ForumCouncilAgenda
You can use this page to nominate items for discussion by the ForumCouncil. See the [http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=198 Forum Council] page for more information about the Council.
Forum Council meetings will be held on #ubuntu-meeting on irc.freenode.net (this is subject to change) Next meeting September 10th, 12:00 UTC.
General Agenda Items and Proposals
If you put an item on the agenda, you will have to show up. Otherwise the item may be deleted from the agenda. Please add your name to items you add.
Who |
What |
When |
Paladine |
Removal of Beamerboy's "permanent ban" on UbuntuforumsBR After Beamerboy stated an intent to put forward a motion for KiwiNZ's removal from the Ubuntuforums Council and Administration/Moderator teams, KiwiNZ once again showed poor judgment by permanently banning Paladine's forum account (username: Beamerboy), with the reason "Refusal to accept Forum decisions and insulting staff". On point 1, Beamerboy never refused to accept a Forum decision and in fact received an infraction for his disagreement with KiwiNZ. I put it to you that it is impossible for a user to "refuse to accept" a "Forum decision" as they have no power, authority or control over the forums. Therefore they are forced to accept any action or decision taken by Forum staff, whether they agree with it or not. Furthermore, banning a user for having a difference of opinion with a staff member is abuse of station. Finally on this point, Beamerboy accepted without question, a compromise of creating a new subforum for hardware devices, which was put forward by KiwiNZ himself. On Point 2, KiwiNZ has failed to evidence his allegation that Beamerboy insulted any member of staff and in fact refused to allow Beamerboy to publish the private communications between himself and Beamerboy in order to defend this allegation. Beamerboy confessed and apologised for referring to KiwiNZ as a "moron" (which he did only once in a discussion with Jdong and promptly apologised for.) on IRC, it should be noted that KiwiNZ was not in the channel in which the discussion took place so the slur effected him in no way, shape or form. Furthermore, a user referring to a staff member as a "moron" in a purely reactionary and human manner on a medium such as IRC, in no way warrants a permanent ban on a completely different medium such as the forums. In conclusion, the ban should be removed as it was vexatious in nature and unwarranted punishment which is neither substantiated by further evidence nor just punishment for a single, reactionary comment in another medium which was immediately apologised for. |
Oct 10, 2007 |
Comments on upcoming meeting topics
Comments can be added here. No anonymous comments please.
MattHelmke (forums admin: matthew) - The user Beamerboy complained about a thread, the content of which he did not like, but which was not in violation of the Forums Code of Conduct, the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, nor common decency standards anywhere in the world. He asked that it be moved from the Cafe to another, less suitable forum, where it would not be as easily seen. In protest of the decision not to do exactly as this user wanted, Beamerboy then chose to start a new thread in the Cafe to provoke the staff to respond. (Links: [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3317154 initial request and refusal] [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=544025 thread complaining about the protest thread's removal]). The protest thread in question has been preserved in the forum Jail and can be produced at the meeting. Requesting censorship of ideas, thoughts, information and opinions solely because they are not agreed with is not something the Forums staff is likely to desire. This is my stance on the issue, having been either an observer or a participant from the beginning of this conflict. Requesting the removal of a post solely because one does not appreciate the content and then trolling for big responses because the forums staff does not agree is unhealthy behavior. Finally, my opinion on the ban is that it is warranted. I can give my further thoughts at the meeting.
Paladine - You state that Beamerboy requested the post be removed in an attempt to censor the forums, whereas in fact this is not true as evidenced by your own links. Beamerboy requested the thread be moved to a more appropriate forum as it was viral advertising, after some banter (3 posts if I remember correctly) the issue was discussed no more. Beamerboy started a new thread in the same tone as the iPod thread about Windows Vista, the thread was immediately locked and Beamerboy received an infraction for starting it. No further punishment was needed nor warranted. The evidence is plain to see in the links you provided, Beamerboy at no point insulted KiwiNZ in the thread and to state he did is in complete disregard of the facts. Furthermore, it is interesting that you choose the word censorship, given that Beamerboy was banned immediately after he updated his thread in the Resolution forum after KiwiNZ failed to respond for an extended period. As advised by jDong in the same thread, Paladine added an item to the next meeting agenda outlining his complaint against KiwiNZ and putting forward a motion for KiwiNZ to be removed from the Council and Admin/Moderator Teams due to his treatment of users. It would seem that it was purely vexatious reaction to this agenda item that led KiwiNZ to ban Paladine's forum account for the username Beamerboy. This is direct censorship of your users criticising the actions of the staff and completely undermines any users faith in the Council. In political terms it is seen as fascist to remove the right to criticise authority, and by banning Beamerboy from the forum, that is exactly what has happened. It sends a clear message to the users that it is OK for staff to abuse them and if any user should wish to formally follow through on a complaint against a staff member, they will be banned.
MattHelmke - for the record, Paladine and Beamerboy are the same person.
Paladine - that was already clarified in the agenda item description.
Ubuntu-Geek - For the record, I +1 on banning beamberboy from the forums before KiwiNZ did it. He just got to it before me.
Paladine - Interesting, you change the meeting date from the 10th October to 10th September and hold it at a time when the vast majority of Ubuntu Forum users are either still in bed (North American continent) or at work (Europe). Must be great to be able to schedule a meeting discussing the conduct of one of your own when you know the smallest audience possible will be able to attend. Due to the massive change in schedule (by a whole month) at such short notice, I will no longer be able to attend this meeting. I will make sure I add the above 2 agenda items to the following meeting.
Vorian - The meeting date was my mistake, I am sorry about that. The Meeting in October is also the 10th @ 12:00 UTC
Previous Meeting Discussions
Sept 10th, 2007:
The Forum Council had a very productive meeting today!
Here is what was covered:
Summary:
1. The Forum Council voted to approve custom user titles at 3500 beans. In addition, the current scaling system for user ranks will be adjusted to reflect this decision. 2. The Forum Council voted to reject the CAPTCHA alternatives outlined on the forum thread. The rate limiters and dummy form elements were considered unreliable and ineffective, while the other CAPTCHA alternatives were either too complex/time-consuming to implement or questionably reliable. Forum staff also noted that the need for a CAPTCHA arised out of previous incidents of massive spamming that took a lot of man-hours to clean up. 3. The Forum Council also decided to add a link from the registration page to the Feedback and Help forum, so that users with disabilities hampering them from completing a CAPTCHA can post to this forum as a guest, and then a human (staff member) can assist with the creation of a forum account. 4. Forum Council voted to reject the first agenda item from Paladine/Beamerboy (regarding the removal of a Forum Council member), as an item more appropriate for the Community Council to handle.