In the five years that we've been running this site, the Moderators have banned thousands of spammers, but only three or four members for violations of our Terms of Service, which make clear that civil discourse is paramount and personal attacks will not be tolerated.
This is not something we do lightly. It happens only after repeated violations and warnings, and we do it with a heavy heart and for the good of the greater community, who deserve a place for civil discourse and mutual support. We also try to be as transparent as possible about the process when it has to happen.
I'm sorry to report that we have come to the point of having to do this again. We have suspended Kevin Finisterre for repeated violations of our TOS, including multiple personal attacks and the publication (via Twitter) of the contents of a private message communication with another member, which is a gross violation of that member's trust. This is the final straw in a long track record of abusive behavior to other members here, and he has been warned several times that he was at risk of banning for this. He has hurt many people here and otherwise made this a less happy place. That's bad for everyone.
This is a shame, because despite Kevin's mistreatment of other people, he made some good points and otherwise could have been a valuable contributor to the community. That's why I want to make it clear that we are not deleting any of his content, which will remain on the site, despite its tone and violations of our TOS. Also note that it is a suspension, not outright banning. I hope we can find some agreement with Kevin that will bring him back on more civil terms.
I must also report that he has threatened to create aliases and attempt to cause chaos here if he is banned, so if this happens the Moderators will attempt to be as vigilant in tamping this down as possible. But we would appreciate the community's help us in spotting and helping stop any behavior that seeks to undermine the civil and mutually supportive atmosphere that we have tried so hard to maintain here.
Thank you for your understanding and help in preserving DIY Drones as a friendly place for civil discourse and sharing. And my special thanks to the 50+ Moderators, who work so hard every day to help maintain a high signal-to-noise ratio here. If you'd like to join them and have a track record here, please PM me. We'd love to have you join us!
--Chris
Comments
I'm closing this thread, as it's degrading. Everyone has had their say, and if they want to continue the dialog they can do it elsewhere.
LOL, so anyone can be the Hitler of their own threads?
@Eagle, et al. It sure seems that this site is highly stocked with anti-free speech people craving a nanny state like environment. These are exactly the people who shouldn't have drones.
This site is already highly biased towards people being afraid to post any sort of criticism because a dozen rabid APM enthusiasts immediately jump on you. It happened to Zen, Kevin, others, and myself.
Eagle's argument about restricting speech so that others might feel more welcome is horrible. People fought and died for your free speech. If you don't have the guts to post something you don't deserve the right to in the first place.
Brad: There is. Anybody who originates a discussion thread or blog post can moderate comments on their own thread.
Brad, not on discussion but yes on blogs. However, we recommend not to turn it on. We want open discussion here. However sometimes people don't behave. That's when moderators need to step in. We are not trying to be heavy handed, but when transgressions are too severe there is no choice.
IMHO there should be away for the poster of a subject to Block comments on their post to stop off topic discussions and keep the discussion on track then they can go and start their own topic ,,, i feel sorry for the poor guy who just wanted to know if he bought the right tx/rx
Jake, really, there are better boards to be railing again political correctness. I think most people come here to enjoy their hobby, not rail against the system. I agree with Monroe and Mike, there are non-adults on this site. Let's keep it civil for them, and stick to the reason why this board exists. Learning about, building, and flying drones.
It's really easy. There is no purpose to labeling someone else. You are welcome to praise them, of course, but for anything else it doesn't much matter if that label is true, not offensive, or self-evident. If you feel someone is "coming across as arrogant," "acting like a noob" that is your perspective, but it serves no purpose to share it. This community is not about improving our public speaking. We're here to build robots. No one here has the right to be protected from smart, ignorant, arrogant, nosy, short, tall, fat, slow-witted, crazy-brilliant newb coders, or any variation there of. But everyone should have the expectation that they should not be subjected to personal insults. Even if "noob" or "ignorant" are not offensive terms, they are characterizations of another person. They are pointless. And they are almost certainly wrong, from all but the most narrow context, in any case.
Monroe... I can't help who may be insulted by any given term. We can grow up and be adults or we can play the euphemism treadmill game.
"Ignorant" is simply not knowing something. It is in no way an insult because everybody is ignorant about everything until they learn about it. I just can't resist getting a kick out of people getting upset about a word whos meaning they don't understand... Ignorant of the meaning of the word ignorant, lol.
I only mention this to lighten up the situation. Everybody is a noob in every area until they become experienced in those areas. It's not an insult and people who can't understand that don't really need to be here. They need to live in a much more structured environment where their ignorant minds won't come into contact with words they may not understand.
There's no way to win the euphemism treadmill so why play the game? You just go from being a moron to retarded to slow to mentally challenged to special, to finally being "intellectually disabled", which I think is the current preferred term.
Jake, I know you're joking, but wouldn't kill to add a smilie, once it a while. ;-)
Only an ignorant noob would suggest banning the word "noob".
Note that neither of these is an insult or personal attack. Eventually you will gain the experience to no longer be a noob and the knowledge to no longer be ignorant of the difference between a quantitative statement of fact or opinion and a personal attack.
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