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I blogged a little yesterday about my troubles with the Herald-Mail message board. Mostly I told people to go to Steve Likes to Curse and read Steve Shives’ excellent breakdown on what went down.
I emailed the Herald-Mail website administrator explaining what happened. I’ve yet to get a response. My suspension was removed yesterday. I only knew this because I read about it in the comment section of Steve Likes to Curse. If they were going to remove my 2-day suspension, they ought to at least tell me. What good is announcing it on a message board I was led to believe I was suspended from?
When I went back to the message board, I found the following post from the moderator:
After careful consideration of all the factors involved, and rereading the initial post and the subsequent replies. I have reconsidered my original judgement [sic].
Bentcorner used the term “Negro” and not the other “N-word”, for the record.
After researching the term “Negro”, it does not appear to have the same connotation that the other “N-word” has. While his post may or may not have had anything to do with the nature of the thread is not being considered. It did not take the post off-topic (anymore than what anyone else has ever done).
Bentcorner has my sincerest apologies for my hasty decision and is hereby reinstated.
The moderator had to research the word Negro to learn that it didn’t have the same connotation as the N-word? This is the same person that thought removing all the letters except the letter “N” was a good way of making the word not racially offensive. There’s only one word in the English language that has the same connotation as the N-word.
It’s the N-word.
As soon as I found out that my suspension had been lifted, I began deleting all my posts from the Herald-Mail message forum. The reason? I don’t appreciate how the moderator is able to edit posts. He drastically altered my comment. He made it appear I wrote something all together different then what I really wrote. Who’s to say it won’t happen again?
If he truly thought my comment was racially offensive, he should have just deleted it. He didn’t do that.
I’m once again suspended from the Herald-Mail forum. This time it’s for a year. I can’t log back on again until March 25, 2009. The reason? I don’t know. Once again, I wasn’t informed of the reason. It can’t be for anything I’ve posted because I haven’t posted anything since my initial suspension. I’ve only been deleting my posts.
There is no rule against that.
Click here to see a screen capture showing that I was suspended for a year.
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Jesse Jace
/ March 25, 2008I doubt they actually did any research into the words. My guess is that, in time, the stupidity of their action became apparent to them and they had to make it seem like it was a more complicated issue than it really is. They created an artificial gray area to justify the blunder after-the-fact.
As for your being suspended again, that’s fucked up. You deserve an explanation, at the very least.
Rick
/ March 25, 2008I think you are right about the artificial gray area. That actually makes sense.
I think I got suspended again because I was deleting all my old posts. I don’t think deleting your own posts is against the rules. They even give you the option by placing a “delete” button at the bottom of each post. That is, if you are the one that wrote it.
I don’t care that I was suspended again. I would have liked to delete all of my old posts, but I was able to purge most of them. It just illustrates how screwed up they are.
Rachel
/ March 26, 2008GAH. I’m really agitated about this. I have a thing about censorship (as in I’m against it), which is essentially what the ModSquad is doing.
GAH. GAH. I just am making really angry noises now.
burn
/ March 26, 2008man, i didn’t hear about the year thing… well, you could always just pretend you don’t care then come back as a n00b… like everyone else. *L*
Rick
/ March 26, 2008Yeah Burn, when I first read that my account was suspended AGAIN, I didn’t understand. It showed the current day and time for when my suspension would over. I then noticed it was for 2009, not 2008.
Is that some kind of record? :)
Rick
/ March 27, 2008If they don’t know what ModSquad is doing — or not doing –, it’s their own fault. This all transpired on a public message board that literary the entire world can access. If they don’t bother to read it, it’s nobody’s fault but their own.
siriunsun
/ March 27, 2008Could “2009″ have possibly been a typo? And I have to agree with what you sais about deleting all of the word “Negro” in your post and making it look as if you had posted something else. That part of the whole thing is just wrong.
Rick
/ March 27, 2008If it was a typo, my suspension would be over now. :)
At first I didn’t see the ‘2009′ part. I thought I was suspended again and it was only for a minute or two. Then I noticed the year.
I forgot that I had another H-M account. It was ‘Rick R’. I had contacted both ModSquad and the Admin about it a while back when I realized I still had it. I asked to have it closed. They evidently never did. When I got suspended the second time, I went ahead and logged into that one just so I could read the Shoutbox.
That account has now been suspended for a year too.
siriunsun
/ March 27, 2008Did HM tell either of your online personas what they did to get themselves banned?
Rick
/ March 27, 2008No siriunsun, they didn’t. I would like to know. I’m only assuming that it was for deleting my old posts, but I assumed that was OK since they were the ones that decided to enable members to do that.
I’m still waiting on a reply to my email concerning the hatched edit job they did on my post and the subsequent 2-day suspension.
RonAndrewSchooly
/ March 27, 2008Rick, you should try writing the editor of the paper with your concerns. He or she would have to take this seriously, wouldn’t he/she?
Maybe contact the owners/publishers. They might be interested to hear about this, too.
Rick
/ March 27, 2008No, if any of them really cared about this type of stuff, they would be reading the Herald-Mail Forum. If they cared, they would know what was going on.
RonAndrewSchooly
/ March 27, 2008But it sounds like the problems stem from one idiot moderator. Maybe they don’t know exactly what that guy is doing.
Rollingstone
/ April 4, 2008So have you snuck back in yet, as another user as Patton did when he was banned?
Rick
/ April 4, 2008Why would I? What would be the point? It’ was embarrassing to see him crawl back each and every time after his suspension were lifted.
siriunsun
/ April 6, 2008I am not sure I would go back, either. And I don’t post over there as often as I did. And when I got banned from NBC25, Hagerstown, for expressing religious views that are not christian, and for getting harassed by another member (yes…the woman followed me from website to website and LOOKED for any post I might make and also got hold of my personal info from NBC25) I refused to go back after they apologized. I actually asked them to completely remove my whole account, which they did, except they did not remove my posts. After what they allowed the other poster to do to me, I will never post there again. Sometimes, discussion about events with certain populations isn’t worth the effort.
siriunsun
/ April 10, 2008Don’t feel bad, Rick. I am now banned from the shoutbox over at the herald, apparently for using emoticons!