Censorship of Posts

[Azazel]

Quick question regarding censorship of posts.

Why?

As long as they aren't abusive/racial/wildly off-topic - why are moderators removing or deleting select member's posts?

Netweather has been turning into the internet equivalent of North Korea.

[BornFromTheVoid]

Have you specific examples or complaints?

Aside from the general forum guidelines, each forum area and/or thread has it's own rules and themes. Comments that don't abide by those are removed.
Pretty straight forward, I think.

[Azazel]

I posted a comment in the model thread after someone had posted GFS charts showing temperatures of 40 degrees plus.

I added that the Met Office were having none of it.

my comment was removed - even though I’m pretty sure that is commenting on what the charts are showing?

its certainly no more off-topic than what other ‘more seasoned’ members are allowed to post daily and last time I checked, these comments are still there.

i was singled out in the summer moans thread a little while back after various ‘cold enjoying’ members were making deliberately inflammatory posts revelling in our lack of warm weather so far, which was a deliberate attempt to get under the skin of those who enjoy warm weather.

i responded with admittedly, an equally inflammatory comment about how come winter time, I’m going to constantly post about how much I’m enjoying the mild/wet weather as a form of ‘retribution’ - but my comments were edited and removed every time I tried to post.

This does seem to have been rectified now and the moderators have told the cold-lovers who were trolling to knock it off.

currently, I feel a bit singled out.

if I was making insulting or racial or even wildly off-topic posts, then fine, delete them and ban me even, but this censoring and singling me out is getting a bit tiresome as I feel myself (and a few others who have similar complaints) are not allowed to share our opinions, while the more ‘esteemed’ and ‘popular’ members are allowed free reign.

it feels a bit like being back at school with the moderators strong-arming the playground and it’s not really a culture I want to be part of or would recommend to other amateur weather enthusiasts.

[Paul]

You've had a single post removed, and tbh - it was off topic and wasn't model discussion. 

Quote

The Met Office having none of it. Also looool who's long-range forecast was this? These long-range forecasts can definitely get in the bin.

We ask everyone to stay on topic, and whilst clearly we aren't in there 24/7 jumping on every remotely off topic post, we do moderate pro-actively and reactively (when reports come in). It's not just you, and tbh you've been involved in some chattier bits in there and haven't had posts removed so it's not as if everyone but you gets away with being a bit off topic at times.

But, ultimately if you're not posting about the models in the model discussion thread, then it's on you if your post is then removed. Other more relevant threads are no more than a couple of clicks away, which you could use.

[Azazel]

How is ‘the met office is having none of it’ not related to the model a user posted above me?

a couple posts after me a user was talking about smoke from Canadian wildfires as if that has any more relevance.

I take your point about wanting to keep the threads tidy of clutter so they are easily accessible for everyone and I do try to stay on topic.

 

just seems weird to me idk. 

[Cheshire Freeze]

I think (though not 100% certain on this) that Paul has had messages from Metoffice employees in the past, asking for their name not to dragged through the mud on the site. I also seem to remember one poster got a PM from a representative of a certain meteorologist, telling him not to make wild suggestions about this meteorologist's personality on the forum. The day after the post was made, the forum member made a full retraction and apology in the MOD thread.

[cheeky_monkey]

2 hours ago, CreweCold said:

I think (though not 100% certain on this) that Paul has had messages from Metoffice employees in the past, asking for their name not to dragged through the mud on the site. I also seem to remember one poster got a PM from a representative of a certain meteorologist, telling him not to make wild suggestions about this meteorologist's personality on the forum. The day after the post was made, the forum member made a full retraction and apology in the MOD thread.

jeez is this what this forum has come to? the met office requesting not to be mentioned in disparaging manner because they don't like it and it might hurt their feelings?..oh boo hoo!!

[Dami]

You certainly know if you're loved here for sure.

pray tell, if one is banned from the forums can one still see the radar?

Edited June 19, 2019 by Dami

[Paul]

13 minutes ago, Dami said:

You certainly know if you're loved here for sure.

pray tell, if one is banned from the forums can one still see the radar?

Yes, the two are separate.

[Paul]

10 hours ago, CreweCold said:

I think (though not 100% certain on this) that Paul has had messages from Metoffice employees in the past, asking for their name not to dragged through the mud on the site. I also seem to remember one poster got a PM from a representative of a certain meteorologist, telling him not to make wild suggestions about this meteorologist's personality on the forum. The day after the post was made, the forum member made a full retraction and apology in the MOD thread.

I can't recall either circumstance you're talking about tbh, but why a member would want to bring a meteorologists personality into the model discussion thread is a bit beyond me, as clearly that's irrelevant. So, if someone was doing that and got told it wasn't on, then that sounds fair enough to me. 

8 hours ago, cheeky_monkey said:

jeez is this what this forum has come to? the met office requesting not to be mentioned in disparaging manner because they don't like it and it might hurt their feelings?..oh boo hoo!!

That isn't and hasn't ever been the case. 

[Paul]

13 hours ago, Azazel said:

How is ‘the met office is having none of it’ not related to the model a user posted above me?

a couple posts after me a user was talking about smoke from Canadian wildfires as if that has any more relevance.

I take your point about wanting to keep the threads tidy of clutter so they are easily accessible for everyone and I do try to stay on topic.

 

just seems weird to me idk. 

Your post had no model discussion in it at all, it really is as simple as that. We're forever asking people to discuss the meto forecasts in the meto forecast thread, not the model one. And there's also a thread to chat about lrf's and the summer more generally. 

In terms of consistency, the team cannot read every post. We try, but ultimately if you or any other member notices a post is off topic then we request that you report them so we can check them. Reading through your posts, you have one sat in the model thread which was talking about dust on your car windscreen, that was off topic but was left/missed by the team. Which kinda of highlights the point here, it's not personal - we try to keep the thread as on topic as possible, we allow some drift when it's not likely to turn into pages worth and we also miss some posts which really could do with being elsewhere - regardless of who is making them.

[Dami]

28 minutes ago, Paul said:

Yes, the two are separate.

Thanks paul always nice to know.

[Paul]

Absolutely, which is why our moderation guidelines have this line:

Quote

The best sort of moderating is doing nothing!
Moderate by exception, meaning if nothing needs moderating then nothing gets moderated

The number of posts which are moderated on here is actually very low, a tiny percentage when compared with the number of posts made a day. The vast majority of people have no posts moderated in any way. Unfortunately, there are some people who seem to regularly run into issues, and sometimes, their response is that it's the teams fault and that it must be personal in some way. But, in reality it's their own actions, their own posts and the fact they don't self-moderate enough, therefore leaving it to the team to do for the good of the other members of the community. 

We can't please everyone all the time, some want a far stricter set of guidelines with no off topic stuff ever, some want a more free and easy approach to threads. We try to find a balance, we have a large selection of threads available and we try to be clear and honest and flexible in how we moderate within them.

So, on that note, I'm locking this as I don't think there's much more constructive that can be added. If anyone has specific questions about moderation, their posts or whatever else, they're always welcome to pm the team or use the private team forum above.