Some of you may have noticed that Lord Hillyer and Prince_James have both been banned for 3 days. Here is some information, which I hope will also act as a warning against similar behaviour by other sciforums members in future.
How the ban occurred:
Lord Hillyer started a thread seeking to form a "club" of white supremacists on sciforums. Membership of this "club" was explicitly to be restricted to members of sciforums identifying themselves as "white".
Prince_James and a few of the other usual suspects immediately jumped on the band wagon to form this racist posse with Hillyer.
The thread was almost immediately moved to the Cesspool by an adminstrator. Prince_James then started a new thread complaining about this move and demanding that the original thread be moved out of the Cesspool.
This was when I happened to log into the forum. I immediately deleted both threads. I hoped that this would be a signal that these threads were objectionable and would not be tolerated on sciforums. This message went unheeded, as Prince_James immediately started another thread to complain about the deletions. I deleted that thread as well. Hillyer then started a new thread to start the same "club" under a different name.
At this point, I banned both of them. Since this is a first offence, the ban period is the usual 3 days.
sciforums policy on separatism
Here is the take-away message of this thread:
sciforums administrators and moderators are very tolerant of discussions of controversial issues, including the matter of race. Discussions of race and various associated matters have been quite common - some would say popular - among certain members of sciforums in recent times, and vigorous debates have been had. In general, such discussions have not been moderated.
The present instance is a completely different scenario. Here, we have two members of sciforums essentially seeking to split the sciforums community into "us" and "them" groups, divided along racist lines.
Such an action is contrary to the spirit of sciforums and will not be tolerated in any form. In this instance, the attempt to incite hatred among members was along lines of race, but we would equally look down upon any similar attempt along the lines of gender, religious belief, nationality and so on.
sciforums is a forum for intelligent discussion. As such, it promotes debate among members in an environment of mutual respect for diversity and the understanding that people do not always agree.
sciforums is not an enclave for separatists who are unwilling to engage with their fellow human beings. It will never be that.
Anybody who prefers such divisions should leave now and find an alternative forum which will suit them better. Many such forums exist.
But what about "free speech"?
Racists, sexists, religious bigots and the like can practice their free speech on the other available internet forums. Good luck to you.
How the ban occurred:
Lord Hillyer started a thread seeking to form a "club" of white supremacists on sciforums. Membership of this "club" was explicitly to be restricted to members of sciforums identifying themselves as "white".
Prince_James and a few of the other usual suspects immediately jumped on the band wagon to form this racist posse with Hillyer.
The thread was almost immediately moved to the Cesspool by an adminstrator. Prince_James then started a new thread complaining about this move and demanding that the original thread be moved out of the Cesspool.
This was when I happened to log into the forum. I immediately deleted both threads. I hoped that this would be a signal that these threads were objectionable and would not be tolerated on sciforums. This message went unheeded, as Prince_James immediately started another thread to complain about the deletions. I deleted that thread as well. Hillyer then started a new thread to start the same "club" under a different name.
At this point, I banned both of them. Since this is a first offence, the ban period is the usual 3 days.
sciforums policy on separatism
Here is the take-away message of this thread:
sciforums administrators and moderators are very tolerant of discussions of controversial issues, including the matter of race. Discussions of race and various associated matters have been quite common - some would say popular - among certain members of sciforums in recent times, and vigorous debates have been had. In general, such discussions have not been moderated.
The present instance is a completely different scenario. Here, we have two members of sciforums essentially seeking to split the sciforums community into "us" and "them" groups, divided along racist lines.
Such an action is contrary to the spirit of sciforums and will not be tolerated in any form. In this instance, the attempt to incite hatred among members was along lines of race, but we would equally look down upon any similar attempt along the lines of gender, religious belief, nationality and so on.
sciforums is a forum for intelligent discussion. As such, it promotes debate among members in an environment of mutual respect for diversity and the understanding that people do not always agree.
sciforums is not an enclave for separatists who are unwilling to engage with their fellow human beings. It will never be that.
Anybody who prefers such divisions should leave now and find an alternative forum which will suit them better. Many such forums exist.
But what about "free speech"?
Racists, sexists, religious bigots and the like can practice their free speech on the other available internet forums. Good luck to you.
