Banning a friend and valuable forum asset.

I have just banned Roger. There were only TWO rules in the barrio;

"Rules of “The Barrio”; No personal attacks or threats. What happens in The Barrio, STAYS in The Barrio...., Failure to abide by this will result in your being banned from the entire forum."

His disregard for rule number one led to someone else violating rule number two. I consider Roger a good friend and a very valuable asset to this forum. However, the rules are there for a reason (my wife's protection), and I am not here to babysit you guys all the time. I am still trying to get through the damage control, and although it is not something I wanted to do, banning Roger is something I had to do in order to make this right by the offended parties.

There have been several rule violations lately that I have allowed, mostly because they caused no harm. That will stop here. So if you think the rules do not apply to you, here's a clue for you.

There will be some editing of the rules in the upcoming days, I will announce them when they are in black and white.

Larry

 

Larry, a Heart Wrenching action I can believe, but as there was more to this, than met the eye and now you have mentioned a 2nd member, I do hope that you will enlighten us all, as to what exactly, happened, we have all ( well a majority of the hard core regulars) been following this and done, what we, could. to avert problems. To me (as others) a closure would be Good!


JP

 

The one thing I have learnt is to stay well clear of such sections in the past. One one particular Forum the Pub Section was set up in the same manner, but sadly human nature being what it is, including a couple of the Moderators themselves, I felt it better to at times stay in the dark rather than be privy to something that should be aired face to face, never using digital media. If the Barrio resurrects I for one will not be a user of it... We are supposed to become wiser the older we get, but there will always be at least one in the crowd. Reading about the Libel etc I feel it would be in everyone's interests (especially those who own/run this forum) to speak via another medium such as Yahoo Messenger etc to convey their thoughts that are not meant to be shared to other parties...

 

I doubt we will ever know what exactly happened, Jack. I'm sure Kojak is not about to disclose his source, nor would I even expect him to.

Larry

 

Roger, AKA, Broadside. AKA, Example. AKA Hasta La Vista.

Who got number 2'ed for setting off an event which ended with a violation of rule number 2.

And of course, this resulted in the closing of our Barrio.

It's a rough and dangerous room. The Barrio is like the Hotel California. You can check out any time you like, but you may never leave.

You will be missed. While you are banned from the forum, you will always be among the D.I. brotherhood. It's not a forum, it's a lifestyle.

P.S. Feels like a public execution. I suppose that's why Larry is the (benevolent) dictator. Tough job, especially without all the wealth and the harem that the job usually comes with.

 

Rule #2 got a serious testing with the Black Pearl threads. I think threads in the Barrio should be by subject rather than by post. Otherwise you get a greater chance of leakage. As soon as the Black Pearl thread got started in the Barrio, all the public threads should have gone there as well. If anyone were to mention it on the normal forum, close the thread and / or move it to the Barrio. If you want something public on the subject, create another closed thread with a simple summary expressing 100% known and unarguable facts.

The gates have been locked for several days. We won't speculate the reason for the closure and any threads regarding this subject will be deleted.

This should be the case even with seemingly neutral subjects. If a world event gets posted and the thread gets moved to the Barrio, then any public thread on that subject should go there as well. Make a template or boilerplate message which states something like...

This subject has been locked due to the sensitivity of the event with our members. Any future posts on this subject will be deleted.

Even mentioning that X user has posted a thread in the Barrio regarding X subject and leaving that post public is a leak. If someone were looking to dig up dirt, then that post would be public and that person would then be gunning for access to the Barrio.

This is probably another good reason for creating self-destructing threads (if you need help figuring out how to do this, I will volunteer.) Then you can post that policy in public so that anyone looking can see there is a possibility that the thread my no longer exist. Set expectations. Flush the contraband down the toilet.

Or, it's possible we may even need to rethink the purpose of the Barrio. There should be more clearly defined rules. You mentioned you will post more rules though, so that's a start.

For example.

* This is a private forum where members can rant, rave, complain, and otherwise just be themself and show who they really are.

* Rules of “The Barrio”; No personal attacks or threats. What happens in The Barrio, STAYS in The Barrio.

Does that mean threads which could possibly toe the libel line should be allowed as well? Maybe there should be a place for that sort of thing in the Philippines. Maybe the "private" forum is a work around to that law (I have no idea.) Either way, things like this should be more clear. Even if some rules are posted in public and an extended set of rules are posted in the Barrio.

 

I don't think this is an obituary, hopefully, a short term cease fire agreement. I have known both Kojak and Roger about 4+ years and have been to their homes and they to mine. I consider Roger a very close friend as we have done charity work together and he has attended personal family events. I admire Kojak for his service to our country and as a tough cancer survivor.
Unfortunately, the attorney's article in the paper generated energy from some forum members to come to attention and comment and kojak seemed to be compelled to make a sort of on-the-fence reply. So damage is done. We need to move forward.
So I hope Roger's forum suspension is temporary and we can look forward to his future contributions. Peace

 

Right, it's an "ain't-that-a-b*tch-uary" - maybe we should have a cooling off period and and bring the dead soldier back to life after damage control is done. We knew it was going to be a wild ride and even the Barrio itself was a casualty.