I was demonised for a previous post.

[Guest]

Before I go I've noticed I was given 6 penalty points for a post re pozzing. I see a very similar post in general discussion. Whatever.  But isn't it unfair. I apologised. A mistake but not forgiven. Goodbye folks. And thanks for the points I've been awarded 

[atlfukbud]

Same thing happened to me earlier this year and when I emailed to inquire "why" -- it did not make sense as I'd posted nothing that I hadn't 100 other times -- the administrator was a jerk. I guess they are unpaid and doing their best, but try not to take it personally. 

[BootmanLA]

Speaking as someone on the outside: the moderators (as you note, all unpaid volunteers) don't have time to read every post on this site. They rely, therefore, on the reports of other users as to problematic content. So if an alert user notices post A that violates the rules, but doesn't happen across post B, A is going to get removed (and possibly a penalty levied), and B is not. That's not because the mods are playing favorites for B.

Another point is that the rules have changed, over time - discussion of deliberate pozzing and bug chasing, for instance, is now restricted to the Backroom areas, whereas at one point, some years ago, it was not. It wasn't practical, when the rules changed, to go through tens or hundreds of thousands of posts on this site looking for anything that might break the new rules, and it would have necessitated moving a huge percentage of existing threads into the backroom even if the thread topic itself was fine for the main areas.

A related issue is that when the site was laid out, the Health Forum included a huge number of topics about why people bareback, why people take the risk, etc. - but that was long before PrEP and when serosorting was the only option for lowering (but by no means eliminating) risk while barebacking. Barebacking, itself, is no longer highly dangerous *if* one is on PrEP, and so all the people boasting about how much better raw feels, how they're raw sluts who won't take condoms, etc. have zero to do with health at all. Ideally, they'd all be moved to another section of the forum so that "Health" would be about "Health" and people wouldn't be inspired to create off-topic threads there.

That's the nature of change, both in real-world circumstances and in online rules. Roll with the punches as best you can.

[viking8x6]

Firstly, most points (including the kind you received) are not permanent. They expire.

Secondly, had the moderator made a mistake in giving you the penalty, he would have rescinded it. But the way the policy (which we moderators don't set, we only enforce) works, ignorance is not an excuse for violating it.

Thirdly, another member warned you that the post was in violation before you were given the penalty. So you could have reported it yourself and thereby avoided the penalty.

Fourthly, @BootmanLA is correct. We cannot possibly keep up with all of the posts, and depend on people reporting them to point us to problems. Therefore, if you had simply reported the "very similar post" also in violation, we would have dealt with that one also. But you didn't. So now I get to wonder which one it was, and whether we ever found it.

🤷‍♂️

We are still sorry to see you go. Everyone has something to contribute. OK, maybe not the spammers.

[Hotrawbutt4u]

Question:

Is there a way to communicate with the moderator while being suspended if you feel there has been an error? Or do we need to wait the amount of time for the suspension to be lifted to plead our case or do we need to wait  to get the points reesinded ? This is in referance of a wrong suspension that might need correction

Hope you can understand what I am asking

Edited April 28, 2023 by Hotrawbutt4u

[TaKinGDeePanal]

4 hours ago, BootmanLA said:

Speaking as someone on the outside: the moderators (as you note, all unpaid volunteers) don't have time to read every post on this site. They rely, therefore, on the reports of other users as to problematic content. So if an alert user notices post A that violates the rules, but doesn't happen across post B, A is going to get removed (and possibly a penalty levied), and B is not. That's not because the mods are playing favorites for B.

Another point is that the rules have changed, over time - discussion of deliberate pozzing and bug chasing, for instance, is now restricted to the Backroom areas, whereas at one point, some years ago, it was not. It wasn't practical, when the rules changed, to go through tens or hundreds of thousands of posts on this site looking for anything that might break the new rules, and it would have necessitated moving a huge percentage of existing threads into the backroom even if the thread topic itself was fine for the main areas.

