I do not have any agenda or presonal grievances to sound off about on this issue, and I am not one of the "little people" who wants to get anything off my chest, that DavidE refers to in his post. However, Like Andy (Wilsbrough) I spent about an hour reading every word of the verbal fracas that took place on Chnlove's official site and I was truly appalled and disgusted by it.
For the record, I do not know Mike Sealey, in fact I believe he was banned before I joined this Forum. However, I have read some of his posts, as they continued to be posted after he was banned, and I found some of them to be interesting and informative. I also found some of them to be extremely self-opinionated and aggressive; I absorbed what I considered to be constructive and positive and disregarded the rest.
The fracas that occurred on the other site, however, is a different matter altogether and raises questions of another nature. In this respect, in my opinion, Maxx's contribution was quite disgraceful, whereas Vince and the others who took part conducted themselves with restraint and civility. Yes, Maxx is perfectly entitled to defend himself, but I thought he went well beyond the bounds of decency with his accusations of steroids, drugs and insinuations of female abuse and abortion, and any number of other things. Maxx refers to this as baiting; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) describes baiting as "to torment with jeers" and that is precisely what Maxx was doing - he was tormenting Mike Sealey and this showed in Mike Sealley's response, which was just as disgraceful as Maxx's comments. The point of this is, is it acceptable for moderators, who are, as I understand it, the representatives, or perceived representatives, of this Forum (and if I'm wrong I'm sure members will rush to correct me) to go on to another Forum and behave in this manner? I imagine that if I behaved in such a way on the other site, that was so unbecoming and demeaning of this Forum, that I would be banned.
I do not take issue with the fact that moderators from this Forum went on to Chnlove's official Forum to challenge what Mike Sealey was posting there as it undoubtedly required challenging, but in a proper and constructive manner; not with taunts and jeers and unexplained allegations. In fact the more restrained and constructive contribution of Vince, and other moderators, proved Mike Sealey's perceived hurt, that the moderators had voted unanimously to ban him from this Forum, to be false and wrongly held. That was a notable moment when Mike Sealey had to draw a deep breath and admit he was wrong. In my opinion, that is how those sort of disagreements are best dealt with - you say what you have to say, in a proper, decent and meaningful manner and then depart and leave others to form their own conclusions about the veracity of what you have said. And there were others on that site who were coming to their own conclusion and were posting that they were not interested in what Mike Sealey was saying.
This affair also raises another question regarding members who are banned from this Forum - I don't mean the trojan horses and plants etc, I trust the moderators completely in dealing with them, or those who are banned for short terms for rule violations - I am thinking of those who are banned for long periods of time, perhaps even for life; is there any appeal available to them? Surely, this is a democratic Forum, and in the governance of most such bodies or groups there is an appeals procedure that grants the right to appeal what may be seen as more draconian actions. That way there would be no argument about whether or not someone was wrongly banned or had a perceived idea that they were. If it doesn't have an appeal process, perhaps this Forum could set up an appeal panel consisting of, say for example, 3 (or any number of) members with high reputations. It may never be called in to service but it would serve its purpose by being there, and may help to prevent a future occurrence of what took place on Chnlove's Forum. I merely offer this as something to be thought about and accepted or rejected as members may think fit.
Lastly, it should be kept in mind that the confrontation with Mike Sealey took place on Chnlove's official Forum - and how Chnlove must have loved it! I can see them reading every insult, allegation and threat with glee - and looking forward to the next complaint from this Forum about agency scammers, or whatever, and dismissively tossing it in to the wastepaper basket.
The moral being: the more credibility and decorum we conduct ourselves with, the more credibility and respect we earn.
