working to make this place better through various threads that bring attention to various issues and arguements with other members in an attempt to create change. When in doubt, report it and let the mods know why you feel a particular post warrants attention.

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:29 pm
by Grimtale
rsimms3 wrote:At the end of the day we are all responsible for each other, no matter if we are a moderator or just a member. Everyone has the power to bring items to the attention of moderators through use of the report (!) button. As someone who recently crossed over to the dark side, I can honestly say that I did not report as many things as I should have as a member. Mods can't do it all on their own and members can't either. I think members have actively taken a role in working to make this place better through various threads that bring attention to various issues and arguements with other members in an attempt to create change. When in doubt, report it and let the mods know why you feel a particular post warrants attention.
I for one can say without any hesitation that I did my part to help Ben out.
1. I created a whole thread dedicated to call him and other few out, which had some short term effectiveness.
2. I contacted Ben directly one on one and tried sharing with him things that others were saying about him and how he was perceived. This was a over a period of time. He never even responded to the wisdom I was sharing with him, which told me he didn't care how he was perceived.

Oh and grats on the Red Name. This should be quite fun...
Grim

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:39 pm
by arewhyehen
kalv04 wrote:Personally, I would have met with Ben face to face at the next event. That is all....have a wonderful day!
Nick did confront Ben at at least one event..

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:50 pm
by kalv04
arewhyehen wrote:
kalv04 wrote:Personally, I would have met with Ben face to face at the next event. That is all....have a wonderful day!
Nick did confront Ben at at least one event..
Apparently not hard enough :D

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:52 pm
by arewhyehen
kalv04 wrote:
arewhyehen wrote:
kalv04 wrote:Personally, I would have met with Ben face to face at the next event. That is all....have a wonderful day!
Nick did confront Ben at at least one event..
Apparently not hard enough :D
Nick did let Ben know how he felt about the things going on.

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:56 pm
by kalv04
7th_son wrote:Whether something is disturbing or not is a matter of opinion and this statement reflects our collective opinion. That sentiment has been echoed by many members here and to me personally in recent days and as a result we have certainly lost a few members here.

We have consistently tried to let the community be moderated as little as possible and to allow members to be accountable to the whole. This situation has opened our eyes to the realities of what can precipitate from persistent aggravation.

Whats "disturbing" to me is that Ben harassed almost everyone for over a year and noone was "disturbed". When Nick harassed him back off the forum it was all of the sudden "disturbing" LOL. Whether it's on this forum or not does'nt make it any better or worse. Ben got some of his own medicine and then turned pussy and got scared. I know the mods can't watch over everything, but it was no secret what was going on with Ben for WAY TOO LONG.

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:01 pm
by rsimms3
This thread is an announcement going forward regarding what will and will not be tolerated related to harrassment, not an ongoing play by play of events that have occurred that lead to the policy. If folks want to discuss the issue, feel free to PM each other or do a search to read the history already discussed in other threads.

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:53 pm
by Grimtale
I think we should rename this thread... "johnny's death letter"...
Grim

On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:04 pm
by Alabama Woody
MegBot3000 wrote:White Swirl wishes to be clear with all of our members that harassment of other members via White Swirl will be met with zero tolerance at the discretion of the moderators. We strive to be a community where people are treated fairly and with respect.

As many of you are aware, recent events (specifically, a dispute between the members Stl_ben and nickboat) have resulted in some rather serious allegations of harassment. With respect to the events that transpired on the forum, we have administered appropriate bans and warnings regarding future activities on the forum, should there be any.

With respect to the disturbing allegations of harassment off the forum (phone calls/messages/contact through other websites), we wish to be clear that we strongly condemn this kind of activity. Should any member ever feel that they are being harassed in a manner that might jeopardize your safety, we encourage you to contact authorities and take all necessary action where appropriate. White Swirl simply can not take action based on activities that take place off the forum, we do not have the means to make these kinds of judgements, nor should we, but we will help you any way we can. Please do not hesitate to contact a moderator whenever necessary.

We wish to apologize for the time it has taken to deal with the current issue. The timing of this incident resulted in an unusually long process which we would have preferred to handle more quickly, but nonetheless we do apologize as we realize our members come here for good-natured fun and information, not a day-time soap opera.

Best regards,

the White Swirl Team
You guys did good. Not something that should have to been dealt with during the Holidays!

Keep up the good work.

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:08 pm
by texascyclone
Yea i will agree with woody as to the mods and BS they have to deal with.I will also agree with Kalv Ben got just what he spent a year or more sewing ...You reap what you sew. I hope 2013 brings peace to the board and about 10x more releases at TMR
Happy New year to all

Re: On Harassment

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:12 pm
by shadynuts
texascyclone wrote:Yea i will agree with woody as to the mods and BS they have to deal with.I will also agree with Kalv Ben got just what he spent a year or more sewing ...You reap what you sew. I hope 2013 brings peace to the board and about 10x more releases at TMR
Happy New year to all
+1