A related issue is that when the site was laid out, the Health Forum included a huge number of topics about why people bareback, why people take the risk, etc. - but that was long before PrEP and when serosorting was the only option for lowering (but by no means eliminating) risk while barebacking. Barebacking, itself, is no longer highly dangerous *if* one is on PrEP, and so all the people boasting about how much better raw feels, how they're raw sluts who won't take condoms, etc. have zero to do with health at all. Ideally, they'd all be moved to another section of the forum so that "Health" would be about "Health" and people wouldn't be inspired to create off-topic threads there.

That's the nature of change, both in real-world circumstances and in online rules. Roll with the punches as best you can.

After discussion with one of the mods, one of the senior members on this site undertook the task of reporting all the SESTA/FOSTA possible breaches after it was mutually understood that it would take a couple of weeks to go through all the posts.

Edited April 28, 2023 by TaKinGDeePanal

[Webster9]

I hate censorship.  I hate members who break a leg, running to the moderators, like a young child who can't wait to "tell mommy."  But, the biggest problem is that anyone who is accused of breaking the rules never gets his "Day-In-Court," no chance to defend himself, no explanation of how he was in violation of the rules.  He is simply convicted and thrown out.  Sadly, every web site operates the same way.

[NastyRigPig]

My understanding is if I’m not the customer I’m the product.

And I didn’t pay any money. 

[Guest]

16 hours ago, viking8x6 said:

Firstly, most points (including the kind you received) are not permanent. They expire.

Secondly, had the moderator made a mistake in giving you the penalty, he would have rescinded it. But the way the policy (which we moderators don't set, we only enforce) works, ignorance is not an excuse for violating it.

Thirdly, another member warned you that the post was in violation before you were given the penalty. So you could have reported it yourself and thereby avoided the penalty.

Fourthly, @BootmanLA is correct. We cannot possibly keep up with all of the posts, and depend on people reporting them to point us to problems. Therefore, if you had simply reported the "very similar post" also in violation, we would have dealt with that one also. But you didn't. So now I get to wonder which one it was, and whether we ever found it.

🤷‍♂️

We are still sorry to see you go. Everyone has something to contribute. OK, maybe not the spammers.

I remember posting the post but what I'm accused of is not obeying the warning. I honestly do not recall a warning. I had been on both backroom and general discussion forums that day. My only defence and I'm an honest guy is I possibly touched the backward button at bottom of my phone screen.  As for not seeing the other similar post in general discussion well it's been either below or above my post for over a week and it's an older post. Re. Respecting neg bottoms and do u crave infecting or pozzing guys well the question is somewhat similar. I'm in by no means reporting the guy or his now somewhat classic post. Parity of esteem would be nice. No chance of it for me eh. Whatever what's done is done.

[ErosWired]

12 hours ago, Webster9 said:

I hate censorship.  I hate members who break a leg, running to the moderators, like a young child who can't wait to "tell mommy."  But, the biggest problem is that anyone who is accused of breaking the rules never gets his "Day-In-Court," no chance to defend himself, no explanation of how he was in violation of the rules.  He is simply convicted and thrown out.  Sadly, every web site operates the same way.

I concur that a person found to be in violation ought to at the very least be provided a clear explanation of the nature of the offense and how it can be avoided in future - otherwise, the penalty has no positive effect in improving conduct on the site, and is merely vengeful.

As to the rest of the post, however, this site has rules. Every site has boundaries, and every site must. There have to be guardrails to rein in the excesses of human behavior, because in their absence, humans will, inevitably, violate the boundaries, because they can, and because their worst impulses lead them there. The site rules exist for a variety of reasons, some commonsense, some cover-your-ass legal, some a matter of the site owner’s personal discretion, which is entirely appropriate as we are in his house. If you have a guest in your home, I suspect that there is some limit to the things you would tolerate him saying to you before you got insulted, then infuriated, and kicked him out - your distaste for censoring his expression would go that far and no further. You have rules by which you live. This site is the same, and some members have an appreciation not only of the need for the rules, but the difficulty the Moderators face in riding the fences. If I report a post, and I do from time to time, I am not ‘running to mommy’ - I have been a moderator responsible for a site elsewhere and I know what kind of a job it is to keep things on the rails.

 I also keenly dislike censorship, as it happens, but there is a difference between censoring and regulating.

[PozTalkAuthor]

Right advice: never take it on personal side -pleasant, unpleasant, the mod cares for one and less for the other...

Mods do their best, I was suspended for 13 days once. And accepted it despite I found that one sentence was misunderstood: it was a DISCOURAGEMENT, but the mod reputed it an encouragement to self-destruction. 

It was "if you want to go down that path, go by yourself I'll never follow you.". I didn't protest even because I committed a second infraction that is, using the "fanfiction" model without asking the original author for permission. I assumed that fanfiction could please the other creator who saw his story continue, but he didn't. It's his own right and mods are here to try keeping EVERY user safe from abuses. 

 

For what concerns backroom and pozzing subject, I can't hide that, due to my profile content, first months I joined here, I was really in doubt if posting in non-backroom sections or not. 

If a person disliking poztalk bumps on me, they might feel offended! 

But in the end I said: fuck it, I respect rules in content, avoiding offtopics like I do in EVERY forum I'm in. But I really don't give a damn if someone freaks out from my profile details. I don't hide my bz content preferences, and a person offended by poztalk simply shouldn't talk/reply/quote a guy identified by "poz talk author" on display name. No one points a gun on them. 

I simply don't talk unproperly where inappropriate! 

[tighthole64]

I've had more than my fair share of suspensions, and while mad at the time, I understood why.  The mods aren't terrible people, just trying to protect this site.  

I do agree with Eros though that a clear explanation should be given.  Although there is some information, perhaps citing a specific sentence so the writer better understands. 

Most of all, wish there was a way to contact a mod during suspension to clarify.  Sadly communication is shut down during suspension. 

[viking8x6]

11 minutes ago, tighthole64 said:

Most of all, wish there was a way to contact a mod during suspension to clarify.  Sadly communication is shut down during suspension. 

I really wish there were, too! Unfortunately, it's a flaw in the design of the software the site is hosted on (which was not designed or implemented by @rawTOP), so we're kind of stuck with it.

We do try to give clear explanations, but I will freely admit that they tend to be terse. We have lives and day jobs and are only doing this in our "spare" time, so we generally don't time to "write a novel" for every infraction, especially when things get busy.

 

3 hours ago, retiredbtm67 said:

As for not seeing the other similar post in general discussion well it's been either below or above my post for over a week and it's an older post. Re. Respecting neg bottoms and do u crave infecting or pozzing guys well the question is somewhat similar.

It is, of course, no longer in the same forum as your post, because yours was moved to the HIV fetish forum. I'm linking the two posts here so that people reading this thread can form their own opinions about whether each of them constitutes "POZ fetish" material and needs to be in the Backroom:

https://breeding.zone/topic/78561-poz-tops-do-you-crave-infecting-guys/#comment-834929

https://breeding.zone/topic/2080-would-you-respect-a-neg-bottoms-wishes/#comment-168532

 

[PozBearWI]

And for those claiming this is all unfair censorship; it just isn't.  We don't own this site nor carry the liability as owner for social forces who would shut this site down in a heartbeat.  For well thought out reasons this site has locations for specific sorts of dialogue where one can be much more forthcoming.  Honestly if we don't care for these rules there are plenty of other venues for that.  

[ErosWired]

It bears pointing out, by the way, for those crying censorship, that the OP’s post in question was not, in fact, removed or hidden - it was simply transferred to the appropriate board, where it will actually get more readership and possibly participation. The only problem with it was the location in which it was originally posted.